Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Yeah, And Monkeys Might Fly . . .

This deserves recording for posterity . . .

Given that one of the three titles for Steven Chu's lecture yesterday included the term "Biotechnology," then some readers might have wondered if Chu talked about this. He did indeed. He thinks that genetic engineering of plants might open the way to more effective use of solar energy by enhancing and utilizing their natural power of photosynthesis. The aim would be to produce enough power to supply a steady, renewable source of nonpolluting energy.

When the floor was opened for questions, the first person to speak had a different suggestion:

"Dr. Chu, don't you think that we could solve the energy problem by genetically engineering people to have wings so that they can fly?"

That nearly inspired me to suggest that we harness the force of laughter to generate clean, dependable energy for meeting all of our monstrous energy needs.

Well, as Dr. Chu noted, nine out of ten questions will be . . .

2 Comments:

At 6:46 PM, Blogger Michael Turton said...

Gotta get Chu to talk to my students in Taiwan about lateral thinking! Mine don't ask questions either. My daughter was shushed by her fellows the first time she asked a question in elementary school.

Michael Turton
Tanzi, Taiwan

 
At 10:14 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Hey, Michael, I was just thinking about you today. Some time back, I had looked at your website and read what you said about Taiwanese men preferring Taiwanese women of very light complexion. Your complimentary remarks about your lovely wife's dark complexion came to mind as I was riding the subway this morning and observing differences among Koreans.

Quite a coincidence that thoughts of you came to mind. I suppose that it's also a bit of lateral thinking on my part . . .

 

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