April 2002 Predictions

"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."
- Robert Frost


[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]

Bionic eyes - Scientists think a fast chip design could help restore sight to the blind.

Automakers in the United States say they need more time to develop new air bags designed to determine a person's size. The "smart" bags will adjust the force of deployment or shut off the bag depending on the occupant's size.

Wearable PCs may one day provide instant info and tips about nearby objects and landmarks.

Researchers are developing a fiber that acts like a mirror and could lead to advanced fabrics and clothing.

Smart plastic shows promise as self-tying suture - A new biodegradable plastic could be used for medical applications such as a suture that ties its own knot, according to its inventors.

Specially grafted trees provide an orchard's variety in a single tree - get your entire fruit salad from one tree.

Imagine being able to "shake" someone's hand when you close a business deal - even if they're on the other end of the phone. We're talking vibrating rubber phones, the next big thing in mobile communications. Take a look at a squeezable cellphone that lets you communicate with sensation as well as sound.



[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]

On April 17th, just after sunset, six solar-system objects are spaced
almost equally in a huge, diagonal line crossing the western sky. From top left they are: Jupiter, the Moon, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and very low Mercury. By May 4, they will have clustered closer together and will remain visible this way for several weeks. On May 5, Venus, Mars, and Saturn will group together to form a perfect equilateral triangle. In the Middle East, the triangle will appear to hang above Bethlehem. On May 10, Mars and Venus will seem to pass so close to each other that it will look as if they have become one. There won't be anything like this configuration for at least another 70 years. A similar grouping occurred in May 2000, but it was not as visible. Some similar, but not as dramatic, groupings will occur in 2040, 2060 and 2100.

First birth of mammals in space planned - You knew it would be mice. They get tagged for doing everything first, usually even before the guinea pigs.

While NASA is focused on nuclear power to solve its near-term need for better spacecraft power and propulsion systems, for the long-term the agency is exploring a wide range of promising and in some cases exotic technologies to reduce the time it takes to travel to other planets.

Asteroids often travel, and strike, in pairs - When Earth is next hit by an asteroid, the impact may well be a double whammy, which might in turn be blamed on Earth itself.

Your chances of death by asteroid are about the same as dying in a plane crash, roughly 1-in-20,000 during your lifetime. You're more liable to be electrocuted to death (1-in-5000 chance), succumb to skin cancer or be killed in a car crash. Yet asteroids pose more risk than tornadoes (1-in-60,000 chance), rattlesnake bites or food poisoning. In the past six months, while the world focused on the continuing threat of global terrorism, as many as a dozen or more asteroids sneaked up on the Earth and zoomed by at distances just beyond the Moon's orbit and closer. Experts describe our planet as vulnerable to an unexpected attack that could, in an instant, wipe out a city or even destroy civilization. Some researchers go so far as to view the asteroid threat as an "international emergency situation." The last serious impact was in 1908, when a rock about the same size as 2002 EM7 exploded above the surface of Siberia. Roughly 1,200 square miles (3,108 square kilometers) of forest were flattened in a remote region known as Tunguska. There were no known deaths, because almost no one lived there. The odds of a similar event, which could easily destroy a large city or a small state with miles of extra destruction to boot, are about 1-in-20 over the next 50 years.

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]

Human cloning may be in the spotlight now, but other genetic dilemmas like how to prevent genetically enhanced athletes, lie ahead.

A new pill camera gives doctors a look inside the body without invasive procedures.

One gene made the plague bacteria so deadly - A single gene changed relatively harmless bacteria into the flea-borne agent of the bubonic plague, scientists say.

[BOOKS]


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[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]

The cure for cancer could come from an unlikely source - anthrax. Scientists say this bacteria may be used to kill tumors, instead of people.

Scientists warn against irradiated meat - Health Canada is poised to approve irradiation for meat but some scientists say allowing the process could cause even more health problems.

A new study finds that neck and shoulder pain are more common among computer users than previously thought. More than half of computer users each year develop neck or shoulder symptoms and just over one-third develop an impairment or the loss of some function.

Scientists are learning that the key to predicting certain epidemics - like Rift Valley fever in Africa or Hanta virus in the U.S. -- lies in an unexpected place: the ocean.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]

Scientists really don't know much about the snow that blankets the far north for most of the year. They aren't even sure where it comes from, since there is no obvious source of moisture in a region that qualifies as a desert in every way but temperature. Worse yet, they know the weather is getting warmer in the Arctic, but they don't know how that will affect the snow. And that leaves an enormous gap in our understanding of the future of global climate patterns.

Amazon rivers are awash in carbon dioxide - Tropical rainforests seem to release about three times the amount of carbon dioxide previously expected, according to a new study by U.S. and Brazilian researchers.

Earth's rocks show signs of global warming - The rocks on the Earth's continental crust have warmed significantly over the past 50 years, a team of U.S. and Canadian researchers have found. Nearly a third of the heat increase in the last 500 years was gained since 1950.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]

Scientists called for international action to combat the growing global trade in fake drugs, particularly in poor nations. From bogus anti-malarial therapies to useless oral contraceptives, vaccines made of tap water or snake anti-venom containing no active ingredients, the world is awash with fake treatments, they said. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that fake drugs account for 10 percent of all global pharmaceutical commerce.

U.N. predicts more trouble in Congo - The United Nations warned April 17th of what it called a "dangerous and troubling" intensification of fighting and buildup of forces in rebel-held east Congo.

[STOCK MARKET PREDICTIONS]

While many economists share Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's cautious optimism over the economy's direction, some risks to recovery still remain. A look at how the forecasters see the recovery playing out this year.

[WEIRD ANIMAL BEHAVIOR]

Super Ant Colony Found in Europe - Researchers found a 3,600-mile ant supercolony in Southern Europe stretching thousands of miles from the Italian Riviera along the coastline to northwest Spain.