International blogs

Project Syndicate (multilingue)

The biology of luxury (October 16th 2012)

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The anti-fragile life of the economy
  










The anti-fragile life of the economy may be its saving grace





A vida anti-frágil da economia     



Antifragilität. Was die Wirtschaft von der Evolution lernen kann

A Greek view on Health and Nutrition by AMAbiotics
The strategic importance of biology for the world economy, july 2011

Industrial reports

Biotech Info. La lettre des biotechnologies
11 mai 2011 n°525

 

Scientific journals

A Danchin
Motivated research
EMBO Reports (2010) 11: 488

Opening: Three years ago, a senior politician attended his country’s Annual Congress for the Advancement of Science to give the introductory lecture. He asked the attending scientists to make science and research more attractive to young students and the general public, and asked his countrymen to support scientists to address the urgent challenges of global climate change, energy needs and dwindling water resources. It was neither a European nor a US politician, but the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who made this speech about the relationship between research and its practical applications. This is such an important topic that one might think it deserves appropriate attention in Europe, yet we fail to address it properly. Instead, we just discuss how science should serve society or contribute to the ‘knowledge-based economy’, or how ‘basic’ or ‘fundamental’ research is opposed to ‘applied’ or ‘industrial’ research and how funding for ‘big science’ comes at the expense of ‘little academic’ research.

A Danchin
Perfect time, or perfect crime?
EMBO Reports (2010) 11: 74

Opening: Imagine the situation: “One day, you notice an old country woman crossing a downtown street, just about to put one foot down on the rails of the streetcar line. […] Suppose, now, that at the very moment she puts her foot on the rail a streetcar comes rushing down the tracks toward her. If the old woman does not notice the car and continues across the tracks nothing will happen. But if someone should happen to shout ‘Look out, old woman!’ what would be her natural reaction? […] she would suddenly become flustered and would pause to decide whether to go on or step back […] the mere words ‘Look out, old woman!’ would be as dangerous a weapon as any knife or firearm. […] the man who sounds the warning actually becomes a murderer!” (Ranpo, 1956).

General public

BoOks : Les gènes du bien et du mal en débat au Centre Georges Pompidou, 10 mai 2010