290 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
290 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
sponsored
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motoring
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ford-future-sessions
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future-of-science
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8206484
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-----
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# This Will Change Everything
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## Some of the world's greatest thinkers came together recently to answer the
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really big question - what will change the world? Roger Highfield, editor of
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New Scientist, reveals their predictions, from crowd-sourced charity to space
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colonisation and built-in telepathy.
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![This Will Change Everything: Personal jetpacks may never have taken off, but
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what about 'radiotelepathy'? ][1]
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Personal jetpacks may never have taken off, but what about 'radiotelepathy'?
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Photo: Illustration by Tim Marrs
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3:11PM GMT 16 Dec 2010
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It is not hard to think of examples of wide-eyed predictions that have proved
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somewhat wide of the mark. Personal jetpacks, holidays on the moon, the
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paperless office and the age of leisure all underline how futurologists are
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doomed to fail.
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Any predictions should thus be taken with a heap of salt, but that does not
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mean crystal ball-gazing is worthless: on the contrary, even if it turns out
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to be bunk, it gives you an intriguing glimpse of current fads and
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fascinations.
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A few weeks ago, a science festival in Genoa, Italy, gathered together some
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leading lights to discuss the one aspect of futurology that excites us all:
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cosa fara cambiare tutto -- this will change everything.
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The event was organised by John Brockman, a master convener, both online and
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in real life, and founder of the Edge Foundation, a kind of crucible for big
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new ideas.
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With him were two leading lights of contemporary thought: Stewart Brand, the
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father of the Whole Earth Catalog, co-founder of a pioneering online community
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called The Well and of the Global Business Network; and Clay Shirky, web guru
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and author of Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.
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## Related Articles
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* [Five unpopular, amazing ideas][2]
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16 Dec 2010
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Shirky meditated on how, during his formative years, it was thought that the
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decades to come would be dominated by nuclear power and the great adventure of
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space flight.
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Decades later, it is now clear that those technologies may have dominated
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discussions of the day but their direct influence remained firmly with the
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technological elite. With the benefit of hindsight, his early years were the
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age of the transistor and birth control.
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When it comes to the forces shaping our lives today, Shirky points to how
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coordinated voluntary participation is on the rise, thanks to online tools.
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With the help of the internet, people are now learning how to make use of the
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increasing amounts of free time that have been afforded to them since the
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1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones.
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At one end of the spectrum are people like Jacob Colker, who has combined
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volunteering, the internet and mobile phones to pioneer a new form of activism
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in which almost anyone with a smartphone can devote spare minutes to a useful
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charitable or scientific task. More than 40,000 volunteers have now signed up
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for "micro-volunteering" and he has just won a grant from Rolex to encourage
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millions more to volunteer.
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At the other end of the spectrum is the Polymath project, launched by the
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Cambridge University mathematician Tim Gowers, to allow mathematicians to work
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together. A large number of mathematicians have already made rapid work of a
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thorny theorem, and work has begun on new problems.
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Stewart Brand focused on climate change, a "century-sized problem that we
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cannot understand yet". He argues that we must take mastery of climate as we
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once took mastery of fire, then of genetics (agriculture), then of
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communication (music, writing, maths, maps, images, printing, radio,
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computers).
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Humanity now has to find ways to produce 13 terawatts of greenhouse-free
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energy to moderate global warming to a just-tolerable increase of 2C (3.6F).
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Improving the engineering of nuclear and solar won't get us what we need; new
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science is required.
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He adds that climate change is a global problem that cannot be fixed with
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global economics; it requires a new form of global governance too, to tackle a
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raft of giant issues.
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In an earlier survey of world-changing ideas conducted by John Brockman of 110
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leading scientists, artists and commentators, many other themes emerged. Among
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the raft of predictions, Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek believes everything will
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continue to become smaller, faster, cooler, and cheaper.
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And John Gottman, founder of the Gottman Institute, revived the more heroic
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vision of space colonisation. Many were concerned with health.
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Gregory Benford, a novelist and chairman of biotech company Genescient,
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believes he might live to 150 and that mitigating the diseases of old age will
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revolutionise society.
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Sir Ian Wilmut, director of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine, who
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led the project that cloned Dolly the sheep, predicted great leaps in
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medicine, with stem cell research improving life quality and expectancy.
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Harvard psychologist Irene Pepperberg believes knowledge of exactly how the
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brain works will change everything. That will enable doctors to tackle
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diseases in which the brain stops working properly, from Alzheimer's to
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Parkinson's. She also believes it will be possible to understand and repair
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brains susceptible to addictions or criminality.
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The possibility of "radiotelepathy" was raised by Freeman Dyson at the
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Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton. Rather than transmitting feelings
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and thoughts from one brain to another by mystical means, he sees "a prosaic
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kind of telepathy induced by physical tools... We have only to invent two new
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technologies, first the direct conversion of neural signals into radio signals
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and vice versa, and second the placement of microscopic radio transmitters and
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receivers within the tissue of a living brain."
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Medicine will increasingly be personalised, according to Steven Pinker,
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professor of psychology at Harvard University. Drugs will be prescribed
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according to the patient's molecular background rather than by trial and
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error, to maximise their impact and minimise side effects.
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He envisages the "ultimate empowerment of medical consumers, who will know
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their own disease risks and seek commensurate treatment, rather than relying
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on the hunches and folklore of a paternalistic family doctor".
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And life itself is likely to be customised for human use to an incredible
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extent. J Craig Venter, the genome and synthetic life pioneer who leads a big
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team at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, believes there
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will be a huge expansion of genetic engineering.
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"We have now shown that DNA is absolutely the information-coded material of
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life by completely transforming one species into another simply by changing
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the DNA in the cell... Very soon we will be able to do the same experiment
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with the synthetic chromosome... to direct organisms to do processes that are
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desperately needed, like create renewable biofuels and recycle carbon
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dioxide."
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As such, the greatest current ideas might not only change the world, but help
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assure mankind a future on the planet.
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[X][3] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][4]
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* Share: [Share][3] [ ][5] [ ][6]
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[Tweet][7]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-
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science/8206484/This-Will-Change-Everything.html
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Telegraph
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## [Future of science][8]
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* ### [Sponsored »][9]
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* ### [Motoring »][10]
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* ### [Ford Future Sessions »][11]
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[X][3] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][4]
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Share:
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* [ ][3]
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* [ ][5]
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* [ ][6]
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* [Tweet][7]
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* ![][12]
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[The Hubble Telescope »][13]
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### [WIN! a new book about the Hubble Space Telescope's amazing
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discoveries][14]
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[![Light echoes from a red supergiant star, as captured by the Hubble Space
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Telescope. ][15] ][14]
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The Telegraph has five copies of Hubble: Window on the Universe by Giles
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Sparrow, worth £40 each, to give away.
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### [The Hubble Space Telescope: the big picture][16]
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For 20 years the Hubble Space Telescope has shown us amazing images like
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these. Giles Sparrow, author of Hubble: Window on the Universe, explains why
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it's a modern marvel.
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### [Images from the Hubble Space Telescope][17]
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[![Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from Giles Sparrow's Hubble:
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Window on the Universe. ][18]][17]
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Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from the book Hubble: Window on the
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Universe.
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[The new silicon? »][19]
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### [Graphene: our miracle material][20]
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[![Graphene is a planar sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern.
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Stacked graphene sheets form graphite, used in pencils. ][21] ][20]
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Graphene is harder than diamond, just a single molecule thick and conducts
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electricity. Kat Hannaford talks to the two Nobel prize-winning scientists who
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discovered it about why it could revolutionise everything.
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[1]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01786/everything_1786961b.jpg
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[2]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8206596
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/Five-unpopular-amazing-ideas.html
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[3]: #
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[4]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/4590190/Share-this-article-
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What-are-these.html
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[5]: mailto:?subject=A Telegraph reader thought you would be interested in
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this article&body=Depending on your email program, you may be able to click on
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the link in the email. Alternatively, you may have to open a web browser, such
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as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and copy the link over into the address bar.
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%0A%0Ahttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/8206484/This-Will-Change-Everything.html %0A%0AFor the best
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content online, visit www.telegraph.co.uk
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[6]: javascript:print()
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[7]: http://twitter.com/share?via=Telegraph
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[8]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/
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[9]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/
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[10]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/
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[11]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/
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[12]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01766/Ford_in_asso_1766175a.jpg
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[13]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/8206698/Celebrating-the-Hubble-Space-Telescope.html
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[14]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-
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science/8206679/Win-a-copy-of-Hubble-Window-on-the-Universe.html
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[15]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01786/hubble1_1786847e.jpg
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[16]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8206698
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/The-Hubble-Space-Telescope-the-big-picture.html
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[17]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8207252
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/Images-from-the-Hubble-Space-Telescope.html
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[18]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01787/hubble3_1787067e.jpg
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[19]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions
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/future-of-science/8207121/Graphene-our-miracle-material.html
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[20]: /sponsored/motoring/ford-future-sessions/future-of-science/8207121
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/Graphene-our-miracle-material.html
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[21]:
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http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01787/graphene_1787024e.jpg
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