2008 Woodie Awards
Budget concerns should not hinder scientific advances
Jonathan Gair
Issue date: 4/22/08 Section: OpEd Page
I've been a fan of the military my entire life: I read random issues of Jane's Defense Weekly that I come across in King Library, I have a poster of the technical schematics of a V-22 Osprey hanging on my wall at home, and I've been to an air show in the middle of summer where I had to wait nearly an hour in a long and twisting line for a cup of flat Coke. As is usually seen throughout history, it has been military necessity and need that have driven enormous advancements in our technology and culture-the space program, lasers, jeeps and self-dispersing cluster sub-munitions … what? These changes, however, have almost always been about core technology and external improvements to the human condition. Now, however, with news of a joint Wake Forest-Rutgers program, the military is affecting us internally-it's trying to grow and regenerate human organs.
The horrific effects of the improvised explosive devices that have been encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan, as reported by The Business Journal, have prompted this $85 million effort. This new connection between the military and healthcare is an important step in providing the funding and resources necessary for such a large and dramatic scientific undertaking. While the added effects of the inflow of grant money into these universities would be great if they could happen at our own university, the advances that have been made should be recognized.
Already, labs have been able to grow bone, blood and muscle and projections for other medical programs indicate human trials within five years. The ultimate goal? To be able to regenerate entire limbs and re-attach them so most amputee problems will become a thing of the past. Of course, it's taken a war and increased survival rates among soldiers to prompt this type of discovery-preceded and made possible by an ever-popular field of armor and self-defense equipment that has been ensuring as many lives as possible are saved when danger comes one's way.
In a week when Bank of America can lose 77 percent of its profit projections because of the compiling credit crunch problems, this talk of regeneration seems completely out of left field. It shows, however, what research and development can follow when there is a blatant need for new medical technology-technology that is on the verge of science fiction. Even if researchers worry that funding for their projects will be uncertain after the allotted five years, all that they will really need is to effectively showcase a demonstration of their ability to advance this field of medical science and pave the way for other teams of scientists and universities to be able to take up this front line work in patching people up.
The horrific effects of the improvised explosive devices that have been encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan, as reported by The Business Journal, have prompted this $85 million effort. This new connection between the military and healthcare is an important step in providing the funding and resources necessary for such a large and dramatic scientific undertaking. While the added effects of the inflow of grant money into these universities would be great if they could happen at our own university, the advances that have been made should be recognized.
Already, labs have been able to grow bone, blood and muscle and projections for other medical programs indicate human trials within five years. The ultimate goal? To be able to regenerate entire limbs and re-attach them so most amputee problems will become a thing of the past. Of course, it's taken a war and increased survival rates among soldiers to prompt this type of discovery-preceded and made possible by an ever-popular field of armor and self-defense equipment that has been ensuring as many lives as possible are saved when danger comes one's way.
In a week when Bank of America can lose 77 percent of its profit projections because of the compiling credit crunch problems, this talk of regeneration seems completely out of left field. It shows, however, what research and development can follow when there is a blatant need for new medical technology-technology that is on the verge of science fiction. Even if researchers worry that funding for their projects will be uncertain after the allotted five years, all that they will really need is to effectively showcase a demonstration of their ability to advance this field of medical science and pave the way for other teams of scientists and universities to be able to take up this front line work in patching people up.
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Blake
posted 4/22/08 @ 10:59 AM EST
Finally, someone who will crusade for development of lasers. Good article, not enough death-ray laser talk though.
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