Human Tech Tree

Unsolved problems in science and technology

96 problems humanity has not solved yet, in 18 fields. For each: what is still missing, how much today's AI could help and what becomes possible once it is solved. State of knowledge as of now.

Sorted by field; within a field, the problems where AI could help most come first (5 with high AI leverage).

Foundations of Civilization · Society, Economy & Law · Humanities & Culture · Mathematics · Physics · Chemistry & Materials · Energy · Manufacturing & Construction · Transport & Mobility · Electronics & Computing · AI & Robotics · Communication & Networks · Biology & Genetics · Medicine · Neuroscience & Psychology · Agriculture & Food · Earth, Climate & Environment · Space & Astronomy

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Foundations of Civilization4

  • Quality Education for AllMedium AI leverageSchool access has grown, yet many children sit in school without learning to read: only 58% reach minimum reading proficiency and 44% minimum math at the end of primary school. UNESCO's 2026 report counts 273 million children and youth out of school. Poor…Would unlock: Personal Tutor for Everyone
  • Replication CrisisMedium AI leverageMany published findings fail when other researchers try to repeat them, a problem known since 2005 and not solved. In a cancer biology replication project, effect sizes were on average 85% smaller than in the original studies. Causes include…Would unlock: Self-Running Research Labs, Verified Science
  • Vetting the AI Paper FloodMedium AI leveragePeer review rests on unpaid expert time and trust, but AI-written papers and reviews now flood journals and conferences, and human review cannot keep up. One analysis with its own AI-text detector classed 21% of the reviews at the ICLR 2026 AI conference as…Would unlock: Self-Running Research Labs, Verified Science
  • Research Funding & PaceLow AI leverageEach new idea takes more researchers and money than before, while public funding swings with politics, so how much to fund, and how, stays open. Studies show that ever more researchers are needed to keep productivity growth constant. Applying for grants is…Would unlock: Accelerated Discovery Cycles

Society, Economy & Law5

  • Aging SocietiesMedium AI leverageFewer births and longer lives shift the ratio of workers to older people, putting pensions, care and growth under pressure. The global fertility rate fell from 3.3 in 1990 to about 2.25 in 2024, and in more than half of all countries it lies below the…Would unlock: Sustainable Aging Society
  • Disinformation & TrustMedium AI leverageAI fakes and recommendation algorithms make it hard to tell what is true, and trust in information is eroding. Deepfakes, meaning fake images, voices or videos, can be produced cheaply in bulk, and platforms earn from attention. In the Reuters Institute's…Would unlock: Verifiable Information World
  • Global CoordinationMedium AI leverageClimate, pandemics and AI ignore borders, yet binding, enforceable agreements between states rarely succeed. Shared goods invite free riding, where each state hopes others will carry the cost, and the UN rests on consensus. Successes such as the Montreal…Would unlock: Fast Global Crisis Response
  • Measuring Beyond GDPMedium AI leverageGDP measures output, not well-being or sustainability, and no shared, robust yardstick for those exists worldwide. It counts neither unpaid care nor the depletion of nature. In May 2026 a UN expert group presented a dashboard of 31 indicators in four…Would unlock: Beyond-GDP Indicators Adopted, Participation Amid Automation
  • Work & Distribution with AIMedium AI leverageAs machines take over more work, the question is how people secure income, purpose and participation, and who gains from the added productivity. Past technologies destroyed and created jobs, but transitions often took decades and hit regions unevenly. Social…Would unlock: Participation Amid Automation

Humanities & Culture6

  • Reading All Herculaneum ScrollsHigh AI leverageAbout 1,800 papyrus rolls and fragments came out of the Villa dei Papiri in the 1750s, mostly Epicurean philosophy. One scroll has now been read from start to finish, but hundreds stay sealed and much of the villa is still buried. Reading the rest needs a…Would unlock: Herculaneum Library Fully Read
  • Deciphering Linear AMedium AI leverageLinear A is the script of Minoan Crete, used about 1800-1450 BC. Many of its signs resemble those of Linear B, which writes Greek, so they can be pronounced, but the words that result match no known language. No bilingual text exists, and the surviving…Would unlock: Minoan Palace Archives Read
  • Deciphering the Indus ScriptMedium AI leverageThousands of short inscriptions on seals from about 2800-1900 BC remain unread. The average text is about five signs, no bilingual text exists, and over 100 mutually exclusive decipherments have been published. Experts even disagree on whether the signs…Would unlock: Indus Inscriptions Read
  • Origin of Human LanguageMedium AI leverageLanguage leaves no fossils, so when and how it arose is unknown; estimates run from about 2.5 million years ago to under 200,000. Some views see a gradual build-up from primate abilities, others a sudden step. Many researchers now treat language as several…Would unlock: Language Origins Explained
  • Saving Endangered LanguagesMedium AI leverageOf about 7,800 languages in Glottolog, over 4,000 are threatened, shifting, moribund or nearly extinct, and a quarter have only a wordlist or less. A language is lost when children stop learning it, and a recording alone does not keep it alive. Missing are…Would unlock: Every Language Documented
  • Avoiding a Digital Dark AgeLow AI leverageDigital records depend on formats, software and hardware that keep changing: 38% of web pages from 2013 were gone by 2023, and no storage medium has a record of lasting for centuries. Data also needs working hardware, software that understands the format and…Would unlock: Records Readable for Centuries

Mathematics7

  • All Mathematics Machine-CheckedHigh AI leverageMathematics lives in papers that a human reads and judges correct, and errors and gaps do occur. Lean and its library Mathlib offer a shared framework in which a computer checks proofs step by step, but it covers only part of research mathematics. The goal…Would unlock: AI Research Mathematician
  • Birch and Swinnerton-DyerMedium AI leverageAn elliptic curve is a cubic equation whose rational solutions form a group. The conjecture links the size, or rank, of that group to the behaviour of a related function, the L-function, at 1, and it also gives an exact formula. The rank statement is proved…Would unlock: Rational Solutions Predictable
  • Navier-Stokes ProblemMedium AI leverageThese equations describe nearly every flow of viscous fluids, from coffee to hurricanes. The open question is whether, in three dimensions, smooth starting conditions can ever produce infinite velocities in finite time. On 8 September 2026 OpenAI released a…Would unlock: Flow Simulation With Guarantees
  • Riemann HypothesisMedium AI leverageThe zeta function is a mathematical function closely tied to the prime numbers, and the hypothesis says all its non-trivial zeros lie on one line. Proposed in 1859, it would determine how evenly the primes are spread, and hundreds of theorems are proven only…Would unlock: Primes Fully Understood
  • Hodge ConjectureLow AI leverageThe conjecture says that certain objects called Hodge classes, which describe the shape of a space defined by polynomial equations, are always combinations of algebraic cycles, the simpler shapes cut out by polynomial equations. Apart from one easy case and…Would unlock: Algebraic Cycles Understood
  • P versus NPLow AI leverageThis question asks whether every problem whose answer can be checked quickly can also be solved quickly. Most experts believe not, but nobody can prove it; it dates from 1971 and carries a one-million-dollar Clay prize. Known proof techniques are ruled out…Would unlock: Provably Secure Encryption
  • Yang-Mills Mass GapLow AI leveragePhysicists use quantum Yang-Mills theory to describe the strong force. Experiments and computer simulations indicate that it has a mass gap, meaning its lightest particles have positive mass. The Clay problem asks for a mathematically rigorous…Would unlock: Rigorous Quantum Field Theory

Physics8

  • A theory of turbulenceMedium AI leverageTurbulence is the chaotic swirling of air and water that sets drag on aircraft, mixing in the oceans and the dynamics of storms. Its statistics cannot be derived from the flow equations; engineers use models tuned to data, and simulations stop far below real…Would unlock: Predictable Turbulence
  • Dark Energy & Hubble TensionMedium AI leverageIn 1998 two supernova teams found that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. In the standard model the cause is a constant called the cosmological constant, about 68% of the energy content, and its calculated value is off by about 10^120…Would unlock: Fate of the Universe Known
  • Dark MatterMedium AI leverageAbout 27% of the universe is invisible matter that shows up only through its gravity, and nobody knows what it is. Galaxies rotate too fast for their visible mass, and the cosmic microwave background and galaxy clusters indicate about five times as much dark…Would unlock: Physics Beyond Standard Model
  • Faster-than-light travelLow AI leverageRelativity forbids ordinary motion faster than light. Warp bubbles and wormholes would instead bend spacetime, but every known design needs negative energy density, which quantum field theory allows only in tiny amounts for very short times…Would unlock: Other stars within a lifetime
  • Matter-Antimatter AsymmetryLow AI leverageThe Big Bang should have produced matter and antimatter in equal amounts, yet only matter remained, about one matter particle for every billion photons. Sakharov named three conditions for this in 1967, and the Standard Model has CP violation, a difference…Would unlock: Physics Beyond Standard Model
  • Quantum GravityLow AI leverageRelativity (Einstein's theory of gravity) describes the large and quantum mechanics the small, but inside black holes and at the Big Bang both are needed and the calculations break down. Candidate theories include string theory, loop quantum gravity and…Would unlock: Theory of Everything
  • Quantum Measurement ProblemLow AI leverageQuantum theory allows superpositions, as in the image of a cat both dead and alive, yet a measurement always shows one definite result. Interpretations such as Copenhagen, many worlds and Bohmian mechanics make the same predictions, while collapse models…Would unlock: Superposition of Large Objects
  • Teleporting objects or peopleLow AI leverageQuantum teleportation moves the state of particles, not matter, and the original state is destroyed. Teleporting a person would mean capturing the full quantum state of about 7×10^27 atoms, sending it and rebuilding the body, which would need capabilities…Would unlock: Travel by teleportation

Chemistry & Materials4

  • Targeted Materials PredictionHigh AI leverageThe aim is to compute in advance which material has a desired property and how to make it. In principle quantum mechanics allows this, but for real structures with defects, surfaces and temperature the calculations are too inaccurate or too expensive. The…Would unlock: Materials Made to Order
  • Artificial PhotosynthesisMedium AI leveragePlants use sunlight to split water and take up CO2, usually with under 1% efficiency. Artificial systems built from semiconductors and catalysts reach more than 20% in the lab for splitting water into hydrogen, with a record of about 22.4%, but no practical…Would unlock: Sunlight to Fuel
  • Room-Temperature SuperconductorMedium AI leverageA superconductor carries current with zero resistance but needs cold; a room-temperature one would do so at everyday temperature and pressure. Hydrides such as LaH10 reach 250 K but only at 1.5 to 1.7 million bar, and several room-temperature claims failed…Would unlock: Lossless Power Grids
  • Truly Circular Plastic RecyclingMedium AI leverageOnly about 9% of plastic is recycled worldwide, and the goal is to turn plastic into new plastic indefinitely without quality loss. Mechanical recycling degrades quality because of mixtures, additives and colors, while chemical recycling needs a lot of…Would unlock: Closed Plastic Cycle

Energy5

  • Cheap Green HydrogenMedium AI leverageHydrogen is a feedstock for fertiliser and refineries and may later serve steel and chemicals, but today it comes almost entirely from natural gas and coal. Green hydrogen, made by splitting water with renewable power in electrolysers, still costs more, and…Would unlock: Green Hydrogen Economy
  • Net-Electricity Fusion PlantMedium AI leverageFusion power would merge hydrogen nuclei at over 100 million degrees and release large amounts of energy without a chain reaction. Plasma has been ignited, but no device has produced more electrical energy than it consumes in steady operation. Missing are a…Would unlock: Fusion Power Plants on the Grid, Fusion Spacecraft Propulsion
  • Seasonal Energy StorageMedium AI leverageA grid built mostly on sun and wind must carry summer surplus into winter and through multi-day wind lulls, but batteries only bridge hours. Pumped hydro is big enough but tied to suitable terrain, and hydrogen in salt caverns loses roughly 60-70% of the…Would unlock: All-Renewable Energy Supply
  • Stable 100% Renewable GridMedium AI leverageClassic power plants hold a grid's frequency and voltage steady with heavy rotating machinery. Solar and wind farms have mostly just followed the grid through their inverters, and grid-forming inverters that actively support it are only starting at large…Would unlock: All-Renewable Energy Supply
  • Final disposal of nuclear wasteLow AI leverageSpent nuclear fuel stays hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. The accepted plan is burial in stable rock several hundred metres down behind several barriers, and most spent fuel meanwhile sits in interim storage. The first deep repository for…Would unlock: Nuclear Waste Safely Sealed

Manufacturing & Construction4

  • CO2-Free CementMedium AI leverageCement causes about 8% of global CO2 emissions, and about 60% of its emissions come from the limestone itself, which releases CO2 when burned. Renewable power alone therefore cannot fix it. Routes include capturing the CO2, binders with less limestone…Would unlock: Climate-Neutral Construction
  • Molecular NanomanufacturingMedium AI leverageMolecular nanomanufacturing means building products by placing atoms and molecules exactly where they are wanted. Moving single atoms has been shown in the lab, famously when IBM spelled its name with 35 xenon atoms in 1989, but not for products. Biology…Would unlock: Atom-Precise Factories
  • True Circular EconomyMedium AI leverageA circular economy keeps products in use longer, repairs them and returns their raw materials in the same quality. Today material is often downcycled, reused at lower quality, or burned, and alloys, composites and electronics are hard to separate. Only 6.9%…Would unlock: A World Without Waste
  • Self-Replicating FactoryLow AI leverageA self-replicating factory would rebuild itself fully from raw materials. John von Neumann showed in the 1940s that a self-copying machine is possible in theory, and a 1980 NASA study designed a self-growing factory for the Moon. In practice it fails on the…Would unlock: Factories on Moon and Mars

Transport & Mobility4

  • Level 5 Autonomous DrivingHigh AI leverageLevel 5 means a car drives itself anywhere a human could, in any weather, without a driver. Level 4, as at Waymo, works only in defined zones with high-precision maps. The hard part is the long tail of rare situations, such as roadworks, police hand signals…Would unlock: Driverless Mobility Everywhere
  • Resilient Low-Carbon LogisticsMedium AI leverageGlobal trade runs lean and just-in-time, in containers on a few huge ships and through a handful of chokepoints. That leaves little slack, so one blocked canal or stopped factory delays many firms, and many cannot see beyond their direct suppliers. Spare…Would unlock: Self-Healing Global Logistics
  • Zero-Emission AviationLow AI leverageAviation causes about 2-3% of global CO2 emissions plus climate effects from contrails. Jet fuel stores over 40 times as much energy per kilogram as today's batteries, so batteries suit short trips, while long haul needs synthetic or biogenic fuels or…Would unlock: Climate-Neutral Flying
  • Zero-Emission ShippingLow AI leverageShipping carries about 80% of world trade, runs mostly on heavy fuel oil and causes about 3% of greenhouse gases. Candidate fuels are green methanol, ammonia and hydrogen, plus batteries and wind for short routes, and all need huge amounts of green energy…Would unlock: Climate-Neutral Global Shipping

Electronics & Computing3

  • Computing Beyond SiliconMedium AI leverageSilicon transistors are only a few dozen atoms wide, and shrinking them further brings little extra speed. Candidates for what comes next include stacked transistors, ultrathin 2D semiconductors, carbon nanotubes, optical computing, in-memory computing and…Would unlock: Post-Silicon Computers
  • Fault-Tolerant Quantum ComputerMedium AI leverageA fault-tolerant quantum computer would have hundreds to thousands of error-free logical qubits, meaning error-protected qubits built from many physical ones, and could solve tasks that classical computers cannot. Useful uses in chemistry, materials and…Would unlock: Q-Day: RSA and ECC Fall, Quantum Computers for Chemistry, Global Quantum Internet
  • The Computing Energy WallMedium AI leverageDemand for computing grows faster than chips become efficient, so energy, heat and power-grid limits increasingly hold back growth. Since the mid-2000s power density has risen, moving data now costs more energy than computing itself, and AI training grows…Would unlock: Post-Silicon Computers

AI & Robotics4

  • AI Alignment & InterpretabilityMedium AI leverageAlignment means making sure powerful AI does what people truly want, and interpretability means understanding what goes on inside it. Modern models are trained rather than programmed, and nobody knows exactly their inner goals and computation paths…Would unlock: Autonomous AI Research
  • Artificial General IntelligenceMedium AI leverageAn AI system that learns and performs practically any mental task as well as a human would count as artificial general intelligence (AGI). There is no generally accepted definition: some mean parity with humans on most economically relevant tasks, others…Would unlock: AI Research Mathematician, Autonomous AI Research
  • Everyday Robot DexterityMedium AI leverageIn factories things sit in fixed places, but in kitchens, homes and building sites laundry, dishes and cables are floppy, slippery and varied. Human hands with thousands of touch sensors are technically hard to copy, an example of Moravec's paradox: what is…Would unlock: Household & Care Robots
  • Reliable, Honest AIMedium AI leverageLanguage models still invent facts and sources while sounding convincing, so real reliability is missing. They produce plausible-sounding text rather than checked truth, and where knowledge is missing they often guess instead of saying 'I don't know'…Would unlock: Autonomous AI Research, Household & Care Robots

Communication & Networks3

  • Robust CybersecurityHigh AI leverageModern software has millions of lines of code in which bugs are unavoidable. Microsoft and the Chromium project each found that roughly 70% of their serious vulnerabilities were memory-safety errors that safe programming languages can prevent, yet legacy…Would unlock: Provable Digital Trust
  • Digital Identity & TrustLow AI leverageThe internet was built without an identity layer, so passwords, certificates and copies of ID cards serve as a makeshift replacement. With AI, voices, images and videos can be faked convincingly, and fraud scales. What is needed are verifiable proofs, such…Would unlock: Provable Digital Trust
  • Quantum InternetLow AI leverageA quantum internet would distribute quantum states over long distances and link quantum computers. Quantum states cannot be copied or amplified, and in optical fiber most photons are lost after a few dozen kilometers, so the network needs quantum memories…Would unlock: Global Quantum Internet

Biology & Genetics5

  • A cell built from scratchMedium AI leverageNobody has yet assembled a living, dividing cell from non-living molecular parts. Today's synthetic cells are made top-down: a chemically written genome is placed into a hollowed-out natural bacterium. The best-known ones run on fewer than 500 genes, but…Would unlock: Designer organisms on demand, Life made from chemistry
  • Decoding animal communicationMedium AI leverageAI can sort and model animal sounds, but what a call means can only be tested on the animals themselves. The honeybee dance is the best-established decoded animal signal, and alarm calls of vervet monkeys were tested by playing them back. For whales…Would unlock: Dialogue with another species
  • Predicting traits from DNAMedium AI leverageStudies of whole genomes link thousands of DNA variants to traits and diseases, but each variant has only a tiny effect, and genes act through cell type, environment and chance. Reading a genome and predicting the person is the central open problem of…Would unlock: Disease risk read from DNA, Digital twin of a patient
  • Simulating a whole cellMedium AI leverageA virtual cell would be a computer model that predicts, from DNA and conditions alone, how every gene, protein and reaction behaves, and how the cell reacts to a drug or a mutation. It could replace many lab and animal experiments. So far only the simplest…Would unlock: Digital twin of a patient
  • Origin of lifeLow AI leverageLife on Earth arose within a few hundred million years of the planet becoming habitable, but nobody knows the route from simple molecules to the first cell. Leading ideas are an 'RNA world', metabolism-first scenarios and lipid protocells (simple fat-based…Would unlock: Life made from chemistry

Medicine9

  • Antibiotic resistanceMedium AI leverageEvery use of an antibiotic favours resistant bacteria, and resistance genes spread between species. Few companies invest in new antibiotics because they are used sparingly and earn little. Without effective antibiotics, routine surgery, childbirth…Would unlock: Infections under control
  • Controlling agingMedium AI leverageAging is the gradual loss of repair and resilience that drives cancer, dementia, heart disease and frailty. No treatment has been shown to slow or reverse human aging. Drugs and genetic changes extend the lives of worms, flies and mice, but proof in humans…Would unlock: Sustainable Aging Society, Healthy life to 100 and beyond
  • Curing HIVMedium AI leverageHIV inserts its genes into long-lived immune cells, where it can lie dormant out of reach of both drugs and the immune system. Pills stop the virus from multiplying but do not remove these cells, so treatment must continue for life. A cure would mean…Would unlock: HIV controlled without drugs
  • Curing autoimmune diseasesMedium AI leverageIn more than 100 autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, immune cells attack the body's own tissue. Standard treatment dampens the immune system for life and leaves patients open to infections. A cure…Would unlock: Drug-free autoimmune remission
  • Curing cancerMedium AI leverageMany cancers are curable, but cancers that have spread still kill nearly 10 million people a year. Cancer is hundreds of different diseases in which cells evolve to escape control, so there is no single cure. Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and, since the…Would unlock: Vaccines that prevent cancer
  • Eradicating tuberculosisMedium AI leverageTuberculosis is a bacterial lung disease that spreads through the air and can lie dormant in the body for years. It is curable, yet it made 10.7 million people ill in 2024 and killed over a million. Treatment takes months, resistant strains are rising, and…Would unlock: TB no longer a public threat
  • Pandemic preparednessMedium AI leverageCOVID-19 showed that vaccines can be made within a year, but not in time and not fairly shared. Preparedness means early detection, rapid vaccines for any virus family, fair access and political will. The WHO Pandemic Agreement, adopted in May 2025, still…Would unlock: Infections under control
  • Universal flu vaccineMedium AI leverageInfluenza viruses change their surface proteins so fast that vaccines are updated twice a year and sometimes miss the circulating strain. A universal vaccine would target parts of the virus that barely change, or train both antibodies and T cells to hit many…Would unlock: One flu shot lasts for years
  • Organs grown in the labLow AI leverageSmall tissue pieces can be grown or printed, but a complete transplantable organ cannot. The shortage of donor organs is huge: only about 10 to 20 percent of global transplant need is met, and more than 100,000 people in the US alone are on waiting lists…Would unlock: Organs on demand

Neuroscience & Psychology7

  • Alzheimer's and brain declineMedium AI leverageAlzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS and related diseases involve misfolded proteins and a progressive loss of nerve cells, usually starting years before symptoms. No treatment stops or reverses the decline. The first antibody drugs clear amyloid plaques but slow…Would unlock: Restoring and protecting memory, Healthy life to 100 and beyond
  • Causes of mental illnessMedium AI leverageDiagnosis of depression, schizophrenia and other mental disorders rests on symptoms described in interviews, not on blood tests or scans. Genes, early life, stress and brain circuits all contribute, with thousands of small genetic effects. Treatments work…Would unlock: Mechanism-based psychiatry
  • How memories are storedMedium AI leverageMemory is thought to be stored in changes of synapse strength, the strength of connections between nerve cells, and in sparse groups of cells called engram cells. In mice, a fear memory was reactivated by switching on tagged neurons with light, and false…Would unlock: Restoring and protecting memory
  • Regrowing the spinal cordMedium AI leverageCut nerve fibres rarely regrow in the adult spinal cord, so paralysis is usually permanent. A scar and growth-blocking signals stop them, and surviving fibres may lose their insulation. Rehabilitation, stimulation and stem cells give partial gains, but a…Would unlock: Walking again after paralysis
  • Simulating a whole brainMedium AI leverageA model built from an animal's wiring diagram and cell physics that reproduces how a real brain works does not yet exist. A wiring diagram alone is not enough, because a simulation also needs each synapse's strength and sign, cell properties…Would unlock: Whole-brain emulation
  • What sleep is forMedium AI leverageAnimals from jellyfish to humans sleep, and too little sleep harms health, yet no one has shown for certain what sleep does for the brain. Sleep takes about a third of a human life and leaves an animal defenceless, so it must serve something essential…Would unlock: Sleep medicine by mechanism
  • ConsciousnessLow AI leverageHow and why brain activity gives rise to subjective experience is still unexplained. Brain states can be matched to reports of experience, but nobody knows why any physical process feels like something, which is called the hard problem. Rival theories…Would unlock: Consciousness test, Whole-brain emulation

Agriculture & Food4

  • C4 rice / better photosynthesisMedium AI leverageMost crops, including rice and wheat, use an older and wasteful form of photosynthesis called C3, while maize uses a more efficient form called C4. The C4 Rice Project aims to rebuild rice to work like maize, which its researchers suggest could raise grain…Would unlock: Yield jump from C4 crops
  • Feeding 10 billion peopleMedium AI leverageFood production must feed up to about 10 billion people while heat, drought and water limits push yields down. UN projections see the world population peaking near 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s, and each degree of warming is estimated to lower yields of…Would unlock: Secure global food supply
  • Nitrogen-fixing cerealsMedium AI leveragePlants such as beans take nitrogen from the air with the help of bacteria in their roots, while wheat, rice and maize depend largely on manufactured fertilizer, a large part of which is lost as pollution. The goal is cereals that supply their own nitrogen…Would unlock: Self-fertilizing crops
  • Stopping soil lossMedium AI leverageErosion, compaction, salt build-up and loss of organic matter destroy farmland soil far faster than nature rebuilds it. One study found that the quality of 25% of arable land and 33% of pastureland deteriorated over 30 years, on land that 3.2 billion people…Would unlock: Secure global food supply

Earth, Climate & Environment8

  • Climate sensitivity rangeMedium AI leverageClimate sensitivity is how much the planet warms in the long run when CO2 doubles. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) judged it likely to be 2.5 to 4 °C in 2021, with a best estimate of 3 °C. The largest uncertainty is cloud feedback…Would unlock: Stable climate, falling CO2
  • Earthquake predictionMedium AI leverageNobody has ever predicted a major earthquake's time, place and size; only long-term probabilities and warnings seconds before the shaking work. Attempts such as the ones at Parkfield and Haicheng did not produce a reliable method, and the stress deep inside…Would unlock: Earthquake warnings in advance
  • Forecasting volcanic eruptionsMedium AI leverageUnrest at a volcano is often visible, but when an eruption starts, how big it gets and what kind it is are still mostly unpredictable. Observatories can tell when a volcano is restless and, at a few closely watched ones, can give a window of days for the…Would unlock: Eruption Warnings Days Ahead
  • Gigatonne-scale CO2 removalMedium AI leverageClimate targets need billions of tonnes of CO2 removed from the air each year, but engineered removal is currently only about 2 million tonnes. Options include forests and soils, which are cheap but reversible, burning plant matter with CO2 capture, direct…Would unlock: Ocean Chemistry Stabilised, Stable climate, falling CO2
  • Halting mass extinctionMedium AI leverageSpecies are disappearing far faster than the natural rate. The main drivers are changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive species, and a 2019 assessment counted about one million species at risk. Stopping this…Would unlock: Recovering biodiversity
  • Predicting tipping pointsMedium AI leverageNobody can say reliably when ice sheets, ocean circulation or rainforest will tip, meaning shift abruptly into a new state. Estimated thresholds span wide ranges, for the Greenland ice sheet from 0.8 to 3.0 °C of warming. A candidate early-warning signal…Would unlock: Tipping-point early warning
  • Fresh water for everyoneLow AI leverageAbout 2.1 billion people, roughly one in four, lack safely managed drinking water, and groundwater, rivers and glaciers are under growing strain. Fresh water is plentiful overall but not where people live. Desalination, reuse and water from air can add…Would unlock: Safe water for every household
  • Stopping ocean acidificationLow AI leverageThe ocean has absorbed enough CO2 to cross a proposed safe limit for shell-forming life. Seawater that takes up CO2 turns more acidic, which makes carbonate, the building material of shells and coral skeletons, scarcer. Surface acidity is about 30% higher…Would unlock: Ocean Chemistry Stabilised

Space & Astronomy6

  • Beyond chemical rocketsMedium AI leverageChemical rockets are limited by their exhaust speed. A nuclear thermal rocket heats hydrogen in a reactor and could reach about double the efficiency of hydrogen-oxygen engines, while nuclear-electric systems use a reactor to power thrusters with a far…Would unlock: Fast Solar System Transit
  • Finding extraterrestrial lifeMedium AI leverageNo life outside Earth has ever been confirmed; the best candidates are Mars, icy ocean moons and the atmospheres of exoplanets. Finding it would show whether biology is a cosmic rule or a fluke. Methods include biosignature gases in exoplanet atmospheres…Would unlock: Proof of life beyond Earth
  • Planetary defenseMedium AI leverageWe can nudge a small asteroid, but fewer than half of the large ones have been found and deflection has never been tested on a big one. In 2022 NASA's DART spacecraft hit a small moonlet and shortened its orbit by about 32 minutes, the first deliberate…Would unlock: Operational asteroid defense
  • Humans on MarsLow AI leverageLanding and living on Mars needs orbital refuelling, landing ships of tens of tonnes and protection of people for years; none of this has been demonstrated yet. A trip takes 6 to 9 months each way with launch windows every 26 months, so a crew would be away…Would unlock: Permanent Mars base
  • Radiation and life supportLow AI leverageBeyond Earth's magnetic field, cosmic rays and solar storms expose crews to radiation, and food, air and water must be recycled for years. A full Mars mission of around three years could exceed 1,000 millisieverts, above NASA's career limit of 600. No…Would unlock: Permanent Moon Base, Permanent Mars base
  • Space debris controlLow AI leverageDead satellites and fragments are piling up in orbit; collisions create more debris, and there is no way yet to clean up at scale. A 2026 estimate counts about 68,450 objects larger than 10 cm and 1.5 million between 1 and 10 cm. Even with no further…Would unlock: Sustainable Earth orbit