We're about to be sidelined by the most powerful technology that man has yet invented. But as preliminary evidence of where we are now, here's a quote from The Times of yesterday:
<<<< TRAINEE TEACHERS SHUN MATHS AND SCIENCE By Glen Owen Fewer graduates are being recruited to teach mathematics and science subjects, and those who do sign up are poorly qualified, research has found. Figures for England released by the TTA, the Teacher Training Agency, show that the number of graduates entering courses to teach maths fell by 7 per cent last year, contributing to a fall of nearly 30 per cent over five years. The number of maths teachers has nearly halved over 20 years. . . . . Graduates recruited to teach science subects, which have also suffered shortages, were down by nearly 3 per cent, and by 23 per cent over five years. Only 38 per cent of maths recruits and 45 per cent of science recruits had been awarded an upper second or higher degree. This compares to 65 per cent in the classics, 64 per cent in history and 62 per cent in English. . . . . >>>> Much the same applies to American state schools. And yet we're living in a society which depends on scientists. But there's more to come. History shows that empires collapse when they stop developing their most advanced technologies and allow peripheral countries to do so. (Look at the way the British Empire collapsed last century when America smoothly took up and developed all the main technologies of that era.) Biogenetics is the most complex and potentially powerful of all the technologies that man has yet attempted. In its earliest phase at around 8,000 BC, half-a-dozen animal species and half-a-dozen grain species were selected. The result of this preliminary trial was the total transformation of man's culture into what we call civilisation and an explosive expansion of the world population. Biogenetics is now about to enter its second phase. It is already enabling human foetuses with severe genetic effects to be culled, it is shortly going to enable individuals to have their DNA tested and thus (hopefully) to take remedial action and, within a few years, it is going to enable individuals to replace faulty organs with new ones grown from their own stem cells, thus enabling these patients to live for many years longer. As to the last, I cannot think of a product (besides food and water) for which there can ever be a more desperate demand nor, initially, in the supply of which there'll be higher profit margins. America is losing out because its fundamentalist lobbies have stymied necessary legislation. Research in England is a little less restricted, but resistance to further develoment is already building up fast -- over here not from fundamentalists, but from do-gooding bodies such as GeneWatch and the Human Genetics Commission. Meanwhile, China is forging ahead. In a paper shortly to be published in "Nature", Professor Lu Guangxiu (who is surely destined to become one of the most famous scientists in the history of man) will be announcing that she and her team at Xiangya School of Medicine in Hunan province are now years ahead of any other research group in the world. Here I quote from the Sunday Times of July 14: <<<< One of the few people who know the details of Lu's work is Xiangzhong Yang, a Chinese-born professor of biotechnology at Connecticut University. He predicted that she would be able to produce human tissue for transplant operations within five years. . . . Lu, who speaks no English, has been working for decades in parallel with her western counterparts, painfully decipering scientific publications with the aid of a dictionary. She says she was able to produce China' first test-tube baby in 1988—10 years after the world's first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was born in England. She then announced her first cloned mouse in 1995, three years before a team in Hawaii proclaimed what was apparently the world's first such achievement. The professor claims to have produced her first cloned human embryo in 1999, two years ahead of ACT, the American firm usually acknowledged as the pioneer in the field. Lu's researchers are now attempting to create cell cultures from embryos which could be grown into specialised human tissue such as liver, heart or brain which could then be used for repairing damaged organs. >>>> Lu is being backed by China International Trust and Investment Coporation (CITIC) which has bought a majority stake in her clinic and is helping her to patent her work internationally to protect its enormous financial potential. (To give another glimpse of globalisation, the son of CITIC's founder and already one of the richest men in the world, owns one of the most desirable properties in England, Birch Grove in Sussex. This was once the home of Prime Minister Macmillan and has a shooting estate and an 18-hole golf course in its grounds. He, Larry Yung, intends to be a great deal richer before he pegs it. And, of course, with as many replacement organs available from his clinic as he'll need, he's likely to be around for a long time to come.) Let's wake up. We're about to be sidelined. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
