Immune Engineering
Genetically engineered immune cells are saving the lives of cancer patients. That may be just the start. Breakthrough Killer T cells programmed to wipe out cancer. Why It Matters Cancer, multiple sclerosis, and HIV could all be treated by engineering the immune system.
Key Players in Immune Therapies

Precise Gene Editing in Plants
CRISPR offers an easy, exact way to alter genes to create traits such as disease resistance and drought tolerance. Breakthrough The ability to cheaply and precisely edit plant genomes without leaving foreign DNA behind. Why It Matters We need to increase agricultural productivity to feed the world’s growing population, which is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050.
Key Players in Engineering Crops

Conversational Interfaces
Powerful speech technology from China’s leading Internet company makes it much easier to use a smartphone. Breakthrough Combining voice recognition and natural language understanding to create effective speech interfaces for the world’s largest Internet market.Why It Matters It can be time-consuming and frustrating to interact with computers by typing.
Key Players in Voice Recognition and Language Processing 

Reusable Rockets
Rockets typically are destroyed on their maiden voyage. But now they can make an upright landing and be refueled for another trip, setting the stage for a new era in spaceflight.
Breakthrough Rockets that can launch payloads into orbit and then land safely.
Why It Matters Lowering the cost of flight would open the door to many new endeavors in space.
Key Players in the New Space Industry

Robots That Teach Each Other
What if robots could figure out more things on their own and share that knowledge among themselves?
Breakthrough Robots that learn tasks and send that knowledge to the cloud for other robots to pick up later.Why It Matters Progress in robotics could accelerate dramatically if each type of machine didn’t have to be programmed separately.
Key Players in Advanced Robotics

DNA App Store

An online store for information about your genes will make it cheap and easy to learn more about your health risks and predispositions.
Breakthrough A new business model for DNA sequencing that will make genetic information widely accessible online. Why It Matters Your genome determines a great deal about you, including your likelihood of getting certain diseases.
Key Players in Consumer Genomics 

Solar City’s Giga-factory
A $750 million solar facility in Buffalo will produce a gigawatt of high-efficiency solar panels per year and make the technology far more attractive to homeowners.
Breakthrough Highly efficient solar panels made using a simplified, low-cost manufacturing process.
Why It Matters The solar industry needs cheaper and more efficient technology to be more competitive with fossil fuels.
Key Players in Photostatic

Slack
A service built for the era of mobile phones and short text messages is changing the workplace. Breakthrough Easy-to-use communication software that is supplanting e-mail as a method of getting work done. Why It Matters In many kinds of workplaces, the “water cooler” effect that lets people overhear their colleagues’ conversations can enhance productivity.
Key Players in Communication Software

Tesla Autopilot
The electric-vehicle maker sent its cars a software update that suddenly made autonomous driving a reality. Breakthrough A car that drives itself safely in a variety of conditions.
Why It Matters Car crashes caused by human error kill thousands of people a day worldwide.
Key Players in Autonomous Driving

Power from the Air
Internet devices powered by Wi-Fi and other telecommunications signals will make small computers and sensors more pervasive.v Breakthrough Wireless gadgets that re-purpose nearby radio signals, such as Wi-Fi, to power themselves and communicate.
Why It Matters Freeing Internet-­connected devices from the constraints of batteries and power cords will open up many new uses.
Key Players in Harvesting Radio Waves

In mid-January, Skype announced that an integration for Slack was already available, which allows a team that uses slack to make a Skype call from a computer.

"At Skype, we are committed to breaking down communication barriers and getting the world talking," the Skype team said. "This is why we make Skype available on multiple platforms and continue to explore more ways to help you stay connected. Today we're releasing a preview version of Skype integration for Slack that lets teams on Slack easily make a Skype voice or video call and reach conclusions faster."

The Multi-Billion-Dollar Bid

But a report details a rumor that could have potentially taken the relation between the two tech companies a step further from a mere integration on their respective communication platforms to an actual acquisition.

As described in the report, Microsoft, which owns Skype via a 2011 acquisition amounting to a whopping $8.5 billion, had set its sights on rival Slack and was willing to shell out almost the same sum of money at $8 billion just to acquire the company. But, before the bidding talks could gain more ground, the proposition was nipped in the bud by no less than two of the tech giant's top brass, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella.

Bill Gates Disapproves

If the chairman and CEO emeritus of the Redmond-based tech company had his way, he would rather have the company invest more with Skype and improve its features and services, as opposed to acquiring yet another business-software company.

It was actually Microsoft's EVP of applications and services, Qi Lu, who spearheaded the rumored acquisition bid of Slack. He was the one in-charge of all productivity, communications, education, search and other information services at Microsoft, Tech Crunch noted.

The Slack Appeal
Slack, which is regarded as one of the fastest-rising apps today, has gotten the attention of not just the tech giant, but a number of other companies. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said that the company has looked past about eight to 10 acquisition offers in the past, according to a Yahoo Finance report.

And who wouldn't want to have Slack on board with its 2.3 million monthly active users and a potential revenue of $64 million per year? The last valuation of the tech company pegged its value at $2.8 billion, thanks to a $160 million round of funding in April of 2015. And, with a new round of funding set to come in, the value could raise somewhere from $4 billion to $5 billion.

The messaging app Slack recently launched a new voice calling feature that started releasing its beta version on March 2. The beta testing will begin in Slack’s desktop app and in Chrome

The New Voice Calling Feature
According to The Verge, Slack is letting its users experience one-to-one voice chats for free. The new feature was placed in development after Slack acquired Screenhero, a screen-sharing app. In 2015, Slack also aimed to add voice calls, screen sharing and video calls into its messaging app, making it more flexible.

Users who pay for the app can begin voice chats with up to 15 individuals. At present, Slack will observe and maintain its beta version to determine its users' response. A limited rollout seems to be ideal, compared to an official big launch, provided how Slack has grown in popularity within a short period of time.

Slack is also asking beta users to provide feedback and suggest the features and functions they wish from the calling feature

How to Start
Those who have administrative privileges need to enable voice calling. As soon as these are enabled, there should be a phone icon that appears throughout the app, allowing users to initiate a call with an individual or group. As soon as the call is made, icons of people included in the call will be shown and the active individuals will be highlighted.

Also included in Slack's voice calling is the Reactions feature, which lets users respond immediately to the person they are talking to via an emoji.

Tech Crunch wrote that users only need the latest Slack app, which was released late in February 2016, or the web interface. Calls generally use WebRTC, so no additional plugin is required. As soon as players are on the beta, there will be a phone button that appears in every channel and on individual direct messages. Hitting the button will post an instant conference call within your channel for anyone to join via a single click.

Slack mentioned that adding voice chat will not limit its support for third-party integrations. This means that users can still start Skype calls and Hangouts via Slack if they wish.

More updates and details on Slack’s new feature and the official version are expected soon.