Top Tech 2021: A Special Report

Last January in this space we wrote that “technology doesn't really have bad years.” But 2020 was like no other year in recent memory: Just about everything suffered, including technology. One shining exception was biotech, with the remarkably rapid development of vaccines capable of stemming the COVID-19 pandemic.• This year's roundup of anticipated tech advances includes an examination of the challenges in manufacturing these vaccines. And it describes how certain technologies used widely during the pandemic will likely have far-reaching effects on society, even after the threat subsides. You'll also find accounts of technical developments unrelated to the pandemic that the editors of IEEE Spectrum expect to generate news this year. • Making such predictions is, of course, risky, We trust, though, that whatever we may have missed won't possibly be as momentous as the earthshaker that we-indeed the whole world-didn‘t see coming 12 months ago. ▸