h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just reading the energy and genetics thread inspired me to ask: what are the holy grails of science? I'm sure it's partly a matter of opinion. Also, does anyone - or their line of work/hobbies etc - have their own personal holy grails?

Finding a way to get truly facile catalytic activation and functionalisation of methane to important chemical feed stocks would be a good one for my field of work. Tends to be rather difficult except under harsh conditions though

Not in my field, but sustainable, cheap, clean nuclear fusion.

Cold Fusion

Which has been rubbished many a time, but there was a very interesting article in a recent New Scientist about how the US Navy research department have found evidence for it, in a net energy GAIN when putting current through a D2O solution with a palladium electrode...

THE Holy Grail?

A cure/prevention for cancers


My own particular Grail - the elimination of periodontal disease. It would be great if there was a way of removing the genetic predisposition some people have for perio-disease.

Speaking of scientific Holy Grails, one of them used to be the formation of noble gas compounds like xenon and krypton which was done by Bartlett in the 60's. Not all that useful but scientifically interesting. Just recieved the TOC alert fo the journal of the american chemical society and there's a couple of back to back communications on the formation of xenon acetylenes HXeCCH (JACS 2003, 125, p4696 & 4698 if anyone's interesed)

Making a superconductor that works at room temperature.

Not science : but the perfect sentence, paragraph, chapter, book. I strive for that necessary perfection in what I write, like most writers do. Something that will set the world on fire. Of course, I will never get there, but that is the whole point, is it not?

Fully understanding embryonic development (plants and animals)
HIV vaccine
Cure for the common cold
Conquering antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Sequencing the genomes of all known species
Drought, salt, and heavy-metal tolerant GM crops
Pharmacogenomics
Tissue, limb and organ regeneration
Anti-gravity devices

To name a few.

Personally? To understand evolution from multiple angles, from genetics to genomics, with subjects ranging from ecology to molecular biology to bioinformatics.

Ste

From what I understand the thing the gets alot of scientist all lathered up is the "Theory of Everything" also know as "Universal Field Theory", the theory that will basically allow scientists to understand and predict chaos theory.

Personally, I'd like to break the speed of light.

Blizita

A world in which the square pegs can find a comfortable niche without the round holes making fun of them and telling them they'll have to conform.

If the science in the subject line is Science as commonly defined on h2g2, then the subject line is an oxymoron.

The Holy Grail being a cultural mythology of an essentially mystical experience - which according to some (though by no means all) defintions is antithetical to Science.

Blizita, I may be totally wrong here, but I thought it was the *Unified* Field Theory since it is unifying theory?

I'd go with cold fusion, matter/energy conversion and immortality.

Plus a nice pot noodle.

And yes, it is the *unified* theory.

Improbability Drive??

Currently from my point of view...ever getting an experiment to work. Oh...and to be paid better!

Curing cancer (on a serious note) which I am hopefully helping to do in my own small..and not working...way.

How about an air-conditioning system that works while we are at it?

AI

Nanotechnological universal assemblers.

H.

You should ask.... What are the Holy Grails of SCIENTISTS

If I remember my university classes [which I don't] the whole point of science is hypothesis testing -- it's a METHOD, not a RESULT. HOwever, it is SCIENTISTS who define which Hypotheses they wish to test (according to Scientific Method)....

Most of the answers above are applied science with the exception of UFT, wich is really a part of GUT - Grand Unified Theory... which is the Theory of Everything -- even though it's not.... You might know all there is to know about fundamental particles and their interactions, but that's a long way away from knowing how to make a good cup of tea!

BTW: From those I've known, the Holy Grail of most scientists is FREE MONEY, INSTANT TENURE, NO LECTURES [except the ones they feel like doing], QUARTERLY CONFERENCES in SANTA MONICA, and PEER-REVIEW that RECOGNIZES GENIUS when it SEES it.

my ha'penny farthing!