http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/
Today's great challenges:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/today.html
Richard B. Alley:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/alley.html
"[...] Our best hope is to educate ourselves and each other on how the Earth works, and to use that knowledge to co-exist with the Earth."
solved. [already discussed online]
David Baltimore:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/baltimore.html
"[...] Using this information to enhance our health and well-being without allowing political forces to use it for destructive, intrusive, or manipulative purposes will be a monumental challenge."
solved. [already discussed online]
Vint Cerf:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/cerf.html
"[..] a most fascinating challenge is to adapt the architecture of the Internet to work in an interplanetary setting [...]"
solved. [already discussed online]
Denise Faustman:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/faustman.html
"[...] The question of how life can co-mingle with gravity is a largely unexplored challenge that should be part of the important questions posed in our century.
solved. [already discussed online]
On a more humble level, the biology and control of cancer and the reason cancer exists in mammals might be lofty enough for experts.
solved. [already discussed online]
Howard Gardner:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/gardner.html
"[...] we must develop new forms of guardianship [...]"
solved. [already discussed online]
Robert Hazen:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/hazen.html
"[...] The most exciting part of the scientific adventure will continue to be the discovery of things we didn't know we didn't know."
solved. [already discussed online]
Michio Kaku
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/kaku.html
"c. [...] what happened before the Big Bang? Did time suddenly spring into existence, or was there a multiverse of universes?
solved. [already discussed online]
d. How will our universe die? In fire or ice? A Big Crunch or Big Freeze?
solved. [already discussed online]
e. Is there a theory of everything, a single theory which can explain everything from the Big Bang, black holes, to the visible universe? [...]"
solved. [already discussed online]
Arthur Kantrowitz
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/kantrowitz.html
"[...] Or will science's uncertainties be concealed to serve politicians seeking power by converting mass ignorance into mass fear?"
solved. [already discussed online. Gets my vote for the most-thoughtful, and most-important, statement.]
Leon Lederman:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/lederman.html
"[...] Today, the challenge is to defend the progress we are making against the antithesis, the growth of fundamentalism, blind obedience to evil, rigid belief systems [...]"
solved. [already discussed online]
"1. Understanding the foundations of quantum mechanics, and in particular the measurement problem. This may result in a radical modification of our conception of physical reality.
solved. [already discussed online]
2. The development of a quantum mechanically consistent theory of gravity. The reconciliation of general relativity with quantum theory is absolutely essential for challenge (3) below.
solved. [already discussed online]
3. The unification of all the fundamental forces in nature. Supersymmetric string theories offer a promising prospect in this regard.
solved. [already discussed online]
4. Related to the above is a determination of the nature of dark matter on the scale of clusters and superclusters of galaxies. [...]
solved. [already discussed online]
5. Again on a different front, an understanding of the operation of the human brain at the fundamental level."
solved. [already discussed online]
Marcia McNutt
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/mcnutt.html
"[...] If we understood the complex ways in which genes are expressed in the biochemical reactions that govern the life cycle and behavior of living organisms"
general resolution already discussed online
Tobias Owen
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/owen.html
"[...] the rampant growth of the human population. [...]"
solved. [already discussed online]
Stephen H. Schneider
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/schneider.html
"[...] to find ways to convince a world of highly differentiated people (educationally and economically) with many suspicions to pull together and deal with global commons issues [...]"
solved. [already discussed online]
Michael Soulé
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/soule.html
"[...] 'Access' and 'development' are destroying the real, original world."
general resolution already discussed online
"[...] Find the ultimate theory of physics
an instance [surely not "the ultimate', but in-the-ballpark relative to what 'is', already discussed online]
Make computers emulate human thinking"
general resolution already discussed online
[All quotes Copyright 2002, by PBS.]
I Apologize for what must seem like my 'lack-of-humility'.
k, p, collins
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