BANGALORE: While Science is largely believed to have contributed to world growth with ‘violent’ side effects like arms development, Dr K Vijay Raghavan, Director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, TATA Institute of Fundamental Research, believes that life science could bring about a ‘peaceful’ transformation in the world.“The development of the atom bomb by five Hungarian scientists changed the face of American science. But Life Science has a bigger role to play in the world. It can bring us all together, simply because we are connected by the same DNA, chemical structures and cells,” said Dr Raghavan, while delivering a lecture on ‘Life Sciences Research in a Dynamic World: From Laboratory to Society and Back’ at the 38th Foundation Day celebration of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB).“Life Science gives us enormous opportunities, especially in India, considering our demographic size, cultural needs (the role of genes in social behaviour) and the very fact that this part of science has remained unexplored,” he said, adding that Life Science, in comparision to other sciences like bio-technology, was peculiar in its approach to many of our problems.Referring to the growing arms race in Southeast Asia, he said,”In most nations, economic growth is followed by a rise in arms. This is wrong approach. Life sciences can address questions about human growth, potentially negating the need for arms development.”Stating three reasons for the failure of modern science in bringing about transformation in the world, Dr Raghavan said: “Scientific and institutional fragility, poor interaction with society and poor international connectivity are the plaguing issues in science today,” he said, adding that USA and Europe were largely ‘isolated’ due to their scientific successes.'Large conglomerates, a threat to science’“The advent of large conglomerates misusing science is indeed a question that needs to be seriously addressed. Agriculture is already dominated by a few corporations,” said Dr K Vijay Raghavan, Director, National Centre for Biological Sciences, TATA Institute of Fundamental Research, while referring to genetically-modified (GM) crops.“Genetically-modified crops is an interesting mix of science, politics and religion. We need to talk about GM openly if we have to address the issues. It becomes hard when religion comes in,” he said.He added that poor level of communication between scientists and society had lead to such confrontations.“Scientists are often expected to work for money and produce results. But very little of what they do is related to our society. Besides, as people, we are worried about only a few things. Why are mobile phones and cancer such a big worry when they are also causing road accidents,” he questioned.
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