Nov. 25, 1962 - Spectacular peaceful applications of atomic energy in the next 20 years were forecast today by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg (second from left), chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. They ranged from a manned expedition by nuclear rocket to the planet Venus or Mars to limited colonization of polar regions on Earth. The Nobel Prize winner was asked in an interview to make his predictions for the 1980s and beyond. The next 30 years, he said, may see such a development of paper that “durable and fashionable clothes made inexpensively of paper will be widely worn.” He also spoke of self-lubricating metals, home-style electronic computers capable of figuring income taxes and family budgets, computers capable of translating a foreign language automatically, and “great progress in predicting storms, earthquakes, and other natural hazards.”
