After spending well over a year contemplating and researching both the scope and the content of this book, we began writing it as the Ưmillennium dawned, a time described by many as a pivotal point between the past and the future. Early in the year 2000, both the popular and the technical press contained numerous articles by leading writers, commentators, and academics predicting how they saw Britain, the world, and people’s lives changing during the 21st century. While their opinions differed, they all recognized that during the past century, science and technology had opened more doors than anyone could have possibly imagined. While science is notoriously unpredictable, most.
