Emerging tech Spotlight: From Bubble Batteries to Ultrasound Cancer Treatment
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IEEE Spectrum’s annual January tech forecast reveals a landscape of innovation often overlooked by mainstream media, focusing on projects poised to solve critical challenges and reshape industries. This year’s issue highlights advancements ranging from novel energy storage solutions to life-saving medical technologies and rapid-response drone systems. As editors consistently seek out “hidden gems” – technologies that genuinely advance progress for humanity, as per the organization’s motto. Unlike much of the tech press, which often centers on prominent figures in big Tech, Spectrum prioritizes the technology itself, venturing into the field to uncover promising developments.
Revolutionizing Energy Storage wiht “Bubble Batteries”
A key focus of the latest issue is grid-scale energy storage, a sector ripe for disruption.Senior Associate Editor Emily Waltz reports on Milan-based Energy Dome’s innovative “bubble battery,” tested in Sardinia. This system stores up to 200 megawatt-hours by compressing and decompressing pure carbon dioxide within an inflatable dome.
This modular and easily deployable technology holds particular promise for powering artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, according to Senior Editor Samuel K. moore, who previously covered gravity energy storage in January 2021. “When we think about energy storage,our minds usually go to grid-scale batteries,” Moore explained. “Yet thes bubbles, which are in many ways more capable than batteries, will be sprouting up all over the place, often in association with computing infrastructure.”
Beyond Batteries: radio Cables and Ultrasound Advancements
The potential of “bubbles” extends beyond energy. Researchers are also harnessing them for medical breakthroughs. One analyst noted that tiny bubbles are being utilized to liquefy cancer tumors through histosonics’ noninvasive, focused ultrasound treatment. This approach creates cavitation bubbles that destroy tumors without damaging surrounding tissue, offering a new hope in the fight against pancreatic cancer, a disease claiming nearly half a million lives annually. The company is currently concluding kidney trials and initiating pancreatic cancer trials this year.
Meanwhile, Moore’s reporting also delves into the development of radio-based cables designed to replace traditional copper and fiber optics in data centers. These systems can connect processors up to 20 meters apart, using one-third the power and cost of existing optical-fiber cables. The next step involves integrating these radio connections directly with GPUs to further reduce cooling demands and facilitate the scaling of AI models.
Drones delivering Life-Saving Services
IEEE Spectrum has long tracked the evolution of drone technology. In 2018, the publication highlighted Zipline’s deployment of autonomous drones for delivering blood and medical supplies in rural Rwanda. Today, Zipline boasts a market capitalization of approximately US $4 billion, operating across Africa, Japan, and the United States, and having completed almost 2 million deliveries.
This success story informs coverage of the Wildfire XPrize competition, which aims to develop drone-based systems capable of detecting and suppressing wildfires more rapidly than conventional methods. Journalist Robb Mandelbaum’s reporting reveals that this year’s teams are building on Zipline’s model of speed and remote access to provide a critical life-saving service.
A Diverse Portfolio of Emerging Technologies
Beyond these key areas, the January issue showcases a diverse range of emerging technologies, including Porsche’s wireless home charger for electric vehicles (evs), the world’s first electric air taxi service, neutral-atom quantum computers, interoperable mesh networks, and even robotic baseball umpires.
As the editors conclude, the coming years will reveal which of these promising projects will ultimately “make it to the big leagues,” shaping the future of technology and its impact on humanity.
