Medicine today has reached new, unprecedented levels. Many diseases that used to be life-threatening have been battled in a successful manner. Scientists are still struggling to discover new health improvement techniques.
Such efforts deserve praise. Yet, the line between the brilliant and the insane is thin and could easily be crossed. Some scientists are putting heart and soul into discovering new methods to improve the life and health of people. Others are so carried away by the innovations wave that they begin pondering over bizarre and often ridiculous ideas.
Some relatively unusual ideas have come to the attention of the general public lately. The person involved in those is no other than Bill Gates.
Gates is the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This charitable organization provides grants for scientific improvements in the sphere of healthcare. Innovative and unorthodox ideas are examined and considered for such financial help. The bolder the idea is, the more likely fund recipient it becomes.
Recently, scientists from 22 countries have received a 100 000 dollar grant each. Grants are awarded to those who come up with boundary-shattering, innovative ideas that could lead to significant global health improvements. The Grand Challenges Exploration is a five-year program worth 100 million dollars.
According to the foundation’s statistics, nearly 4000 projects have been received. Of these, 104 received grants. Proposals have come from NGOs, universities, official governmental agencies and private companies.
You are probably wondering already about the nature of these medical inventions. If sci-fi movies come to mind, you have managed to come very close to the truth.
Imagine this. A man named Hiroyki Matsuoka from Jichi Medical University in Japan plans to turn mosquitoes into ‘flying syringes.’
No need to go back and read that sentence once again. Mr. Marsuoka plans to use the natural manner in which mosquitoes suck blood to provide humanity with health benefits.
After some research, Matsuoka decided that it would be possible to make mosquitoes administer vaccines rather than carry around viruses and bacteria that cause serious illnesses. These flying syringes will continue on biting people the way they have done for centuries. Only one difference would exist – from irritating parasites, mosquitoes would turn into medical tools that facilitate disease prevention. What a glorious idea!
On theory it all sounds good and fun. Yet, if we take the pink glasses off for a minute and make use of our critical thinking ability, we are likely to discover many shortcomings in the otherwise brilliant Japanese medical theory.
It certainly is praiseworthy that Bill Gates is encouraging innovation in the sphere of medicine. But maybe it would be wiser to put a significant financial resource in research and the study of more orthodox methods to combat diseases.
Flying vaccines may sound great, hi-tech and very innovative to some, but what is scary is the lack of controlled delivery. The practical dimension of this idea is a completely different matter. Somebody should be pushing people to discover their potential and innovative ways to deal with grave problems. Still, scientists are still to discover the cures for so many diseases. Stimulating their efforts is certain to be more productive than the quest for fancy yet rather impractical solutions to medical problems. And what if a certain percentage of the population turns out to be allergic to this flying vaccine?