Last Thursday, the public voted on which of six scientific challenges will be opened up as the subject for a £10million 21st century version of the 18th century Longitude Prize. Which of the six do ypu think should win?
We received 527 responses to last week’s poll, and the result was a close-run thing. The largest group, 30 per cent, said the new Longitude prize should be focused around finding ways to prevent the rise of resistance to antibiotics; but close behind on 29 per cent was ensuring universal access to safe and clean water. Another large group, 18 per cent, wanted a focus on reducing the environmental impact of flying. Next on 12 per cent was ensuring availability of nutritious, sustainable food, while helping people with dementia garnered 8 per cent of support. Only 3 per cent opted for restoring movement to those with paralysis.
Please let us know what you think of these results, or argue your case for an alternative focus for the prize.
To get the biggest bang for the pound, it should be a subject that affects the entire population of the planet, either the “…nutritious sustainable food.” or “…access to safe and clean water.”
The benefits are for all earthlings not just are fellow citizens in the developed countries.
To my mind all of these are worthy, but solving the clean water issue is top of my pops!
The poll isn’t all fair because these are all very worthy causes .. But access to clean water, including the renewable power to produce/ store/ clean it, is absolutely fundamental to survival on earth. Think water for agriculture, the lack of which, in many places, drives migration of people and the diseases, that antibiotics are required to cure.
It has to be the Antibiotics for me. The Food and water options are tempting but progressive and self limiting , risking overpopulation if food is so easy to get, but widespread Antibiotic resistance would drag healthcare back 200 years and potentially affect everyone alive on the planet.
Most of it is not a scientific challenge, but a political challenge:
There is always money for war.
A pretty random selection but the bigger challenge, underpinning many of these, is how to solve the uncontrolled infestation of the planet by human beings..
Clearly, it is antibiotic resistance. It is a real and present danger and, in a few years, some countries in the world could be back to the situation before antibiotics.
Before antibiotics, all the doctors and hospitals could do was look after an infected patient and hope they survived. With antibiotics, they could actually cure them.
Several of the other objectives aim at solving a problem that exists in the imagination of some people.
Antibiotics definitely. Right now, we’re on our knees with current methods and heading towards a crisis unless something is done
“ensuring everyone has nutritious sustainable food” no doubt… with the rise in population, this will take top priority
In my view “How can we ensure everyone has nutritious sustainable food?” and “How can we ensure everyone has access to safe and clean water?” are the most worthy of research. The others have merit but these two have most effect on all the worlds population.
I have read that if we all had a vegan diet there is enough land on earth to feed 12Billion! So research into improved nutrition and some land for meat and we should feed the predicted 9Billion.
Access to clean and safe drinking water is the number one for me. Food security and ensuring independence for people with dementia are equally important though…. But overall, water comes before all of them!
Surely this all got off to a false start. Instead of a group of ‘experts’ selecting the questions, maybe to their own agenda, shouldn’t they have asked the crowd to come up with the questions to provide innovative thought?
I agree with the anonymous poster of 20th May. Uncontrolled population growth is the biggest threat to humanity and also wild life. The challenge of the 21st century is finding a way to slow it or reverse it. The world cannot sustain the current rate growth.
I think Water is top priority for a prize like this. I am sure Antibiotics, Aircraft, etc. will be supported by the Wealthy West. But water is in short supply for the most impoverished areas of the planet.
Surely the food option should be looked at from a ‘root cause’ perspective. A ‘How do we get the world population down to 1/2 it’s present value?’ project would start to answer a lot of these problems.