NCKU General Education Leadership Forum - Reflections on Inspiration and breakthrough Lecture

Professor Lin Tian-Song previously compiled a book titled "A Sudden Inspiration: Revelations from Inventors," hoping to promote science education through short stories of inventions. This lecture drew from the same materials as that book, introducing the development of technology over the past century and the impact of various inventions on entire cultures and civilizations. For instance, Watt's steam engine brought the opportunity for the Industrial Revolution to humanity, and the invention of the Internet brought the booming development of information technology. Professor Lin Tian-Song hopes to encourage the younger generation by sharing the short stories of inventors.

TIME Magazine in the United States once conducted a questionnaire survey involving over ten thousand people in fifteen countries to statistically determine what the contemporary era considered the most important and most useful inventions. The statistical results for the most important inventions were electricity, cars, and the Internet, while the statistical result for the most useful invention was the mobile phone. Looking back on the history of mobile phone development, Motorola inventor Martin Cooper created the first brick phone, weighing a full kilogram. Following gradual developments, Apple's Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, establishing the appearance of today's mobile phones.

Professor Lin Tian-Song selected several inventions that he believed had the most profound impact on the contemporary era: biotechnology (the discovery of DNA structure, the invention of PCR technology, and food genetic modification technology), and molecular medicine (nitric oxide medicine, Viagra, and water-soluble C60 compounds). Summarizing the elements of invention, Professor Lin Tian-Song believes that the precursors to invention are opportunity and good luck—requiring the right timing, the right place, and the right people—but one must also have corresponding preparation. The goddess of luck favors those with prepared minds, and a prepared mind equals professional training plus a sudden inspiration.

Next came the detailed descriptions of the various inventions Professor Lin Tian-Song considers profoundly impactful. First was the discovery of the DNA structure. In 1953, Watson and Crick, through the X-ray crystallography diffraction images provided by Wilkins and Franklin, combined with their own experimental data and model hypotheses, successfully unlocked the basic structure of DNA. The importance of this discovery in biology and medicine lies in the fact that humanity thus truly understood the operation of genetic inheritance, thereby macroscopically explaining the evolution and mutation of organisms on Earth over tens of millions of years, and microscopically probing cellular molecular medicine and developing immunological medicine to combat bacteria and viruses. Actually, the people closest to success at the time, besides Watson and Crick, were the aforementioned Wilkins and Franklin. Fifty years later, in an exclusive interview, Watson stated that if the Nobel Prize had been awarded properly at the time, he felt the Chemistry Prize should have been awarded to the two seniors, while they deserved the Biology Prize.

The development of PCR technology (invented by Dr. Kary Banks Mullis) allowed humanity to further study and manipulate DNA. Beyond the paternity tests often dramatized on TV soap operas and the forensics in CSI crime scenes, PCR technology allows molecular biology researchers to amplify existing DNA for various kinds of research and identification, thereby accelerating the development of modern biomedicine.

The discovery of NO's efficacy in the human body is related to the invention of the drug Viagra. The mechanism of NO is that after being produced in vascular endothelial cells, it can promote the relaxation of smooth muscles in blood vessel walls. Therefore, it can promote the dilation of blood vessel diameters and increase blood flow, thereby lowering the risk of vascular thrombosis and improving blood supply and oxygen transport. When Viagra was initially developed, it was based on the aforementioned cardiovascular effects, with the hope that it could treat severe cardiovascular diseases like strokes. Unfortunately, it turned out to have little effect in that regard, but paradoxically helped revive male virility. Consequently, it transformed overnight into the most popular impotence drug and sold massively worldwide.

The discovery of water-soluble C60 compounds pioneered a glimmer of possible dawn for future medicine. Proven to have strong antioxidant effects, it is dubbed a "free radical sponge," capable of capturing massive amounts of free radicals in the human body, reducing the damage of oxidative stress to the body, and potentially even being useful for protecting nerve cells.

In addition to the above inventions, Professor Lin Tian-Song also briefly described the impact of pesticide herbicides and genetically modified foods on agricultural prosperity, Velcro, and femtochemistry. Finally, he gave his own observational summary and footnote: the driving forces of invention are driven by need—as in the famous quote by the king of invention, Edison, "one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration"—driven by data, such as Mendel's laws of inheritance deduced from peas, and driven by theory, such as Einstein's theory of relativity. In the end, Professor Lin Tian-Song quoted Professor Yang Chen-Ning's "Science and Humanities," "true feelings, wondrous objects, excellent articles," and Einstein's life philosophy to encourage the students.

Although this lecture primarily told stories of past inventions, in my reflections after listening, I want to explore the true situation of the so-called business of invention in modern times. My understanding is that when modern technology develops to a certain level, the capacity for invention is actually monopolized by national entities and large multinational corporations. Because research and development is a highly capital- and knowledge-intensive industry, in addition to needing a large number of talents with a certain level of education and a corresponding environment, there must also be sufficient capital to invest in substantial R&D funding. For example, the Monsanto Company, which Professor Lin Tian-Song mentioned, is a typical multinational corporation capable of investing massive funds in R&D. However, when the capacity for research and invention is held by multinational corporations, these corporations not only have the ability to apply for patents to protect their inventions but also possess the power to promote and influence social consumption to purchase their invented products, and their impact on society cannot be ignored. Taking the Monsanto Company as an example, there have already been multiple cases of using tactics to manipulate whether genetically modified agricultural products are adopted by local governments in different countries, regardless of the impact of genetic modification on local agricultural development or the scientific consensus on whether genetic modification is harmful. Furthermore, the patents applied for by multinational corporations simultaneously provoke another controversy: does patent protection paradoxically become a hindrance to invention and innovation? I think the main theme of the lecture was to encourage the younger generation to emulate the abilities, knowledge, and indomitable courage possessed by pioneer inventors; however, coming to the contemporary era, I believe one must also add a dose of reflection on science and humanities.

Citations:

1. Lin, Tian-Song (2002, 2nd ed., 5th printing). Your Life Vitality - Starting from Free Radicals. Health Culture Publishing, Taipei.
2. Gutteridge, J.M.C. (1993) Free radicals in disease process: a compilation of cause and consequence, Free Radical Research Communication, 19, 141.
3. Environmental Information Center: Monsanto: Behind the Gorgeous Lies
4. Scientific American (Taiwan): The 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of the DNA Double Helix Structure: An Exclusive Interview with Watson