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May 12, 2023

Exploring every rabbit hole there is. For more wanderings, become an Alice in Futureland subscriber—it's free.

🍄 AudioDose: this is Alice on Sonic Mushrooms. In wonderment here.
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A visit with Rita Colwell, the first female director of the National Science Foundation.

Rita Colwell is a pioneering microbiologist and the first woman to lead the National Science Foundation. She is a Distinguished University Professor at both the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and has received awards from the emperor of Japan, the king of Sweden, the prime minister of Singapore, and the president of the United States…and she still yearns to learn more!

"There's so much, so much excitement in science. I'd love to be starting my career all over again. Because I'm really keenly interested in genomics, and what we're going to be learning from the DNA sequence of humans, targeted medicine—so that you will be given the right medication for you as yourself, not as the average woman.”

Hello, we’re Alice and we are always in a state of wander. The following is an expert from our archived interview with Dr. Rita Colwell, conducted in 2006.

“A holistic approach is required for understanding the safety, security, and healthy of the human species. If we don't have a healthy, secure, safe environment with all of its diversity, then we aren't going to have a safe, healthy, secure environment for ourselves. And a holistic approach, rather than reductionist—that is, understanding, as we have done so well, the ultra-molecular, even the electron, and even the sub-electron structure of the universe—we now need to integrate all of that information to have a holistic understanding of the fabric and complexity of the life of the planet, this wonderful blue planet that we are very fortunate to inhabit.

If we have a strong economy, with new discoveries and jobs created, that, of course, is one of the goals of biotechnology. And what's turned out to be bio-; geo-; info-; nano-technology (and leave a space for another adjective to be added) as we develop neurotechnology, for example, we find that we create high-tech understanding of the environment and of ourselves. And we create at the same time new products, new industries, and jobs.

So if we have a healthy economy, then we have a secure nation. And it's critical, then, for understanding the environment and the interactions of humans in the environment. And it's critical to preserve the environment. Because we have derived so many medicines from the natural environment. Everything from chemicals to treat heart disease, chemicals, antibiotics to protect us against infectious agents, chemicals that regulate blood pressure. These come from the plant world, and the marine world, and from soil. There's many more to be discovered.

But if we destroy the environment, pollute it, and drive out these microorganisms, microscopic plants, we then destroy the source of new income, new products, and a continuing stabilization of our social system. So it's the security, national security, it's the strength of the economy, and it's the vitality of the social structure that all depends on this understanding of the interaction of the living world and the non-living world that comprise the planet. So it's to our best interest that we need to invest in science and math education, and in understanding the life sciences.

Until perhaps 50 or 100 ago—let's say a couple hundred years ago—it was chemistry that drove discovery. And then it was physics that drove discovery until the late '50s, the early '60s. And now it is the life sciences that drive discovery and define and drive the economy and the future. So I think it is critical for us to realize that in this 21st century, the century of the life sciences, that we need complexity, holistic approach, and a recognition that it's in the life sciences that the powerful discoveries will be made. In understanding cognition, neuroscience, and behavioral sciences. We have a lot to learn, and a lot to discover, and that's on the horizon.

As director the National Science Foundation, I was able to launch a plant biotechnology program, plant genomics program, and the understanding of the genomics of Arabidopsis. A little weed, but it's a small plant with a genome that's been completely sequenced. And now the genes are being studied to find out what they do. So that was what was very exciting about being director at the National Science Foundation.

There's a lot of work being done to use plants as the pharmacy of the future. That is, to convert, let's say the tobacco plant to the production of certain antibiotics. That is, the genes for those chemicals to be inserted into the plant genome, and then those pleasant grown and extracted and used as a very nice, clean source, with little waste. Because the waste is recyclable as fertilizer. So it's a very efficient and effective way to have pharmacies of the future developed. But as I say, you don't want to do this completely unfettered. It's a good idea to have regulations. And I think the institutional committees to govern what experiments are done with respect to engineering organisms, it works. It works very well. So I think we can, in a measured, sensible way, with the public understanding what it is we're doing—public education is really critical—that we can move into this next century of application.

We're beginning to understand that there's this wonderful web, this layer, that binds us, both atmospherically, and biologically on the earth, through the microbial populations. They're far more diverse, far more numerous, far more important as an aggregate than we'd ever expected or anticipated.

It's just a very exciting time. You asked about women in science. It's still not easy. There's still a lot of hurdles to overcome, but it's very reassuring that five women won the Nobel Prize this year (2006), three in life sciences, one in, I think, chemistry or physics, and one in economics. That is a good turning point. I think scientific careers and mathematical careers are superb for women. It's very empowering. And it's very important to encourage women and girls to go into science. And mathematics. I'm very proud of the program I started at NSF called the K12 program. It brings graduate students to do their 20 hours a week, or 15 or 20 hours a week, instead of making reagents for the undergraduates, instead going out and teaching in the K12 schools. And I was invited to the 10 year celebration, and I was so proud to learn 700,000 students have benefited from the program.”

Thank you Dr. Rita Colwell.

Writing we love

📘 “A Lab of One’s Own” by Rita Colwell, PhD: A “beautifully written” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) memoir-manifesto from the first female director of the National Science Foundation about the entrenched sexism in science, the elaborate detours women have take to bypass the problem, and how to fix the system.

📘 “Homo Imaginatus” by Phillip Ball: Imagination isn’t just a spillover from our problem-solving prowess. It might be the core of what human brains evolved to do.

What else we are wandering

🔍 In honor of Arthur C. Clarke, renowned writer, futurist, technologist, space promoter, and humanist, the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation launched Unleash Imagination – Shape the Future. Unleash Imagination is an exciting intergenerational initiative to explore how imagination fuels the future. Sir Arthur understood that humankind’s most powerful tool to shape its future is its imagination. His own prolific work in science fiction and science fact seamlessly melded cognitive and creative elements together. Unleash Imagination explores the partnership between imagination and empiricism to create a better world.

🔍 Biotechnology is spreading into every aspect of our lives—from our materials to our everyday products. As it becomes ubiquitous, society needs interdisciplinary thinkers to understand biotech’s impact and to come up with the next solutions. Biodesign Challenge (BDC) bridges art, design, and biotech to develop the first generation of professionals who cross disciplines, anticipate promises and pitfalls, and engage the public in dialogue about the broader implications of emerging biotech.

🔍 EndeavorRx is an ADHD treatment for kids aged 8-12. It’s delivered through an immersive video game experience on mobile devices. Created by world-class neuroscientists and award-winning game designers, it targets areas of the brain that play a key role in attention function. As an FDA-authorized medical device, EndeavorRx must be prescribed by a healthcare professional. It should be considered for use as part of a therapeutic program.

🔍 Ripple Kindness Project promotes teaching kindness and empathy to reduce bullying in classes and online. Teaching empathy requires ongoing, embedded work guided by strong school leaders who are empathetic themselves and that gauging success won't come from a grade or score, but from a student's response. Look for smiles, engagement, joy, and even tears: lessons in empathy can be life-altering.

Craving more?

📘 Alice in Futureland books
🎧 Alice in Futureland Podcasts
👁‍🗨 Life Sciences with Rita Cowell