The document summarizes 12 emerging technologies for 2011, providing for each a problem it addresses, its solution and innovator, and the technology's potential impact. The technologies include social indexing to improve search results, smart transformers to better manage energy demand, gestural interfaces for more intuitive control, and cancer genomics to optimize treatment selection. Other technologies are solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, homomorphic encryption for secure cloud computing, crash-proof software coding, and synthetic cells for tailored organism design.

1. Top Ten Technologies 2011Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher

2. How do we select the winners?

3. Social Indexing

4. The Problem:Search engines struggle to predict what information an individual will find most relevant.

5. The Solution:Bret Taylor, FacebookWeighing search resultsby looking at friends’interests and what pageswill provoke them to press the“Like” button.

6. The Impact:Search results will be less vulnerable tomanipulation, and advertisers can serve finely targeted ads.

7. Smart Transformers

8. The Problem:Smart Grids won’t fulfill their potential until they can reroute the flow of electricity house by house.

9. Alex Huang, NC State UniversityThe Solution:A transformer that uses high voltage semiconductors to manipulate AC and DC power, balancing supply and demand within neighborhoods.

10. The Impact:It will be easier to adopt residential solarcells and fleets of electric vehicles; fewerpower plants will be needed to handlespikes in demand.

11. Gestural Interfaces

12. The Problem:It’s difficult to interface with the increasingly complex computers in televisions, cars, and kiosks.

13. The Solution:Alexander Shpunt,PrimeSenseA camera that senses depthdistinguishes a user’s gestures from the background, allowing users to control a computer without buttons or touchscreens.

14. The Impact:Internet-enabled televisions will becomeeasier to use, drivers won’t have to taketheir eyes off the road to control anentertainment or navigation system, andnew applications will emerge.

15. Cancer Genomics

16. The Problem:Not knowing the genetic mutations thatmake cancer cells different from a patient’s healthy cells makes it difficult to choose the best treatment.

17. The Solution:Elaine Mardis,WashingtonUniversityNew sequencing machines and analytic tools can sequence cancer genomes andindentify mutations quickly and cheaply.

18. The Impact:We will chose existing treatments better, and the technology will speed the development and testing of new drugs.

19. Solid-State Batteries

20. The Problem:Electric and hybrid vehicles will neverbe more than a fraction ofthe vehicles on the road without betterbatteries.

21. The Solution:Ann Marie Sastry,Sakti3Replacing the liquid electrolyte used intraditional lithium-ionbatteries with a solidelectrolyte, allowing moreenergy to be safely stored.

22. The Impact:Electric and hybrid cars will becomecheaper, and have longer ranges, makingthem more competitive with gasolinepowered vehicles.

23. Homomorphic Encryption

24. The Problem:Many organizations are reluctant to usecloud computing because of the securityrisk involved in decrypting datafor remote processing.

25. The Solution: Craig Gentry, IBMA type of encryption that allows data to be analyzed without being decrypted.

26. The Impact:More businesses will embrace cloudcomputing, and fewer online securityleaks should occur.

27. Cloud Streaming

28. The Problem:Mobile devices aren’t powerful enough tosupport computationally intensiveapplications.

29. The Solution:Steve Perlman,OnLiveVideo compression technologythat lets powerful applicationsrunning on remote serversrespond to users as if thesoftware was running locally.

30. The Impact:Mobile devices could be used for an evenwider range of applications, and it couldhelp close the digital divide in developingnations.

31. Crash-Proof Code

32. The Problem:Critical control software can have bugs,even after extensive testing.

33. The Solution:June Andronick,NICTAUsing mathematical proofsto create the core of anoperating system that cannot crash.

34. The Impact:Failsafe software in the computersembedded in vehicles and medicaldevices will save lives.

35. Separating Chromosomes

36. The Problem:Conventional sequencing technologiesignore crucial genetic information.

37. The Solution:Stephen Quake,StanfordA microfludic chip thatphysically teases apartchromosomes beforesequencing or genetic testing.

38. The Impact:Better personalized medicine, as well asthe promise of significant biologicalbreakthroughs.

39. Synthetic Cells

40. The Problem:Traditional genetic engineering can beslow, and results in organisms that aresub-optimal for specific tasks.

41. The Solution:Daniel Gibson, J. Craig VenterInstituteA genome is designed fromscratch on a computer andthen yeast cells assemble thatgenome, allowing the creationof artificial organisms.

42. The Impact:Faster and more efficient production ofbiofuels, drugs, and other products.

43. jpontin@mit.edu