RE: The "plastic problem" of bioscience.
Thank you for bringing this uncomfortable topic up. I appreciate this from one who actually works in this field. Takes also courage to do so.
I may be the devil's lawyer here, but I could question your bill so far when health research creates its own diseases, so to speak. The question must be justified without being driven out of the place for heresy.
I think this is a very difficult question, but science has to ask it itself. What dangers and how much chemical waste and residues are associated with diseases resulting from scientific research?
We do not have to go straight to the hammer and postulate that research should be discontinued. But is there a middle ground somewhere? If there are already professionals at work who are familiar with chemistry: are there no substitutes for plastics that can rot or be burned better?
Do you know anything about whether any scientists in the chemical industry are even dealing with this environmental problem? Perhaps you have heard of Michael Braungart? I am not competent to judge how good his cradle to cradle concept is. It would be interesting to hear something about it from you. Had I ever asked that before?
P.S. This could be a research field of it's own to ask the departments how that plastic problem in the labs could be solved and get started - it makes me mad that funds cannot be found for that. Maybe that is something people could do with the money they earn here. I would throw in some of my SP or SBD.
Thanks for the comment. I had to think a little on that one.
First off, the concept of heresy shouldn't exist in science. Second, even with the problems around plastics, I'm positive that a world with bioscientific process is better than one without. Without science, we wouldn't even know that plastics are bad. We would eat unhealthy, live unhealthy, and have no medical treatment when we get sick.
But of course, also science should aim at working as sustainable as reasonably possible. I am not aware of anyone working on a solution t the material chemistry front, but since there's growing awareness, I wouldn't be surprised.
I used a metaphorical expression as to point out that I perceive in general public an avoidance towards an approach that takes on a critical attitude towards science itself. I appreciate this a lot when scientists do openly talk about their blind spots in their particular field. .... maybe I should to some search for finding interesting debates on that.
The deeper meaning of my sentence points towards my way of agreeing with scientists who include a critical view on their scientific work. There are always downsides attached to "upsides". Solutions and cures - or the side effects of the methods - do not own only positive effects but negative as well. Here, you talked about the downside - I found that sensible.
In the circle of scientists themselves I can imagine that there is another form to deal with criticism in the sense of giving valuable feedback once the scientist agree on the fact that they are not only carrying responsibility for what is helpful but also for what is harmful.
You mentioned the missing funds and as far as I know this is always an issue within the sciences which do not work alone with the given applications of scientific findings but drive the investigation further. It makes sense to having the desire to work on problems which obviously do have negative impacts on the environment. One does not to have to exclude the other. I did not say that a world would be better of without bio scientific process.
I fully acknowledge the many applications science is providing us with. I would have liked an example which gives hope that there is actual new science in process which deals with the plastic problem in this field. I am not an expert and I would probably have more difficulties in doing a research if something is out there which can be dropped here in the comment section.
Well, there's research going on regarding the plastic problem in general: bio-degradable polymers, advanced waste-sorting machines, bacteria that can "eat" plastics, recycling plastics to a kind of oil, etc. etc.
Of course, should any of those techniques experience a breakthrough, this will have an impact on us aswell. But until that, I think we need to come up with some solutions of our own.