Some words of wisdom on science and policy

Science magazine has published David Baltimore's Presidential Address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Here are a few excerpts:

It is criminal that at a time when the opportunities in biomedical research outstrip those at any other moment in history, there has been a 13% real decrease in the buying power of the health research budget between 2004 and the 2009 proposal. The current president has presided over this decimation of one of the jewels of American science, a jewel that has spawned the biotechnology industry, the one industry in which America is the unquestioned leader......

I want to tell you about an industry I found in India that I had no idea about. I was recently the guest of an Indian company called TnQ, which is partly housed in a modern building in Chennai. Inside this and their other buildings were 1000 people, mainly Ph.D.'s, sitting in front of computers, editing and preparing for both Web and print publication many of the journals that are "published" in the developed world. In particular, they publish many Elsevier journals, notably those of the Cell Press subsidiary. They printed out for me an article of mine that they had dealt with. I had no idea they were involved, because it can be difficult to know where in cyberspace your e-mails originate. With huge data pipes open to India, and English as their national language, Indians can play some surprising roles in the knowledge industry.......

But how about the truly needy countries, the ones where development has yet to make much of a dent? Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have generally felt that the needs in these countries are so pressing and so basic that aid should concentrate on their immediate needs, not on high-tech science. But a number of thinkers disagree. At the 2007 AAAS annual meeting, Mohamed Hassan, executive director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, spoke of the role that science, technology, and innovation can play in the development of Africa. I agree with him that the innovation enabled by strong science and technology can catalyze development and that investments there will pay off in the future. He also pointed out that countries that are now more developed and growing (like Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey, and others) are investing in science and technology, creating a multi-polar world of science. These are countries with a strong base, positive growth rates, and increasingly replete government coffers. They can afford to build research facilities. But they all had traditions of research and education as well as institutions to build upon. Sometimes these date from their colonial period. The African countries have much less, and even when their colonial masters built universities, periods of ruinous dictatorship and wars left the institutions in a shambles. Many are now trying to rebuild.

There needs to be an emphasis on institution-strengthening in Africa. Africa needs research, but perhaps a greater need is more trained people. People trained in science and technology can contribute in many ways to economic development. And Baltimore's rules apply. Thus, the institutions that are built should combine teaching and research. It is important to start small, concentrating available resources and talent until such time as there are sufficient trained personnel for further expansion. International institutions within Africa would be best, but it may be too much to wish that African countries share resources to build the best possible universities. It will take significant and sustained foreign aid and assistance from universities of the developed world to build such institutions, but the payoff could be immense.

Building science and technology capability is a long-term effort. Only in the context of political stability will it work. The NGOs of the world have learned this lesson and are putting an increasing fraction of their aid into countries that are stable, reasonably honest, and intelligently led. This is also where the long-term bets should be made, with the understanding that present stability may not be a guarantee of future stability.

Africa is a patchwork of countries in very different circumstances. Some very small countries provide great opportunity, like Paul Kagame's Rwanda. When I visited there earlier this year, I was impressed by the commitment to science and technology as a generator of economic growth even in this very poor country, so recently caught up in its horrific spasm of genocide. They are now building institutions able to train nurses and other medical personnel so that they have the people to deal with AIDS and other medical needs. They are also increasing their university education to train doctors, engineers, and scientists. Although it may take some years for this country to achieve political maturity amidst lingering ethnic tensions, the honest and meritocratic government of President Kagame, supported by investments from abroad, is encouraging. Theirs is a leading-edge experiment, testing the role that science and technology can play in African development.

But huge challenges remain in Africa, where legacies of tribal conflict often undermine attempts to develop institutions. Congo is an example. It is one of the largest countries of Africa but perennially dealing with internal strife. South Africa is by far the leading country of Africa and has some impressive universities and even does world-class science. But there, the leadership has believed in myths about AIDS, not realities, sadly leaving the country to fight this scourge without high-level support. And the toll has been terrible......

I hope that when Jim McCarthy takes the reins as the next AAAS president, he will be able to bring a message of optimism. Optimism that our country is prepared to once again act morally, no matter what the provocation; optimism that we will face up to our responsibility to posterity to seriously deal with global warming; optimism that we will reinvigorate our investment in our future, rising to meet the gathering storm; optimism that the tide of religion-based anti-intellectualism that has gripped our nation is being turned.

Then we can reassert our belief in America once again. We can move from denial to pride. We can hold our heads up high as we travel the world, knowing that our fine democracy has once again produced leadership worthy of our great country. Is this too much to ask, I wonder.

Comment: Of course, David Baltimore as one of America's most distinguished scientists, with a record of excellence in the administration of scientific organizations as well as a Nobel Prize for his research, has little to fear from anyone. Still, this is a courageous speech and I am glad that he made it. JAD