“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 (断裂的) 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”

Energy

　　Bill Joy, green technology expert in California, says:” The most significant breakthrough would be to have an inexhaustible source of safe, green energy that is substantially cheaper than any existing energy source.”

　　Ideally, such a source would be safe in that it could not be made into weapons and would not make hazardous or toxic waste or carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

　　Society

　　Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, says: The US will follow the UK in realizing that religion is not a prerequisite (前提)for ordinary human decency.

　　“This, science will kill religion-not by reason challenging faith but by offering a more practical, universal and rewarding moral framework for human interaction.”

　　He also predicts that “absurdly wasteful” displays of wealth will become unfashionable while the importance of close-knit communities and families will become clearer.

　　These three changes, he says, will help make us all” brighter, wiser, happier and kinder”.

　　1. What is john lngham’s report about?

　　A) A solution to the glob

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