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20 November 2006

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Brilliant
Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years

50
Years of New Scientist - the Best Articles

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Disaster

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Katrina: the Aftermath

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TOP
STORY

Alexander
Vilenkin forecasts the future

Cosmic strings, relics of the hot, high-energy
early universe, might well be discovered, allowing us to directly
test superstring theory

18 November
2006

EXPERT GUIDE

Instant
Expert: Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years

What will be the biggest
breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of our 50th
anniversary celebrations we asked over 70 of the world's most
brilliant scientists for their ideas.

In coming decades will we: discover that we are
not
alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness?
Routinely have false
memories implanted in our minds? Begin to evolve
in new directions? And will physicists finally hit upon a
universal theory
of everything? In fact, if the revelations of the last 50 years
are anything to go on - the internet and the human genome for
example - we probably have
not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead of
us.

Delve into those visions of the future by
author in the story list of this special
report, or navigate forecasts by topic here:

Life: Ageing,
alien
life, consciousness,
ecology,
embryology,
environment,
evolution,
genetics,
health,
humans,
language,
neuroscience,
oceans,
psychology,
sex and
social
science.

Space and technology: Artificial
intelligence, communications,
computing,
cosmology,
space
and technology.

Physical sciences: Chemistry,
energy,
materials,
maths
and physics.
more...

What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years?

Have
your say here

ARTICLES

Steven
Weinberg forecasts the future

The Nobel prize-winning physicist predicts the
discovery of a final theory that dictates all properties of particles and
fields

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Paul
Davies forecasts the future

The director of a new cosmic think tank is passionate
about alien life, and suspects we may well find it soon

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Sydney
Brenner forecasts the future

He won the Nobel prize for medicine. Now he predicts
major advances in our understanding of the biology of the most interesting
species - us

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Lewis
Wolpert forecasts the future

As systems biology and computer models progress, the
development of embryos will eventually become fully "computable"

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

John
D. Barrow forecasts the future

Cosmologists have much to look forward to: the direct
detection of dark matter and gravitational waves, to name but two

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Francis
Collins forecasts the future

If the genetic advances that Collins foresees come to
pass, entire generations of us will be living happily into our
hundreds

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Gerard
't Hooft forecasts the future

The Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist looks
forward to the uniting of quantum mechanics, gravity, and the evolution of
the universe

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Max
Tegmark forecasts the future

In 50 years, you may be able to buy T-shirts on which
are printed equations describing the unified laws of our universes

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Frans
de Waal forecasts the future

Disentangling the feedback loop between brain
development and the ancient primate tendencies that shape our societies
will be a huge advance

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Edward
O. Wilson forecasts the future

The biggest leap in biogeography and conservation
biology will be the near-complete mapping of global biodiversity at the
species level

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Marcus
du Sautoy forecasts the future

The next 50 years hold the real prospect that we
might finally reveal the secrets behind prime numbers

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Steven
Pinker forecasts the future

"I absolutely refuse even to pretend to guess how I
might speculate about what, hypothetically, could be the biggest
breakthrough of the next 50 years"

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Rocky
Kolb forecasts the future

The most significant breakthrough in cosmology will
be the discovery of background gravitational waves produced in the very
early universe

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Richard
Miller forecasts the future

In ageing research, the key breakthrough will be the
elucidation of the molecular pathways that render cells from long-lived
animals so resistant to injury

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

J.
Richard Gott forecasts the future

Establishing a self-supporting colony on Mars would
change world history - it wouldn't even be "world" history any more

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Michael
Gazzaniga forecasts the future

The next 50 years will focus on the social mind, the
fact that humans are social animals and that most of the time we think
about relationships

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Robert
May forecasts the future

The significant breakthough we really need is better
understanding of human institutions, particularly of the impediments to
useful cooperation

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Lisa
Randall forecasts the future

The Large Hadron Collider should tell us more about
the underlying nature of matter and how elementary particles acquire
mass

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Ellen
Heber-Katz forecasts the future

The day is not far off when we will be able to
prescribe drugs that cause severed spinal cords to heal, and hearts to
regenerate

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Niles
Eldredge forecasts the future

The most significant breakthroughs will come in the
form of retro-fitting existing advances in molecular and biology to a more
integrated synthesis of evolutionary theory

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Daniel
Pauly forecasts the future

A device to detect, amplify and transmit to us the
emotions and fleeting "thoughts" of animals would be useful, with a view
to building our empathy

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Peter
Norvig forecasts the future

Google's director of research predicts a growing
transformation in the global access to information. Forget search engines
as you know them

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Stephen
Wolfram forecasts the future

A central theme of the next 50 years will be a
systematic exploration of the "computation universe" of all possible
programs

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Timothy
Gowers forecasts the future

There are about half a dozen problems that almost all
mathematicians agree are supremely important

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Martin
Rees forecasts the future

The Astronomer Royal hopes that by 2056 we'll know if
the laws of physics we know are the only ones there are and if our big
bang was unique

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Igor
Aleksander forecasts the future

A scientific understanding of consciousness will come
from a recognition of the brain as an informational machine

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Bernard
Wood forecasts the future

We will know exactly how we evolved to be us and not
chimps

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Michael
Benton forecasts the future

A near-complete picture of the "tree of life" will
reveal rates of evolution and patterns of mass extinctions and of
diversification

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Andrew
Knoll forecasts the future

Most fossils will have been found, but new
technologies and a greater focus on physiology will compensate

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Frank
Wilczek forecasts the future

The Nobel prize-winner expects a golden age for
physics, computers with superhuman intelligence and solar power providing
much of our energy

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Geoffrey
Miller forecasts the future

Evolutionary psychology will undermine consumer
capitalism, foster stronger communities and replace religion with a
naturalistic moral philosophy

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Chris
McKay forecasts the future

A "second genesis" of life! We may find evidence of
alien life frozen in Martian permafrost or on other worlds, perhaps dead
but preserved

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Rodney
Brooks forecasts the future

How to make artificial intelligences that can
recognise and classify objects is something we have struggled with for 40
years - we will crack it

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Lawrence
Krauss forecasts the future

Will we discover the mystery behind dark matter by
2056? Possibly, but we will need a brilliant new theoretical idea

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Elizabeth
Loftus forecasts the future

Imagine a world where anyone with the correct
technique and the right pharmaceuticals can implant false memories into
anyone they choose

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Peter
Atkins forecasts the future

Computers will continue to illuminate chemistry and
the reactions of natural life - eventually we may be able to build
synthetic life from scratch

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Sean
Carroll forecasts the future

The seconds following the big bang have been
described in elaborate detail, but we will hopefully nail down exactly
what happened at the awesome moment itself

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Arthur
McDonald forecasts the future

The elucidation of dark matter should be the biggest
breakthrough of the next half-century, and many tools are already in place
to detect it

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Bruce
Lahn forecasts the future

Biomedicine will be transformed when we discover the
ability to to produce unlimited supplies of transplantable human organs

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Terry
Sejnowski forecasts the future

Fifty years is about the time it takes for
breakthroughs to occur that you cannot anticipate, nevertheless…

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

David
Deutsch forecasts the future

On the experimental side, the construction of a
working, general-purpose quantum computer is what this emminent physicist
hopes for

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Nathan
Myhrvold forecasts the future

Applied physics will be revolutionised by advances in
metamaterials and intricate synthetic structures, trancending natural
materials

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Benoit
Mandelbrot forecasts the future

The creator of the famous Madlebrot Set believes the
fractal geometry of roughness is set to expand rapidly, carving itself an
important role in science

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Eric
Horvitz forecasts the future

By 2056 the computational revolution will be
recognised as a transformation as significant as the industrial
revolution

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Paul
Nurse forecasts the future

Within 50 years it should be possible to provide
mechanistic explanations of the intricate self-regulating nature of the
cell, the basic unit of life

50th Anniversary Forecasts - 18 November
2006

Anthony
Atala forecasts the future

How about injecting universal donor cells that
naturally migrate to an injury site, where tissue repair and regeneration
can occur, all without rejection?

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Simon
Baron-Cohen forecasts the future

To speculate on the next 50 years in cognitive
neuroscience, look at what has emerged over the last five years and
multiply by 10

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Gregory
Chaitin forecasts the future

By 2056, weird astronomical observations may have led
to radical new fundamental physics, and people will be tampering with the
human genome, which should be fun

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Simon
Conway Morris forecasts the future

The depths of reality are only now being uncovered,
but by 2056 the springs of imagination, intuition, abstraction and even
pre-cognition are revealed

Breaking News - 15 November
2006

Antonio
Damasio forecasts the future

The future will no doubt promote advances molecular
neurobiology and an understanding of the systems related to cognition and
behavior

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Dan
Dennett forecasts the future

Cognitive neuroscience will figure out how neural
nets in the brain are stitched together to produce the mental activities
familiar in cognitive psychology

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Carl
Djerassi forecasts the future

A big breakthrough will be the development of an
efficient and convenient means of storing a young woman's ovarian tissue
or eggs to be used years later

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Freeman
Dyson forecasts the future

We have been searching alien life for 50 years and
found nothing, but in the next half century we shall discover it

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Jane
Goodall forecasts the future

It is now possible to go online and see the world's
lush forests and the effects of deforestation - the breakthrough will come
in how we act on this information

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Monica
Grady forecasts the future

Many theories predict that at least Mars and Europa
are suitable hosts for life within our solar system - it will be
disappointing if our increasingly sophisticated tools fail to find
some

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Susan
Greenfield forecasts the future

Brain imaging has revolutionised cognitive
neuroscience and diagnostics - in the future we will be able to see
changes at the synaptic level that underpin learning

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

John
Halpern forecasts the future

Increasing use of "psychedelic" drugs may lead to a
new field of medicine in which spirituality is kindled to help us accept
our mortality without fear

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Piet
Hut forecasts the future

The discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would
be the most significant breakthrough, not only for astrophysics, but also
for biology, philosophy and culture

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Bill
Joy forecasts the future

The most significant breakthrough would be to have an
inexhaustible source of safe, green energy that is substantially cheaper
than any existing energy source

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Jaron
Lanier forecasts the future

In the next 50 years, computer science needs to
achieve a new unification between the inside of the computer and the
outside

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Charles
Nemeroff forecasts the future

Identifying gene variants that confer vulnerability
to major psychiatric disorders will result in the emergence of a new
field, preventative psychiatry

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Colin
Pillinger forecasts the future

We have been promised humans on Mars for so long now
that I almost despair that this will be achieved by 2056, but we should at
least have brought back Martian samples

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Carolyn
Porco forecasts the future

The most significant development in planetary
exploration in the next 50 years will be the discovery of either extant or
fossilised extraterrestrial life forms on another solar system body

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Carlo
Rovelli forecasts the future

Between now and 2056 a coherent way of thinking about
the world will emerge, compatible with new discoveries such as quantum
theory and relativity

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Steve
Squyres forecasts the future

There could be no more significant advance than
learning whether there is life elsewhere in the universe - either way, a
definitive answer would be profound

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Kip
Thorne forecasts the future

Over the next 50 years, gravitational waves from the
big bang will be detected, first indirectly by the imprint they leave on
the cosmic microwave radiation and then directly

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Alan
Walker forecasts the future

In a perfect world, in 50 years we will have found
hundreds of beautiful skeletons of those bipedal apes that were the
ancestors of modern humans

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Beverly
Whipple forecasts the future

In addition to a better understanding of brain
activity during sexual response and orgasm, we will hopefully come to the
universal acceptance that sexual health is a fundamental human right

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Tim
White forecasts the future

The most significant breakthrough in hominid
palaeobiology will be the recognition that fossil vertebrates are a
limited and non-renewable resource

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Edward
Witten forecasts the future

Even if the present cosmological picture remains
unchallenged, there will be numerous discoveries involving, for example,
extra-solar planets

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

Anton
Zeilinger forecasts the future

The major breakthrough in quantum mechanics will be
to finally understand why nature is such that we have a description that
is so enormously successful, yet so counterintuitive

Breaking News - 16 November
2006

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