Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Noble Laureate, Aaron Ciechanover, today made an appeal for a global focus on basic sciences rather than applications for the research they were funding. “If you don’t have basic science, there is no applied science…Governments should not think of only applications for the research they were funding,” said Ciechanover, who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2004, in a public lecture on the first day of the 94th Indian Science Congress here.
The Israeli scientist, who won the Nobel for research into the process of protein degradation, cited his own work to justify his “experience” that good science would naturally lead to useful applications. He pointed out that his own research had ended in the development of drugs for diseases caused during the process of protein degradation within cells in the body.
India, he pointed out, was committed to doubling its investment in science and technology from 1 per cent of its GDP to 2 per cent.
Nobel Laureate, Hartmut Michel, delivering a lecture on science and technology for sustainable development, advised Indian farmers to exploit the potential of biogas, which has proved to be a major energy source in his country. He said German farmers earned more money selling energy produced from biogas than selling milk. One farmer had earned as much as 1 million euros from his farm, he said.
Another solution was super photovoltaic cells set up on earth’s major deserts for converting the solar energy into cheap electricity, Michel said. Electricity generated this way could then be transmitted using superconducting cables to other countries. These fields could be set up in the deserts of Sahara, Mexico, Nevada, Gobi and Central Australia, and harmful greenhouse gases could thus be avoided, he said.
