Product designers, ad agencies, and marketing executives are aggressively turning to anthropology, a previously untapped field of science, for insights into reaching and satisfying customers. What are the implications and opportunities? We’ll show you.

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In spite of the anxiety that followed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the recession of that same year, skyscraper building is back with a vengeance. From Dubai to Chicago to Shanghai, relatively low interest rates and booming economies are motivating investors to put up tens of billions of dollars to construct ever-taller buildings. What’s up? We’ll give you a bird’s-eye view.

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It’s been more than 30 years since man discovered how to cut and splice genes. However, it’s remained a tedious manual job in the research lab, rather than becoming an automated industrial process. Now that’s about to change, and the implications are enormous. Just as making circuits changed from soldering components together in the 1940s to designing libraries of silicon logic for machines to synthesize in the 1980s, bioengineering is being transformed. We’ll examine the opportunities and threats you need to understand.

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There is a struggle going on today that makes the War on Terror pale by comparison. It’s a steadily escalating war between rapidly mutating super-bugs and the super-drugs we use to fight them. Just how big is this threat, and how big are the opportunities? We’ll explain.

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The tort reform movement that the Trends editors have been following for more than 20 years has reached a major inflection point, with new legislation at both the state and federal level. Reformers have been energized further by the recent felony indictments of senior partners in some of America’s most corrupt law firms. Simultaneously, the credibility of physician testimony manufactured by other firms as part of a long-running asbestos litigation has come under fire. Together, this and other less-publicized news indicates a dramatic reversal of fortune for the once high-flying plaintiff’s bar. Why is this happening now? Where is it headed? What are the implications for the economy and society? We’ll provide full disclosure.

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As far back as the 1970s, futurist Alvin Toffler predicted the rise of “prosumers” — that is, consumers who participate in the production of products and services. It’s been a long time coming, but the age of the prosumer is finally here and its leading manifestation is called “crowdsourcing.” We’ll tell you why this is crucially important and help you determine what role it might have in your business model.

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In recent years, scientists drilling deep into the ocean floor have discovered a mysterious substance that looks and feels like ice, but burns when you put a match to it. And, they’re finding it nearly everywhere they drill. This substance is methane hydrate, a crystalline lattice of water molecules with methane trapped inside. Methane, of course, is natural gas, and it’s an even better fuel than oil since it burns cleaner. How will this trend play itself out? We’ll explain.

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