WIWES contributed by Ivan Montenegro Perini
According to Nature (2012), "the largest submerged caldera in the world, Santorini last erupted in 1950 and had been relatively quiet until early 2011, when small earthquakes started to rattle the islands. The region remained f...
R&D in synthetic biofuels from algae.
There is currently much venture capital flowing into this research area, particularly the breeding and treatment of different algae types. Additionally, the famous biochemist Craig Venter is active in financing projects aimed a...
All goods and services produced or consumed by people can be ...
The growing use of technologies in production is a significant trend, along with the related structural unemployment of a considerable part of the workforce. This can result in a wild card which could be characterised as a turn...
A version of GM wheat starts producing a chemical which alte ...
This is possible, as common food products have important effects on health and wellbeing, so a major proportion of the population could be affected
Combine climate change with animal-borne diseases, and the l ...
there are the makings of a perfect storm. Certain conditions could come together to cause a major health epidemic or something that affects a significant sector of the agricultural business, or agricultural dependency, e.g. a w...
A major dip in the supply of UK human resources in science a ...
That would have significant impact on industry, which would exacerbate the effects that are already being picked up
Certain areas in research are no longer funded
If something arises which is currently low key, not particularly sexy in the research sense, then you begin to have a backlog, as you lack the research to deal with the threat when it arises. It is a wildcard that has already c...
Destabilization of the innovation system
Go back to the destabilization of the economy and losing funding. Society and the economy destabilize the innovation system. In Greece, for example, I imagine many Greek researchers will no longer look for research jobs in Gr...
As an extreme, imagine if domestic dogs suddenly became a carrier for some flea-borne disease which affected humans in the UK. It would be a major issue. It is the equivalent of the Black Death, but instead of rats coming into ...
Wheat does not grow any more, it is where wheat or another f ...
A good example is the Chorley Wood process. Bread made in the old way used to take four or five hours, but through the addition of flour improvers and enzymes, bread can be produced in a few minutes. But now there is an upsurge...
Somewhere in the next 50 years we will find a much better wa ...
We will move into a much faster, more durable substrate and will do amazing things and go to amazing places. If you then ask yourself, if the ultimate quality of awareness is the same between you and me and my dog and the thing...
The seabed is lined with methane hydrate, and if you take th ...
We know in the past there have been great belches of methane, followed by a climate spike. The American coastline has had a lot of extra erosion because of extra agricultural production and there could be a landslide. This woul...
Chinese society collapsing under its own weight.
The only thing holding China together is the People’s Republican Party and habit. China could go down and take a lot of debts and make the current financial crisis look like nothing.
Somebody cracks RSA, which is a standard inscription
If this was done in a public domain way, the entire banking system and ATMs would stop working and could not be used, as they would be insecure. The whole thing is based on one inscription algorithm.
One the European Union should strongly consider is that glob ...
By that I mean everything has an absorption curve. Imagine you have a clear glass of water and you put in a drop of ink and it becomes darker, and you keep doing that until it is completely black and then adding more in does no...
