Though the Internet was technically created more than 50 years ago, it wasn’t until 1992 that it started expanding into what we now know as the World Wide Web.
And today, it’s difficult to imagine life without the Internet — and without our computers, cells phones and PDAs. Technology is evolving and changing at an alarming rate, and new scientific research and inventions are unfolding daily.
Though it’s difficult to visualize how the world will look 20 to 30 years in the future, the World Future Society has predicted that 10 breakthrough technologies will transform life as we currently know it:
These technologies will revolutionize the way we play, communicate and do business. Most importantly, they will change how, when and where we learn.
Here are just a handful of examples of the progress being made — and the educators and students making this progress — in these areas.
As a young boy, Jon Spencer wanted to be Captain Planet when he grew up. And today, as an adult, he really is an environmental hero.
A research scientist with the Environmental Research Group at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Spencer is exploring how to create an inexpensive system to allow the commercialization of algal biofuel technology.
"I came across a paper by a UNH professor named Michael Briggs that talked about algae's potential," Spencer said. "He said that if we had algae growing inside of the Sonora Desert, we could produce all of the oil that is necessary for keeping us sustained as a nation."
So what's stopping algae biofuel from commercial production? 
"The technology for growing it is still kind of in its infancy," Spencer said. "There aren't enough incentives for biofuels with the government. There are tax shelters for domestic oil companies to open new wells domestically, but there's not that same benefit to the biofuels industry to get itself off its knees."
While he was a student at Hampshire College's Lemelson Center for Design, Spencer examined a species of algae that was found in industrial wastewater. After storing the algae and cleaning up the water, the alga begins to produce lipids, which is essentially oil.
"So, you have a multiplicity of benefits," Spencer said, "cleaning up the wastewater, sequestering carbon dioxide and getting a biofuel."
Spencer said his goal is to produce a fuel that can be grown and used in the New England area. He currently works for a company called Simply Green Biofuels, which offers alternatives for home heating, diesel and marine fueling.
