Nature, culture, science must be come together: Kalam
by Gaurav Srivastava

    Seoul (South Korea): Rounding off his three-day visit to South Korean capital Seoul, President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam said on Wednesday evening that efforts must be made in the 21st century to allow nature, culture and science to come together. Interacting with scientists at the Korea Research Institute for Biosciences and Biotechnology, Kalam, who returns to New Delhi on Thursday evening after a 10-day visit abroad, said: "Humans have been intervening in nature for as long as there have been humans. One of the big problems is how to establish a conversation between the biosciences and the human sciences. The way it's established now, the biosciences discover the truth, and the human scientists worry about the consequences."

   Avidly advocating promotion of the science of qualities rather than the science of quantities, Kalam described present-day human endeavours towards development as "an awful treadmill that's extremely destructive", and which needed to be balanced out. "Values of Asian cultures hold the surest promise of 21st century -- promise of seeing mankind living in harmony. Let Nature and culture and science come together," the President told the Korean scientists. Understanding the concept of evolutionary biology required exposing one self to new insights in various domains of knowledge, he said. "Biotechnologies are "dream tools," of the modern human beings giving them the power to create a new vision of mankind, its heirs, the living world and the power to act on it, he added. He went on further to say that there were numerous ways in which biotechnology would be driven by evolutionary biology, most apparent among them being: - prolonging the life of drug/chemical resistant compounds - constructing evolutionary trees - pathogen tracking - industrial production of biochemical and other agents It is important to recognize that evolutionary biology has implications for a new century of agriculture, medicine, and planetary life. As far as India was concerned, Kalam told the Korean scientists that his country was preparing itself for a second Green Revolution.

   Recalling the achievements of Professor M.S.Swaminathan, the architect of India's first Green Revolution, Kalam said that the former spent nearly 20 years breeding high- yield dwarf wheat that resisted a variety of plant pests and diseases and yielded two to three times more grain than traditional varieties. Now, he said, that India was at a stage when it would use evolutionary biology to activate its Second Green Revolution, adding that the focus was now on stem cell research, promotion of nanotechnology and exchange of ideas concerning the existence of life outside Earth etc. "With the genetic components of life distributed widely throughout the universe, it is a matter for each local environment to pick out arrangements that best fit the particular circumstances. The science of evolution teaches us that by the end of 21st century we would meet life from another space-time, Kalam said in conclusion.

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