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Come Hang Out with Some World Changing Ideas

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Oil that cleans water. Pacemakers powered by our own blood. Drones that can spy on you in your backyard. Scientific American has chosen these and seven other innovations as the leading developments in 2012 that could ultimately change our world. The radical ideas are not pie-in-the-sky notions but practical breakthroughs that have been proved or prototyped and are poised to scale up greatly.

If you’d like to hear more about the 10 innovations, ask questions or add your opinion about their potential, join me and Google Science Fair in a Google+ video Hangout on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Google’s Hangout team, myself and guests will be visible on your computer screen as we discuss and debate the intriguing developments.

If you’d like to join the event, please go to the hangout page to sign up. Or just tune in on Nov. 20 if you already have a Google+ page. And if you’d like to read, ahead of time, the Scientific American print article that reveals the 10 innovations, it’s online free until Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. Hope to see you!


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Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at Scientific American for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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