Technology & Innovation
Platforms, products, and scientific breakthroughs moving technology forward.
Schools Worldwide
200
Schools using the kit internationally, plus over
Education
Stick 'Em: The Chopstick STEM Kit in 200 Schools
A Singapore STEAM education kit built around wooden chopsticks and plug-and-play electronics now reaches 18,000 students and 2,000 teachers across 15 countries.
Chang'e-7 Payloads
21
Scientific instruments carried, six of them
Space
The Lunar Industrial Revolution: 2026's Real Missions
Chang'e-7 carries 21 payloads and a hopping probe designed to fly into permanently shadowed craters. Blue Ghost Mission 2 lands on the far side and must switch itself off to protect its own passenger.
Switch 2 Shipped
19.86M
Units shipped in under a year, against roughly 6M for
Gaming
The Handheld Renaissance Is Real — and It's Nintendo
Handheld gaming is booming, but not where the coverage suggests. Switch 2 shipped 19.86 million units in under a year while the entire handheld gaming PC category remains a six-million-unit niche.
SLC Endurance
100000
Program/erase cycles for two-state flash, against
Science
Why Computers Use Binary: The Physics, With Numbers
Binary won because of noise margins, and the cost of abandoning it is measurable. Flash memory storing four bits per cell survives about a hundredth as many write cycles as flash storing one.
Water Ice
5.6%
Concentration by mass measured in regolith at
Science
How to Mine the Moon: What ISRU Can Actually Do
In-situ resource utilization is how a Moon base stops depending on Earth. Oxygen extraction from regolith is close to ready. Water ice mining has not yet succeeded once, and the first attempt failed in 2025.
Market Size
$417.8M
Estimated global AI governance market in
Startups
The Truth Broker: What AI Assurance Actually Sells
AI governance is a real but small market, worth around $418 million in 2026 rather than the billions often claimed. And the surveys show security and data infrastructure block deployment well ahead of regulation.
H2O Efficiency
94%
Reduction in water usage for
Science
The Beanless Brew: 2026
Climate change is shrinking the 'Bean Belt'. The solution is 'Molecular Coffee'—chemically identical to the real thing, but created from upcycled ingredients like date pits, using 94% less water.
Life Extended
+5 Years
Added to Intelsat 901 by a servicing vehicle,
Space
The Gas Station in the Sky: What's Actually in Orbit
Satellite life extension already worked: a servicing vehicle added five years to Intelsat 901 and undocked in 2025. Actual in-orbit refueling has not happened yet. Its first attempt is scheduled for 2026.
Silver Economy
$3.2T
Total spending by the over-60 population, against
Startups
The Silver Stack: $3.2 Trillion vs the Real AgeTech Market
The silver economy is worth about $3.2 trillion, but that measures everything people over 60 buy. The AgeTech market itself is roughly $27 billion, and the care shortage it addresses is largely in poorer countries.
Billing Rate
$25/hr
Charged per robot-operating-hour at BMW, under a
Tech Companies
The Humanoid Race: What's Actually Deployed in 2026
Humanoid robots have reached commercial deployment, but not as products. Figure's fleet at BMW is billed by the operating hour, Tesla runs over a thousand Optimus units internally, and none are available to buy.
Measured Effect
19% slower
How much longer developers took with AI tools, while
Smart Tools
Vibe Coding: What the Productivity Studies Actually Found
A randomised trial measured experienced developers taking 19% longer to complete tasks with AI tools, while estimating they had been 20% faster. Adoption is near-universal; trust is falling.
Negative on AI
52%
Of game developers say generative AI harms the industry,
Gaming
AI Game Development: What Developers Actually Report
Industry survey data shows sentiment on generative AI souring rapidly among game developers, against a backdrop in which a third of US respondents were laid off within two years.
Pack Price
$108/kWh
Record low average lithium-ion pack price, down
Tech Innovations
Solid-State Batteries: Still a Motorcycle Demo in 2026
Solid-state batteries remain at pilot and demonstration stage, with mass production clustered around 2030. Conventional lithium-ion prices have meanwhile fallen to record lows.
Employment Decline
13%
Relative fall for workers aged 22-25 in AI-exposed
Tech Innovations
Agentic AI and Jobs: The Entry-Level Effect
Payroll records covering 4.6 million workers show employment falling for young workers in AI-exposed occupations, while experienced workers in the same roles were largely unaffected.