Each year, Technology Review selects what it believes are the 10 most important emerging technologies. The winners are chosen based on the editors’ coverage of key fields. The question that we ask is simple: is the technology likely to change the world? Some of these changes are on the largest scale possible: better biofuels, more efficient solar cells, and green concrete all aim at tackling global warming in the years ahead. Other changes will be more local and involve how we use technology: for example, 3-D screens on mobile devices, new applications for cloud computing, and social television. And new ways to implant medical electronics and develop drugs for diseases will affect us on the most intimate level of all, with the promise of making our lives healthier.

Modeling Surprise 
Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz.

Probabilistic Chips 
Krishna Palem thinks a little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices–and maybe the duration of Moore’s Law, too.

NanoRadio 
Alex Zettl’s tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.

Atomic Magnetometers 
John Kitching’s tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it’s never gone before.

Offline Web Applications 
Adobe’s Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.

Graphene Transistors 
A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.

Connectomics 
Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits.