- FileA much younger Gerald Lalor at work in his lab.
Gerald Lalor, Contributor
JAMAICA supports several science-based institutions and, for example, the agricultural, forensic, geological and water laboratories of various ministries, the Jamaica Bureau of Standards, the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, and the Scientific Research Council, all have reasonably well-equipped laboratories. There are a few professional scientific organisations and local journals. The Mona campus of the University of the West Indies has many fine laboratories and a respectable record of achievement; it is also the major influence on scientific training and research in the country.
The two new universities will no doubt in due course have significant contributions to make. There is a National Commission of Science and Technology, with responsibilities that include overseeing, planning, monitoring, and development of science & technology on the national scale. The national science policy emphasises programmes that can: make maximum use of existing facilities, provide closer linkages between sectors, yield valuable data and information in the short term, provide a foundation for further development, help develop worthwhile job opportunities, and provide opportunities for competitive advantages.
It also emphasises international collaboration, including links with Jamaican scientists resident abroad. Not every programme will meet all these objectives but several promising ones are under way. Hopefully, much can be achieved without any great financial expenditures but programme selection, data sharing and a great deal more collaboration between individuals and institutions is necessary because the problems of development are increasingly multi-disciplinary and the number of practising scientists is small.
There are excellent possibilities for S&T to contribute to Jamaica's well-being but from the start it has to be good science, as poor science is just a waste of money and carries a high opportunity cost of training and employment. Yet even the best science is wasted if it is not properly reported and generally available. In this respect the 'publish or perish' policy has some merit. Publishing (and reading) would certainly help avoid each generation repeating the work of earlier generations as though it were novel instead on building on existing frameworks.
Most of the writing about what should be done is written, and the talking along the same lines is probably at least a half century old so the talk too has been done. The obvious step is to take what we have now and run with it. An idea of what might be achieved is illustrated by the following example of work under way on the Mona campus.
ICENS
The International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS), formerly the Centre for Nuclear Sciences, was developed at Mona in accordance with the precepts of the national science policy. Its main thrust is, therefore, on solving problems of national importance, and on building up the human resource and information bases necessary for sustainable development. Its present focus is in a field called environmental geochemistry that deals with the levels of elements in air, rocks, soil and water and the relationship of these to the natural and human environment.
The data (and often the same data) are applicable in areas as varied as agriculture, natural resource identification, environmental assessment, health and nutrition, and land use. As a result of several grants and support from both the University of the West Indies and the Jamaican Government, the centre is well equipped, with instruments varying from simple tools such as used to measure acidity to a small nuclear reactor used for the measurements of concentrations of some 50 inorganic elements.
Geographical information systems and global positioning systems are essential items in its work. This work includes dealing with a health hazard from lead in the Hope River Valley. An island-wide mapping of Jamaica showed a small hot spot in Kintyre that is caused by mine waste from the long-closed nearby Hope Mine. That orebody, which contains lead, zinc and a host of other elements including some gold, was worked intermittently up to the mid 19th century.
The Kintyre Basic School is actually located in the building that originally housed the mill used for crushing and concentrating the lead ore, and unfortunately, in those days there was little concern about environmental matters so the mine waste and unprocessed ore were merely dumped into what is now the schoolyard and the nearby areas. The children's blood lead levels that resulted from this were so high that every one of them would have been considered lead-poisoned in the United States and some had very high levels indeed. After careful consideration, taking into account medical advice and the experiences of towns that operated lead smelters in other countries, it was agreed that remediation could be carried out without abandoning the building and surrounding areas, which might well have been impossible anyway in our circumstances.
The sources of lead were therefore isolated by covering, using marl and cement, the school was thoroughly cleaned and repainted, the children's diet was enhanced with protein and calcium-rich supplements and the teachers, parents and children were educated in lead safety. These have brought about salutary changes which are being built upon. The results illustrate how a human problem was discovered and defined and an affordable solution put in place with clear benefits to the affected population. It also demonstrates how sophisticated science is often needed to solve grassroots problems, and the value of collaborations between a laboratory, funding agencies (The Environmental Foundation of Jamaica in particular), service clubs (Kiwanis Club of North St. Andrew and the Lions Club of Mona), and the target community. The Centre has also benefited in increased knowledge and experience; it has attracted international attention through published papers and conference presentations that has led to significant local and international collaborations.
The scientists involved have benefited not only from a feel good contribution, but by enhanced scientific reputations. Such work is not every scientist's ideal cup of tea nor should it be. But, if the Jamaican situation is the priority and collaboration a tenet, similar programmes would help strengthen local science's immediate national effects.
CONCLUSIONS
It may seem a very long way from the dawn of creation to the fate of a poor lead poisoned child or a desperate starving man but science encompasses all that and more. Driven by efforts to understand nature and to benefit from such understandings, it now lies at the core of human life, but most of the benefits have so far accrued to the developed world. It is hard to believe that these nations hold a monopoly on genius, or on the capability to plan and organise scientific effort, and that what they have done cannot be emulated at least to some extent in the developing world, if this is thought essential.
It is universally true that as James B. Conant, distinguished American chemist, diplomat, and former president of Harvard University wrote of the United States: in every section of the entire area where the word science may properly be applied, the limiting factor is the human one. We shall have rapid or slow advance in this direction or in that depending on the number of really first-class men who are engaged in the work in question.
So in the last analysis the future of science in this country will be determined by our basic educational policy. But the education of first-class scientists goes well beyond formal training. There need to be institutions, including research units in universities that provide the leaders, the inspiration, the means and the guidance that build the quality that can make a world of difference.
Science and technology are now among the most important aspects of human creativity and essential to development and, difficult as it may seem to the poorer countries, they are ignored at risk. And risk, as we now see, can be global. There have long been concern, warnings and debate, about the widening knowledge gap and the instabilities that this must produce. Added to humanitarian and economic reasons there is now terror as aspects of scientific progress, not at all dealt with here, can provide enormous destructive power to individuals and small groups of desperate persons.
One should consider for how long the enormous gaps that exist can be sustained in a world with instant communications. Will they drive new levels of desperation with tragic consequences for all of us? Surely, if S&T is really considered essential to development in the Third World, it deserves the type of attention that Nehru gave to it in India? And if the developing world's scientists are convinced of the potential value of their work, surely an extra mile or two is not too much to hike? And does it not suit the developed world to better assist the poor countries to ensure that their S&T is truly an instrument of development? The answers to these questions are likely to determine much of our future.
Professor Gerald Lalor is head of the Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
