jenny uglow's foreword
Jenny Uglow has written this Foreword to a collection of essays by scientists, all of whom have responded to the question What are you optimistic about?
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This is the most exhilarating of books. It looks to the future, not through
rose-tinted glasses, but with a clear vision, aware of difficulties and
challenges yet convinced that research and experiment can help the
human race to overcome them. It seems entirely right that scientists
should step forth and speak out in this way, on the 350th anniversary
of the founding of the Royal Society. Right too that the 2010 meeting
of the British Science Association should be held in Birmingham, a
place that has always been a town of forges and anvils, of making and
invention, a crucible of ideas.
In 1660, the men who gathered at Gresham College in London, determined to explore the universe they inhabited, decided to form a society, said their historian Thomas Sprat, to enjoy ‘the satisfaction of breathing a freer air, and of conversation in quiet with one with another, without being engaged in the passions, and madness of that dismal age’. In Birmingham, that spirit was continued a century later in the men of the Lunar Society, among them James Watt and Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and the chemist James Keir. Their interests ranged from astronomy, optics and electricity to chemistry, engineering and metallurgy, and to medicine and botany, and their long collaboration brought together their different experiences and skills, providing lifelong support. They too looked to the future, setting aside political differences, and concerned above all to make the world a better place.
The
current collection of short essays – brief answers to the
question ‘What are you optimistic about?’ – is itself a kind of
conversation. In the great tradition of the Royal Society it brings
together a great range of specialists from the region, free from
political agendas or mercenary aims. And just as the original Lunar Men
felt they were changing their world, so these men and women are
changing ours, and collectively they have far more impact than
individually.
The
list of contributors is dizzying. The majority work in medicine
and life-sciences, the region’s great strength. But they share this
book with engineers, chemists, computer and digital media scientists,
environmental and energy experts and the wilder shores of research into
games programming or forensic linguistics. The topics covered are
therefore varied and wide-ranging, from cell memory and genome
sequencing to urban ecosystems, from vital ways to reduce carbon
emissions to crop rotation and even the notion of ‘happiness’. And
while ‘optimism’ is a term that implies application, the importance of
pure research becomes increasingly clear.
The
future that is unveiled can also induce vertigo. It is
extraordinary to think that people may live to be 1000, or that ‘we are
about to enter an age when having a copy of one’s own genome sequence
is as common as carrying a mobile phone is today’. Scientists, it
seems, are often visionaries. All these essays are imbued with a
driving spirit of curiosity, combined with energetic analysis, and
often with passion. Yet the most idealistic, or imaginative scenarios
also coexist with a realistic toughness – a recognition that solving
one set of problems, like improvements in health, can lead to others,
like the challenges of ageing. That particular theme evokes a typical
variety of response, with some contributions dealing with specific
problems like ‘renewing’ eyes, while others play with scary ideas of
neurocognitive prostheses – or cheerier ones like the benefit of taking
up the tango.
The issues are serious, but the answers will often make you laugh. All the writers convey their own excitement in their work, and we are privileged that this fascinating collection allows us to share it. New researchers and old hands all have their say, making no bones about the need for persistence, the long hours in the lab and the frequent frustrations. For some, the rare moments of revelation make everything worthwhile. For others, the greatest pleasure comes from slow, fruitful collaboration. No one here feels that their research is conclusive, or that final discoveries can be made. Like the early scientists, and the men of the Lunar Society, they are still voyagers, standing on the shore looking out towards misty horizons. There will always be new questions to answer – and this in itself is a cause for optimism.