2019年的顶级技术包括生物塑料与社交机器人

Report: Top Tech in 2019 Includes Bioplastics, Social Robots

The World Economic Forum¹, or WEF recently published its list of top emerging technologies for 2019.

Each year, the not-for-profit group’s experts create a report listing the technologies they believe will become influential² in the next five years. The technologies also are chosen because they could help society and economies and are expected to gain the attention of researchers and investors³.

At the top of the list is a group of materials known as bioplastics. Bioplastics are made from natural substances that make them biodegradable. This makes bioplastics very different from most plastics in use today, which come from petroleum⁴ products.

The widespread use of petrochemical plastics across the world is flooding landfills and causing severe damage to the world’s oceans. The WEF’s report notes that the use of biodegradable plastics in the future could greatly reduce this environmental harm.

There has been progress in recent years in the development of new materials to replace petroleum-based plastics. One material being developed is cellulose, a very strong material found in plant cell walls. Another substance, lignin, can be used to add strength.

When used together, these two materials can produce bioplastics with similar strength and long-lasting qualities to petroleum-based plastics, the WEF experts reported. The report added that these substances could easily be found without having to use resources also needed to produce food.

The experts taking part in the report agreed that there is still a lot of work to be done before bioplastics can be widely used. For example, the process could cost a lot of money and require large amounts of land and water.

However, the experts agreed that in the future, such emerging methods and biodegradable materials could go a long way to help fuel what they call a “circular economy.” A circular economy is an economic system that aims to limit waste while making the most of existing resources.

Next on the WEF’s list are “social robots.” The organization says these machines are designed to assist and engage with humans while attempting to make an emotional connection.

Such robots are powered by machine learning methods and artificial intelligence. They use cameras and sensors⁵ to recognize human faces and activities. This could include a person’s speech, body movements and emotions.

Over time, these social robots are supposed to be able to develop their own form of social and emotional intelligence.

The robots are designed to learn about the subjects they assist to provide information, comfort and other forms of help. As they become more developed, these social machines could take over some of the responsibilities currently met by human workers.

The WEF reported that worldwide sales of robots designed to help people reached an estimated $5.6 billion in 2018. But the WEF predicts the market will expand to $19 billion by the end of 2025, with more than 65 million robots sold each year.

Also making the WEF’s 2019 list of emerging technologies – at number three - was a growing group of very small lenses. For many years it has not been possible to produce extremely tiny lenses. But the WEF report says engineers recently discovered methods to create smaller, lighter⁶ versions known as metalenses.

The experts believe these lenses could permit the shrinking of microscopes and other widely used laboratory tools. They could also be used to improve the performance of cameras, virtual reality equipment and industrial sensors.

You can see the full emerging technologies list at WEF’s website.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

emerging – adj. starting to exist or develop

biodegradable – adj. capable of being slowly destroyed and broken down into very small parts by natural processes, bacteria, etc.

landfill – n. ?a place where waste is buried in the ground

engage – v. cause someone to become interested or involved in an activity

artificial intelligence – n. the ability of a machine to use and analyze⁷ data in an attempt to reproduce human behavior

lens – n. curved piece of glass used by cameras to capture pictures

virtual reality – n. computer images and sounds that make you feel an imagined situation is real

1 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

2 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

5 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

6 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

7 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。