Scientific American Magazine

In the 21st century cosmologists will unravel the mystery of our universe's birth-and perhaps prove the existence of other universes as well

The study of all the genes of various organisms will yield answers to some of the most intriguing questions about life

Is human behavior determined by genetics or by environment? It may be time to abandon the dichotomy

How much of a disruption do we cause? The much-awaited answer could be ours by 2050, but only if nations of the world commit to long-term climate monitoring now

In theory, it certainly can. Yet no single elixir will do the trick. Antiaging therapies of the future will undoubtedly have to counter many destructive biochemical processes at once

Philosophers, neuroscientists and laypeople have long wondered how the conscious mind comes to be. A more complete understanding of the workings of the brain ought to lead to an eventual solution

The answer is: nobody knows. Scientists' search for life beyond Earth has been less thorough than commonly thought. But that is about to change

By 2050 robot "brains" based on computers that execute 100 trillion instructions per second will start rivaling human intelligence

Experiments at CERN and elsewhere should let us complete the Standard Model of particle physics, but a unified theory of all forces will probably require radically new ideas.

The most important discoveries of the next 50 years are likely to be ones of which we cannot now even conceive