Nicholas Wade points out the risks of trying to pick winners, in this field where many benefits are expected. He mentions Dr. Yamanaka's work: I quote:
``The major advances in stem cell biology have come from molecular biologists who study transcription factors, the master control switches that govern the cell’s operations. The Japanese biologist Shinya Yamanaka showed that with a mere four of these factors, which he cleverly guessed, he could force an ordinary cell to walk back to embryonic state.''
Then he goes on to point out that we have here basic science, not applied science, and this kind of science very rarely has insights like Dr. Yamamaka's. This sounds similar to the four bases that Dr. Watson figured out fit like a nice jig-saw puzzle.
These findings do not happen often. I can tell you.
So what are we to do?
I believe like Faraday, that discoveries are like babies we do not know the use of. We have to nurture them, be loving, and in good time they will pay their keep.
Quote:
- One day sir, you may tax it.
- Faraday's reply to William Gladstone, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer (minister of finance), when asked of the practical value of electricity (1850), as quoted in The Harvest of a Quiet Eye : A Selection of Scientific Quotations (1977), p. 56
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