Ability to move the jet stream so we can have summer again.
Al Benn, Macclesfield
The finding of the Higgs boson could herald new technologies the likes of which we can’t even dream of – or can we? Anti-gravity devices or maybe even faster-than-light travel or control of space and time. The possibilities could be limitless.
Brian Clieve, Lancashire
A commercially viable and sustainable nuclear fusion power plant. If we can’t get that to work, future generations will need perpetual motion machines.
Simon Baker, Nottingham
Warp drive, the fusion reactor, a manned mission to Mars. And a genuinely reliable hand blender wouldn’t go amiss!
Andy Fitton, Derby
A hydrogen network for transport. It would make sense of all the renewable energy projects.
Tom Ward, Huddersfield
An electric car you can charge up in the same time it takes to fill a tank full of petrol and that has the same performance as a petrol engine.Crawford Murray, Partridge Green, West Sussex
Audio cancellation technology on trains that can deal with sniffing, shouting, mobile phone ringtones, and interminable pointless announcements!
Dave Burbridge, Milton Keynes
Decarbonising the economy so that our kids can grow up in a world that’s worth living in. Politicians aren’t very good at things that take more than two or three years and the public are resistant to anything that threatens their lifestyle so it’s down to us engineers to provide some leadership.
Martin Joinson, Filton, Bristol
Hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars can’t be far off now, and how about a TV with a built-in lie detector.
David Santon, Leamington Spa
I’m sure I won’t be the only aerospace engineer who wished they’d been an astronaut to say: spaceflight for the masses.
Mike Probyn, Milton Keynes
If only we could harness geothermal energy. All that energy in the earth’s core and we still generate heat by burning fossil fuels.
Alan Constable, Paphos, Cyprus
I hate airports and long-haul flights, so I would like to see teleportation achieved during my lifetime.
Dimitris Triantafyllidis, Nottingham
It has to be viable nuclear fusion. This has been “just around the corner” my whole life!
Jeff Bulled, Lidlington, Bedfordshire
It would be great to see the invention of a wireless method of power transfer as I am sick and tired of tripping over cables and trying to tidy the pile of spaghetti behind my TV and hi-fi.
Steve Collinge, Hilton, Derbyshire
Carbon capture. On my death-bed I’d like to think that there would be something that humanity had done to preserve its long-term welfare and that of the planet.
John Baggs, Edinburgh
Software without glitches, media players compatible with all media formats, IT that lives up to its hype. How pleasant life would be. Sadly it’s just a dream!
Graham Haines, Derbyshire
Technology and manufacturing breakthroughs such that the cost of power generated from a solar/battery system becomes cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels.
Dan Roberts, Canada
The film Back to the Future II was set in 2015 and included kids using hoverboards to get from place to place. I am looking forward to them being available over the next three or four years because by then petrol will be so expensive that engineers won’t be able to afford to run cars.
Andy Brown, Gloucester
I long to see the day when only a professional engineer is called an engineer, as not every cashier is an accountant.
Taimore Afzal, Birmingham
It would be great to discover how to stop the deterioration in health associated with getting old. This really sucks. If we could give everyone a healthy and invigorating life right up to the moment when we pop our clogs, this would be a worthwhile achievement.
Robin Stafford Allen, Oxford
We need a breakthrough in “thinking together”. Removal of ego would be a good start. If this does not occur then there is a danger that our race will go the way of the slow, unresponsive dinosaurs.
Malcolm Savage, Stockport
I wish that in my lifetime we can revisit the moon.
William Grigsby, Surrey
A cheap, reliable car engine that would run on a non-polluting, easily available fuel as an alternative to the present fuels. Will the discovery of the Higgs boson particle which has had billions of euros spent on the project contribute in any way to the breakthrough I have indicated?
Jainoo Brennan, Dublin
Immortality!
Tom Heath, Fortrose, Ross-shire
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