Odds of finding alien life by 2010 are 10,000/1: bookie

PARIS (AFP) - An online bookmaker is taking bets on the outcome of 10 big scientific endeavours, including the search for life on other planets and the quest to harness nuclear fusion as a substitute for oil.

British bookie Ladbrokes has set starting odds of 10,000/1 that the US-European spacecraft Cassini/Huygens will discover "intelligent life" on the Saturnian moon of Titan by 2010, the British weekly New Scientist says.

It calculates odds of a 100/1 that a fusion power station, using the same energy source that powers the Sun, will be built by 2010.

Odds of a mere six to one are being laid on the discovery by the same date of the Higgs Boson, a sub-atomic particle so elusive that frustrated physicists call it "the God particle."

Ladbroke's website is offering the odds on 10 multi-billion-dollar "monster" schemes that have been launched in space exploration and fundamental physics, identified by New Scientist in this Saturday's issue.

link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040825/323/f17t1.html