Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2021

The fast growth of greenhouse emissions in developing countries is a serious cause of concern for the sustainability of the world climate system. Improved quality of life and the resulting consumer behavior changes of large parts of their populations are causing countries such as China, India and Indonesia to rapidly…

Since the Berlin Wall has fallen, the World has made real progress in the fight against extreme poverty: the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined from 1.4 billion then to 800 million today. The number of children dying under the age of 5 every year has been…

Walls are back in vogue around the world, from Mexico to Hungary, Austria, and Greece. This is a paradox of history as physical and conceptual walls are being torn down unceasingly, driven by technology, business, and people’s quest for a better future. Political elites and large parts of the electorate…

Tapping into the power of art as a conduit for change, artists around the world are to an ever-greater extent using their work to weigh in on some of the most pressing political and social issues of our times – be it extremism, the refugee crisis or the effects of…

In order to grasp the future of cities, one has to look towards Africa and Asia. While the African continent is rapidly urbanising – by 2036 more than half of the African population will live in cities – the rising number of city dwellers live under extremely unequal conditions. By…

Corruption is often thought of as a collection of individual venalities: a politician with a weakness for Rolex watches, an underpaid cop who looks the other way in exchange for some wadded-up bills. This image underestimates the dimensions of today’s problem. Public corruption scandals now routinely feature billion-dollar sums. Far…

The age of digitisation, ‘datification’, and ever smarter machines has opened up huge opportunities, from improving national security and healthcare to shopping and making travel plans. At the same time the combination of machine learning and massive data that is increasingly driving many of the automated decision-making systems that govern…

The massive extraction and exploitation of personal data is having a profound impact on the world’s economic systems. Shoshana Zuboff names and analyses this ‘surveillance capitalism’, a born-digital logic of accumulation that unilaterally claims private human experience for unprecedented processes of production, commodification and sales. The digital dream once promised…

Much of the world’s energy demands continue to depend on fossil fuels. However, mounting environmental concerns and decarbonisation efforts have propelled the development of sustainable processes to produce chemicals, fuels and materials from renewable biological resources. Biotechnology has been making strides and could soon help address a range of global…

As the capabilities of current computer systems are fast reaching their limits, the huge potential for quantum computing to solve vastly complex problems is attracting ever greater attention and worldwide efforts to ‘win’ the quantum race are ramping up. Still, the term ‘quantum’ carries a mystical quality as we try…

Smart robotic systems have taken giant leaps in recent years. Important technological breakthroughs have led to the introduction of intelligent machines that meet human needs across a range of sectors. With the help of AI, robots are now capable of learning and continuously developing new skills. Robots, connected to a…

For a variety of reasons ranging from our heightened awareness of climate change and concerns for our health to an increased sensitivity to animal welfare issues, the popularity of alternatives to meat has been gaining unprecedented momentum in recent years. Mark Post, who trained as a medical doctor and is…

The rapid integration of AI into all aspects of society raises urgent questions and presents significant dangers. AI technologies have been introduced in a range of sectors, with claims that automating sensitive social decisions improves outcomes and increases efficiency. From facial recognition and predictive policing data to automated HR –…

Our economy has long relied on a model whereby demand for growth promotes more and more material consumption. The incentive for industry is obvious, but the consequences are inescapable if its practices continue to cause a downward spiral of natural resource depletion and pollution. We have little time to change…

As smarter, faster, and cheaper industrial robots are at the verge of revolutionising manufacturing worldwide, it seems we are ready to entrust them with more diverse tasks, ranging from collaboratively assembling products with people to providing front-of-house customer service. Already today, hospitals, hotels, and logistics companies use robots to provide…

Whilst conventional recycling as we know it – converting waste materials into new materials – brings many environmental benefits, it is still severely limited when it comes to more complex products such as electronic devices. Our increasing and insatiable dependence on these devices, however, makes it even more urgent to…