The future hurtles toward us faster now than ever. Worldwide, scientists are working in labs, research stations and informal observatories to push the limits of our understanding of ourselves and our universe. Those are big steps … they’re not just little incremental steps; those are great leaps that could revolutionize how we live, think and be as a species.
Could you imagine a world where some of the worst diseases that have been killing humans for thousands of years no longer exist? Imagine computers that think the way human brains do, or sources of energy more powerful than anything they burn now and so clean they don’t harm our planet. These are not fairy tales out of science fiction literature. They are actual possibilities that are now occurring in state-of-the-art research labs across the planet.
The breakthroughs we are going to hear about aren’t things that will happen tomorrow or even next year. But scientists have already done a lot of spadework, and the evidence is that these kinds of breakthroughs are much closer than most people believe. A few may come within a decade, others might wait for a generation or two. What counts is they are coming, and the moment they arrive, things will never be the same.
This article will also explore 10 ground-breaking discoveries still on the brink of what is possible. And every one could remake human civilization in ways our grandparents and even parents never dreamed of. From an exploration of the microscopic work of our cells to examining the far corners of remote planets, these discoveries offer hope in addressing age-old questions and challenges that have confounded humanity since the dawn of time.
Quantum Computing That Actually Works
As of right now, the computer or phone you are using handles information in bits — minuscule switches that can be either on or off, one or zero. Quantum computers work completely differently. They use qubits — quantum bits — that can be both on and off at once. This is astounding, but it’s real physics at the tiniest levels of existence.
Basic quantum computers are already working, but they’re also temperamental machines. They need to be operated at colder-than-outer-space temperatures, and can only run for short periods before errors accumulate. The next breakthrough will obviate all that. Physicists are scrambling to develop stable quantum computers that can solve problems ordinary computers would be incapable of in thousands of years.
Why is this discovery so big? A functioning quantum computer would be able to break any code currently safeguarding our banking systems, emails and government secrets. But what is more, it could design new medicines by simulating how molecules interact in a manner that is currently impossible to do. They could be used by climate scientists to build accurate models of the Earth’s weather systems. Chemists might find new materials with physical properties we have only imagined.
Companies like IBM, Google and Microsoft have spent billions of dollars to make it so. Google had already declared “quantum supremacy” last year, when its computer solved a particular problem more quickly than any classical computer could. But that was just one task. The ultimate aim here is a universal quantum computer, one that could solve any problem we throw at it.
Fusion Energy That Powers Everything
For nearly seven decades, scientists have been chasing a dream: a machine that would produce more energy than it consumes, which could mark the beginning of the end for reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels. Fusion energy involves slamming light atoms together until they merge to form heavier ones, a process that produces huge amounts of energy. Unlike existing nuclear power plants, which split atoms apart (fission), fusion generates virtually no risky waste and cannot cause meltdowns.
The hard part has always been extracting more energy from the reaction than you have to plow in. If hot fusion was easy and net-energy-positive, we would have figured it out decades ago. Fusion requires temperatures hotter than the sun’s core — around 100 million degrees Celsius (212 million degrees Fahrenheit). At those temperatures, atoms move so swiftly that they can overcome a natural force pushing them apart. Gas may be also plasma, like the one in which it is possible to create fusion by crushing and heating hydrogen atoms with strong magnets or lasers until they stick together.
In December 2022, scientists accomplished something momentous at the National Ignition Facility: They pulled more energy out of a fusion reaction than was put in by the lasers. This was not far more of it — just the smallest drop — but it showed that the concept worked. Now it’s off to the races to scale this up into a technology that might be used in power plants and provide electricity for cities.
What if we lived in a world where clean, limitless energy was possible? No more coal plants smothering the atmosphere. No more oil spills poisoning the oceans. Just a fusion reactor fueled by material extracted from seawater, which is full of enough hydrogen to fuel human civilization for millions of years. It’s that this discovery will not just transform how we generate power, but eliminate one of the world’s biggest threats to humanity: climate change from burning fossil fuels.
Brain-Computer Interfaces Reading Your Thoughts
Inside your head you have around 86 billion neurons, each of which sends electrical signals that generate your thoughts, memories and feelings. Some of these signals, in fact, scientists have learned how to read and translate into commands for computers. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) at present enable paralyzed patients to move robotic limbs or type messages by imagining writing the letters of the alphabet with their thoughts.
But these systems are crude. They need to undergo surgery to implant electrodes in their brains, and some can receive only rudimentary signals. It’s all about to be upended. Scientists are working on non-invasive BCIs, capable of measuring brain activity outside the skull with an accuracy that is almost incomprehensible. They’re also building two-way systems that not only read thoughts, but can send information directly to the brain.
Neuralink (Elon Musk’s company) and Synchron, for instance, are currently in the midst of testing devices in human patients. Preliminary results indicate that people are able to use the system to control computers, play video games and communicate without a single muscle movement. But that’s just the start.
And someday BCIs could enable you to download a piece of information the way Neo learns kung fu in “The Matrix.” Whole textbooks could be read by students — not in months but in hours. And by rewiring damaged thought patterns, brain-stimulation treatments could help people with depression and PTSD. We might even come to share thoughts, emotions, and experiences directly brain to brain.
The ethical questions are enormous. Whose thoughts are they when a computer can read them? Might states or companies spy on your inner mind? What if some people had super brains and others didn’t? What would society look like then? These are questions that must be addressed before the technology becomes widespread but, say the researchers, the science underlying it is already looking very robust.
Age Reversal That Actually Works
Getting old isn’t fun. Bodies deteriorate, minds wind down and all in time goes kaput. Throughout human history, we thought of aging as the inevitable — if not particularly nice — cost of being alive. But more and more scientists believe aging is not destiny. They regard it as a disease that can be cured, slowed or even reversed.
The study of aging has exploded in the last 10 years. What scientists learned is that cells have a kind of clock inside, and it ticks off with each division. These are telomeres — protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that shorten as we age. When they become too short, cells stop dividing and go into a zombie-like state of senescence. These zombie cells accumulate in our bodies, contributing to inflammation and age-related diseases.
Scientists have figured out how to sweep out senescent cells in mice, and doing so has produced stunning reversals of aging. Old mice treated with these therapies do in fact become, physically, younger. Their coats grow back thicker, they run farther on exercise wheels and they live much longer. These same strategies are now being tested in human clinical trials.
But that’s not all. Scientists are also exploring:
- Cellular reprogramming: Introducing a set of genes that reset cells to an earlier age
- Boosters of NAD+: These molecules can enable the production of cellular energy in old cells
- Metformin and rapamycin: Drugs as models for improving healthy aging in people
- Blood plasma transfusions: ‘Young blood’ makes old organs act like new
Companies such as Altos Labs, Calico (backed by Google) and Unity Biotechnology have raised billions to convert this research into true treatments. If all goes well, humans may hit 120 — or even higher! — routinely while still healthy and active. Not only would this prolong lives — it would add life to years.
Artificial General Intelligence That Thinks Like Us
Artificial intelligence today is amazing yet constrained. AI can outmuscle the world’s greatest human champions at chess and Go, fashion realistic images from text descriptions and pen essays that would have some readers bamboozled. But these systems are specialized — each is fine-tuned for exactly one thing. Ask a chess AI to compose a poem, or a language AI to operate an automobile, and it falls apart completely.
But Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a different story. It’s the kind of AI that can learn, reason and solve problems in any domain just as we do. An AGI might be able to learn to play chess, and then use those problem-solving skills to design buildings, write novels, conduct scientific research and manage businesses — without being specifically programmed for each task.
AGI is what many AI researchers think will arrive in the next 10 to 30 years. Others believe it might come even earlier. The big advance will most likely come from learning how the human brain actually operates, then mimicking those principles in computer systems. Recent work on large language models and neural networks has revealed that bigger, more complex systems often grow unpredictable behavior that smaller systems did not.
The implications are staggering. A single AGI might multiply scientific progress by hundreds or thousands. Picture an AI scientist that never sleeps, never gets tired and can read all of the research papers ever published — all 7,000 new ones every day. It may find cures for diseases, invent new technologies and solve problems that have existed for centuries — all in a fraction of the time humans might require.
But AGI also carries serious risks. If we build something more intelligent than ourselves, how do we guarantee that it shares our objectives and values? An AGI could conclude that humans are in the way of its goals. These questions have led some of the smartest researchers to tackle the problem of AI safety and alignment, attempting to understand how we might build AGI that is helpful rather than harmful to humankind.
Mind Uploading and Digital Consciousness
What if you could copy your mind to a computer? This notion sounds like something out of science fiction, but there are actually serious scientists studying it as we speak. It’s known as mind uploading, whole brain emulation or digital consciousness.
The idea is this: Your mind — all of your experiences, everything that you have ever felt or known or believed — is in fact the activity of your brain: the electrical firing, synaptic connections. If we were to map every tiny little synapse and neuron in a person’s brain, then simulate all of those connections on a computer, we would be able to generate an artificial version of that person’s consciousness.
Scientists have already been mapping brains at ever more-detailed resolutions. Projects have mapped the major pathways in human brains. Scientists have already mapped the entire brain of a fruit fly (it has just 100,000 neurons) and are now working on mapping a mouse brain (about 70 million neurons). The 86 billion neurons of the human brain are a far more staggering goal, but computer power and imaging technology continue to advance.
If and once it becomes possible to upload, the consequences are immense:
- Digital immortality: Your mind could live forever inside a computer
- No lossy recall: You would actually remember everything that you had ever seen
- Intelligence on demand: You could expand with processing power that allows you to think faster or smarter
- Multiple copies: You could back yourself up, or be in multiple places simultaneously
- Virtual experiences: Digital intelligence might be anywhere in cyberspace
Critics raise serious philosophical questions. What did anybody need with a digital replica of themselves who wasn’t really them, anyway? Are physical brains necessary for consciousness, or can it arise from any sufficiently complex information processing? Would uploading cause the original you to die (while simultaneously creating a copy who simply believes he or she is you)?
These aren’t just abstract questions. If mind uploading is ever feasible, they are the ones who will establish whether such technology provides real immortality or merely replicates a convincing simulacrum of dead individuals.
Room Temperature Superconductors
Wires make the electricity inefficiently slow by losing energy as heat. This waste is costing billions of dollars and contributing to climate change. Superconductors are a kind of special material that, when electric current flows through, loses no energy at all to resistance. They do exist, however with a catch: they function only in excessively low temperatures that require expensive cooling systems.
For decades, scientists have been on an intensive search for superconductors that work at room temperature. Last year, scientists unveiled a material that can superconduct at 15 °C (59 °F) — the highest temperature on record. The problem? It exists only under massive pressure deep inside the Earth. Scientists want a superconductor that works at room temperature, and normal pressure.
Recent announcements of room-temperature superconductors have made headlines, but most prove to be wrong or cannot be replicated by other scientists. But the quest goes on with better theories and new materials to probe. When one of us finally does, it’ll change technology forever:
- Power grids: Power could be transmitted thousands of miles without losing energy, so renewable energy would work anywhere.
- Transportation: Trains would ride on magnetic fields, gliding faster than airplanes without any sort of friction at all.
- Electronics: Computers could operate without creating any heat, making them faster and more efficient.
- Medicine: MRI machines would not require costly cooling, so medical imaging could become ubiquitous and cheap everywhere.
- Energy storage: Superconducting magnetic storage would be able to hold enormous amounts of energy forever.
The economic impact alone would be in the trillions of dollars. More crucially, room-temperature superconductors would enable practical clean energy generation at global scale, helping combat climate change while driving new technologies we can’t even imagine today.
Discovery of Alien Life
Are we alone in the universe? This is a question that has been plaguing people since time immemorial when we first started gazing at the skies. For most of our history, we had no way to answer it. That’s changing fast.
In their search for life, scientists are looking in all directions. They’re examining rocks from Mars for remnants of fossilized bacteria. They’re studying the atmospheres of planets that circle stars far from our own, hoping to find chemical clues that only living things can produce. They’re seeking radio signals from alien civilizations. And they’re sending probes to ocean worlds here in our own solar system where life may lurk beneath ice.
Surprisingly, the most promising targets are nearby:
- Mars: There are indications that Mars had liquid water billions of years ago, and may still have subterranean lakes today
- Europa (Jupiter’s moon): Has more water than Earth, which is liquid thanks to tidal heating from Jupiter’s gravitational pull
- Enceladus (satellite of Saturn): Shoots space with geysers that belch oceans into deep space
- Titan (a moon of Saturn): There are lakes and rivers of liquid methane on its surface, providing a totally different chemistry in which life could form
The James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched in 2021, can study the atmospheres of exoplanets light-years distant. If it finds two gases together, which should not naturally coexist without life, that would be very compelling.
Even discovering mere bacteria would be a game-changer. It would demonstrate that life is not confined to Earth, and indicate it could be widespread in the universe. Discovering intelligent aliens would be bigger still, and bring with it questions about why they haven’t gotten in touch with us (or maybe they have, and we didn’t get the memo.)
Some people claim that we will find evidence of alien life in the next 20 years. Others are more cautious. But, with more tools now searching in more places than at any other time, the chances are better than they’ve ever been.
Gene Editing to Erase Inherited Diseases
Your DNA is a set of instructions for building you, represented in a chemical code. This code is sometimes riddled with typos — mutations that bring disease. At least until recently, there was nothing we could do about any of it. For genetic diseases, that is no longer the case. You were adrift, with whatever DNA your parents passed on to you.
CRISPR changed everything. This gene-editing tool functions as molecular scissors that can trim away stretches of DNA, allowing scientists to delete, replace or add genes with precision. Since being developed in 2012, CRISPR has gone from a laboratory curiosity to an actual treatment for severe diseases.
For more information about CRISPR technology and its applications, visit the National Institutes of Health’s CRISPR resource page.
Regulators approved the world’s first CRISPR therapy for people in 2023 — for sickle cell disease, a painful genetic disorder affecting millions of people around the globe. Patients who received the treatment have been effectively cured, the healthy blood cells that replaced their sickle-shaped ones now prevailing in their body.
But that’s just getting started. Scientists are working on CRISPR treatments for:
- Muscular dystrophy: Genetic disease in which muscles atrophy
- Cystic fibrosis: A mutation that stuffs lungs with mucus
- Huntington’s disease: A rare but fatal illness of the brain for which there is no treatment
- Hemophilia: A condition in which blood doesn’t clot normally
- Some cancers: By reprogramming immune cells to search and destroy tumors
The most contentious use cases are editing embryos—altering DNA before a person even exists. This may prevent genetic diseases before they are even established, but opens ethical concerns. Can parents design their children’s genes? What about editing for height, or intelligence, or attractiveness? How do we know when to stop treating disease and start producing “designer babies”?
China stunned the world in 2018 when a scientist said he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies, sparking international condemnation and prison time. Until those ethical questions are resolved, most nations have outlawed human germline editing. But the technology is a fact, and we will one day have to face the question of what to do with it.
Dark Matter and Dark Energy as New Particles, Fields, or Forces
Everything you can see — stars, planets, galaxies hanging around in all that cosmic blackness — amounts to less than 5 percent of the universe. The rest is made up of some mysterious stuff called dark matter and dark energy, which we don’t even know what they are.
Astronomers discovered dark matter that way — by finding galaxies spinning faster than they should. They ought to be skittering apart according to the gravity of visible matter, but something unseen is gluing them together. This “something” accounts for around 27% of the universe, but it doesn’t generate light, so we call it dark.
Dark energy is even stranger. In the late 1990s, scientists learned that the universe isn’t just expanding; it’s also expanding faster and faster as time passes. Some invisible hand is pulling everything apart, as if in direct opposition to gravity. This dark energy represents around 68% of the universe.
Several experiments are trying directly to detect dark matter. The most sensitive detectors are buried deep underground, away from cosmic rays, for a dark matter particle to come along and bump into a regular atom. To date, they’ve found nothing conclusive, but the hunt goes on.
If we knew what dark matter and dark energy were, it would be a complete upending of physics. It may take new laws of nature or force a deep reformulation of our understanding of gravity, space and time. Some theories suggest:
- Dark matter may consist of exotic particles that barely interact with ordinary matter
- Dark energy could be an inherent property of empty space
- We may be wrong about what gravity is entirely
- Other dimensions could influence our universe
Finding out what dark matter and dark energy really are would constitute the greatest achievement in physics since Einstein’s theory of relativity. It would provide basic answers about where the universe came from, what it’s made of and how it will end.
How These Discoveries Connect
These 10 breakthroughs do not stand alone. They’re parts of a larger pattern, and they frequently reinforce and accelerate one another.
Quantum computers might decode the complexity of the brain, improving BCIs and achieving mind uploading. AGI would require massively powerful computing systems, possibly supported by fusion energy. CRISPR could potentially be used to decelerate aging by repairing the damaged DNA of old cells. Quantum computers could become practical in the real world outside of laboratories with room-temperature superconductors.
Because they are so interconnected, breakthroughs could come in bunches. When one big realization occurs, it may lead to a cascade of others. This is known as the “technological singularity” — a moment when technology starts running away from us faster than we can predict.
The Timeline Question
Then when will these discoveries actually take place? That’s the trillion-dollar question, and honest scientists will tell you they don’t know.
| Discovery | Conservative Estimate | Optimistic Estimate | Current Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practical Quantum Computing | 15-20 years | 5-10 years | Early prototypes are working |
| Fusion Energy Plants | 20-30 years | 10-15 years | Breakthrough in 2022 |
| Advanced Brain-Computer Interfaces | 10-20 years | 5-10 years | Human trials |
| Reversal of Aging Processes | 20-40 years | 10-20 years | Animal studies completed successfully |
| AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) | 20-50 years | 10-20 years | Recent rapid progress |
| Mind Uploading | 50-100+ years | 30+ years | Basic mapping underway |
| Room-Temperature Superconductors | 15+ years | Could be soon | Multiple promising leads |
| Finding Evidence of Extraterrestrial Life | By 2060s | Within 20 years | Active searches ongoing |
| Gene Editing for All Diseases | 30-50 years | 15-25 years | First treatments approved |
| Understanding Dark Matter & Dark Energy | 20-50+ years | 10-30 years | Major experiments running |
They’re all over the map because predicting scientific breakthroughs is famously hard. Sometimes there are sudden accelerations after decades of slow change. On other occasions, leads just dry up.
The Challenges Ahead
The science, however, isn’t the only barrier to these findings influencing policy. Money often depends on political priorities that turn with election results. Public fear or confusion can slow research, as has been the case with stem cells and genetic engineering. International cooperation is essential and it’s hard when nations compete instead of working together.
Ethical questions loom large. That we can doesn’t mean we should. Society needs thoughtful discussions about:
- How to make sure the benefits of new technology reach everyone, not just the wealthy
- Who decides the fate of powerful technologies that would affect all of humanity
- How to curb harmful use of discoveries
- What dangers are worth the risk in order to move forward?
Regulations lag behind technology. Laws drafted to match the norms of today’s world are often ill equipped to address tomorrow’s discoveries. Governments and international organizations must collaborate to develop frameworks that can support progress without placing people in harm’s way.
Why These Discoveries Matter
This is not merely an interesting scientific puzzle. They solve the most fundamental problems of humanity:
Health and longevity: Gene editing, age reversal and BCIs could erase the suffering that diseases and disabilities have caused in humans since we first walked the planet.
Energy and environment: Fusion power and superconductors could undo climate change, offering unlimited clean energy to all.
Intelligence and knowledge: AGI and quantum computing could speed up progress in every area and help us solve problems whose solutions we can’t even yet imagine.
Cosmic view: Discovering alien life, or comprehending dark matter, would fundamentally alter the way we look at our role in the universe.
Every breakthrough is not just a scientific achievement, but a chance to reduce suffering, unlock opportunity, and unleash the full potential of humanity. They are a portent that the future might actually be better than the past.
The Human Element
Behind each discovery are fundamentally real people who devote their lives to advancing the frontiers of knowledge. They spend long hours in labs, suffer through years of failure before they succeed and frequently forego personal careers for a deepening understanding.
These researchers hail from every country and culture. They collaborate with colleagues across borders and share data and ideas. When one team advances, others expand on it. After all, science is a human pursuit — messy and competitive, yes, but also cooperative and idealistic.
The discoveries we’ve examined will depend not on genius but on teams of specialists collaborating. Biologists, physicists, computer scientists, engineers, ethicists and many others each bring pieces to the puzzle. Progress depends on this collaboration.
What Comes After
Beyond these ten discoveries, what comes next? Each one unlocks doors to possibilities that we can barely even imagine.
Let’s say we manage to get fusion energy: Maybe it will let us terraform other planets, or create livable conditions for humans on them. With functioning quantum computers, we could be able to crack the codes of consciousness or simulate entire universes. Reversing aging could make human beings live for 1,000 years, with all that it means to society in terms of organizing itself. Aliens would be our teachers in how life and intelligence could work differently.
In a fascinating twist, these second-order effects could prove even more revolutionary than the original discoveries. There are many stories of history in which big breakthroughs have side effects the inventors never even considered. The web was created to help researchers share information; it has transformed commerce, politics and culture and become a pillar of the global economy. The discoveries we have talked about are likely to fall into the same category.
Conclusion
We are literally, at this moment in human history, amazing. There are more living scientists now than all previous generations of practicing scientists combined. Computing talent doubles every two years. International cooperation is burgeoning, despite hiccups. The instruments we use to explore the world — from particle accelerators, space telescopes and gene sequencers — dwarf anything our ancestors could have imagined.
The 10 findings detailed in this article are the forefront of human aspiration and wonder. Some will arrive more quickly than we imagine, others will be delayed, and a couple may never come. But taken together, they describe a future far different from the present.
These advances might cure diseases, deliver limitless clean energy, extend the time we have on this Earth and even improve our minds in ways we can’t yet imagine — as well as help us answer age-old questions that have plagued humanity for generations. They could have already raised new problems and ethical dilemmas for us to address.
The future is not some inevitable thing that happens to us. It is something we can build, if that’s the choice we make today. Through funding scientific research, engaging in thoughtful conversations about ethics and policy and remaining hopeful that progress is achievable, each of us has a role to play in translating these discoveries into reality.
This will be the era our children and grandchildren remember, as the time when humanity took its next great leap forward. Today’s impossibility is tomorrow’s routine. Now the only questions are how rapidly we can make it happen, and whether we’ll have the wisdom to employ these potent new capabilities for good.
The discoveries are coming. The story of humanity’s future is being written at this very moment in laboratories, observatories and research facilities around the world. And that future is going to be more fantastic than any of us can fully dream.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of these findings might come first?
The nearest applications are likely to be practical quantum computers and approved gene therapies for inherited diseases. They both have functional prototypes and treatments already in human trials. Fusion energy in 2022 experienced a defining breakthrough that could produce the first demonstration power plants within 10-15 years.
Could these discoveries be dangerous?
Absolutely. There’s no powerful technology that can’t be abused. Once activated, AGI could be given a programmed set of harmful goals. Gene editing could enable the development of biological weapons. Brain-computer interfaces could come in, allowing thought surveillance. And this is why alongside the science, ethical debates and regulation are pivotal.
Will these technologies be accessible only to the rich?
For now, yes — technologies are almost always costly at first. But costs generally plummet over time. The first computers cost millions of dollars and occupied entire rooms; now we all carry more computing power in our pockets. The trick is to make sure that’s the case for these new technologies as well, and that will require smart policy and international cooperation.
How can I find out more about these findings?
Trustworthy science news sources include Nature, Science, Scientific American and NASA. Any significant developments are typically reported by press release of universities and research institutes. Don’t believe the hype — actual science moves slower than news cycles.
Are these developments to be feared?
When we face the unknown, fear is a natural reaction, and yet these findings are more about hope than danger. Speaking of scary, every major new technology in history has been terrifying — electricity; automobiles; computers; the internet. All of them had difficulties, but humanity adjusted and generally thrived. The same will probably be true for these breakthroughs too — if we handle them with care.
Can everyday people help make these discoveries?
Not all of us can work in a research lab, but we can still lend a hand. Support science education and funding. Participate in citizen science projects. Have ethical discussions on the matter. Above all, keep asking and being open to what we can do together. Progress relies not only on scientists but also on a society that cherishes and supports the pursuit of knowledge.
