As one who started working in research labs half a century ago, I can say that the nature of science makes long-term predictions an enticing but unrealistic exercise. What biochemist in the early 1950's could have foreseen that 20 years later there would be a new science, called molecular biology, that would eventually allow us to decipher the genomes of numerous species, including our own? Who, in those heady days of antibiotics and DDT and polio vaccine, would have believed that new and old infectious diseases would become plagues in much of the world?

In the immediate future, biochemists will learn all about the three-dimensional structure of large molecules (proteins, nucleic acids, complex carbohydrates) and about changes that occur when these molecules interact with each other. We will learn how environmental signals change such interactions, and how disease perturbs them, and we will find many practical applications of this knowledge. In the future, the boundaries between biochemistry and related biological disciplines will become even more fuzzy, and the chemical end will be extended to include more mathematics and physics. Because most biological -- and medical -- problems are complex enough to require interdisciplinary studies, biochemists will find themselves more and more involved in collaborations with experts in other areas. But the source of new ideas and of creativity will remain the individual scientist, whether working in a large group or dreaming alone.