Nick Thorpe introduces a ten-part feature in which ten authorities look ahead to what the coming decade will bring in their own fields.

Humans are always pondering the future. We just can't help it. Whatever mystical religion might tell us about the sacrament of the present moment, we're constantly peering ahead with relish or anxiety, towards the latest gadget, the next hot meal, the threatened cuts, the Promised Land. Even Jesus seems a little conflicted on the ...