TO SEE WHAT IS OVER THE HORIZON: FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE AS A MEANS OF PREDICTING FUTURE
The following issue of "Idei i Novatsii" ("Ideas and Innovations") journal is controversial in character. The works of young ambitious authors somehow contradict the views and opinions of the pillars of Russian science, Demidov Prize winners. Young researchers whose works are presented in such rubrics as "Science" and "Position" have a fairly positive attitude to new opportunities which have recently been provided by the 21st century and digital economy. The materials suggested below give a detailed description of the phenomenon of the most popular gadget - the smartphone - as a new pivot of media consumption by younger generations. Moreover, these articles make a special emphasis on the successful process of adaptation of foreign musicals on the Russian stage, the peculiarities of using such new journalistic formats as long read and storytelling by contemporary mass media, amazing opportunities of Telegram-channels, and the triumph of social networks. In the rubric "People in Science. Demidov Prize Winners" the famous publicist and writer Vladimir S. Gubarev familiarizes the reader with academicians N.K. Kochetkov, V.I. Molodin, and V.A. Rubakov who represent various generations of scholars and various fields of science. However, they all have one thing in common: it is their research and discoveries that enable our science not only to retain top positions in world science but also to write new pages of its history. Their research in various spheres of chemistry, archaeology, and astrophysics gives an opportunity to pay tribute to the past of our civilization and to foresee some particularities of the future. Their interviews express a certain amount of concern and regret about the following: Soviet science had been the leader of world science for a long time, Russian scientists and inventors succeeded in developing and introducing wireless telephone connection, Russian research in the field of computing was equal to that of American. However, the decline and destruction of fundamental science, the consequences of which can still be witnessed at present, have resulted in modern researchers' concentration on studying the options of achievements of Western civilization, such as the Internet, social nets, computers, smartphones, and other gadgets. The academicians call for paying more attention to fundamantal science and the necessity of catching up with the other countries as soon as possible in order not to become the economic appendage of the West. The archaeologist with worldwide recognition, academician V. I. Molodin, draws the readers' attention to the fact that on planet Earth there used to exist quite a few highly-developed civilizations which ultimately disappeared forever. Among the primary tasks of contemporary science Molodin highlights the necessity of disclosing the causes of the death of these civilizations in order to peep over the horizon of the future of the history of this country and humanity in general.