Predictions from July 2002

"Whenever you decline to act on your convictions, you leave it up to time and fate and other people to act on them for you. And you can't assume that time and fate and other people won't steer your life into a tree. Take responsibility and take the reins."

[YOUR FUTURE - INVENTIONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE]
Researchers say flexible, paper-thin display screens could be ready in a few years.

A new customer-service automated phone system detects the moods of callers and allows businesses to handle them accordingly. It has been patented by Mitel Networks. A speech-recognition program would evaluate a caller's voice for signs of stress, such as stuttering, loudness, or even a string of expletives. An upset caller could also be identified by how hard they pound the phone's buttons.

Lining the walls of a restaurant with magnetic wood could be the key to eating in peace. A new type of composite has been developed that makes it impossible to use a mobile phone and annoy people in public places such as restaurants. The wood contains fine particles of the magnetic material nickel-zinc ferrite that stops electromagnetic waves in their tracks. The magnetic wood is placed between two sheets of fibreboard to create a "timber sandwich" that can be used to make doors and walls or even entire buildings.

Motorists with mobile phones could soon be part of a sophisticated new system that promises to make traffic jams a thing of the past.

Researchers at France Telecom have developed a fabric woven of plastic optical fibers that can display pictures and messages, much like a PC or TV. So you may one day wear a T-shirt on which you can watch a movie or get a message from a loved one. Wearers will be able to download any image and text from a cellphone, personal digital assistant or computer, via a remote control on the garment. One practical application would be clothes worn by firefighters and police officers that could be programmed to display warning information at emergency scenes. The technology is not limited to clothing: upholstery and wall coverings woven from fiber optics also could be changed with the flip of a switch, according to a recent article in 'Nature" magazine.

[HOT TRENDS]
Fashion trends - Bubble Body Wear makes dresses, bras, jackets, lingerie and even a $250 wedding dress from bubble wrap. Philadelphia University requires design students to fashion outfits from garbage — including Hefty bags, old cassette cases, Astroturf and cardboard — for its annual Design X fashion show. Every year, you can find thrill-seeking high school seniors who fashion their tuxedos and prom gowns from duct tape.

Consumer groups say the VCR could be obsolete in three years based on current sales records of DVD players.

In death pools — a ghoulish twist on college basketball tournament pools — participants typically throw a few dollars into a pot and guess when various newsmakers will die for cash prizes and bragging rights. Now this morbid game is goign to an all new level with the Indo-Pakistani Death Pool. Just predict the exact time the first bomb detonates and you win. You don't even have to guess who strikes first. Just make sure to also guess how many millions of innocent people die — that's how a tiebreaker is decided.

The way movies are shown in theaters will change dramatically in the next five years, filmmakers and experts agree. Two very different techniques for projecting films are vying for the future of the multibillion-dollar movie industry.

Digital video recorders are killing commercials and will force TV networks to sell more intrusive ads or charge for channels, TV executives say. It is roughly estimated that it would cost viewers about $250 (US) a year above the cable or satellite fees to pay for programming.


[ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS]
Hunt for potentially deadly asteroids is underfunded - The U.S. government should invest more money in tracking near-Earth objects that might threaten Earth, said members of a space roundtable on Capitol Hill.

Russian space officials have proposed an ambitious project to send a six-person team to Mars by the year 2015 a trip that would mark a milestone in space travel and international space cooperation.

The European Space Agency has committed to launching the Eddington satellite, which would search for Earth-like planets, by 2008.

Reclaiming the moon: Plans for a 21st Century return. Colonists may be setting up townships there.

An asteroid the size of a soccer field narrowly missed the Earth last week by 75,000 miles, less than a third of the distance to the moon, and one of the closest known approaches by objects of this size. This is only the sixth known asteroid to penetrate the Moon's orbit, and by far the biggest. In general, damage on the ground depends on what an asteroid is made of, varying from solid metal to a loosely bound aggregate.

[BIOLOGY PREDICTIONS]
Imagine having a corridor from one end of the planet to the other for animals to roam? It's not such a wild idea.

The bottle-nosed dolphin and other marine species could disappear from British waters in less than a decade unless the British government changes how it manages its marine environment, according to a new report.

Things don't always turn out as you expect when you play with genes. An attempt to make potato plants resistant to sap-sucking insects highlighted the unpredictability of genetic engineering when it ended up producing modified plants that were vulnerable to other kinds of insect pests.

Fears are growing that ecotourism and ecological research could be harming wildlife by spreading human diseases to animals. A team of researchers has discovered two outbreaks of tuberculosis among banded mongooses in Chobe, Botswana's second-largest national park. This is the first clear-cut case of a primarily human pathogen being passed to wildlife.

There is confirmation of something canola farmers have been saying for years: that genetically modified canola is popping up where it wasn't planted and where it isn't wanted.

Many credible scientists fear that the sixth mass extinction in the planet's long history is unfolding - a doomsday scenario dismissed as alarmist by some. Some estimate that perhaps 50 percent of all species will become extinct in the next 100 years, all by the activities of humans. Conservationists hope historians do not look back five decades from now and see it as a missed opportunity to avert what could be the greatest loss of life on the planet since the death of the dinosaurs.

[HEALTH PREDICTIONS]
Online Tests Predict Disease Risks - Experts say most Web tests estimating disease risks are effective sources of preventative medicine.

The average life expectancy of people in 11 African countries will drop below 40 by 2010 as the disease AIDS shortens the lives of millions. Taxes, the skills base and production are all eroding, eating away at both the economy and the state.

A new report finds the federal government's six-year old meat and poultry inspection system is failing consumers on almost every level.

Data suggests that HIV is gaining resistance to drugs - More than a quarter of newly infected patients with HIV were resistant to at least one of the types of drugs used to fight the disease, researchers have found.

Researchers say HIV infections among the young will soar by more than 70 percent at the end of the decade. It is projected that 21.5 million teenagers and young adults could be living with the virus by the year 2010.

If you had a smallpox vaccination as a child and you think you're protected from a terrorist bio-weapon or other outbreak, think again. In a study of 621 microbiologists in Maryland who were vaccinated a second time between 1994 and 2001 to protect them in their work, only about 40 of them - just 6 per cent - were still immune to smallpox as a result of their earlier vaccinations. These findings suggest that almost everyone vaccinated before smallpox was eradicated in the mid-1970s will have lost their immunity.

The "nuclear cloud" from the Chernobyl accident is still hanging over us. A new study claims that fallout from the disaster in 1986 may be responsible for birth deformities and childhood deaths in Britain. It appears that between 1986 and 1989 at least 200 more children than normal died before their first birthday and more than 600 were born with abnormalities such as spina bifida and Down's syndrome.

Amusement park rides seem to be measured by which is fastest, and most dangerous, but are these rapid rides putting us at risk of brain injury?

Experimental new medicines are rescuing people from the brink of blindness so they can read and drive and sometimes even regain perfect vision.

The AIDS epidemic has not yet reached its peak - It's an unprecedented epidemic in human history. AIDS threatens to wipe out a generation in Africa and destabilize the whole continent. It's going to have implications for all continents. The disease has killed more than 20 million since its discovery in 1981and has so far created 14 million orphans. AIDS will kill 70 million people over the next 20 years, mostly in Africa, unless rich nations step up their efforts to curb the disease, the United Nations said in a report showing the epidemic is still in its early stages.

The number of Americans with Alzheimer's disease could more than triple to 16 million by 2050. Research indicates a looming national crisis.

[LONG-TERM CLIMATE PREDICTIONS]
Air pollution changes rainfall, say scientists who implicate it in killer drought. The starvation brought on by the 1970-85 drought stretched from Senegal to Ethiopia and before rains finally returned, 1.2 million people had died, one of the world's worst famines.

A scientist in Alberta has developed a model to predict how hibernating animals could react to climate change.

On average, people will be five times as rich in a hundred years' time. And if we're willing to postpone that prosperity by just two years, we could fix global warming into the bargain. New Scientist evaluates the latest attack on the Bush administration's claims that international plans to curb climate change would cripple the US and world economies.

[POLITICAL PREDICTIONS]
Corporate wrongdoing and economic jitters have soured the national mood noticeably in recent weeks, according to prominent Republican pollsters who warn of "GOP turnout problems" in midterm elections if the trend persists.

U.S. government experts are concerned that Osama bin Laden's guerrilla network may be planning cyber-attacks targeting nuclear power plants, dams or other critical structures. Routed through telecommunications switches in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Pakistan, they studied emergency telephone systems, electrical generation and transmission, water storage and distribution, nuclear power plants and gas facilities.

Police and fire officials in New York are being warned that terrorists may be trying to acquire surplus or replica emergency vehicles to use as car bombs that could be planted near government buildings or landmarks without drawing attention. Security is high for July 4th - parades and festivities in downtown areas near subways or other mass-transit systems are of special concern as those activities would be more susceptible to a biological or chemical attack because of the large number of people packed into a tiny area.

Airline pilots unions are warning members that terrorists might watch their movements or try to steal their uniforms and identification. There are reports of thefts from pilots' hotel rooms and American Airlines and Northwest Airlines pilots' unions also warned their members that some flight crews believed they were being watched by people of Middle Eastern descent.

The scenarios are harrowing: terrorists hack into a 911 system or work their way into air traffic control systems. Take a look at what experts say a cyber attack could look like, and what's being done to prevent one.

A meteor may have caused the flash that alarmed an Israeli pilot flying over Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, insisting it was not a missile. An El Al pilot reported seeing a missile fired from the ground over central Ukraine during a Tel Aviv-Moscow flight on Thursday night. Israeli officials said the 'missile' exploded a few miles from the plane.

Military strategists and space scientists that wonder and worry about a run-in between Earth and a comet or asteroid have additional worries in these trying times. With world tensions being the way they are, even a small incoming space rock, detonating over any number of political hot-spots, could trigger a country's nuclear response convinced it was attacked by an enemy.

Three al-Qaida suspects were taken into custody, including one who had videotaped several American landmarks in 1997 including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge (whose suspension pillar is given substantial attention), the Sears Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center. Two of the tapes are like a documentary study, with innumerable takes from all distances and angles of the Twin Towers in New York. Some shots show interior and exterior areas of "a New York airport" as well as Disneyland and Universal Studios in southern California.

[SEASONAL WEATHER PREDICTIONS]
Over the past few months, earth's weather has displayed some exceptional extremes. Devastating floods have occurred in Texas, Bangladesh and Russia while extraordinary drought has caused wildfires across the western and southern US and parts of central and eastern Canada. Bejing has been invaded by swarms of locusts and giant hailstones have killed at least 15 people in central China. A third of Bangladesh has been flooded.

The dark, non-absorbing surfaces of cities emanate heat, which increases regional temperatures by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The rising warm air from urban centers, coupled with colliding air currents caused by the rough aerial surfaces (from skyscrapers) of cities also contributes to an increase in rainfall downwind from city centers. One way to minimize this so-called urban island effect is to alter the surfaces of rooftops to increase their reflectivity and lower the amount of heat absorbed by the surface - buildings can be topped with either a white or garden roof. In summer months, that has led to a stunning 70-degree temperature difference.

Have we finally found a way to predict earthquakes? For several years seismologists have fiercely debated whether or not electrical and magnetic activity in the ground could provide us with an early-warning system. Now there are reports that strange electromagnetic signals were detected in Japan's Izu islands two months before a major quake hit the country.