• Question: hi, in 10 years time what revolutionary science discoveries do you think there will be?

    Asked by mojems (imogen) to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      Revolutionary discoveries tend to be unexpected, almost by definition.

      In my field, I would hope that in 10 years’ time we will have discovered the dark matter particle, and finally understand what 85% of the matter in the universe actually is. That would revolutionise particle physics, but probably not have a great deal of effect on everyday life.

      Some revolutionary discoveries in science that would be nice, and are conceivable on a 10-year timescale, are:
      – proof of the existence of bacterial life on Mars
      – proof of the presence of life on planets round other stars
      – a cure for Alzheimer’s disease (dementia)
      – cures for some types of cancer
      – new antibiotics that bacteria are not resistant to, or some other antibacterial treatment that does the same job
      – cheap, efficient solar power, and cheap, efficient batteries to store it

    • Photo: Rob Temperton

      Rob Temperton answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      Not really a new discovery, but I really hope we get nuclear fusion sorted. This is an area where many science and engineering challenges need to be overcome – if we do get it working, it will revolutionise the world.

    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I’m hoping that there is going to be a very high-resolution, high-powered, super-sensitive MRI scanner, perhaps with small contributions from other imaging methods, such as a CT scanner in it (using as few x-rays as possible so that it’s really safe) and maybe a PET scanner (again, super-super sensitive so you don’t need to inject a lot of the contrast). The computer will be super-fast and clever so that I can see the pictures in real-time rather than having to put them on a different computer to work on them.

    • Photo: Chris Armstrong

      Chris Armstrong answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I would love to say fusion. But man fusion is hard.

      I believe its been 10 years away for the last 30 years but it could really be 10 years away now. ITER is destined to switch on in 2027 which admittedly is outside of your window… maybe NIF will have done it first.

      But as Rob said, Fusion will really revolutionize the world, goodbye energy crisis.

      Personally I also thing Quantum Computing will become a real thing, which really will be a revolution in the way computing is done.

      And as Susan mentioned I think some new form of efficient battery would help bridge the gap to fusion (via Solar/Wind/Hydro) and would probably be a very fast way to revolutionise at least the commercial world – electronic and car companies would be after it in a heart beat. Maybe the wondermaterial graphene will save us.

      I think I’m blabbering so I’ll stop and summarise:
      – Fusion would be ace, though probably more than 10yrs
      – Quantum computing would be ace, though probably more than 10yrs
      – Batteries… come on graphene.

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