Definitely, I will agree with this statement put up on the board by Prof. It is afterall a revolution, like the Industrial Revolution. As the term suggest, revolution is s a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.
2. BioBusiness may well be our best hope for achieving sustainable development.
This is yet another phrase from Prof. As we talked about in earlier seminars, sustainable development is what we're all aiming to achieve now.
There are 4 main biobusiness: the biomedical biobusiness, the agri-veterinary and food biobusiness, environmental and industrial biobusiness and other biobusiness activities.
We had 3 presentations today:
First was by Qi Yang on Medical Tourism, whether or not medical tourism is actually helping or harming those in the developing countries. Next was by Cheng Wei on Surgery without the slicing; he talked about NOTES, a new method of surgery, other than open surgery and laproscopic surgery. I found this particularly interesting, as it gave me a whole new insight on the medical industry. There was also a short discussion about doctors' ethics, whether or not they are out for money or really for the purpose of saving lives. Lastly, we had Kai Liang talking about Beyond Philantrophy, and the healthcare scene in 3rd world countries, and the policies like pricing policy and patents.
We watched a video: Medical Revolutions
The biomedical sciences is evolving to such high-tech levels that such possibilities in the past may not seem realistic, but in actual fact, are coming true now. A discussion about cloning was fairly interesting to. Cloning, should it merely be used for medical issues or can it be used for social issues? This is a question of ethics once again. If a person or an animal dies, and it is cloned back using the same genetics, will it really be the same still? Away from this question of personal gains (like missing a person or a pet), what about cloning animals for food? Is it also ethical? To clone the dna, to get more cows for example, grow them and eat them? Apart from the fact that complications may occur and the product may not end up what it is supposed to be, but should we really do it, or do we leave it to nature. Cloning animals to solve our food shortage problems is not a real solution, I feel.
New vaccines and new medical technologies are rapidly on the rise, targeting the infectious and non-infectious diseases. Every second, a life may be lost in developing countries, but a new life could be given with the amount of research and the progress of medical inventions. This biobusiness industry is blooming all the time, the staggering pace is revolutionary. Advancements in the medical world really changes our lives, and my mindset of certain things. Like in the past, many things were thought to be impossible and even ridiculous. But now, at the rate we're progressing, there could possibly even be a cure for aids and cancer in the future!
Today's topic on biobusiness is a really broad topic, which we'll continue part 2 next lesson, more on agriculture. I would rate today's lesson a 7. I think more can be learned about biobusiness, especially the biomedical part and the life sciences part. Overall, lesson was good as usual. Thats it for Week 6! On to topical review paper and group project!
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