The world's greatest inventions in 2022

The world has faced many crises in 2022, and overcoming the biggest of them will be a huge and long-term challenge.

Top 6 most outstanding inventions of 2022

The UN Foundation has listed some of the most pressing issues, covering topics ranging from poverty to pollution, the environment to equality. The biggest concerns are protecting the environment and addressing global poverty, both of which affect billions of people around the world every day.

But they all serve as a driving force for humanity and have inspired people to invent things to solve problems since humans have existed on Earth. There have been some inventions in the past, dating back millennia, that have revolutionized the way we live and literally changed the world.

While not every problem can be solved with simple and easy solutions, not a year goes by without new and increasingly impressive innovations.

Aside from the novelties and little things that make people's daily lives easier or more enjoyable, some new and great inventions were created in 2022 that could have a significant impact on the world.

Some of these may seem insignificant at first, but with time and effort, any of them can grow into something truly remarkable.

3D printed house

House Zero is designed to better connect people with nature and the outside world.

Homelessness is a growing global problem, and according to the United Nations, an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide were homeless or living in 'inadequate housing conditions' in 2020. This is a problem even in wealthier parts of the world. The New York Times reports that housing shortages are affecting more and more people across the United States. One effective way to address this problem is to make housing cheaper and faster to build.

House Zero is being built in 2022 by a company called ICON. Instead of being built brick by brick, it is 3D printed. As Dezeen explains, House Zero is designed to better connect humans with nature and the outside world, a principle known as biophilic design, which uses rounded, organic-looking designs to improve airflow. The walls are made from a material called Lavacret, which acts as both insulation and protection from the elements. Built in just 10 days, the entire 3D printing process could also make homes cheaper to build, with printers operating on-site using raw materials.

Cooling urban heat islands

Sunlight reflective paint helps prevent heat build-up in urban environments.

As climate change becomes a more pressing concern than ever, a serious problem for built-up areas is the urban heat island effect.

The EPA explains that this is due to the way urban materials like asphalt and concrete absorb sunlight, storing and radiating more heat than rural landscapes. This causes localized hot spots in cities, with temperatures up to 7°F higher than the surrounding land.

The impacts of these heat islands also touch on issues of equity, with a study in the journal Nature explaining how poor and vulnerable communities will be disproportionately affected by heat islands and the dangers they can pose. Statistically, those affected are at higher risk of heat-related deaths than other extreme weather events such as storms or floods.

One innovation that could help solve this problem has been developed by a company called StreetBond, which includes paint that better reflects sunlight, helping to prevent heat build-up in urban environments.

EcoWatch reports that the colorful paint is based on an acrylic epoxy and reflects both the visible and infrared portions of sunlight. The paint has been used in Los Angeles, resulting in surface temperatures that are up to 12°F cooler than elsewhere. With summers getting hotter and heat waves becoming more frequent, efforts to reduce temperatures in major cities like LA could actually save lives.

Brightly colored paints are also used in street murals and community areas like playgrounds to brighten up neighborhoods.

Electric aircraft

This small electric passenger plane is powered by an electric motor.

In a world where people are increasingly conscious of climate change and carbon emissions, air travel is becoming a controversial issue as it is a significant source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

According to the Air Transport Action Group, around 2.1% of all carbon emissions come from the aviation industry. In an effort to make air travel more environmentally friendly, 2022 saw the successful test flights of an all-electric aircraft.

Named Alice after the main character in 'Alice in Wonderland,' the small electric passenger plane is powered by an electric motor, GeekWire reports. It was designed and built by a company called MagniX, which aims to electrify air travel with propulsion systems that don't burn any hydrocarbon fuel.

Alice's first test flight was brief, lasting just eight minutes and flying at 3,500 feet, but it is hoped it will pave the way for a whole new class of passenger aircraft. The current goal is to build a short-range light aircraft, but it is possible that this could eventually be scaled up as the technology continues to improve.

In addition to planes, MagniX has also successfully tested an electric helicopter in 2022, Vertical reports. Perhaps in the near future, travelers will be able to take flights without worrying too much about their contribution to climate change.

Robots with a sense of touch

This robot is sensitive enough to even "feel" the surface of objects.

Robots often come to mind as emotionless metal machines, but researchers at MIT are busy developing more "sensitive" robots.

According to MIT News, the latest robots announced in 2022 are 'soft robots' that can apply careful amounts of force, allowing them to grasp and use tools. While early robots would use tools attached to them, the latest creations could even make robots carefully hold pens and write. When robots grasp an object, they use a sensor system to get tactile feedback—which is a technical way of saying that the robot can effectively feel what it's holding to gauge how much pressure it needs to apply.

This follows another sensing robot reported earlier this year. According to The Robot Report, this is a robotic gripper designed to be more dexterous. Made from silicone and acrylic, it uses a tiny camera to detect how soft gripping materials are squeezed as it grasps an object. Remarkably, the robot is sensitive enough to even 'feel' the surface of an object, picking out tiny details like individual seeds on the surface of a strawberry.

Along with being used in robotics, innovations like this have the potential to be used in human prosthetics. NPR explains that creating prosthetic limbs with a sense of touch remains a major goal for researchers, making prosthetics more intuitive for amputees by giving them back the sense of touch.

Light from the sea

The device can take half a liter of seawater or salt water and can glow for 45 days.

It may be hard to believe that reading a few articles on the internet, we can learn that a staggering number of people in the world are living without electricity.

According to the IEA, there will be around 770 million people in the world without electricity by 2022, mostly in the southern hemisphere. One innovation that could help provide electricity to those without it now comes from Colombian company E-Dina, which has developed a lantern that can generate light using only seawater.

Called the WaterLight , this clever little device can take half a liter of seawater or salt water and can glow for 45 days. As Very Compostable explains, the energy comes from an electrochemical reaction between the salt water and a magnesium electrode inside the WaterLight, which creates an electric current. In addition to being made entirely from recycled materials, the lanterns can also provide power to charge small electronic devices. They also have an impressive lifespan of 5,600 hours, which is longer than incandescent or halogen bulbs.

For those who don't live near the ocean, Dezeen notes that in an emergency, the WaterLight can even generate energy from urine.

Sustainable plastic

Dubbed AirCarbon, it is a carbon negative material.

Single-use plastics make up a huge amount of the world's waste. Disposable items, from water bottles to wet wipes, are often discarded into the environment, and according to the European Commission, single-use plastic items account for around 70% of marine litter across Europe.

Not only is this unsustainable, it also uses up a lot of raw materials that come from the oil industry. Researchers, both industrial and academic, have been working on more environmentally friendly alternatives for some time, and a promising new plastic was announced in 2022.

Dubbed AirCarbon, it is a carbon negative material . In other words, its manufacturing process captures more carbon dioxide than it releases into the environment.

Created by Newlight Technologies, Sustainability Times explains that AirCarbon is specifically made as an alternative to traditional single-use plastics, with the aim of replacing everyday items like plastic cutlery and straws.

It's made from methane and carbon dioxide, and rather than being synthesized using the traditional chemical reaction, it's made by bacteria from the ocean. Plastics News further explains that some naturally occurring bacteria will even be able to use the plastic as food once it's discarded, making it biodegradable. Newlight is also clearly serious about its sustainable plastic, having recently made moves to start producing it on a larger scale, helping to reduce both greenhouse gases and plastic waste in the process.