Week 7 - Biobusiness 2

Biological sciences holds plenty of potential. Biobusiness takes us 25% of the world economy. However we are not even close to fully exploring that potential.

Humans! An interesting video, where humans are depicted to be a disease. Infectious/ spreads to other planets? True. Instead of finding solutions to feed our needs, perhaps we need some self introspection on our destructive consumption patterns. Technology is merely delaying/ giving us alternative forms to continue our destructive lifestyle. Now that we are running out of options, is it too late to save an ailing Mother Earth? Only time will tell..

Some solutions brought up in class (including presentation topics):

- Norman Bollog? New n smart ways to produce plants etc. Efficiency for growing food vs population. Seemed to be true in 1960s.

- Food being sold in fixed packaging to cut down on manpower requirement? New way of doing things.

- Love canal? New solution to dumping. 10-15years then use land for building.

- GM Foods? GM Pigs. Digest phosphorous etc. (No more fertile pig poo?)

All the forms of technology and adopted technology, I believe, have their own strengths as well as weaknesses. This double edged sword can come back and hurt us if we are not careful. For example, as much as pig poo is "over-fertile", causing rivers to jam up, if pigs are genetically altered to digest phosphates, removing the fertility in their poo, what effects does this have on the ecosystem? The extent of damage done, if any, would only be learnt upon implementing such measures.

All in all, the session introduces many advents in which we can explore to save the world, grow our economies, sustain our consumption patterns with some changes. Innovation is the key. However, we need to carefully manage these technologies and, yet at the same time, adopt them fast enough. We are not sure how much more abuse Mother Earth can take.

Perhaps what we could have discussed more is really the problem of implementation. Brilliant ideas and innovation are key. However, we need the infrastructure and political will to spread these resources to all who need them.

Rating:7/10