TY - JOUR T1 - Crystal Balls JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 79 LP - 79 VL - 57 IS - 534 AU - Neville Goodman Y1 - 2007/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/57/534/79.abstract N2 - Few activities are more fatuous than predicting the future. But as no one seems prepared to say, ‘Who can tell?’, any magazine or newspaper is assured that ‘the planet's most prominent scientists’ [sic] will be prepared to mouth off, themselves assured that they won't be around to be mocked when their predictions are wildly wrong. New Scientist celebrated its 50th anniversary in the autumn with just such a futurefest (reported in the Guardian). Anyone asked to predict so far ahead should first be reminded of … ER -