Challenges Facing Humanity

An interesting news article mentions this list of important challenges for the human race.

1. Make solar energy affordable
2. Provide energy from fusion
3. Develop carbon sequestration
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
5. Provide access to clean water
6. Reverse engineer the brain
7. Prevent nuclear terror
8. Secure cyberspace
9. Enhance virtual reality
10. Improve urban infrastructure
11. Advance health informatics
12. Engineer better medicines
13. Advance personalised learning
14. Explore natural frontiers

It would be so cool even if some of these are accomplished.. like reverse engineering the brain. The blue brain project is one of the significant efforts in this direction.
But some of the points are evergreen(never-ending ) research issues like securing cyberspace. Can we ever develop a bullet proof kinda 100% security technique that cannot be breached.
Also I dont get the significance of virtual reality ? I know it is a hot research area with a lot of money pouring into it. But how does it contribute to society ?