At CES 2019, LG unveiled the world's first rollable TV, which is comprised of just two parts: a super slim OLED screen and a base with built-in soundbar. When not in use, the TV descends into the base and winds around a spool, becoming a piece of unobtrusive furniture. Sure to please both techies and those who strictly adhere to the "a place for everything, and everything in its place" mantra, LG's game-changing product will go on sale later this year. 

Renewable energy use has increased rapidly in U.K., leaving local economies previously dependent on coal-generated electricity in the lurch. But in the town of Rugeley, a shuttered coal plant is undergoing an incredible transformation into sustainably-powered housing. Engie, the former owner of the plant, wants to see its former site become "one of the most efficient, low-carbon redevelopment projects in the U.K.”

Every January, tech investors, manufacturers, enthusiasts, and journalists flock to Las Vegas to get a glimpse at what the products of the future may look like at CES. This year's crop of gadgets brought some exciting developments in artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and robotics (including one that can bake bread). But it wouldn't be CES without some truly head-scratching, and ego-deflating, entries. 

New year, new future tech to be equally wowed and disquieted by. As we leave 2018 and all of its tech-related scandals and outrages behind, it's tempting to look ahead to this year's developments with a futurist-friendly outlook. In an ideal world, tech would be used solely for good or entertaining purposes — sadly, we don't live in an ideal world. Read on to find out what future developments you should keep a discerning eye on in 2019. 

Ceramicists make it look so easy — with only gentle pushing, folding, and sculpting they can mold a mound of clay into something delicate and functional. Now, thanks to continued innovation in 3D printing, even the casual hobbyist can make their own ceramic pieces at home. Cerambot uses real clay, making it a more eco-friendly 3D printer, and can print with pinpoint accuracy. 

Ever feel guilty about ordering delivery in the rain? No longer - Postmates is introducing “Serve” in Los Angeles; a little friendly-looking robot that’s waiting to replace your delivery guy. Serve can carry up to 50 pounds, “walk” at human walking speeds, and sports a pair of cartoonish eyes cute enough to make you feel bad about having it bring you a burrito during a rainstorm. 

For years we've been hearing all about the decline of brick-and-mortar shops, but it turns out that prediction just isn't true. Shopping isn't going full-on digital, but rather embracing a blend of physical and virtual opportunities. Big name brands like Walmart, Amazon, and Alibaba are turning to solutions like augmented reality, robots, and dynamic personalized ad displays in and out of physical stores to reinvigorate retail. 

When you've achieved Taylor Swift levels of fame, stalkers are an unfortunate and inevitable reality. In order to keep the superstar safe at a recent California concert, Swift's team employed a sneaky facial recognition kiosk, disguised as videos of behind-the-scene rehearsals, to send scans back to a team in Nashville who would then compare them to a database of Swift's known pursuers. The take away? Future tech continues to be an ethical morass! 

The news about climate change may not be getting any better on the ground, but there's some hope up in the stratosphere. Scientists at Harvard will launch the first solar geoengineering experiment this spring, which will attempt to reflect some of the sun's rays back into outer space and keep our planet from reaching the dreaded 1.5-degrees celsius mark. This idea, known as stratospheric aerosol injection, mimics a natural global cooling phenomenon that can follow volcanic eruptions. 

Casper may think they have the modern sleep market cornered, but an old-school contender is about to disturb the waters. The inventor of the original waterbed has something new up his sleeve that's designed to please both die-hard fans and new converts. The new waterbed, called Afloat, promises more precise body conturing than a regular mattress, no microscopic bugs, and the ability to control the temperature of the water.

Istanbul’s newest airport, aptly called “Istanbul New Airport,” partially opened this past October and aims for complete functionality by the end of the year. It boasts historically-inspired architecture (for example the control tower is inspired by Turkey’s national flower, the Tulip), 22 LEED-certified buildings, a slew of child play areas, holistic “wellness” centers, and a size larger than Manhattan. No word on baggage claim efficacy.

Tired of putting on a shirt just to face time into a meeting? Enter Spacial, an AR company developing a holographic co-working software that uses VR technology to  essentially bring to life sci-fi hologram calls. Spacial currently focuses on creating hologram avatars, but has also piqued the interest of NASA for its 3D modeling capabilities. It might help space travel in the future, but right now Spacial helps you go to work without leaving the house.

No stranger to existential living, Rotterdam has emerged as a design hotbed for dealing with rising seas. The Dutch have famously existed as a waterlogged population for centuries. Now, the country has incorporated their new climate change-related aquatic peril into an economic and development opportunity, channeling funds into neighborhood and urban development that doubles as flood management. For the Dutch, surviving floods is a national identity—only time will tell if that eventually goes global. 

NASA's been to Mars fairly often in recent years, but they've only just scratched the surface - literally. The latest mission, called "InSight" touched down Tuesday to probe a little deeper; InSight aims to study Mars' interior through the course of its two-year mission all while remaining stationary on it's Elysium Planitia landing spot, the "biggest parking lot on Mars." Armed with an array of geophysical instruments, our interplanetary Swiss army knife will drill into the planet to collect seismic, temperature, and reflexive data in preparation for NASA's future man-helmed missions to Mars. 

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has a message for Silicon Valley and people who want to get there: stop working yourself to death. What Ohanian calls "hustle porn" is a pervasive idea that to succeed in tech a person needs to give up everything that isn't work related— including families, hobbies, and regular eating and exercise schedules— and embrace suffering as evidence of hard work. This ethos is harder on women to adhere to, and overall it's terrible for anyone's health. 

NASA's new tool for looking at our planet is seriously sophisticated. Called the Scientific Visualization Studio, the program referenced nearly a terabyte of data gathered from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Model to create an animation that produced petabytes (one million gigabytes) of output. The overall goal of this super-powered computational tool is to "promote a greater understanding of Earth and space science research," according to NASA.

In 2029, artificial intelligence will pass a Turing test and match human intelligence. By 2045, humans and AI will merge in an event called the Singularity. At least, that's what Ray Kurzweil, Google's director of engineering, says. But don't be so quick to write him off—since the 1990's, 147 of his predictions have come true, which is equivalent to an 86% accuracy rate.

Imagine being an 18 year old with a smartphone, a lot of free time after school and on weekends, and an almost $600 stipend from the federal government. About 10,000 French teenagers found themselves in just such a situation when the French government's Culture Pass app went live in September. Designed like a "Tinder for the arts", users can swipe left or right on cultural activities happening in their immediate surroundings, which the government hopes will result in more fluid and accepting definition of culture for the French. The Culture Pass project will cost France's government approximately $490 million a year and is heavily subsidized by contributions from Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

First it was predictive crime artificial intelligence. Now, police are taking to the sky, at least in Dubai. A California-based hover vehicle company called Hoversurf has gifted the Middle Eastern city's police force one unit for the time being, but if the officers prove capable of flying it more could be on the way. 

This past decade has seen some major political and culture shifts in attitude towards marijuana—with nine states approving its recreational use and another 21 states approving medicinal use, the U.S. is slowly coming around to this hotly contested plant's powers of persuasion. Another major shift in opinion happened last week, when the FDA approved the first cannabis-based drug for prescription across all 50 states. This drug specifically targets and reduces episodes of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a form of epilepsy, and Dravet syndrome, a brain dysfunction, by 25%. 

Moon Ribas is a dancer and choreographer with an unusual source of inspiration: earthquakes. Implants embedded in her feet are linked to online seismographs, which send vibrations through her body any time they detect seismic activity. Ribas then transforms those vibrations into dance moves. 

For now, space artist Ron Miller is bound by gravity and expense to remain on planet Earth, but that doesn't mean he can't bring the heavens a little closer to home. Using a photo of the moon rising over Death Valley as reference, Miller inserted the other eight planets into the picture and the results are jaw dropping. "We would all feel a lot more humble with Jupiter's presence constantly looking over us," Miller explained to the Daily Mail.

Tomorrow's french fries may be just as fattening and delicious as they are today, but their packaging may feel very different. A trio of Italian designers devised a form of packaging, called Peel Saver, made from recycled potato skins. Aimed at reducing waste from food truck and other cheap eats places, Peel Saver is cheap to produce and fully biodegradable. 

Scientists at Northwestern University and San Diego State University may have unraveled the mysteries of the Black Widow's super-strong web. MRI and NMR imaging revealed the molecular structure of the glands that make the spider's silk, which could be extrapolated to synthetically reproduce this stronger-than-steel material at scale. Everything from bridges to bulletproof vests could one day be impervious thanks to one of the world's deadliest spiders.

Bjarke Ingels Group and Italian lighting brand Artemide have teamed up to produce a lamp that can provide indoor plants with the kind of light they need to survive. The Gople lamps use Artemide's patented RWB lighting system to diffuse red, blue, or white light to encourage the plants to photosynthesize or bloom. The lamps come in a white crystal, transparent silver, and transparent bronze finish.

Chinese scientists announced plans to launch a "second moon" into the night sky over the city of Chengdu in 2020, resulting in a worldwide eyebrow raising. The artificial moon would reflect sunlight back to Earth through reflective coating, and could be eight times brighter than the OG moon. If successful, the team says three more moons could rise by 2022. 

Researchers at Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have developed a new renewable energy solution in the form of solar paint. The paint can produce electricity through solar energy or by absorbing moisture out of the air, making it ideal for humid and arid climates. The researchers estimate that when the paint becomes commercially available it will be relatively cheap to produce. 

To say that open offices may not have been the productivity godsend they were touted to be is a bit of an understatement. It seems everyone—from the common office worker to journalists to big-name designers—has conceded that these workplaces cater more to distraction than to productivity. Luckily, those challenges may soon be erased by Panasonic's WearSpace, a futuristic headgear that resembles horse blinders and promises a 60% reduction in the wearer's peripheral vision.