APRIL 2004 PREDICTIONS

"We cannot live in the past, nor can we re-create it. Yet as we unravel the past, the future also unfolds before us, as though they are mirrors without which neither can be seen or happen."
- Judy Grahn

[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]
Israeli scientists show how one day our bodies could be injected with smart molecules that could sense cancers and destroy them.

U.S. engineers have developed robotic three-wheeled barrels that can quickly move across a roadway to close off road lanes.

In the future, you could sign for purchases by simply moving your finger over your credit card.

U.S. firm Microvision has developed a system that projects lasers onto the retina, allowing users to view images on top of their normal field of vision. It could allow surgeons to get a bird's eye view of the innards of a patient, offer military units in the field a view of the entire battlefield and provide mechanics with a simulation of the inside of a car's engine. Within five years, such systems could be incorporated into mobile phones or hand-held computers and appear to the brain as a brightly lit widescreen TV version of what is on the device.

[HOT TRENDS]
The number of children in Japan has shrunk for the 23rd year in a row, reflecting a falling birth rate that policymakers say will affect the nation's ability to support its ageing population in the coming decades.

Drivers who turn up the stereo while at the wheel could seriously hamper their reaction times, research suggests. A Canadian study found people took up to 20% longer to perform physical and mental tasks to loud music. Drivers were twice as likely to skip a red light while listening to music. Up-tempo music has been shown to cause drivers to have double the amount of accidents as those listening to slower music.


[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]
Astronomers have completed their most sensitive search yet for radio signals from intelligent life in space. Over a 10 year period, the scientists looked at 800 nearby stars with no evidence of a signal from ET. If there are aliens on a planet circling any nearby star then perhaps they are not interested in signalling, or are doing it in a way we cannot yet detect. The astronomers are not down-hearted, they know that ET could be detected tomorrow or in a thousand years (or never). Later this year they start a new targeted search covering several hundred thousand stars.

Methane has been found in the Martian atmosphere which scientists say could be a sign of present-day life on Mars. Methane lives for only a short time in the Martian atmosphere, if it was not replenished it would only last a few hundred years before it vanished, so it must be being constantly replenished. There are two possible ways to do this: either active volcanoes, but none have yet been found on Mars, or microbes.

Astronomers say in theory there could be worlds supporting life in half of the 100 planetary systems known to science. Telescopes across the world are to take part in a project to look for worlds that resemble our own circling other stars.

Residents of the outback town of Winton, Australia saw a flash 'like 50,000 spotlights' as a huge fireball crashed to earth somewhere in central Queensland on April 1st.

An unmanned spacecraft should test ways to deflect a threatening asteroid, two astronauts have told the US government. Even the small, most frequent events where asteroids have struck the earth are more powerful than the blast from the most powerful nuclear weapon in the current U.S. nuclear arsenal. "A known threat that can potentially destroy millions of lives and can be predicted to occur ahead of time, and prevented, cannot responsibly go unaddressed," they say.

Scientists consider it likely that asteroid impacts and huge bouts of volcanism coincided to cause mass extinctions on Earth.

Scientists have launched an online calculator that works out the environmental effects of an asteroid colliding with Earth.

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]
Thirteen people died from human rabies in one state in Brazil last month - after a record number were bitten by vampire bats.

America is now a land of tubby tabbies and portly pooches. With pet obesity on the rise, look for a doggie-style version of the low-carb Atkins diet, robot mouser-sizing equipment for cats and other new products for the fat and the furry.

Cats can now have more than nine lives thanks to a Californian company that is the first U.S. firm to go commercial and offer the public a pet cloning service - a copy of your cat is only $50,000. Genetic Savings & Clone hopes to be cloning thousands of pets annually in five years, when the cost should be down to $10,000 for a cat and $20,000 for a dog.

[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]
Scientists believe the humble garden vegetable spinach may provide a possible treatment for some forms of blindness.

New teeth could soon be 'grown' - stem cell technology to grow replacement teeth could soon mean the end of dentures.

Grow your own replacement breast - women who have had a mastectomy may one day be able to grow a new breast in as little as a month and a half, a microsurgery researcher has revealed.

Scientists are to implant computer chips in the brains of paralysed patients which could 'read their thoughts'.

Between 1990 and 2003 there was a 60% increase in lung cancer cases among women in the U.S. Lung cancer is a different disease in women than it is in men, researchers have said. The female hormone oestrogen is partly to blame.

Women who have dental X-rays during pregnancy are three times as likely to have a low birth weight baby at full-term as women who are not exposed to this type of radiation, according to a study.

Some people may have been wrongly diagnosed with high cholesterol as levels vary with the seasons, research finds. Cholesterol is highest in the winter.

Experiencing regular incidents of road rage is extremely harmful to the health of a driver, research confirms.

Mobile phone radiation may damage cells by increasing the forces they exert on each other, scientists say.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]
Climate change headlines from the press, radio, and television:
- Shorter Winters, Drier Summers Hint at Climate Change
- Climate Problems for Breeding Birds
- Global Warming May Bring More Rain, Snow
- Sandstone Buildings under Serious Threat from Climate
- Waterbirds Desert Britain as Climate Change Takes Its Toll
- Global Warming Could Melt Greenland Ice Sheet

[ODDITIES]
India has joined Italy in reporting mysterious fires in electrical equipment. And strange electromagnetic effects are being reported from the U.S., Italy and the U.K. In February, automobile keyless entry systems in Nevada failed over a period of four days. Then, a few weeks later cars in a parking lot in the U.K. refused to open and began to sound their alarms. Meanwhile, in Sicily, not only were similar electronic problems being reported with cars, spontaneous fires were breaking out in electrical appliances. Now, spontaneous fires are also being reported from India. These are not associated with electrical appliances, but may take place anywhere in a small village in Utar Pradesh state. The same area is also experiencing falls of stones from the sky. What is causing all this? Are the incidents related? Will the phenomena spread?

The enigma of Namibia's 'fairy circles' - South African botanists say they have failed to explain the mysterious round patches of bare sandy soil found in grassland on Namibia's coastal fringe.

New research into the Turin Shroud has added to the mystery surrounding the controversial burial cloth. A second ghostly image of a man's face has been discovered on the back of the linen. The delicate 14ft-long linen sheet is believed by some to be the cloth in which Jesus was wrapped after being taken down from the cross.

Residents of Russia's Altai region say that a 2500-year-old mummy, that was dug up 11 years ago, is causing earthquakes in this corner of Siberia, and have demanded that it be reburied.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]
In the foreseeable future, when the world has exhausted its available oil, life will be very different - for better or worse.

Asia and the United States will propel the world economy to the fastest growth pace in a generation in 2004, former IMF chief economist Michael Mussa predicts.

A growing global population and unprecedented international travel have put humankind at risk of uncontrollable epidemics of potentially hundreds of new diseases, a virus expert has warned.

Avian influenza could be a massive threat to people if it continues to evolve, a British scientist says.

[SPIRITUAL PREDICTIONS]
Are you born lucky? Scientists are attempting to discover if the month you are born in determines your personality and how successful you are. The study will also examine if people born on the 13th of the month are unluckier than people born on other days.