sebb says: "Why is this story not the biggest story in the media right now??!!?? (Cure for Cancer Within Five Years) Surely the best news of the millenium so far. A cure for cancer! all cancer! Posted as a side article on bbc news april 8th."
Whenever I read an article about a cure for peanut allergies (my daughter has a life threatening nut allergy), the articles always quote some researcher as saying it'll happen "in five years."
Curious about the popularity of "in five years," I googled the following terms:
"in two years" — 1,320,000 results
"in five years" — 1,420,000
"in ten years" — 584,000
"in fifteen years" — 59,000
"in twenty years" — 176,000
"in fifty years" — 74,300
"in a hundred years" — 77,500
"in a thousand years" — 56,300
"in ten thousand years" — 3,370 (first hit is Cory!)
"in a hundred thousand years" — 828
"in a million years" — 202,000
"in a billion years" — 5,410
"in a trillion years" — 933
"in a quadrillion years" — 51
"in a googol years" — 38
"in a googolplex years" — 2
"never" — 296,000,000
"Never" wins by a huge margin, but "in five years" comes in second.
UPDATE: "in one year" barely beats "in five years" — 1,490,000
Reader comment: Mark says: "I am a diabetic and have been for about 15 years. You get about one or two
miracle / fantastic solutions promised for some facet of diabetes every
year. Pancreatic implants, eyeball blood-glucose monitoring, nano-whatnot. I
have also noticed that they are always promised in 4 yearly timeframes.
Enquiring to a scientist friend of mine, he pointed out that this is the
life-cycle of a research grant. At the end of which, all bets are off."
