Aliens

　　Colin Pillinger, professor of planetary sciences at the Open University, says: I fancy that at least we will be able to show that life did start to evolve on Mars well as Earth.” Within 50years he hopes scientists will prove that alien life came here in Martian meteorites(隕石).

　　Chris McKay, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, believes that in 50 years we may find evidence of alien life in the ancient permanent frost of Mars or on other planers.

　　He adds: There is even a chance we will find alien life forms here on Earth. It might be as different as English is to Chinese.

　　Princeton professor Freeman Dyson thinks it “l(fā)ikely” that life form outer space will be discovered before 2056 because the tools for finding it, such as optical and radio detection and data processing, are improving.

　　He says: “As soon as the first evidence is found, we will know what to look for and additional discoveries are likely to follow quickly. Such discoveries are likely to have revolutionary consequences for biology, astronomy and philosophy. They may also change the way we look at ourselves and our place in the universe.”

　　Colonies in space

　　Richard Gott, professor of astrophysics at Princeton, hopes man will set up a self-sufficient colony on Mars, which would be a “l(fā)ife insurance policy against whatever catastrophes, natural or otherwise, might occur on Earth.

　　“The real space race is whether we will colonise off Earth on to other worlds before money for the space programme runs out.”

　　Spinal injuries

　　Ellen Heber-Katz, a professor at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, foresees cures for injuries causing paralysis such as the one that afflicted Superman star Christopher Reeve.

　　She says: “I believe that the day is not far off when we will be able to prescribe drugs that cause severed (斷裂的) spinal cords to heal, hearts to regenerate and lost limbs to regrow.”

　　“People will come to expect that injured or diseased organs are meant to be repaired from within, in much the same way that we fix an appliance or automobile: by replacing the damaged part with a manufacturer-certified new part.” She predicts that within 5 to 10 years fingers and toes will be regrown and limbs will start to be regrown a few years later. Repairs to the nervous system will start with optic nerves and, in time, the spinal cord.” Within 50 years whole body replacement will be routine,” Prof. Heber-Katz adds.

　　Obesity

　　Sydney Brenner, senior distinguished fellow of the Crick-Jacobs Center in California, won the 2002 Nobel Prize for Medicine and says that if there is a global disaster some humans will survive-and evolution will favor small people with bodies large enough to support the required amount of brain power.” Obesity,” he says.” will have been solved.”

　　Robots

　　Rodney Brooks, professor of robotics at MIT, says the problems of developing artificial intelligence for robots will be at least partly overcome. As a result, “the possibilities for robots working with people will open up immensely”