John Hersey illustrated this week’s Science Times section, front to back, for a special issue on the future of science.  Page one displayed a signature Hersean flight of imagination:

The rest of the section is scattered with a dozen richly crafted spots on a variety of topics, some of which are shown in detail, below. 

Funding research:

Mining the sea floor for rare minerals:

The future of space exploration:

Genes as a mirror of life experience:

Identifying the next big thing:

And finally, the absurdity of accurately predicting anything to do with science: