|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| Space:
The Final Frontier |
 |
Listen
here |
We belong to a species of explorers. Humans have
spread over the surface of our planet. The greatest
frontier left to explore is above our heads: space.
In the last 40 years, people and satellites have
made the first tentative trips into space, but the
best is yet to come. Sooner or later someone will
invent a cheap reusable space vehicle. The change
may not come from the billion dollar budgets of
government space programmes either. A dozen or more
privately funded teams are already competing for
something called the X Prize. To win that they must
launch three people into space twice in the same
vehicle within two weeks. The first team to do that
will win $10 million. But they could win far more.
They could be the first to offer tourists fare-paying
flights into space. First, they will be like the
early aviators a century before; in the pilot's
seat. But eventually, the space equivalent of jumbo
jets will take passengers a hundred at a time into
space, perhaps to stay in orbiting hotels or even
to take adventure holidays on the Moon.
Meanwhile the explorers will venture even further,
and sooner or later, people will walk on Mars. But
before all that, unmanned uses of space will continue
to grow. Developing nations will leapfrog ahead
of those using ground-based systems, using space
for communications, weather forecasting, prospecting
and crop monitoring. But the greatest uses of space
may turn out to be things we cannot even imagine
at present. As the writer and visionary Arthur C
Clarke puts it, if there were intelligent fish proposing
to move into the dangerous world of dry land, they
might suggest many reasons not to go. But they would
never think of fire. May be we will find something
as important as fire in space. |
| Listen
to Dr Wendell
Mendell, a NASA Planetary scientist talking about
changes in our understanding of space in the 21st
Century |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Life
Secrets |
|
Listen
here |
One of the crowning achievements of 20th century science
was the discovery of the genetic code and the way in which
it lays down all the protein building blocks of our bodies.
But the effects of the genetic revolution are only just
beginning to be felt.
In the next couple of years scientists will have the complete
map of the human genome. But there will still be a century
of work in discovering how each gene functions. With that
will come a medical revolution, but it will also change
the way we understand life. In particular, we may learn
the answer to the greatest question of all: how did life
begin? Is life just a random accident that can happen
easily and therefore may have happened many times in our
vast galaxy, or is it something special and rare?
The quest for the origin of life ties in with the question:
"Are we alone?" We are beginning to discover life on earth
in the most amazing circumstances: in scalding hot underwater
volcanic vents, buried within rocks a kilometre or more
beneath the ocean floor, or inside stones in the freezing
Antarctic deserts. If life can survive here, maybe we
will also find it on Mars or on some of the moons of more
distant planets. Maybe life was seeded to Earth inside
meteorites, in which case we might all be Martians! And
maybe in the 21st century we will get the ultimate confirmation
of life elsewhere: a radio message from intelligent aliens.
|
| Listen
to Profesor Paul
Davies, Physicist, talking about the likely future research
into the origins of life |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Micro
Machines |
|
Listen
here |
Computers are entering our lives more and more, sometimes
without us knowing it. Only a few decades ago a computer
was a highly specialised machine, so vast that it filled
a special air-conditioned room. Today, many of us have
them on our desks and in our homes and we find them in
everything from cars to washing machines.
At their heart lies a processor chip only a few centimetres
across.With every year, processors become smaller and
more powerful. In the new century the technology will
reach the limits of what is physically possible, the scale
of atoms and molecules. But by then, a whole new area
of physics will have come into play: quantum mechanics.
By using the strange properties of atoms, it may be possible
to communicate securely using un-crackable quantum codes
and to convey information without any physical connection,
so called quantum teleportation. Some suggest that quantum
computers will be able to tap the power of parallel universes
to compute the un-computable.
As the power of the microprocessor grows, so more machines
will be given the intelligence they need to carry out
their functions without human interference. The applications
could range from a car that drives itself and a fridge
which orders food when stocks run low, to microscopic
robots that can repair your body from the inside. Through
computers we will have access to all the world's knowledge
and information. Whether we will be able to handle it
all, remains to be seen. |
| Listen
to Ian Pearson,
Futurologist describe the likely development of computers |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Mysteries
of the Mind |
|
Listen
here |
The most complex structure we know of is not some vast
galaxy or even a human artefact. It lies between our ears:
the human brain. We already know a lot about how it works
by studying how things go wrong after injury as well as
studying how healthy humans behave. But there is a long
way to go.
For the new century, there is an amazing new tool called
functional magnetic resonance imaging. Using an FMRI scanner,
researchers can watch what happens inside your brain whilst
you think. They can make a map of our brain, placing all
our mental functions. They can see areas that respond
when we are happy or sad or when we sense a particular
colour, shape or sound. But when they have completed this
amazing map, will they have solved the mysteries of the
mind?
Some scientists and philosophers think that an understanding
of human consciousness is just around the corner. If they
are right and consciousness is just an aspect of brain
function, then a new generation of computers with a network
of the circuits similar to that of our own brains might
also be endowed with consciousness.
However, it may not be so straightforward. Brain mapping
may reveal the brain area involved in, for example, sensing
the colour red - but will it reveal the experience of
redness? That is subjective and it may take a new kind
of science in the new century before that is understood.
|
| Listen
to Patricia Churchland,
Specialist in the philiosophy of the mind. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cosmic
Secrets |
|
Listen
here |
A hundred years ago, physicists and astronomers thought
they knew almost all the answers. Matter was composed
of atomic nuclei and electrons and, apart from a slight
problem with radioactivity, that could explain everything.
The planets orbited the Sun, which was one of millions
of stars and, apart from a few fuzzy blobs called nebulae,
that was that.
Now, we know just how wrong that view was. There is a
wealth of structure within the atom: the nucleus is made
of protons and neutrons and they in turn are made of quarks.
The fuzzy blobs turned out to be entire galaxies like
our own Milky Way, receding from each other at great speed,
as if from an ancient explosion that we now call the Big
Bang. However that explanation too may be insufficient.
For example, why is there plenty of matter but not much
anti-matter? Why are the fundamental particles grouped
into families? Why do particles have the masses that they
do? How did the Big Bang begin and why are there hints
that we are only seeing a few percent of the total matter
in the universe?
Answering these questions is likely to take some of the
most imaginative research of the 21st century, together
with some of the biggest experiments, re-creating in fantastic
particle collisions, conditions that have not been seen
since the Big Bang itself. They may reveal how the universe
began and how it will end. Along the way we could learn
to understand and appreciate our place within it. Science
& Technology Health & Medicine Family, Sex & Society Habitation
Work, Leisure & Lifestyle Education The Environment Global
Politics Tell us your views of the Future and the Essential
Guide in our Letter Board. Read what others have said
about the future in our Comments page. |
| Listen
to Dr Michio
Kaku, theoretical physicist |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
