MARCH 2003 PREDICTIONS

"The sun will rise without thy assistance.
- Talmud

[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]
Alcohol-powered laptops on the horizon - Toshiba has come up with a cartridge full of methanol which could be used as an alternative to battery power.

A handset that sends an electric shock if you talk too loudly has been designed to combat anti-social phone use.

Nanowire - microscopic wires which could help form the miniature technology of the future have been constructed using tiny body proteins.

Diamonds may be the key to better and faster sensors that detect bio-weapons attacks.

New microscopic fabric technology might lead to clothing which sheds odors without a trip to the washing machine.

[HOT TRENDS]
Turn dead loved ones into diamonds - cremated loved ones can become jewelry and other keepsakes, like:
When Frisbee inventor Ed Headrick died last August, family members announced that they would honor his wish and mold his ashes into a flying disc.
Eternal Reefs in Georgia mixes cremated remains with cement to form seabed habitats for sponges and ocean coral. Costs range from $1,500 to $5,000.
The Eternally Yours company promises to make everlasting art of a loved one's ashes. For prices ranging from $350 to $550, your dead husband will hang around forever.
Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald was a creative force behind such classics as Captain America and Quasar. In 1996, his wife honored his final request and mixed his ashes with ink during the printing of a comic book. There's a little piece of him in Squadron Supreme, a limited-run poster of Marvel characters.

Girls as young as nine are resorting to dieting after being teased about their weight, say British researchers.

Smoked, wooded, fruit, vegetable and herb and spice flavoured beers are among the entries in Australia's international beer awards as brewers capitalise on a booming boutique market.

The complete genetic makeup of individuals could soon be scanned and recorded on a smart card, warns a leading scientist.


[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]
Europe steps up its plans to search for life on Mars with proposals for a solar-powered robot to scour the planet's surface.

To those interested in early life on Earth, stromatolites are among the most intriguing life forms known. Billions of years ago, they may have been the dominant form of life on the planet. Some scientists speculate that, perhaps, similar organisms once populated Mars.

Using 4 million computers worldwide, scientists based at the University of California, Berkeley said that they have identified about 150 sources of possible signals from intelligent alien civilizations.

Scientists have found no signs of alien beings after analysing radio signals collected in the world's biggest distributed computing project.

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]
Some Australian parents have been given the green light to create genetically-screened "designer babies" to save the lives of sick siblings.

Forget about killer bees and voracious fire ants. Aggressive termites that can destroy a new house almost before the paint dries may be heading for a home near you. They've already been found in at least 11 states. They don't just eat wood. And they can penetrate cement, brick, plastic and other materials to get to food and water.

[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]
Doctors in Japan are developing a new way to repair damaged eyes using stem cells found in the mouth.

Bioterror spray - A spray of disinfectants and antitoxins designed to cling to the body could be a way to help people after a bioterror attack.

Depleted uranium weapons used in the Balkans in 1995 are contaminating air and drinking water, the UN says.

Scientists are harnessing the body's natural resources to try to create new treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Contact lenses could be used to deliver drugs to treat eye diseases like glaucoma, researchers have claimed.

Adding spices laced with antibodies to your cooking could help protect against food poisoning bacteria, according to scientists.

Medical experts are baffled by the spread of a severe and mysterious form of pneumonia in Asia which has drawn a global alert from the World Health Organisation. Early symptoms of atypical pneumonia include high fever, muscle aches, headache, diarrhea, and sore throat.

A mysterious form of pneumonia has killed 31 people in China's southern province of Guangdong through the end of February. Health experts say it isn't clear whether the deaths are linked to severe acute respiratory syndrome, a fatal respiratory illness that has spread to three continents.

When it comes to childhood tooth decay, it could be second-hand smoke and not sugar that is landing young children in the dentist's chair, a study says. U.S. researchers investigating the reason for relatively high rates of tooth decay among children in low-income families found a significant association between cavities in primary or "baby teeth", and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]
Recent reports may have suggested Greenland ice is experiencing rapid melting but long-term data show the island is actually getting colder.

A major conference in Japan hears that water shortages pose a greater long-term danger than current events in the Middle East.

[MOVIES AND TV]
Chicago executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are to re-make 80's movie Footloose, it is reported.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will remake the classic film King Kong, to be filmed in New Zealand.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]
If history is any indication, urban combat in Baghdad will send U.S. troops into a dizzying 3-D battlefield, where better firepower won't mean a thing.

The United States ambassador to the United Nations walked out of a debate after Iraq's ambassador accused the US of trying to exterminate the Iraqi people.

A new United Nations body to help avoid possible "water wars" of the future will operate from France.

Thousands of chemical suits and gas masks have been found at Iraqi positions, abandoned in trenches. The items, strewn across the desert road to Baghdad, could be clues that Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard may be plotting to unleash a deadly chemical strike. "The closer that coalition forces get to Baghdad, the greater the likelihood that some command and control arrangements have been put in place", to use chemical weapons.

Bush says he can't predict the duration of the war, but he can predict the outcome.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein wants a humanitarian crisis and is trying to provoke coalition forces into firing indiscriminately in a bid for political advantage, an Australian military strategy expert has said.

Baghdad would probably become a bloodbath in a war that could drag on for months, an Australian National University academic warns.

The United Nations has drawn up a confidential plan to establish a government in Iraq after the downfall of President Saddam Hussein's regime, The Times in London has reported.

An anthrax weapon aimed at a major city could kill at least 123,000 people even if every victim received treatment, experts calculate.

Al Qaeda is probably preparing new offensives that could include chemical and radiological attack, and Iraqi sleeper cells may be gearing up to strike, law enforcement officials warn.

[STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS]
The war on Iraq is already beginning to affect the health of the US economy just 13 days after conflict began, research shows.