2012: A year in technology
By
Gizmag TeamDecember 31, 2012
Artist's impression of a proton-proton collision producing a pair of gamma rays (yellow) in the ATLAS detector (Image: CERN)
Image Gallery (14 images)
Keeping tabs on the furious rate of technological development happening all around us is no easy task and the passing of another year provides a good excuse to reflect and take stock of the major milestones we've seen. So sit back in your power-generating
rocking chair, crack yourself a
self-chilling beverage and enjoy our take on the significant trends, technological victories and scientific bombshells of 2012.
View all3D printing switches on
While
3D printing hasn't exactly struck us like a bolt from the blue, 2012 was definitely a watershed year for the technology. Consumer access to 3D printers has boomed as systems have simultaneously dropped in price and gained in performance. Around $500 can now
get you started in 3D printing and like "prosumer" cameras, there's added quality and performance to be had for handing out extra dollars as shown by Makerbot's fourth generation offering the
Replicator 2 ... and there's
more innovation in the pipe.
New avenues are also opening up to access the technology without having to buy a printer yourself. The notion of the
3D photo booth has recently taken root and Makerbot is
exploring this space, along with established player in the 2D photo booth arena
Fujifilm.
Even more intriguing is the explosion of
different objects coming out of 3D printers.
High-heeled shoes,
guitars,
DIY headphones,
running spikes,
firearms, even
modern art is getting in on the act.
The possibilities (and realities) don't stop there though. 3D printing techniques are being used to help
build houses,
restore ancient historical treasures and manufacture
bone scaffolding and
jaw implants (
biological tissues are next).
Things are set to get even more impressive though –
self assembly could soon be the new 3D printing.
Curiosity gets the better of us
Despite the retirement of NASA’s
Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, human exploration of the solar system continued apace in 2012 and no mission grabbed the public’s imagination more than NASA's
Curiosity rover. After
touching down on Mars on August 6, the 2,000 lb (907 kg) car-sized rover set about completing a number of firsts on the Red Planet.
After
streaming a human voice from the surface of another planet for the first time and making the
first foursquare check-in on another planet, Curiosity got down to some serious business by firing the
first laser shot on Mars, uncovering an
ancient stream bed, taking its first Martian
soil and
rocksamples, and collecting
weather and radiation data.
And with NASA’s associate administrator for science, John Grunsfeld,
reported this month as saying Curiosity’s original two-year mission has been extended indefinitely, the rover could conceivably be operating as long as 55 years. So expect it to provide plenty of more interesting data from the Red Planet in 2013 and beyond.
Higgs Boson discovery
Perhaps the biggest story of the year in scientific circles was the possible discovery of the
Higgs Boson – the elusive missing particle of the Standard Model. While any clear-cut eureka moment was of course tempered by the vast complexities of particle physics, the data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN that indicated a massive particle "consistent with" the predicted properties of the Higgs boson was received with excitement. Whether it will
strengthen the Standard Model or turn it on its head is still a question to be answered.
Bionic humans
Using technology to repair, revitalize and supplement the human body is gaining momentum as separate scientific disciplines begin to coalesce around the problem (i.e. we are getting really good at it). The examples of significant advances in this arena during 2013 are thick on the ground – the world’s first
thought-controlled, fully implantable robotic arm arrived via Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, further progress was made on perfecting the
bionic eye, bone implants became
biodegradeable, hydrogel showed promise as a framework for
growing new heart tissue and that most sci-fi of medical scenarios – tiny
electronic implants capable of traveling in the bloodstream – came several steps closer to fruition, along with
brain-powered fuel cells and
non-surgical nerve repair and
light-based thought control (which isn't as scary as it sounds ... yet).
In terms of simply making a difference to quality of life, perhaps the most remarkable medical story of 2013 centers on Richard Lee Norris, the recipient of the world's "most extensive
full face transplant" at Maryland Medical Center back in March.
Wonder materials
The term “wonder material” gets bandied around the media quite a bit, but if ever a material warranted the wonder tag, it is
graphene. Since Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov first isolated flakes of graphene in 2004, the two-dimensional lattice of carbon atoms has racked up wondrous property after wondrous property. In 2012, we learned that
superpermeability and
piezoelectric could be added to the list that already includes thinnest known material, strongest material ever measured, best-known conductor of heat and electricity, stiffest known material and most ductile.
While graphene’s properties again made headlines, there were also plenty of examples of the material being put to good use. These included improving the
corrosion resistance of
copper and
steel, featuring on the first true “
all carbon” solar cell," being used in a
new anode material that enables Li-ion batteries to charge and discharge ten times faster than those with regular graphite anodes, and being used to create
flexible, transparent semiconductors.
But it wasn’t all graphene, all the time in 2012.
Aerographite relegated
metallic microlattice and
aerogel to second and third places respectively on the table of lightest solid material ever made, while an old favorite also made news. Although it has been around for decades, being first commercially used in the early 1970s, Kevlar again caught our attention this year by finding its way into an unexpected place – the underwear drawer.
The U.S. Army’s
Pelvic Protection System featured Kevlar along the inner thighs and over the groin to protect soldiers from IEDs, while U.S. Air Force Academy graduate Cameron Carter used a Kevlar-carbon matrix material to create
Socrates socks that are designed never to get a hole, droop, or wear out.
2012 also presented a possible Kevlar replacement in the form of
cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), with the Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service opening a pilot plant for the production of CNC from wood byproducts. Stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers when prepared properly, and less than ten percent of the cost of those materials, CNCs, which are also transparent, have understandably attracted interest from the military as well as the automotive, aerospace, consumer products and medical industries.
NFC fails to communicate
Many expected 2012 to be a breakthrough year for
near field communication (NFC) technology, with Google pushing its Google wallet (
launched in September 2011) and major smartphone manufacturers including
Samsung,
LG,
Motorola,
Sony,
Nokia and
HTC getting onboard with the release of numerous NFC-packing devices. However, 2012 turned out to be another false start with end users failing to embrace the technology.
While mobile payments are seen as the NFC’s “killer app” and this was the main reason for its development, potential applications ranging from
smart car keys to
keyboards and
gumball machines to
business cards demonstrate the technology’s versatility. Samsung attempted to expand the potential uses of the technology further with its user programmable
TecTiles NFC stickers. Despite this, even those already carrying around NFC capable devices in their pockets struggled to find places where they can actually make use of the technology in 2012.
Even Apple failed to see the relevance of NFC in 2012 and released the
iPhone 5 without the technology onboard despite it being heavily tipped to be included. Some users obviously felt this was a mistake on Apple’s part, backing a Kickstarter campaign for the
FloJack that brings NFC capabilities to iDevices to the tune of over US$96,000.
While the iPhone 5 shunned NFC, rumors abound that the technology will appear in an
iPhone 5S expected in 2013. Maybe that could be the kick in the pants NFC needs to finally live up to its promise.
In Memoriam
On a final note, 2013 also saw the passing of some giants of human technological endeavor. Prominent among these names was the first man to set foot on the Moon,
Neil Armstrong and iconic sci-fi author
Ray Bradbury.
The automotive world also mourned the loss of two pioneers of innovation –
Ferdinand Porsche and
Carroll Shelby.