List of holy grails

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The legend of the Holy Grail is the basis of the modern usage of holy grail. A "holy grail" is a sought-after, all-but-unobtainable goal for a person, organization, or field.

Many scientific problems once considered holy grails have now been conquered, most strikingly the sequencing of the human genome which has in turn inspired new quests of equally daunting magnitude. Some quests such as achieving a room temperature superconductor are sustained efforts that inch tantalizingly closer with each new result, while other quests await a shocking bolt from the blue.

The following is a list of (predicted) inventions or discoveries that are considered "holy grails", arranged by scientific field.

1 Archaeology
2 Astronomy
3 Biology
4 Medicine
5 Computer science
6 Cosmology
7 Economics
8 Psychotherapy
9 Film
10 Linguistics
11 Mathematics
12 Physics
- 12.1 Applied physics
- 12.2 High-energy physics
13 References

[edit] Archaeology

“	Tell me where is the Sema of Alexander?	”
—St. John Chrysostom of Constantinople, 4th century

Wholly intact (significant) pharaonic tomb
The Sema (tomb) of Alexander the Great
A complete set of Maya codices
Complete copies of Livy's History of Rome, Manetho's Aegyptiaca, and the Turin Royal Canon
Works of Strato of Lampsacus
Excavation and preservation of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang
Discovering the Land of Punt
Locating the Sarcophagus of Mycerinus from the wreck of the Beatrice
Loot from the Treasury of the Temple of Artemis at the bottom of the Aegean
Copy of Khufu's Book of Wisdom

[edit] Astronomy

Detection of a pulsar in orbit around a black hole [1]
Detection of an earthlike planet orbiting another star.
Detection of extraterrestrial life (see e.g. SETI)
The nature of dark matter/dark energy

[edit] Biology

Biological immortality in humans
Assembling a cell from scratch using simple precursor materials (either manually or via random seeding)
A complete understanding of the genetic code
Accurately predicting the three-dimensional structure of a protein from the sequence of its amino acids from first principles, not by similarity to other structures.

[edit] Medicine

A cure or treatment for all forms of cancer
A cure or vaccine for AIDS
A cure or vaccine for the common cold
A way to medically suppress overweight

[edit] Computer science

Artificial consciousness/strong artificial intelligence
A polynomial time algorithm for NP-complete problems, or a proof of its nonexistence (Does P = NP?)
Building a quantum computer.
Creating a verifying compiler, that is, a compiler that can prove if a computer program meets the specification of what it is meant to do.

[edit] Cosmology

The precise age of the universe
Whether and how the universe will come to an end

[edit] Economics

Solving the equity premium puzzle
Creating an equivalent of Black-Scholes for futures contract pricing

[edit] Psychotherapy

Metatheory that ties all types and subtypes of psychotherapy together.

[edit] Film

A complete copy of London After Midnight.
Recovery of the spider-crab sequence from King Kong.
Recovery of the full-length version of Greed.

[edit] Linguistics

Definition of a universal grammar, or proof of its nonexistence
Deciphering unknown writing systems, especially Linear A, Etruscan, and the Indus Valley Civilization script
Translating the Voynich Manuscript
Linking of the Basque language to another language family (deciphering of Iberian language?)

[edit] Mathematics

“	There was a young fellow from Trinity Who took the Square Root of Infinity But the number of digits Gave him the fidgets He dropped math and took up Divinity.	”
—George Gamow, 1947

A proof of the Riemann hypothesis
A proof of the abc conjecture
A proof of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture
A proof of the Hodge conjecture
A unified theory of mathematics

[edit] Physics

A theory of everything
A unified field theory
A testable physical prediction from string theory

[edit] Applied physics

Room temperature superconductors
Efficient cold or controlled fusion
Anti-gravity devices
Superluminal (faster-than-light) travel or communication
Time travel
Teleportation

[edit] High-energy physics

“	There once was a Lady named Bright Whose speed was much faster than Light She went out one day In a Relative way, And returned -- the previous night!	”
—Anonymous, early 20th century

The observation of a Higgs particle (soon expected to be observed at the Large Hadron Collider)
The observation of a magnetic monopole
The observation of a sparticle
The observation of a tachyon