Thus begins the fictional account of journalist-from-the-future Stuart Rand, reflecting in the year 2100 on the revolutionary changes humans made in the 2020s in order to save themselves from the climate crisis.

This account is part of a six-part series from writer and entrepreneur Peter Leyden called The Transformation, which tells the story of how the United States solved its toughest challenges between 2020 to 2050 through retrospective interviews with Rand. …

Glimpse of the Future

Researchers made a novel tweak to the burgeoning technology

Every week, Future Human’s Glimpse of the Future brings you an image of the science being deployed to solve the world’s pressing problems.

If I asked you to picture solar panels, you’d likely imagine clunky blue or black rectangles arranged on a sloping rooftop or arrayed in neat rows over an open field. These panels hold plenty of promise for providing humans with clean, renewable energy, but they’re not exactly versatile. You can’t just stick huge black panels anywhere.

That’s why, for years, scientists have been trying to make these panels transparent. Doing so would turn a range of surfaces — car windows, skyscraper walls, even phone screens — into potential clean energy generators. They’ve already seen some success: In 2020, for example, researchers at the University of Michigan made a semitransparent panel with 8% power conversion efficiency — a new record. …

Reengineering Life

United Therapeutics reveals its plans to perform the transplants in an exclusive interview with Future Human

Reengineering Life is a column from Future Human about the ways humans are using biology to reprogram our bodies and the world around us.

Every day in the United States, 17 people die waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. To address this crisis, one biotech company is turning to an unlikely source: pigs. Maryland-based United Therapeutics says it plans to begin transplanting organs from genetically modified pigs into people as soon as this year.

“We’re right on that cusp. We’re looking to get into humans within the next year or two,” said David Ayares, PhD, in an exclusive interview with Future Human. Ayares is the chief scientific officer of Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics that’s developing the pigs. …

2020 was the fifth-costliest year for the insurance industry

For many people, 2021 will be devoted to recovering from 2020. Last year was an expensive one, not only due to the ravages of Covid-19 but because of ecological disasters that reached record highs in terms of financial cost due to worsening climate change. In 2020, the insurance industry tallied $83 billion in losses worldwide due to ecological and human-made disasters, according to preliminary data from Swiss Re, the world’s largest insurance company. That makes it the fifth-costliest year since 1970.

Ecological disasters like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires caused $76 billion of the total losses, according to the company. A record number of severe thunderstorms and wildfires in the United States made up the lion’s share of those losses. Also, 30 tropical storms or hurricanes passed through the Gulf Coast and Eastern seaboard of the United States. And over 800 wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington burned 6 billion acres, destroyed thousands of buildings, and resulted in billions of dollars in insurance claims. …

Scientists moved closer to linking the human brain to computers

For decades, scientists have been trying to forge a direct connection from the human brain to external devices to allow people to control machines with their minds. And over the years, there’s been incremental success. Known as brain-computer interfaces, these devices have allowed paralyzed people to control robotic arms and a mouse on a computer screen just by thinking about it. But these interfaces require clunky setups and trained engineers to supervise their use. They can’t yet be used at home to help people in their everyday lives.

This year, neuroscientists got closer to that reality. Here are some of the notable advancements in brain implants we saw in 2020. …

In a year of lows, it’s important to remember the highs

In a recent conversation about the year in science, a colleague made the inevitable joke: “There was this little thing called the coronavirus…” Grim, but impossible not to smirk: Ten, twenty years from now, when we look back on this moment in science, we will remember Covid-19 and the maddening dash to understand it.

But now and in the future, it will be important to remember that the dominant narrative of 2020 was in fact a culmination of science stories we’ve been aware of — and complicit in — for a long time.

Humans have been well aware of their destructive tendencies for millennia — this year, our relentless march into the habitats of wild animals created the conditions that scientists have long warned would allow a zoonotic disease to spread. A disproportionate number of Americans who died from Covid-19 in the U.S. were Black or other people of color, a result of the racist healthcare access and geographical redlining that is part of this country’s dark legacy. Now, as two vaccines roll out across the nation, we face the consequences of mounting mistrust in public health and government: hesitation, in many cases warranted, to receive vaccines that scientists have vetted as safe and effective. …

A new study redefines our impact on the natural world

There is considerably more plastic on our planet than there is living animal mass. Buildings and roads account for more mass than trees and shrubs. As of 2020, the weight of humankind’s creations is on track to surpass that of all the living biomass on Earth, a remarkable development that gives us a new way of understanding our impact on the natural world.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel detailed this claim in a study published in Nature last week. The authors call 2020 the “crossover point.” After this, human-produced mass, or anthropogenic mass, will outweigh the planet’s natural biomass. There will be more people stuff than other stuff. …

It wouldn’t be Christmas without a little science fiction. The acclaimed, best-selling writer Kurt Andersen, author of Fantasyland, Evil Geniuses, and Turn of the Century, has teamed up with Future Human to share a timely and resonant speculative tale of Arctic science, the great unknown — and Santa. Enjoy.

HE FOUND IT ALMOST PHYSICALLY PAINFUL TO LIE, which was unfortunate for someone who had spent most of his life as a spy.

Back when everything was proceeding according to plan, year after year after year, he had gotten a little sloppy, allowing bystanders to see the aircraft in flight, sometimes even announcing to children and their childlike parents who he was and where he lived. What did it matter, back then? Besides, he told himself, his openness created a rapport with the natives. …