10 biggest technological breakthroughs of 2017

Technology moves so fast these days that it's not easy to keep track of all the great innovations going on in various fields and disciplines. MIT's TechnologyReview just published its annual list of the ten biggest breakthrough technologies you should know about. Some of these technologies are unfolding before our eyes while others may take a decade or more to develop, but most of them will likely have a profound impact on our life. You can check out the full list with links to in-depth articles over here.

10 biggest breakthroughts of the year:

Brain implants to reverse paralysis suffered by patient with spinal cord injuries. Available in 10-15 years.

Self-driving trucks, expected to have huge impact on employment in the 2020s.

Facial recognition, on the market today and used to authorize payments, provide entry to facilities and track down bad guys.

Practical quantum computers. We've been hearing about quantum computing for decades but now researchers believe it's going to have a major impact within 4-5 years.

360-degrees video, on the market today and ushering in a new era with a phenomenal new way to record your memories.

Hot solar cells. Still 10-15 years away from us but this different sort of solar energy device promises to capture far more of the sun's energy than traditional silicon-based solar panels.

Gene Therapy 2.0. Scientists are using this today to attack rare hereditary disorders, the same approach could have applications to fight cancer, heart disease and other common illnesses.

The Cell Atlas. A mega-project to discover in much greater detail than ever before what humans are made of by cataloguing the 37.2 trillion cells of the human body. Results expected in five years.

The Botnets of Things. As more devices connect to the Internet, often with very poor build-in security, botnets are getting bigger and more diverse than ever before.

Reinforcement learning. An approach to artificial intelligence to let machines learn like humans and to let computers figure out how to best do stuff no programmer could teach them. In testing right now, expected in 1-2 years.