Prophets, priests, scientists and environmentalists have been gleefully predicting the end of the world for several millennia but it wont happen. One of the reasons that the human species has been so successful has been our ability to adapt to changing environments, enabling us, like viruses, to colonise almost every part of the planet, and make use of every available …
Megatrends and Anti-Trends
Kristin Alford who was also at last weeks SMO Cleantech Confernce has a thought provoking piece on anti trends, inspired by Stefan Hajkowicz’s overview of Megatrends which I discussed yesterday. It’s an theory I can agree with – just because there is a trend doesn’t mean that everyone will go along with it, and the anti trends can sometimes have …
Cleantech in Melbourne: No Worries!
According to JP Morgan, flying to 21186 miles to Melbourne and back for a clean tech conference generated 5.63 tonnes of carbon dioxide, but unlike most conferences on this subject the hot air emissions were negligible. The Sir Mark Oliphant Cleantech: Mainstream and at the Edge conference was refreshing for the positive outlook on cleantech rather than the self flagellation …
Technology Diffusion as the Ultimate Democratic Process
The Guardian follows up on the Nature article last week which indicated that most applications of GM crops have been successful. It’s sad to see the the first reaction of many of the anti GM side of the debate is to attempt to portray the writer of he Guardian article as biased or beholden to big GM business in some …
Democracy vs Emerging Technologies
I had a chat today with a US colleague who complained that all the journalistic attempts to derail nanotech just drive any commercial benefits of US research into the hands of the Russians & Chinese. Is that a price worth paying for democracy? Certainly my colleagues in more, ahem, regulated economies are quite happy to give up a small amount …
The Science Vote – Count Yourself Lucky If You Have A Choice
So, after years of skirmishing, The UK finally gets a chance to vote to fill this job vacancy, and the question on many people’s lips is ‘Who will give the best deal for science?” and you can follow the arguments on the Campaign for Science and Engineering’s Science Vote blog. Despite leaving research over fifteen years ago, I still have …
Less is More in the Collaboration Nation
Various bits of the UK government have come in for a bit of a bashing recently, and rightly so, but there are other bits that do fire on all cylinders and are actually doing a great job, UK Trade & Investment and the Technology Strategy Board for example. I spent a chunk of yesterday at the TSB’s Collaboration Nation event …
UK Nanotechnology Strategy Written By Dullards Or Dimwits?
Since the UK’s new nanotechnology strategy was launched I have been either having a crash course in regenerative medicine or getting over a cold. In the meantime, my colleagues Andrew Maynard and Dexter Johnson have both taken a long hard look at the ‘strategy’ and found it wanting. No, I’m being kind, the general consensus is that it is total …
Strategic Geopolitical Trends – From Spooks to Nanotech
The UK Ministry of Defence released its latest ‘Global Strategic Trends – Out to 2040‘ study last month, and it’s a good read (even for non spooks) covering everything from terrorism to to climate change and their impact on geopolitics. The report identifies four key issues, Globalisation, Climate Change, Global Inequality & Innovation which will dominate the next thirty years. The …
Save The Children
Today’s ‘Vision for UK Research‘ document sets out the recommendations for the future of research in the UK. More worrying is the report that the raw material that will be turned into those researchers, a fifth of primary school pupils are failing in English & Maths. The Vision for UK Research document goes to great lengths to compare the UK to China, …