• Question: If you could change 1 thing in the past what would you change and why?

    Asked by hannahroberts to Allan, Nathan on 6 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Allan Pang

      Allan Pang answered on 6 Jul 2012:

      If I could go back through time, I’ll probably go back to the year 1956.

      This is the year when they discovered the protein assembly that I am studying right now. Back then, because the microscope is not as sophisticated or as advanced right now, they thought that this little polygons inside the bacteria are just virus (well, since this bacterial organelle do look like a virus!), and therefore, this led to a wrong perception of many people that bacteria are simple living things without any organs inside their cell (other than nucleus).

      So, if I could visit the past, I would make an effort to change this perception and prove that bacteria are more complicated than we think it is! And compartmentalisation inside the cell happens not only higher form of organisms but also in bacteria.

      This also therefore means that in the future (which is now), we will have had more advancement in this area. In fact, I might be working on ways of re-engineering the bacterial microcompartments for practical use! Sadly, this is not the fact, because of the misjudgment of the past, we are only beginning to understand these bacterial organelles.

    • Photo: Nathan Langford

      Nathan Langford answered on 6 Jul 2012:

      Wow, I really had to think about this one.

      In my opinion, the biggest problem facing our society today is climate change, so I think I have to pick something related to that. So here goes.

      In order to choose something very specific, I would change the outcome of the Copenhagen World Summit on Climate Change in December 2009. I would have all countries participating in the summit sign a strong treaty committing them to major, concrete and binding targets for reducing emissions and reducing our use of fossil fuels, most particularly the big emissions producing countries like US, China, India, Australia and countries in Europe.

      For example, these would hopefully including commitments to: implementing strict and binding new standards in fuel consumption and emissions from cars and air conditioners; enforcing more stringent controls over industries which pollute the environment through emissions and environmentally hazardous waste; implementing strong economic incentives for reducing major power wastage in our communities, like office buildings with lights left on overnight and electrically powered advertisements and billboards in the streets; placing a meaningful price on carbon production in large or developed economies, in particular for emissions relating to long-distance food transport to encourage more self-sufficient production of food and eliminate the more ludicrous problems of air-freighting food; minimum government spending on R&D into green energy and clean industries.

      Obviously even better would be for these things to happen earlier, for example as part of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, or even earlier, but Copenhagen in 2009 would be a good start.

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