A look forward at science in 2012

In a span of one year, science progressed greatly. What great expectations we have for 2012! From innovation to environmental studies to health care, especially with this being an election year, I believe there are many things to be excited about this upcoming year.

Greater presence in our lives

Technology appears poised to take on a greater presence in our lives. For instance, Facebook is expected to reach one billion users this year and smartphone sales are predicted to pass the number of computer sales in the United States. Even globally, innovation will continue to affect us all.

In the realm of information sharing, cloud computing is likely to play a bigger role in 2012. The application which allows information and data to be linked between computers and tablets makes sharing within a company via the Internet or an internal server easier. For instance, the Spanish banking group BBVA has already moved its company to Google Cloud.

Furthermore, apart from the upgrades in Internet services ­­- as seen in the new Windows 8 release - Hybrid Disk Drives are expected to become more mainstream, allowing for faster and reliable storing of work. Even more, the HDDs are expected to become a lot cheaper for personal and industrial use.

Interestingly enough, all this research is as well being used to create storage vaults in preparation for the claimed Doomsday. We may have another crisis to consider, nevertheless. Scientists are predicting that 2012 will see a new record of high temperatures. As a result, scientists predict that this will result in greater rainfall anomalies and stronger storms which are driven by latent heat. To boot, the higher temperatures may be accompanied by widespread drought in other locations.