Evolution

We will finally know ourselves—if we survive," says Sydney Brenner, an expert at the Crick-Jacobs Center at the Salk Institute in La Jolla (USA), and winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine. "The most important achievement of the upcoming 50th anniversary will be understanding the biology of that most interesting of species—Homo sapiens. I hope we will use our brains more effectively in our interactions with nature, new technologies, and other people. Provided we live to see that day. Of course, even if some great catastrophe were to occur, some of us would survive, and evolution would, in a sense, begin anew. I'll tell you in confidence that I believe nature will favor small humans, whose bodies will only be as large as the brain needs. And that way, we will eliminate the problem of obesity. I think our descendants will be surprised, if not amused, by the amount of scientific garbage—as it turns out—we now deal with. Provided, of course, that we somehow manage to preserve the online archives of scientific journals."