Slashdot Mirror
Advanced Biological Computer Developed
First time accepted submitter ben saad issam writes in with news about a new biological transducer built by Israeli scientist. "Using only biomolecules (such as DNA and enzymes), scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed and constructed an advanced biological transducer, a computing machine capable of manipulating genetic codes, and using the output as new input for subsequent computations. The breakthrough might someday create new possibilities in biotechnology, including individual gene therapy and cloning."
Why is it that every time foreign people do something amazing, someone has to question them about the actions of their governments?
Someone in Isreal did science? But they oppress the Palestinians, so it doesn't matter.
Someone in Saudi Arabia did science? But they oppress their women, so it doesn't matter.
Someone in China did science? But they censor their internet, so it doesn't matter.
Someone in Russia did science? But Putin is a fascist, so it doesn't matter.
Assuming that you're american, how would you react if you published a scientific paper after making a great breakthrough, and people started asking why you killed all those people in Afghanistan and Iraq, and why you tortured them without due process at Guantanamo Bay?
Don't get me wrong, I do support human rights; but you shouldn't blame every single individual for the actions of their government.
This is an excellent observation. Repeated observations of innovation, country by country, gives us a truer feeling for the freedoms present in each country. Also, the purer the ongoing scientific advances made in a country, the more freedom is indicated in that country. In a fascist-lead country there can be progress toward a technical goal that helps the regime. Even so, under such pressure, scientists will guard and hold back their great discoveries because they know it is their perceived value that keeps them in demand (and safe). Scientists jockeying for position under a totalitarian regime withhold rather than share. So when you see a country repeatedly make advances in pure science, and these advances are shared with the rest of the world, you are seeing a country where thinking people do not feel constraints on what they think and do not feel they will be persecuted for their attitudes and thoughts. Ongoing shared diverse excellent scientific contribution is your canary in the coal mine of oppression.