This is the first in a series of blogs I intend to write about the prospects of using biotech to fuel development in Africa in much the same way that ICT has done in places like India. The title of this blog is based on a popular poem by Keats in which he claims that, by dissecting the physical nature of light, Newton had sullied the beauty of the rainbow. Had Keats lived today, perhaps he would have said the same thing about the Watson-Crick discovery of the structure of DNA, the most significant watershed scientific moment in the last century and what many believe to be the start of the modern biotech revolution.Keats would have been as wrong now as he was then, for science hardly detracts from the beauty of nature. An engineer by training, I believe the true value of science lies in its application to solve problems and better the lot of humanity. As a matter of fact, Keats would have been less likely to pen his (in)famous lines had he lived in our age and appreciated the utility of the radio, TV, microwave and a myriad other inventions that Newton's discovery laid the foundation for.
Africa, with its sundry challenges and very human problems, presents the perfect stage for a new breed of philanthropic science. Biotech has the strongest potential to play this role; few industries can match the breadth of its impact in fields as diverse as food, medicine or energy and the immediate effect it could have on the quality of people's lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment