Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Prediction - Material

My predictions will be based on areas of interest including medical, military, and innovation. I believe these three areas are the 10-15 year focus of economic growth. The medical industry will be growing exponentially because of the amount of money that will be pumped in due to the upcoming baby-boomer retirement. Military will always have money because of the constant taxes while innovation will be the American focus due to the lack of cheap labor for manufacturing and physical work in America.

My predictions will include materials, artificial intelligence, and robotics. First, materials....

This first prediction is on a material called Aerogels. Aerogels is a 'frozen smoke' deemed to be the lightest solids. It is a gel that water is extracted from and carbon dioxide added. It can protect against direct blasts of 1 kilogram of dynamite and blowtorch heat. This type of solid (in a somewhat gas form) will be used for daily medical and military purposes by 2017. Medical purposes will include insulation for the body and absorbing blood during surgeries. Military application will be for protection and insulation. NASA has already been using this material to collect space debris. From an innovation perspective, this material can also be used as a pollution absorbant for America and mostly other countries whose pollution is growing out of control. Overall, the aerogels material will be the fastest growing material for use across multiple domains for the next 10 years.

1 comment:

Chadwick said...

Michelle - that is a very cool material. The picture on Fox News is just incredible! You have to wonder what is happening at the atomic level. Thanks for posting that link.