"China Youth Daily" reported Wednesday that according to elite Chinese scientists, most cancers will be curable by 2015 and computers will be more intelligent than human brains by 2050.

Wu Min, a research fellow with the Chinese Medical Sciences University and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, predicted that decoding the human genome will be achieved in the first five years of the next century.

Chen Lin, a research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Zhao Nanyuan, an artificial intelligence expert with Qinghua University, believe that a computer as small as a shoe box will be as powerful as the human brain by 2012.

Physics scientists Xian Dingchang and Zhu Chuanjie, also members of CAS, said experimental and commercial controlled nuclear fusion reactors will be operational by 2025 and 2040, respectively.

Cao Xiaoye, director of CAS Policy Bureau, said technology is no longer the biggest bottleneck in controlled nuclear fusion, but time and money.

Molecule synthesis will greatly help energy, material, resources and environmental issues facing the world in the next century, said Zhu Qingshi, president of the Chinese University of Science and Technology.

The paper reported that more than 100 elite Chinese scientists made predictions from 1994 to 1997 on solutions to 100 key scientific problems in the 21st century. (Xinhua)