Science fiction: students and celebs look to the future

SHOES that teach the wearer to dance, iPods that gauge the mood of the listener and adjust the musical selection accordingly — if the predictions of a selection of the public are anything to go by, the future looks blissfully bright.

A project for national Science Week has gathered the thoughts of students and celebrities alike on their vision of what scientific progress will bring to the Ireland of tomorrow and their ideas will be on display on the bandstand in Stephen’s Green in Dublin and on the scienceweek.ie website until next Sunday.

Not surprisingly, many of the junior contributors are hopeful of finding robots and computerised gizmos to help with the tedium of schoolwork although Eight-year-old Darragh Healy, clearly a friend of Steve Staunton, envisions “a football that can do skills for you if you can’t do them yourself”.