Monday, March 27, 2006

What is more important – current social issue(s) or long-term research?

During my recent visit to the Kennedy Space Center at Florida, I gathered a lot of information about future Mars Missions, next trip to the moon, and sending essentials to the International Space Station. I could sense immense excitement among the employees as they outlined the plans and shared the history with pride.

Spread over an area of over five hundred sq. kilometers, the place itself seems to be totally cut-off from the rest of the world. It is a complex machinery with seventeen thousand employees working relentlessly towards the next launch. Despite all the doubts and uncertainities associated with these complex space programs, there was a current of optimism and accomplishment.

As I headed back from KSC, I had a feeling of returning to the real world. There were people returning from work, kids from school and vehicles rushing to their destinations. As one trail of thought led to another, I thought of all those people without a home, without education and other social ills plaguing this world. Should all the funds and energy that go into such a grand space program be re-channeled? Is it a waste of time and money to dream of settling down in Mars? The answer is a resounding NO.

Problems fall into different categories. Issues like population explosion, illiteracy, crime, and poverty are inter-related and have prevailed always. They have reduced/increased at different rates based on the inter-dependence amongst each other. There are governments, many NGOs, and non-profit organizations that are working towards decreasing these. Then there are man-made and natural calamities. Natural calamities like tsunamis, earthquakes etc are not totally foreseeable yet. However, there are scientists working round the clock to make them more predictable and hence less calamitous. Lastly, man has contributed his fair share in keeping terrorism and warfare prevalent on the face of earth.

Despite all this, one cannot dispute that life today is far better than it was a few decades ago. There are always two kinds of innovations or research that take place – One, addresses current problem(s) and second, in pursuit of a grander dream with no correlation to the current situation. However, on closer look, even the first category comes about due to the curiosity of human mind. Fleming’s discovery of penicillin and Pasteur’s discovery of vaccines were a direct result of mind’s inclination to explore and find new things. I would put Wright Brothers’ invention of airplanes into the second category. If they had been restricted to mitigating social problems, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Better still, there would be no KSC.

All the research that leads to these inventions and discoveries provides immense learning along the way, which is applied to making better, the present life. In the end, it’s not just the end, but the means too.

Human mind is too complex, and brilliant. To curtail its enthusiasm and arrest its wonder would be a bane to mankind. In research, it is amazing how grown up people can sustain the mind of an eight or nine year old. To ask them to go slow on grand projects and not tread un-chartered territories is to deny them freedom. I cannot emphasize the importance of research enough. Hats off to all those beautiful minds and good luck to all the research that is going on in this world.