154 Science THE WORLD IN 2012

The frugal way Health care is one example. Western medicine does
many things well, but it is not affordable in, or very
useful to, most poor populations. What then should
George Whitesides CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
be the technology base for affordable health care? An-
swering that question requires the development of sci-
The promise of cost-conscious science ence that is conscious of cost from the beginninga
frugal health care that might, perhaps, be more related

W
estern science, particularly academic science, is George Whitesides: to Western public health than to end-of-life, high-tech
culturally obsessed with superlatives, and often professor of chemistry
and principal
medicine. What about other
separated from technology: the most accurate investigator, Whitesides problems: the management The race may
measure of time, the most detailed accounting of a ge- Research Group, Harvard of megacities, development not be to the
nome, the most distant star, the highest-energy particle. University of radically effective ways
Why? Superlatives are necessary in some areas, and easy of delivering education, or swift, but rather
to keep score with in others. And there are technologies providing water and energy? to the cheap
(such as gps) that absolutely require extreme precision. All of these problems can be
But superlatives tend to be expensive. Should cost phrased as technologies, which will require an appropri-
be an issue in science? If knowledge is a treasure beyond 2012 ate foundation in scienceand that must include cost.
price, perhaps obtaining it should be similarly cost- The race may not be to the swift, but rather to the cheap.
IN BRIEF
unconstrainedan idea enthusiastically supported by There is another reason to be encouraging frugal
expensive fields such as high-energy physics. And even Computer geeks science: jobs. Frugal science has a chance of yielding
the most expensive science is cheap relative to, say, a war and universities cheap products, and thus jobs and other understandable
or a tsunami. Yet science in 2012 and beyond will be salute and benefits. The developing world is pioneering telecoms
evolving a new variant of itself: frugal science, designed mourn Alan systems with structures quite different from those used
to generate knowledge (and technology based on that Turing, born a in the rich world. The Shenzhen gene factories, using
century ago
knowledge) with cost as an integral part of the subject. American technology, are among the lowest-cost pro-
The idea of including cost in ducers of genomic information. The
science is perhaps dclass in Western Tata Nano car represents a creative step
research universities, but it is based towards low-cost personal transport.
on an important change in the world. And the science that leads to afford-
The 80% of the global population able health care for Africa may provide
that is poor (and has long been ex- some of the best approaches to reduc-
cluded from science, technology and ing the no-longer-affordable cost of
the benefits of both) would like to health care in America.
join the party. China, India and Brazil Foundations (Gates, Wellcome and
have already muscled their way into others) are already developing frugal
technology, and other less-developed medicine, and much of the health-care
countries will follow. spending in developing countries is on
Behind the argument between su- technology that is, of necessity, frugal.
perlative and cost-effective lie differ- The science base for thislow-cost di-
ences of opinion about the purpose of agnostics, epidemiology and nutrition
science. Is it the job of science to gen- informed by mobile-phone report-
erate knowledge as an abstract good, ingis developing rapidly. Tata, gm,
with the benefits to the society that Toyota and their kin are all thinking
pays for it unpredictable, or should sci- about radically different concepts for
ence at least think of serving society? the car: smaller, lighter, cheaper. To sell
In the West, the answer is often in world markets, affordability may in
two words: quantum mechanics. Its future be the first requirement, not an
development revolutionised both sci- afterthought.
ence and technology, and was indeed But is it science? ask the sceptics.
a product of pure curiosity. But there Perhaps No, under the old definitions
have been only one or two such events of chemistry, physics and biology. But
in fundamental science in the past cen- Yes, as a new discipline, with an intel-
tury (genomics may eventually be as lectual skeleton based on understand-
important); and the birth of quantum ing complexity and simplicity, and
mechanics was not expensive, although on developing strategies for integrat-
its applications in technology were. ing information, including economic
In the rich world, maintaining a information, originating in entirely
distinction between curiosity-driven different fields. It will probably get a
science and applications-driven tech- reluctant welcome at first in the man-
nology may or may not be an afford- darin research universities of America
able luxury. In the developing world, and Europe, but it may flourish in
there are pressing problems whose Beijing, Mumbai and Cairo. And where
solutions require relevant science and it flourishes best may determine whose
technology now. Quick, pass me the screwdriver! grandchildren have jobs.