What’s coming
What is being tested in people, in fields and with customers right now, what is still a prototype, and the dated promises made along the way. We don’t forecast: each step says only what has to happen next.
Step 3 · 4 tracked
Being tested now
Could reach you in a few years if the tests go well.
- Gene editing delivered by lipid nanoparticlesStep 3 · TestingThe same lipid nanoparticles that carry mRNA vaccines can carry gene-editing tools to the liver.
- Personalized mRNA cancer vaccine (intismeran autogene)Step 3 · TestingEach course is made for one patient.
- Metal-organic frameworks for carbon captureStep 3 · TestingMetal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystals built like scaffolding: metal atoms joined by carbon-based molecules, leaving pores a few nanometers wide inside.
- Water from desert air with MOFsStep 3 · TestingA metal-organic framework soaks up water vapor from the air at night.
Promises
Who said what, by when
Dated targets set in public, soonest first. We mark one met or missed only when a source shows it; a passed date with no answer gets a flag.
Max Shulaker, MITSaid Aug 2019 · Nanotube chips
Commercial carbon nanotube microprocessors could be available in less than five years.
Smithsonian Magazine, Aug 2019Within five yearsTarget date passedSila (CEO Gene Berdichevsky)Said Sept 2021 · Silicon anodes
Sila's silicon anode material would be in cars by around 2025.
MIT Technology Review, 8 Sept 20212025Target date passedSvanteSaid Nov 2023 · MOF carbon capture
Build filter manufacturing up to multimillion-tonne capacity and put hundreds of large carbon capture and storage plants in place by 2030.
The Chemical Engineer, 3 Nov 2023By 2030Still pending
Step 2 · 4 tracked
Working prototypes
Still years away; many prototypes stall here.
- Carbon nanotube transistorsStep 2 · PrototypeCarbon nanotubes are sheets of carbon atoms rolled into tubes.
- Vantablack nanotube coatingStep 2 · PrototypeVantablack is a coating made of carbon nanotubes that absorbs about 99.96% of the light that hits it.
- DNA nanorobots for cancerStep 2 · PrototypeA sheet of DNA origami rolled into a tube carries a blood-clotting enzyme.
- Magnetic microrobots for drug deliveryStep 2 · PrototypeA tiny gel capsule loaded with medicine and iron oxide nanoparticles is steered through blood vessels with magnets.
Step 1 · 4 tracked
Lab results to watch
Usually 10 years or more from products, and most never get there.
- Atom-thin 2D semiconductor chipsStep 1 · LabSome materials can be made just a few atoms thick, like sheets of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2).
- MXenesStep 1 · LabMXenes (said "maxenes") are a family of materials a few atoms thick, made of a metal such as titanium bonded to carbon or nitrogen.
- Molecular machines and motorsStep 1 · LabChemists can build single molecules with parts that move relative to each other when energy is added: rings that slide along rods, and motors that spin in one direction.
- DNA origamiStep 1 · LabDNA origami folds a long strand of DNA into chosen shapes and patterns a few nanometers in size, held in place by short DNA strands, like a pegboard on which other molecules can be placed exactly.