What's Next?

One thing is certain about the century (or even the millennium) ahead. The pace of discovery is sure to be even faster than it is today and the social and ethical dilemmas created by the exploitation of new knowledge even more haunting. Our understanding of the world has deepened at an accelerating rate since the beginning of modern science 500 years ago. Our century, for example, has had the wit to ask how the universe is constructed, how even the tiniest particles of matter move and how life manages to exist in the face of all the odds against it.

Our...