Individually small, collectively revolutionary. Micro-swarms are silently building the intelligent and automated world of tomorrow.
— Jim Carroll
The opportunity
Engineer microorganisms or biological systems to detect, degrade, or remove pollutants from soil, water, and air, offering novel solutions for environmental cleanup.
From “Decoding Tomorrow: 30 Megatrends - #17 Micro-Autonomous Systems: “Individually small, collectively revolutionary. Micro-swarms are silently building the intelligent and automated world of tomorrow.”” (July 2025)
The researchers developing these systems are focused on the idea of ‘biomimicry,’ so that they can learn from nature. Swarm designs are inspired by insects and other small creatures, leading to more agile and efficient solutions. After all, nature is good at swarm thinking - so why not do what it does! These nature-inspired designs enable micro-robots to navigate complex terrains, fly with remarkable efficiency, and perform tasks with precision that would be impossible with conventional engineering approaches.
Air Quality. Real-time tracking of pollution levels and particulate matter across urban environments.
Scientists are exploring integrating living muscle tissue with synthetic components to create highly efficient and agile micro-robots - part living, part tech. These bio-hybrid systems leverage the natural efficiency of biological systems while maintaining the programmability of robotics, potentially revolutionizing applications requiring delicate manipulation or sustained movement. Imaginary ideas could become real!
From “The BIG Future: New Materials Science” (February 2023)
We’ll start here. My dad was a chemical engineer. He worked hard working with science - first, at a basic chemicals company; then, managing process and engineering at a liquor manufacturing company, and finally being in charge of a major company that manufactured specialty chemicals. Finally, he worked for the environmental management group of a provincial government in Canada.
How might this work? Imagine a solar cell on a piece of farmland - the top part is generating energy, and yet the sun goes straight through the cell to provide needed sunshine for the growth of crops. That’s a revolutionary idea and yet, might not be all that far away. The folks involved in this aspect of materials science speak of achieving maximum ’ energy conversion efficiency’ - that’s the ability of the solar cell to generate energy. With this new aspect of science, the highest values achieved so far have been 9.0% for the front side and 7.1% for the rear side, but they want to achieve a goal of 33%. They are already moving towards that! The cell yielded values of 19.8% for front illumination and 10.9% for rear illumination that had been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg/Germany - in the very same cell on a glass substrate. What’s more, the team also succeeded in fabricating, for the very first time, a bifacial CIGS solar cell on a flexible polymer substrate, which - due to their light weight and flexibility - widens the spectrum of potential applications. And finally, the researchers combined two photovoltaic technologies - CIGS and perovskite solar cells - to produce a bifacial “tandem” cell. According to Tiwari, bifacial CIGS technology has the potential to yield energy conversion efficiencies beyond 33%, thus opening up further opportunities for thin film solar cells in the future.
The long-term objective of the ELM program is to develop an ability to engineer structural properties directly into the genomes of biological systems so that neither scaffolds nor external development cues are needed for an organism to realize the desired shape and properties. Achieving this goal will require significant breakthroughs in scientists’ understanding of developmental pathways and how those pathways direct the three-dimensional development of multicellular systems.
From “Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #2 Agriculture- The farmer of the future is part biologist, part data scientist, and part roboticist—but is still 100% an optimist who plants a seed and believes in tomorrow.”” (September 2025)
Sustainability & Food Security. A core challenge is that global food production must double in the next 30 years with little new arable land available. This positions innovative and efficient growers for immense success. Furthermore, sustainability is becoming a key market differentiator, allowing producers to market products like” environmental beef ” based on independently audited environmental management systems.
Advancements in genomics are giving farmers an unprecedented ability to enhance the biological potential of their crops and livestock.
The future of farming is not a singular choice between technology, biology, or business strategy; success lies in their masterful integration. The modern farmer must be conversant in the language of data analytics, fluent in the principles of genetic potential, and skilled in the art of strategic enterprise. While the tools of the farmer are undergoing a radical evolution, the fundamental spirit of the profession remains constant. It is a spirit rooted in a profound optimism—the unwavering belief that investing labor, capital, and intellect into the soil today will yield a harvest tomorrow.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Decoding Tomorrow: 30 Megatrends - #17 Micro-Autonomous Systems: “Individually small, collectively revolutionary. Micro-swarms are silently building the intelligent and automated world of tomorrow.”
The BIG Future: New Materials Science
Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #2 Agriculture- The farmer of the future is part biologist, part data scientist, and part roboticist—but is still 100% an optimist who plants a seed and believes in tomorrow.”