Digital twins are enabling scientific innovation

It is only recently, though, that such models have become sophisticated enough to be dubbed digital twins—in-silico replicas, in other words, of their real-world counterparts, capable of modelling their behaviour in real time. Key to this transformation has been the improvement of sensor and imaging technologies, along with ways to collect, transfer and analyse vast quantities of data. Digital twins are now yielding new insights into the human body and the planet, as well as shaping the design of cutting-edge experiments.