IMPERIAL SCIENCE 2011
Sometimes the second reactions of people are surprising… and probably even more so in China. Especially if they are related, to a certain degree, to the Government.
For this article, I contacted the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shanghai to obtain more information about the following news:
Scientists from Shanghai and Hong Kong announced on Friday the successful genomic sequencing of Isaria Cicadae, a rare herb highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine.
I contacted the Bio Asia Institute in Shanghai.
The Cicadae flower is a rare species of fungus which is found in the bamboo forest of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 1,000 years in order to improve one’s sight. Related to the same family species and better known in Chinese medicine, the cordyceps is widely used to boost the immune and respiratory systems.
Mr. Yuqin Wang works for the Bio Asia Institute, within the USST National Science Park, in a suburb of the northern part of Shanghai. According to the news, she is in charge of the Cicadae Isaria scientific project.
Yuqin Wang informs me over the phone (it must be our third or fourth conversation), that she will see me, but that no further information about the success of the genome sequencing can be given. It is completely confidential.
A long while into the meeting, and just after talking about how this discovery will be applied to both the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, she tells me:
“Actually, this finding is not really important. It is more about publicity.”
Yuqin Wang is a professor at the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shanghai.
I do not know if the truth is what Yuqin Wang says, or if the truth is that the discovery will soon become very important.
Given the characteristics of this rare species and its benefits (I, myself, take cordyceps regularly and am an absolute advocate of it), the discovery of Isaria Cicadae and its possible application to modern medicine could provide great benefits to antibiotics, antiviral medications, liver and kidney function medications, fertility and antidepressant medications, among others.
The truth is that China is about to become the world leader in scientific research. During the last decade, astronomical amounts of money have been invested in this field. And this has been increasing. In fact, the 2011 budget increase for the China Academy of Science is 70%.
Projects on the seabed in the Pearl River Delta for the investigation of sediments accumulated over centuries (and the real search for oil and gas) which features the use of the first submarine capable of reaching depths of up to 7km and 100% Chinese-made. Or a state of the art research center for mapping the human genome, built in a former shoe factory in a deprived area of Shenzhen, where it seems hard to believe that (à la James Bond 2020) behind the glass, extremely valuable machines are constantly churning data describing our DNA.
And then there is the exclusive world of scientific spies. News, studies, reports, which, year after year, are stolen, bought and sold among the American and Chinese multinationals in a completely illegal way.
Although “lately,” it seems that the purchase is done in the country at the Eastern end of the Pacific Ocean, and carried out by employees of companies such as Dow Chemical or DuPont, and the sale is done in the country at the Western end of the Pacific Ocean, to scientific and technological research groups of this country.
Cases such as that of Liu Wen, from Dow Chemical, who was arrested while negotiating a “transaction of information” for 4 million US dollars.
As Hu Jintao said during the last Assembly of the Republic People’s Party last February:
“…the capacity for independent innovation is a key factor in our national development strategy…”
So it has been said, and so it shall be done.
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