While warnings pervade government and the media, doomsday scenarios of cyberterrorism that result in massive deaths or injury remain largely the stuff of Hollywood scripts or conspiracy theory. Although it is possible for electronic intrusions to damage infrastructure and threaten physical danger, taking control of those systems from the outside is extremely difficult, requires a great deal of specialized knowledge and must overcome non-computerized fail-safe measures. As a result, government and corporate security experts--while careful not to dismiss the gravity of the issue--point to this indisputable fact: It is still easier to bomb a target than to hack a computer.

The U.S. senate is considering funding for nanotechnology but free-market critics argue that the industry does not need government subsidies.

Advances in manufacturing radio frequency identification could soon make it feasible for manufacturers to insert them into their products to track and identify consumers.

Mirroring trends in the personal computing industry boom, intelligent robots that can perform tasks usually reserved for humans are starting to creep into mainstream society and could become a multibillion-dollar market in a few years.