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

Could be something as innocuous as a flu jab.

Aye, well if they manage to beat malaria or TB then...

I don't think we'll ever crack Cancer as a whole as it is one name for many, many different disorders and is just too complex for a catch all solution.

I just thought of another. Room temperature superconductors. Could be used for easy transport, easy energy storage, and cheap energy generation and transport.

New reusable space program

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4716463.stm

The cosmic elevator

Which is of course an elevator wherein is played soft, ambient music, Hare Krishnas dance around and everything is covered in flowers.

Not exactly. But I guess it would be possible to make customizable interior You know just to satisfy every customer's whim

I know you mean a space elevator. The name cosmic elevator just made me think of some kind of hippie thing.

Now I know what I meant as well Space elevator it is!

A Cosmic elevator is what they had at Nelson Mandella House, Peckham wasn't it?

I'm still waiting for those damn flying cars. When!?

Something that outsmarts or resets telomeres, so we can live forever.

non-barking tablets for the next door neighbours
dog, that is now barking at the bloody rain at 4:20am

>>Something that outsmarts or resets telomeres, so we can live forever.<<

Theres' already something that does that. Cancer cells have it in abundance

Brain transplants

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We've already got those, but for some reason they're not well known.

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Well, we've already got brain donors...

Beyond a few things which would be cool if they ever happened (quantum computers, nuclear fusion) I don't think there'll be anything *new* invented in the next 50 years, just refinements of what's already there.

There's a famous quote from about 1890 when someone said, nearly everything that can be discovered already has been. Be yet amazed

Brain tramsplants will be an interesting one. Who would get the benefit of such surgery, the donor or the recipient? It would give a fresh insight into whether or not there's any truth in the phenomena of cellular memory, and all the related ethical questions into what it means to be "human".

'Be yet amazed'

Right. I think I remember DNA saying that in the sixties, they expected the world of 2000 to be all about interplanetary space travel, flying cars and nuclear power. Trouble is, they missed computers entirely, and had no concept that environmental issues would take centre stage.

A brain transplant is technically known in the trade as a whole body transplant although admittedly the head goes with it.

It has been done with dogs and monkeys in some of the most gruesome experiments I've seen filmed . The problem comes with the spinal cord which must be severed. Hence quadruplegia is inevitable at the moment.