What are some hot and new fields of research?

[Frion]

This can be in any sort of science although research in mathematics and physics would interest me most as it would be consistent with my current majors.

If you're wondering why I'm asking, it's because I want to maximize my chances. The more research has been done in a field, the harder it is to make advances. The way I see it when it comes to established fields is that there have been decades of extremely smart (and probably better-funded) people working out all the problems and they've picked off all the low-hanging fruit.

I'm open to anything anyone thinks is a promising new field in any natural or social science. I'm not demanding or expecting expertise, here. Obviously, if I choose to follow any suggestion in this thread I will take my time to learn more about it until I am satisfied that it matches my criteria. What I am lacking is an actual source of suggestions about which fields of research are new and promising.

 

[micromass]

The current hot fields in mathematics are algebraic geometry and differential equations. Any mathematician working in that field will find a spot very easily and it will be easier to get published.

 

[Caramon]

The current hot fields in mathematics are algebraic geometry and differential equations. Any mathematician working in that field will find a spot very easily and it will be easier to get published.

Any idea what the prospects are like for Topology?

 

[micromass]

Any idea what the prospects are like for Topology?

Unfortunately, very bad. Topology was very hot in the past with the Bourbaki group and stuff. But right now, it's importance in research has diminished somewhat. I've heard of several topology researchers that they find it very difficult to even get their papers published.

I find this very sad, because I originally wanted to do research in topology. But it's become very hard to do so...

 

[f95toli]

There "hottest" topics at the moment are the ones you (most likely) haven't heard about. Science tends to operate in cycles (largely determined by how science funding works) if around 5 years or so; so trying to predict what will be "hot" by the time your will be looking for a position somewhere is impossible.
Graphene is a good example: it is currently by far the hottest topic in solid state physics and a lot of of people are currently doing their PhDs and post-docs working on this material and related properties; but up until 3 years ago or so this was a small fringe field (and graphene was only discovered a few years ago).