[Applause]
[Music]
what’s the point I spent the past 20
years of my career as a scientist having
people asking me this question what’s
the point of studying the embryonic
development of this were there any kind
of application for this research well
when I know that we’re studying a very
important problem in biology I have to
admit that I have no way of knowing what
will be the applications of my research
in ten or even twenty years from now and
this is completely normal
this is by definition what fundamental
research is a research without clear
application a research for the only sake
of increasing human knowledge so now I
know that most of you in this room still
don’t get the point and you probably
also say that I’m spending a lot of
money doing something that is completely
useless and I can tell you you’re not
the only one thinking that another
reason why fundamental research in great
danger today so let me try to convince
you that fundamental research is worth
fighting for and to explain you how we
could possibly save it so I know this is
an obscene concept in our society
spending money on something without
clear application and I’m sure you
probably think that with much more
important things to do with that money
and you probably right except that you
have to consider that our entire
technology and our entire civilization
is built on innovation made by
scientists that were swimming in the
dark at whoever searched for something
on the internet or walking in the street
that you consider to be very important
and ended up finding something complete
different and far more interesting this
is happening all the time
when you’re doing fundamental research
and that’s the reason why we cannot
predict the the application of our
research let me give you an example
you probably heard a few months ago
about the two first human embryos that
got their genome edited this major
breakthrough is opening the door to the
end of several genetic diseases doctor
dude nonchalantly the two scientists who
discovered the Casman CRISPR technology
made this long-term dream a reality what
is fascinating about these discoveries
that they were not looking for genomic
technology at all instead they were
trying to understand our bacteria we’re
dealing with their viruses
not even close another example that will
show you how unpredictable or the
application of fundamental research
you might recognize this gentleman a
general relativity theory published by
Herbert n Stein 100 years ago stated
that space and time were linked and that
they were relative one to another
these discovery revolutionized our
understanding of universe and gravity
and this is as fundamental as a research
can possibly be
it is only 80 years later that this
theory found its practical application
that changed our day to day life with
the global positioning system also
called
GPS of course 100 years ago Google map
didn’t exist right and there was no way
instant could have been even envisioned
the application of the theory so now if
GPS will be the only one in this
situation the only technology in this
situation I will call you call it an
exception but do you know that every
piece of technology and every treatment
you’re using on a daily basis have their
roots in fundamental research because we
cannot build or repair something we
don’t understand and the purpose of
fundamental research is to understand
how the structure of things and how they
function so now my next question is
would you live without the next
technology that will cure cancer
Alzheimer or will make your life way
easier because you’re answering yes to
this question if you consider that we
have more important things to do with
our money than funding from the mental
research now that I hope I convinced you
the fundamental research is not only
important but is fundamental for the
advancement of our civilization let’s
talk about this graph
I hope this graph represent the decline
of obscurantism but unfortunately that’s
not the case this graph represents the
drop in u.s. funding from fundamental
research from the 60s to today and
always amazed by this catastrophic drop
if we look at this graph we can expect
that the next generation will see the
extinction of fundamental research if we
cross this blue line and I’m afraid that
we’ll still be alive at that time n
Stein will become a dinosaur if we cross
this blue line the next generation will
live in a world where everything that
define human knowledge will not exist
anymore could you believe this so how
could we avoid this it’s very simple
we need more cash to fund fundamental
research that’s it very simple but very
complicated at the same time a lot of
petition have been sent to University
Provost media ministers of every
countries for a very long time with very
minimal impact we have no choice to
admit now that government do not
consider funding fundamental research as
important enough so what could we do
there year I would like to explore with
you today is why not having the industry
more involved in funding for them into
research and this idea is in line with
the news we hear these days about big
companies investing in research
particularly not official intelligence
in Montreal this year so now let me show
you our startup can also contribute to
found fundamental research by giving you
as an example the company I created with
my two co-founders Michael and Abdul I
we tailored our company so that we can
answer a real need to the society
generate revenue to of course promote
our growth of the company and found
fundamental research at the same time
our idea was to extract a commercial
value from something every scientist
create during their career their
expertise it could be an expertise in
interpreting microscopy imaging is
setting the right parameter for a very
specific
it could be expertise in data analysis
most of this expertise is extremely
valuable for other scientists and is
most of the time impossible to transmit
through scientific articles usually you
need to have a student coming to your
lab for 3-4 years to transmit this
expertise so how could we capture this
expertise and sell it you probably heard
that artificial intelligence is the end
of your job is the end of schools with
actual human teachers and even that
robot will start killing people in the
streets let’s be serious have you ever
considered that AI may have a positive
impact on our society the technology is
advanced enough today so that an AI can
learn very specific skills for several
professionals and this is why it is so
scary
we’re afraid to be replaced so now why
not using this AI to capture the
expertise of scientists and create a
value that didn’t exist before
ai arrived in our life if we can sit
down and observe scientists setting
parameter for variants for very specific
experiments then we can create a data
set to train an AI after training this
year we’ll be able to set appropriately
the parameter for this group of
experiment but it will be able to do
that in every research lab all around
the world so why not then creating
revenue from the utilization of this AI
and use that money to fund fundamental
research this is the with this idea in
head that we created our first AI
powered platform that capture the
expertise of a group of scientists that
we call bioinformaticians and who are
who are computer scientists using very
complicated algorithm to analyze human
genomes and sell this expertise to
the scientists called life scientists
allowing them to boost their research so
now this is our solution using
technology to create a value from the
world of research to fund research and
my point here today is not to say that
we found the ultimate solution that will
save fundamental research from
extinction my point today is the
survival of fundamental research may
depend on industrial initiatives going
in this direction so that we never cross
this line and we keep improving our
healthcare system and our quality of
life so I hope I convince you today that
letting fundamental research becoming a
human activity of the past is not
something that we want to be considered
by the present or the next generation I
deeply hope that more and more
entrepreneurs will consider founding
fundamental research that you will
consider using technology not only to
build something new or practical or to
become rich but also to support the
research for the only sake of increasing
human knowledge because the promotion of
human knowledge is not the
responsibility of government alone it is
my responsibility it is your
responsibility it is the responsibility
of each and every one of us thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
what’s the point I spent the past 20
years of my career as a scientist having
people asking me this question what’s
the point of studying the embryonic
development of this were there any kind
of application for this research well
when I know that we’re studying a very
important problem in biology I have to
admit that I have no way of knowing what
will be the applications of my research
in ten or even twenty years from now and
this is completely normal
this is by definition what fundamental
research is a research without clear
application a research for the only sake
of increasing human knowledge so now I
know that most of you in this room still
don’t get the point and you probably
also say that I’m spending a lot of
money doing something that is completely
useless and I can tell you you’re not
the only one thinking that another
reason why fundamental research in great
danger today so let me try to convince
you that fundamental research is worth
fighting for and to explain you how we
could possibly save it so I know this is
an obscene concept in our society
spending money on something without
clear application and I’m sure you
probably think that with much more
important things to do with that money
and you probably right except that you
have to consider that our entire
technology and our entire civilization
is built on innovation made by
scientists that were swimming in the
dark at whoever searched for something
on the internet or walking in the street
that you consider to be very important
and ended up finding something complete
different and far more interesting this
is happening all the time
when you’re doing fundamental research
and that’s the reason why we cannot
predict the the application of our
research let me give you an example
you probably heard a few months ago
about the two first human embryos that
got their genome edited this major
breakthrough is opening the door to the
end of several genetic diseases doctor
dude nonchalantly the two scientists who
discovered the Casman CRISPR technology
made this long-term dream a reality what
is fascinating about these discoveries
that they were not looking for genomic
technology at all instead they were
trying to understand our bacteria we’re
dealing with their viruses
not even close another example that will
show you how unpredictable or the
application of fundamental research
you might recognize this gentleman a
general relativity theory published by
Herbert n Stein 100 years ago stated
that space and time were linked and that
they were relative one to another
these discovery revolutionized our
understanding of universe and gravity
and this is as fundamental as a research
can possibly be
it is only 80 years later that this
theory found its practical application
that changed our day to day life with
the global positioning system also
called
GPS of course 100 years ago Google map
didn’t exist right and there was no way
instant could have been even envisioned
the application of the theory so now if
GPS will be the only one in this
situation the only technology in this
situation I will call you call it an
exception but do you know that every
piece of technology and every treatment
you’re using on a daily basis have their
roots in fundamental research because we
cannot build or repair something we
don’t understand and the purpose of
fundamental research is to understand
how the structure of things and how they
function so now my next question is
would you live without the next
technology that will cure cancer
Alzheimer or will make your life way
easier because you’re answering yes to
this question if you consider that we
have more important things to do with
our money than funding from the mental
research now that I hope I convinced you
the fundamental research is not only
important but is fundamental for the
advancement of our civilization let’s
talk about this graph
I hope this graph represent the decline
of obscurantism but unfortunately that’s
not the case this graph represents the
drop in u.s. funding from fundamental
research from the 60s to today and
always amazed by this catastrophic drop
if we look at this graph we can expect
that the next generation will see the
extinction of fundamental research if we
cross this blue line and I’m afraid that
we’ll still be alive at that time n
Stein will become a dinosaur if we cross
this blue line the next generation will
live in a world where everything that
define human knowledge will not exist
anymore could you believe this so how
could we avoid this it’s very simple
we need more cash to fund fundamental
research that’s it very simple but very
complicated at the same time a lot of
petition have been sent to University
Provost media ministers of every
countries for a very long time with very
minimal impact we have no choice to
admit now that government do not
consider funding fundamental research as
important enough so what could we do
there year I would like to explore with
you today is why not having the industry
more involved in funding for them into
research and this idea is in line with
the news we hear these days about big
companies investing in research
particularly not official intelligence
in Montreal this year so now let me show
you our startup can also contribute to
found fundamental research by giving you
as an example the company I created with
my two co-founders Michael and Abdul I
we tailored our company so that we can
answer a real need to the society
generate revenue to of course promote
our growth of the company and found
fundamental research at the same time
our idea was to extract a commercial
value from something every scientist
create during their career their
expertise it could be an expertise in
interpreting microscopy imaging is
setting the right parameter for a very
specific
it could be expertise in data analysis
most of this expertise is extremely
valuable for other scientists and is
most of the time impossible to transmit
through scientific articles usually you
need to have a student coming to your
lab for 3-4 years to transmit this
expertise so how could we capture this
expertise and sell it you probably heard
that artificial intelligence is the end
of your job is the end of schools with
actual human teachers and even that
robot will start killing people in the
streets let’s be serious have you ever
considered that AI may have a positive
impact on our society the technology is
advanced enough today so that an AI can
learn very specific skills for several
professionals and this is why it is so
scary
we’re afraid to be replaced so now why
not using this AI to capture the
expertise of scientists and create a
value that didn’t exist before
ai arrived in our life if we can sit
down and observe scientists setting
parameter for variants for very specific
experiments then we can create a data
set to train an AI after training this
year we’ll be able to set appropriately
the parameter for this group of
experiment but it will be able to do
that in every research lab all around
the world so why not then creating
revenue from the utilization of this AI
and use that money to fund fundamental
research this is the with this idea in
head that we created our first AI
powered platform that capture the
expertise of a group of scientists that
we call bioinformaticians and who are
who are computer scientists using very
complicated algorithm to analyze human
genomes and sell this expertise to
the scientists called life scientists
allowing them to boost their research so
now this is our solution using
technology to create a value from the
world of research to fund research and
my point here today is not to say that
we found the ultimate solution that will
save fundamental research from
extinction my point today is the
survival of fundamental research may
depend on industrial initiatives going
in this direction so that we never cross
this line and we keep improving our
healthcare system and our quality of
life so I hope I convince you today that
letting fundamental research becoming a
human activity of the past is not
something that we want to be considered
by the present or the next generation I
deeply hope that more and more
entrepreneurs will consider founding
fundamental research that you will
consider using technology not only to
build something new or practical or to
become rich but also to support the
research for the only sake of increasing
human knowledge because the promotion of
human knowledge is not the
responsibility of government alone it is
my responsibility it is your
responsibility it is the responsibility
of each and every one of us thank you
[Applause]
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