What we’re most grateful for in tech, science, small business, and innovation

This was a week when quite a few of us in the U.S. paused to mirror and give thanks. We’re retaining the custom alive on the GeekWire Podcast. On this specific holiday episode, we give our gratitude for some of the systems, trends and hopeful developments of the earlier yr, as mirrored in news coverage on GeekWire.

Listen under, and subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you pay attention. Continue on looking through for a rundown of our picks.

mRNA vaccines: Listed here we have science, technology, innovation and a spirit of cooperation helping to deal with a person of the most tough conditions on the earth. COVID-19 vaccines are a no-brainer to top this list.

Environmental awakening: 2021 has been a watershed second for investors, startups, and the standard business population waking up to climate modify in a a great deal greater way. Some of the illustrations we explore:

Electrical automobiles and high-velocity rail: The proliferation of electrical autos on the street, and lengthy-phrase scheduling for substantial-pace rail in the Cascadia Corridor has us hopeful about the long term of alternate varieties of transportation.

Cloud storage: It is not a new improvement, of program, but the relieve of storing, syncing and backing up knowledge in the cloud is one particular of these innovations that develop into an integral element of lifestyle practically without the need of us noticing. A little something as seemingly mundane as Microsoft OneDrive has manufactured switching amid PCs seamless, for case in point.

Day to day AR: In much the exact same way, the very little touches of augmented actuality in the entire world all-around us have manufactured lifestyle less complicated. An example: the tips in the backup camera on automobiles that make reversing into a house that significantly easier.

The following generation of innovators: Examples abound, as evidenced by our Junior Geek of the Month sequence. On the other hand, the instance that stands out from the past calendar year is Seattle teenager entrepreneurs Sage Khanuja and Nikolas Ioannou developing and selling their telemedicine startup in a thriving exit earlier this yr.

Business room tourism: Sure, there are a good deal of factors to be skeptical about billionaires blasting them selves and a preferred number of into lower-Earth orbit. But if this is a vital move towards a multi-planetary species, there is also cause to be optimistic. At least, that’s 1 way of searching at it. We ended up divided on this one particular.

MacKenzie and Melinda: We’re hopeful about the impression that MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates will have as philanthropists in their individual correct. For uses of appealing information protection, we hope the previous spouses of Jeff Bezos and Invoice Gates crew up even additional than they previously have, even though it might be improved for the planet for them to operate independently.

Pay attention to the whole episode above, and subscribe to the GeekWire Podcast for earlier episodes. Hosted by GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook dinner. Developed and edited by Curt Milton. Theme audio by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.