The World Is Becoming Smaller · • The world 5 years from now will be very different from the...

1

The World Is Becoming SmallerSome Personal Perspectives on

Science and Values in The World of Today and Tomorrow

Alan G. MacDiarmid

Department of ChemistryUniversity of Texas at Dallas

Richardson, TX 75083-0643, USA

Department of ChemistryUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PA 19104-6323, USA

5th APEC R&D Leaders’ ForumChristchurch, New ZealandMarch 11, 2004

PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com

http://www.pdffactory.com

2

I am a very lucky personand

The harder I work The luckier I seem to be!



3

When we stop learning

We start dying.



4

The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, a multi-university collaboration in New Zealand

The NanoTech Institute at The University of Texas at Dallas, USA

MacDiarmid Lab at Jilin University, China

MacDiarmid Research Centers Around the World

Alan G. MacDiarmidThe James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology and Professor of Chemistry and

Physics at The University of Texas at DallasAffiliated with the University of Pennsylvania as the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry

The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA



5

• The world is becoming smaller.

• The world today is very different from the world 5 years ago.

• The world 5 years from now will be very different from the world today.

(Instant electronic communication written, facsimile, audio conferencing)



6

Each country in the worldis now (potentially) equal.

Examples:Technologically highly developed

small countries (with very little mineral, energy sources)• Japan

• South Korea

• Taiwan

WHY ?PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com


7

“Raw Materials”

• air• water• people• sand (for silicon chips, etc.)

Available to all countries.

Why are some countries not so well developed technologically?

(It’s also very helpful to have plenty of cheap energy!)



8

It’s not the situation or event itself that has a positive or negative influence on a

country

BUT

It’s the way it’s handled that determines whether it has a positive or negative

influence.

Picture: a beautiful sailing ship in full sail.

“One ship drives east and another drives west with the selfsame wind that blows. ‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales which tells us the way to go.”(Ella Wheeler-Wilcox in “Winds of Fate”)



9

• Standard of living (due to technological development)

• Life expectancy

are

not necessarily the same as

“Quality of Life”

(must protect the environment)



10

EDUCATIONCharacteristics of a well educated person:

Past Future(Europe) (World)• mathematics• Latin• Greek

• mathematics• science

Each country needs a scientifically educated public to know whatpersons should be elected to government positions concerning

• Global warming• Genetic engineering• etc.

BUT let’s not forget about the importance of humanities, languages, arts, music, etc.!



11

Science Is PeopleIf enough money get:

(1) Excellent laboratories, libraries, etc.(2) Excellent people (faculty and students) to put in the

laboratories and libraries.

But

Laboratories do not produce creative scienceand technology.

PEOPLE DO!

(Use the whole world as a source for finding the best people)



12

21st CENTURY

Will a country be considered as:

• A Leader (in exploiting its own unique characteristics)

or

• A Follower

?PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com


13

Certainly:Each country should develop its own “niche”

industries to which it is best suitedsuch as:

• advanced electronic equipment?• tourism?• special agricultural products?• fish farms?• medical data banks?• efficient renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, etc.?• education (for paying students from other countries)?• ?• ?

But Also



14

The World Is Becoming A Smaller Place

• Each country is today a potential part of a

GLOBAL ECONOMY

• How can one’s own country play an important and unique role in the world economy?

• What do other countries need (at the right price)?

THINK BIGThink outside the borders of one’s own country



15

CERNCERNIBM

ZurichIBM

Zurich

WHO

ICRCICRC



16

New Zealand as the 21st Century Pacific Rim Center for International Scientific, Technological, Commercial and Political Activities

??



17

• Research and development laboratories of a company no longer need to be situated in the same country where the manufacturing is done.

• Laboratories can be in different countries: as sub-contracts and/or owned by private businesses in the different country.

• Utilize skilled scientists, engineers, technicians in different countries: less expensive; different world time zones, etc.



18

• 10 years ago:Not practical to have close international collaborative R & D projects

(slow communication by letter; poor quality and expensive telephone technology, etc.)

• Today:Can have just as easy communication anywhere in the world

as within one’s own country.• E-mail (electronic language translation, etc.)• Facsimile • Video conferencing• Real time computer translation of human voice (?)



19

A Large Number of Different Interactions Along the Pacific Rim Basin



20

Words from Ralph Waldo Emerson+:

“Hitch your wagon* to a star**”

* Small countries such as New Zealand, etc.

** China

+ Famous writer/philosopher (born, 1803)



21



22

[1] DuPont Co. chairman Charles Holliday’s declaration that the company wants to move its “center of gravity” to emerging-market areas of Asia and Eastern Europe ----

[2] Specifically, DuPont said its goal was to obtain athird of its sales revenue in the future from products that were no more than five years old.

[3] It means that, if it meets the target, Dupont will be collecting a third of its revenue in 2010 or 2015 from stuff it hasn’t even invented yet.



23

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Encourage teaching of spoken English starting with small children (use T.V.)__________________

Whether we like it or not, the fact is that English is today, the international language of

One of the most important educational skills we need is the ability to question. I always tell my students and my children:

“Don’t necessarily believe something because you read it in the newspapers, it’s in a textbook, or it’s on television. Don’t necessarily believe anything that I say myself! Question everything!”

It’s tremendously important to develop a questioning mind and think for yourself – not only in science but in every aspect of life.

• Science• Technology• Commerce__________________



24

ENERGY



25



26

• The world is using more energy every day• We are running out of energy – drastic effects in every country!! • The world will eventually use up all its economically available

fossil fuels:

• oil• coal• gas

… and … in so doing will create problems (global climate changes)

When?Many experts believe before the end of this century**See for example:

“Out of gas”, by D. Goodstein, Vice Provost and Professor of Physics, Cal. Int.Technology; Norton Co., New York, (2004)



27

• ENERGYIs the single most important problem facing humanity today.

• WE CAN SOLVE THIS PROBLEMwith revolutionary breakthroughs at the frontiers of Physical

Science and Engineering

• We need a new urgent, “crash program” similar to the “MAN-ON-THE-MOON” (Apollo) project to do this.

• The problem is huge, but it is also a magnificent opportunity.

• Success will revolutionize the largest industry in the world, Energy.

• Youth of the world will enter the physical sciences to do this, inspired by their idealism, their sense of mission, and their desire to be “where the action is”.

• This new energy “crash” project will produce new technologies and provide the foundation for vast new economic prosperity for the entire world.



28

Humanity’s Top Ten Problems for Next 50 Years

1. Energy2. Water3. Food4. Environment Year 2003: 6.3 Billion People5. Poverty Year 2050: 10 Billion People6. Terrorism & war7. Disease8. Education9. Democracy10. Population



29

ENERGYFor 1010 people

The biggest single challenge for the next few decades:

• At minimum we need the equivalent of 150 million barrels of oil per day from some new clean energy source by year 2050.

Where will we get it?

• For worldwide peace and prosperity we need it to be cheap.

• We simply can not do this with current technology.



30

Vision

Without Money

Is

An Hallucination!

Da Hsuan FengVice President for Research

and Graduate EducationProfessor of PhysicsThe University of Texas at Dallas



31

New International Energy Research “Crash” Program

(Urgent Must Start Now!!)• For the USA alone:• Collect 5 cents from every gallon of oil product. Invest

the resultant $10 (U.S.) billion per year as funding for energy research.

• Each country in the world contribute a certain percent of its military budget to this international energy research and development program:

•solar • biomass • increase efficiency of energy use• wind • hydroelectric • geothermal • nuclear (fusion; fission?) • other?



32

What Do We Do Now?• The world is rapidly becoming smaller.

• This affects every country.

• Those countries which understand this and exploit it, can use it to their advantage.

• But, it is necessary to act rapidly start next week when we return home!!



33

Stone Age

Bronze Age

Iron Age

Silicon Age (silicon chips)

Age of Plastics (21st Century)



Date post:	20-Sep-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	0 times
Download:	0 times

The World Is Becoming Smaller · • The world 5 years from now will be very different from the...

Documents