The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril. The speed, breadth and depth of this revolution is forcing us to rethink how countries develop, how organisations create value and even what it means to be human. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about more than just technology-driven change; it is an opportunity to help everyone, including leaders, policy-makers and people from all income groups and nations, to harness converging technologies in order to create an inclusive, human-centred future. The real opportunity is to look beyond technology, and find ways to give the greatest number of people the ability to positively impact their families, organisations and communities.
Could new metals improve nuclear power?
High-entropy alloys have shown promising results in initial nuclear simulation tests.
15 must-read stories for the weekend
Moore's Law R.I.P., bouncing back from terrorism, unconscious bias and other top stories from the last seven days.
This new material could make a house fit in a backpack
Scientists have developed a versatile, tunable, and self-actuated foldable material.
This new type of battery has a surprising component
MIT scientists are developing an alternative to batteries that use carbon nanotubes and a surprising material.
This is the extent of the demographic digital divide
Despite the rapid rise in the number of people online, there are still big differences between the richest countries and the rest of the world.
4 things Millennials need to navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution
In an essay on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Klaus Schwab writes that ongoing technological innovations "will change not only what we do but also who we are," and that the "list is en...
A new tool in the fight against disease
Researchers have developed a nanorobot capable of targeted drug delivery.
This gene sequencing method can track how the immune system produces antibodies
A new control system based on genetic barcodes is making genetic sequencing far more reliable.
Could the buildings of the future be made with bones and eggshells?
The field of biomimetics has the potential to change how we build our cities.
This computer program can learn to identify leaves faster than botanists
Researchers 'trained' an algorithm to identify leaves – thousands of times quicker than botanists.
What will the drones of the future look like?
Researchers at ETH Zurich are working on the future of drone tech.
There's more to drone deliveries than pizza
There has been a rise in popularity of commercial drones over the past few years. As many as 1 million unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were expected to be sold during the 2015 holiday sea...