关于未来,人类最需要了解的10件事
人类对未来世界总是充满好奇和想象。100年后我们靠什么发电?癌症会治愈吗?精神病能成为历史吗?汽车可以飞吗?近日,英国广播公司《地平线》节目的科学家团队总结了关于未来我们最需要知道的10件事情,一起来看看吧。 如何让电灯一直亮下去? Much of our electricity is generated by burning coal or gas, both of which will ultimately run out. Renewable energy sources are fraught with their own problems (not least the changeable nature of British weather), so could a Norwegian concept of erecting wind turbines thousands of feet in the air where there is always a breeze become a reality? 癌症可以治愈吗? A team of scientists of BBC's Horizon meets researchers pioneering gene-based therapies that early results suggest could offer a cure for leukaemia. It works by 'editing' a patient's genome by inserting genes that will allow the immune system to identify cancerous cells as alien and destroy them. 精神疾病会成为过去吗? Michael Mosley visits a research project at St Thomas's Hospital in London, where doctors are working to map the developing brain by safely MRI scanning foetuses as they grow. The plan is to use the increased knowledge to identify pathologies that could shed light on conditions like autism and schizophrenia. 人类会变成机器人吗? James Young, who lost an arm and a leg in an accident, goes in search of integrated technologies that might reveal a future for human-machine chimeras. James meets self-proclaimed cyborg Neil Harbisson, who claims to have 'cured' his colour-blindness by converting colour to sounds that are then transmitted to his skull. 人类可以长生不死吗? The average life expectancy in the UK has been steadily increasing since records began in 1840, but the fact remains that the human body gives up at around the 100 year mark - so could that change? The team turns to the east African naked mole rat, which enjoys ten times the lifespan of other species, to see if they can shed any light on the subject. Dr Chris Faulkes, of Queen Mary University of London, asks whether - given the unique protein in their skin that makes it super stretchy and means cancer is virtually unheard of - the mole rat actually holds the secret to a long life. 未来的天气怎么样? Britain's famously uNPRedictable climate may soon be a thing of the past, according to weatherman and meteorologist Peter Gibbs, who argues that we can expect a hotter, drier south, and a warmer, wetter north. 地球上的生命会怎样? Biologist Adam Rutherford outlines the potentially catastrophic impact of plummeting numbers of non-human vertebrate species between now and 2030 - including the rise of smaller predators like rats as a knock-on effect should we lose apex predators such as lions and tigers. He also warns that changing environments could lead us to a point where coffee can no longer survive on planet, or where entire marine systems disappear. 'Life will continue on earth as it has for four billion years,' he said. 'What we are doing is removing the ability for us to live on earth.' 机器人会抢走人类的工作吗? Some jobs seem more susceptible than others to being taken over by robots, but how sure can we be that 'soft skill' careers will always require human ability? To give some indication, Dr Zoe Williams discovers an Artificial Intelligence programme that's as good as she is at being a GP. 我的车会飞吗? According to the show, several groups are developing what they hope will become 'drone taxis'. But can we be trusted at the controls? The answer is emphatically 'no'. But help is at hand. Dr Raffaello D'Andrea designed the complex programme that runs Amazon's fiercely efficient warehouse robots – hundreds of which select products for dispatch to customers, all without crashing into one another. By taking unreliable human pilots out of the equation, It could – perhaps – be the start of just the thing to finally make flying cars – or at least flying taxis – a reality. 相信会有意外发生 Crucial among the things we 'need to know' about the future? And the one the team of scientists are 100 percent confident will prove accurate? Expect the unexpected. |