With the sad but not entirely unexpected death of Arthur C Clarke, it's worth revisiting the series of predictions for the 21st century that the self-styled visionary unveiled in December 2001. Given that his prophecies were eerily close to reality and that his own writings often became self-fulfilling, due to their influence on prominent scientists, even the more far-fetched of his suggestions shouldn't be dismissed entirely out of hand. And for all the wilder claims he makes for the future, he was still someone rooted in the real world, as his recent writings on e-terrorism proved.

Here are a few of his 21st century highlights:

2004: First publicly admitted human clone A religious cult in France claimed to have cloned a human in 2002. A team at Newcastle University cloned a human embryo in 2005.

2006: Last coal mine closed The last deep coal mine in Wales closed in 2008. The last coal mine in France closed in 2004. It is, however, a long way from having ceased worldwide.

2010: A new form of space-based energy is adopted Solar energy nanotechnology is now considered a serious proposition.

2011: Space flights become available to the public Sir Richard Branson launched Virgin Galactic in 2004. While he insists he is not in a race to provide the first commercial space flights, bookings are already being taken.

2013: Prince Harry flies in space Not if an Australian website tracks him down first.

Sadly, the great man himself (Arthur C Clarke, not Prince Harry) will be unable to celebrate his 100th birthday aboard a space orbiter as he predicted. More's the pity.