This story is part of our Top Tech 2025 special report.
Methane Measurements for the Masses
All Illustrations: Greg Mably
From high above us, satellites track devastating emissions of the greenhouse gases that will alter our climate. So far, their data has been private, shared only with companies or governments. MethaneSAT is changing that. Launched on 4 March 2024, it will pinpoint specific problem areas and track emissions of methane more broadly. Anyone will be able to access this data when the satellite is fully operational, in early 2025. Want a sneak peek? You can look right now at data from MethaneAIR, a research jet with the ability to gather about a quarter of the volume of data of MethaneSAT.
Cleaning Up Millions of Liters of Radioactive Waste
At the Hanford Site in eastern Washington, radioactive nuclear waste from the development of the first atomic bombs is currently leaking into soil and polluting the surrounding environment. Now a cleanup effort, decades in the making, is due to start trapping that waste by turning it into glass. This process, called vitrification, requires temperatures over 1,100 °C, about as hot as lava flowing from a volcano. Waste products are mixed with silica and other materials and heated in underground tanks to form molten glass, which is then poured into containment vessels to become solid glass. Currently, the Hanford Vit Plant is in the “cold commissioning” phase, where the facility is up and running but processing nonradioactive materials as a test. If all goes well, true cleanup will begin in 2025.
A Plane Anyone Can Fly
On average, it takes 55 hours of in-the-air flight time to get a private pilot license in the United States, and that’s not even counting the weeks of training on the ground. Airhart Aeronautics wants you to be ready to fly a plane in just one hour. Their new personal aircraft, the Airhart Sling, is designed to be user-friendly, safe, and as easy to learn as possible. Using a single stick, pilots simply point in the direction they want to go and the plane follows, even during takeoffs and landings. The Sling’s computer system translates these controls into commands to the engine and flight systems. The first test flight is planned for 2025, with orders shipping to customers in 2026. At an initial price of US $500,000, however, it might be a while before just anyone can fly.
The Future of Farming
Farmers in India are facing a financial crisis, magnified by debt, lengthy supply chains, and natural disasters. With small plots of about 20,000 square meters making up roughly 80 percent of India’s farms, it’s hard to find a solution that can reach every farmer. Enter Agri Stack. This database, designed by India’s Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, will match farmers and their land with government agencies and other companies, helping farmers access money, knowledge, and early natural-disaster warnings. With a standardized protocol called the Unified Farmer Service Interface, agritech companies can design products that they know will be easily integrated into the overall system. By the start of 2025, the government aims to have 60 million farmers registered on its site, with that number growing as the year progresses.
A New Reusable Rocket Launcher
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the only reusable rocket boosters in the world. But a new challenger is arriving: Rocket Lab’s Neutron. Launching in mid-2025, Neutron will be able to launch 13,000 kilograms to low earth orbit or 1,500 kg to Mars or Venus. It will have a reusable booster designed to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and land safely down at its launch site. To be competitive, Neutron is targeting a price of US $50 million per launch, slightly lower than Falcon 9’s $67 million price tag.
Profitable Robotaxis
Robotaxis promise private, direct, and comfortable rides straight into the future. But amid safety concerns and slow scaling, no robotaxi companies have actually achieved a profit. Nevertheless, Chinese search giant Baidu expects its Apollo Go robotaxis to reach that milestone in 2025. The fleet of about 500 taxis is the largest in China and is expected to double in size with the addition of new taxis in Wuhan by the end of 2024. Baidu has already operated more than 7 million rides. According to the company, key to the service’s profitability is that the new sixth-generation vehicles cost only about US $28,000 to manufacture. Baidu plans to expand into Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Middle East.
30 Years of Java
2025 will be the 30th year of the second most popular programming language in the world, according to our latest Top Programming Languages breakdown. James Gosling released Java in May of 1995, focused on creating a programming language in which it was easy for different devices to communicate with one another. Instead of a typical compiler that translates code to run on a specific computer, Java compilers translate code to bytecode, which can be run on any computer possessing a Java virtual machine. Java virtual machines then decode bytecode into instructions for the device’s specific CPU. This is known colloquially as the “write once, run everywhere” principle, allowing Java to be used widely on the Internet and accessed by many different devices. Want to learn Java? It’s not too late to get started today!
More Memory for AI Machines
Generative AI needs huge amounts of fast and powerful memory to continue its skyrocketing accomplishments. High-bandwidth memory (HBM), a stack of DRAM dies connected vertically, is a key ingredient for the high-performance GPUs training today’s most powerful AIs. The next generation of high-bandwidth memory is HBM4, which is expected to stack up to 16 memory dies in one module. While its predecessor, HBM3E (the “E” is for “extended”), can technically have stacks up to 16, only stacks of up to 12 have been released. HBM4 will also have a 2,048-bit interface and transmit 1.5 terabytes per second, improving HBM3E’s bandwidth by 33 percent. DRAM makers are expected to begin manufacturing the first HBM4 devices in 2025.
A New Moore’s Law Machine
Industrial use of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the must-have tool for the most advanced computer chips, has been a thing for barely five years. But the chip industry already needs the next generation—high-numerical-aperture (NA) EUV. This technique increases the range of angles at which the system can manipulate light, leading to even finer resolution. The EUV tool maker ASML and the European research institute Imec have jointly created the first high-NA EUV photolithography lab. They expect chipmakers to use their work to begin mass manufacturing in 2025 or 2026.
