Things that are always “in the future”

Things that are always being talked about as being in the future, but never seem to arrive:

• Clean, sustainable energy from nuclear fusion.
• A safe, simple male contraceptive pill.
• A doctoral program in biology at my university.

When I  interviewed for this job, I was told a doctoral program in biology was probably about 5 years away. I’ve started my third “five years” here, and the goal seems further away than ever.