21st
century...
2020-2029
timeline contents
2020-2035
- World oil crisis
2020-2026 – The Euclid Space Telescope reveals new insights into dark matter and dark energy
2020-2025 – Five-year survival rates for Hodgkin's lymphoma are approaching 100%
2020 – Generation X is reshaping global politics | Internet use reaches 5 billion worldwide | The 5G standard is released | Texting by thinking | Complex organ replacements grown from stem cells | A cure for malaria | Progress with longevity extension | Ultra
High Definition Television (4320p) is going mainstream | Holographic TV is going mainstream | Africa and the Middle East are linked by a trans-continental bridge | Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) has been significantly expanded | The first self-sufficient, car-free city in mainland China | Completion of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link | The UK has expanded its offshore grid connections | Smart meters in every UK home | Public
smoking is banned across every US state | Mercury pollution has been greatly reduced | Glacier
National Park and other regions are becoming ice-free | 30,000 drones are patrolling the skies of America | BepiColombo arrives in orbit around Mercury | Video games with truly lifelike CGI
2021-2025 - Manned exploration of near-Earth asteroids
2021
- Global average temperatures
have risen by 1°C | Water
crisis in southwest USA | The world's largest insect swarm re-emerges | Five-year survival rates for breast cancer are approaching 100% | Male birth control pills are entering the market | The world's first artificial kidney | Mind reading technology is being
deployed for security purposes | Fully
reusable, single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft | A rapidly changing workforce | Wireless electricity is reaching critical mass | Traditional
microchips are reaching the limits of miniaturisation
2022
- The
ITER experimental fusion reactor is switched on | Solar grid parity has been reached in almost 10% of the US | Germany
phases out nuclear energy | Qatar hosts the FIFA World Cup | China's first space station is complete | The European Extremely Large Telescope is operational | The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope begins full operations | Water is becoming a weapon of war | Global reserves of antimony are running out | Nanotech clothes are growing rapidly in use | Piezoelectric
nanowires are appearing in high-end products | Deafness is fully curable
2023 - Mars sample return mission | Asteroid sample return mission | Laser-driven fusion
energy makes progress | Turkey celebrates its 100th anniversary as an independent republic | Completion of the London "super sewer" | Brain implants to restore lost memories | A
permanent cure for migraine is becoming available | Borneo’s
rainforests have been wiped from the map | Gorillas
are going extinct in Central Africa
2024
- The biggest refugee crisis in
world history | Gay marriage is legal
in every US state | African elephants
are going extinct in the wild | A cure for the common cold
is available for general public use | Completion
of the Square Kilometre Array | Petabyte
storage devices are available | The first probe to fly into the
Sun's outer atmosphere
2025-2035 - The Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST) conducts its life-searching mission | Mouse revival from cryopreservation
2025-2030
- The threat of bioterrorism is
peaking | Hypersonic missiles are in military use | Some of Britain's most well-known animal species are going extinct | Rhinos are going extinct in the wild
2025
- Human brain
simulations are becoming possible | Medical
nanobots are being developed | China is becoming highly urbanised | Vertical
farms are common in cities | Solid waste is reaching crisis levels | Completion of Masdar City | Contact with the Voyager probes is lost | High
speed rail networks are being expanded in many countries | A comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. airspace system is complete | U.S. fuel economy standards have improved dramatically | Railguns are in use by the U.S. navy | Stress
and anxiety continue to rise
2026
- Aquaculture provides the majority of the world's seafood | Youthful regeneration of aging heart muscle is becoming possible | New treatments for Alzheimer’s
disease | Rising
sea levels are wreaking havoc on the Maldives | Global reserves of indium are running out | Construction
of the Sagrada Família is complete | Robotic hands matching human capabilities | Mars Science Laboratory is shutting down
2027 - The BRICs
overtake the G7 nations| Tokyo and Nagoya are connected by high-speed maglev | Carbon
sequestration is underway in many nations | Peak coal is reached in China | The Europa Clipper arrives in orbit
2028
- The International Space Station is decommissioned | Printed electronics are
ubiquitous |
The UK
population reaches 70m | Manned
fighter planes are being phased out and replaced with UAVs | Amputees
can regrow lost limbs | Resurrection of several extinct species has been achieved
2029
- Human-like AI is becoming a
reality | Heavy automation
of supermarkets and retail environments | Intelligent
advertising | Global reserves of silver are running out | Lake
Chad disappears from the map | Madagascar's radiated tortoise is extinct in the wild | The wreck of the Titanic has decomposed
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