Emerging technologies

The U.S. government on Feb. 17 established a policy for exports of military and commercial drones, including armed ones, and said it plans to work with other countries to shape global standards for the use of the controversial weapons systems.

An amateur drone pilot has revealed that any remote-control unmanned vehicle can freely roam the skies over a busy Istanbul airport, despite huge risks.

It is that time of the year when everybody lists trends. I should not miss this opportunity to write about the future either. Out of all of the lists that I read, I think the most accurate is Gartner's. They have listed top 10 technologies for 2015, but I believe these four are the real game changers.

Computing everywhere

The Netherlands on Nov. 12 unveiled the world's first solar bike path, a revolutionary project to harvest the sun's energy that could eventually also be used on roads.
      
The so-called "SolaRoad" bike path is made of concrete modules each measuring 2.5 by 3.5 metres (eight by 11 feet), embedded with solar panels covered in tempered glass.
      

State television aired footage Nov. 12 of the test flight of a drone which Iran says it reverse engineered from a US aircraft that came down over its territory in 2011.
      
The 30-second clip, broadcast before the midday news and filmed from a helicopter as well as from the ground, showed a delta-winged aircraft in flight.
      

An Iranian copy of a U.S. reconnaissance drone captured in 2011 has taken its first flight, state news agency IRNA reported on Nov. 10.
   
In December 2011, Iran said it had captured a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance drone in eastern Iran that had been reported lost by U.S. forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
   

“We would like to get to a prototype (of a nuclear fusion reactor) in five generations,” said Dr. Thomas McGuire, the director of the Revolutionary Technology division at Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works. “If we can meet our plan of doing a design-build-test generation every year, that will put us at about five years, and we’ve already shown we can do that in the lab.”

A group of scientists with the Biological Research Centre of the Botanical Garden of Jibou will go on an expedition to Lapland, June 2-13 to conduct research into the culture of the local Sami population.