Back to the Future

- A new cycle of innovation?: "While the economic crisis undergoes its multiple transformations, two recent announcements—the creation of a "synthetic cell" and a new family of components that opens the way for quantum computers—come as reminders that technology is continuing to progress. Information technology has been the innovation fueling economic growth for the past 50 years. Will nanotechnology be the engine for the next cycle? Nanotechnology is extraordinarily promising, but also raises issues of societal choice that call for citizen participation."
- 50 years into the digital age: "The technologies that created and developed the digital world for the past fifty years are continuing to advance. A new age has dawned, with the capacity for over 4 billion people to use powerful information and communication tools delivering ever more numerous and innovative services."
- Future screens: You haven't seen anything yet!: "The year is 2018 and the sun is shining on the beach. Comfortably resting on a lounge chair, you switch on your
lightweight eReader (with photovoltaic cells embedded behind the screen) and view a video of Eclairages 189, the bimonthly economic publication of Crédit Agricole. A notification window opens, reminding you of a lunch reservation. A smile crosses your face as you roll up the flexible screen for storage. Eight years before, in the same place, after succumbing to the hype you were sitting with a brand new iPad. Alas, issue 142 that you had so much trouble downloading via WiFi at the local café turned out to be unreadable with the bright light and reflections, while the combined effects of your child's water pistol and the gritty beach sand finally changed your beautiful pad into a useless brick."
- ICT and agricultural development in the South: "Several innovative initiatives are exploring the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) for agricultural development in the emerging Southern economies. While no one doubts the utility of ICT under the conditions of scarcity that characterize rural areas in developing countries (DCs), their use raises significant sociocultural issues."
- The promising future of lithium-air batteries: "Lithium-ion batteries are now part of daily life; their benefits include large storage capacity, lack of memory effect, and a low self-discharge rate. But many future applications, e.g. in transportation, require the development of batteries with greater capacity. And lithium-air battery could be a solution."
- The new shapes of carbon: Fullerenes, nanotubes and graphenes: "Since the 1980s, researchers have discovered and identified new structures entirely made of carbon, which turn out to have exceptional properties for a broad range of potential applications. But while nanotubes are moving into a preindustrial phase, graphene is still a laboratory curiosity."
- Soaring composites: "After moving into the automotive and construction industries, composite materials are changing the shape of aerospace. Lightweight and durable, these mixtures of fibers and resins adjust to complex shapes while requiring less labor than the metals traditionally used."
- Biotechnology and therapy: from the mirage of genomics to the promises of stem cells: "Medical applications of biotechnology cover a range from basic research to diagnostics and therapeutics."
- Technoscience and society: the case of nanotechnology: "Nanotechnology is sometimes presented as a new industrial revolution, promising a range of extraordinary
applications, with bottom-up assembly of the universe through "molecular manufacturing" (also called molecular nanotechnology, or MNT). Governments consider nanotechnology a strategic area and are funding major programs. The new technology, however, is challenging relations between science and society, and citizens must participate in the decisions that will shape the future."
CreditAgricole_Eclairages_julyaugust2010