Change comes...

A spectacular moment of inspiration builds toward the inauguration and Presidency of Barack Obama. The son of a Kenyan father and white American mother becomes President of a country populated by the descendents of European immigrants, African slaves, Native and immigrant Latin Americans and the Native Americans who survived the ravages of guns and germs.

He is well-educated, well-spoken, intelligent, graceful, practical and, as his career testifies, in command of considerable political talent. The question is how he will deal with the mess left by his predecessor who systematically set the USA back on a number of fronts. This includes George W Bush’s science policy, which as a matter of fact was an anti-science policy, that Obama believes ‘handcuffed’ scientists to medieval ideology.

The first task for him in this area is therefore to restore scientific integrity to the White House, by using evidence-based science to guide policy. The Obama-Biden policy statements read: ‘Good policy in Washington depends on sound advice from the nation’s scientists and engineers and decision-making based on the needs of all Americans.’

Perseverence...

Ingrid Betancourt gives gripping and deeply moving interviews of her extraordinary time as a captive of Columbia’s guerillas. Held for six years, she spoke about how she was witness to just about every perverse and cruel nuance of human nature there is.

Betancourt was taken in 2002 with 15 others at a roadblock and released in July 2008. Over the course of the six years, Betancourt was abused, humiliated, insulted and tortured. She has great difficulty talking about the torture.

She tried to escape six times. She paid the price for her daring, chained to a tree for one night, and after the next attempt, throughout night and day. Once, she says, she was made to stand for 3 nights and days chained by the throat to a tree.

Chinua, professor at Bard College

Bard College used to be an undergraduate college of Columbia University. Most academics in Africa know of it because it is there that the great writer Chinua Achebe is a distinguished professor. Bard’s president Leon Botstein had the foresight and humanity to offer Achebe an academic place after an awful accident in the UK left him wheelchair bound.

A gracious and lucid man, Achebe remains one of Africa’s outstanding intellects. The former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town Njabulo Ndebele is presently there and what good company he keeps.

Leon Botstein is my personal music hero. He plays the viola. He is the music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel.

Signaling intent...

Human cells communicate with one another. They send and receive biochemical messages. They tell one another when things are not right. In the world of biomedicine they are called disease-signalling molecules. Having the human genome at hand has allowed the science community to look and find those molecules that signal disease.

The leukotrienes for example are molecules that give out signals about chronic and degenerative diseases. A study completed in 2004 identified leukotrienes as lipid molecules signalling chronic inflammatory disorders affecting the joints and respiratory systems that are serious health problems with major socio-economic consequences.

The study wanted to describe the biochemical nature of the underlying disease so that earlier diagnosis was possible and new drugs be developed. ‘Our project will be conducted’ they wrote ‘in alliance with industry and has the potential for future extension into medical practise’.

“The problem is that the western world’s move toward organic farming - a lifestyle choice for a community with surplus food - and against agricultural technology in general and GM in particular, has been adopted across the whole of Africa … with devastating consequences,” says Sir David King, the UK Government’s former chief scientist.

Nature, the widely respected scientific journal, had this take in a recent editorial: “For well over a decade, companies such as Monsanto have sought to create African markets for GM crops such as insect-resistant Bt cotton, while against them have stood European environmental groups and not a few African political leaders, for whom multinational businesses evoke the spectre of colonialism. The two sides have waged a war in parliaments, in the media and even on the streets.”

The conflict, in which African interests are wrestled by pressure groups outside of Africa, has become so intense that, in 2007, the African Union sponsored an investigation into genetically modified crops, “Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa’s Development”.

Their report begins with a clear understanding of their position, “It is no secret that Africa’s history has been marked by a development narrative in which the benefits from science, technology and innovation have been enjoyed by few, instead of being seen as tools for the development of all citizens.”

In 2001, on the eve of the US-led invasion into Afghanistan, soldiers are fortified with more than just guns and bullets. Many, especially the pilots, were on Provigil produced by Cephalon in the US. The drug is designed to treat narcolepsy but allows pilots to stay awake, and operational, for up to 85 hours at a time.

What works for the military soon becomes popular elsewhere. Scientists and stressed executives were soon pushing cognitive enhancers into off-label areas of use. Provigil is popular, but so too is Ritalin (usually prescribed for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder), Aricept (used to treat Alzheimer's disease), and Adderall (used for both narcolepsy and ADHD).

In the seminal short story, Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, Charlie Gordon documents his experiences following surgery designed to enhance his intelligence. Charlie gradually becomes one of the most intelligent people on earth before tragically suffering a reversion and dying. Keyes, however, had tapped into the curious pursuit of cognitive enhancement that has driven scientists to take unusual risks with their own lives.

On 19 April 1943, Swiss chemist, Dr Albert Hofmann of the Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland, intentionally ingested 250ug of Lysergic acid diethylamide; LSD. Its hope as a mind-enhancing steroid has proven a disappointment, despite energetic disciples such as Timothy Leary.

However, the pursuit of synthesized drugs that would provide cognitive enhancement is still an area of tremendous activity.