New Life Sciences: Linking Science to Society BioVisionAlexandria 2012 New Life Sciences: Linking Science to Society BioVisionAlexandria 2012 Editors Ismail Serageldin & Mohammed Yahia with Mohamed El-Faham & Marwa El-Wakil Bibliotheca Alexandrina Cataloging-in-Publication Data BioVision Alexandria (2012 : Alexandria, Egypt) New Life Sciences : linking science to society : BioVisionAlexandria2012 / Bibliotheca Alexandrina ; editors, Ismail Serageldin, Mohamed Yahia, with Mohamed El-Faham and Marwa El-Wakil. – Alexandria, Egypt: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2013. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-977-452-226-8 1. Biotechnology -- Congresses. I. Serageldin, Ismail, 1944- II. Yahia, Mohamed. III. El-Faham, Mohamed. IV. El-Wakil, Marwa. V. Aliksāndrīnā (Library). VI.Title 660.6--dc22 2013659839 ISBN 978-977-452-226-8 Dar El Kotob Depository Number 5293/2013 © 2013, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. 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Text design and layout: Cherine Bayoumi and cover design: Mai Etman Printed in EGYPT 1000 copies Contents Acknowledgements ix Contributers xi OPENING WORDS The Knowledge Revolution Today 3 Ismail Serageldin Fostering a Strong Japanese Bioindustry 11 Koji Omi Life Sciences, Policy and the Developing World 15 Romain Murenzi The Remarkable Chemistry of Life: Protein Machines and Emergent Properties 21 Bruce Alberts Urban and Rural Development: Sustainability for All 27 Kanayo F. Nwanze Exploring Asian Ethics for New Technologies 35 Susantha Goonatilake Science for the People 41 Philippe Desmarescaux The New Life Sciences: Understanding the Essentials of Life 43 Gilbert S. Omenn Sustaining the Global Water Resource 55 Margaret Cately Carlson 1. THE RoBUST EVOLUTION OF HEALTHCARE 1. Tissue Engineering: Recapitulating the Cascade of Development 63 Mona Marei vi Contents 2. Equity in the Delivery of Vaccines and Vaccination in Developing Countries 71 Stephen Jarrett 3. New Life Science: Genomics and the Essentials of Life 79 Huanming Yang 4. The Right to Proper Healthcare 85 Alastair Kent 5. Personalised Medicine or Preventive Public Health? 93 Werner Christie 6. Genomes, Metagenomes, and Microbiomes: A New Biology for a New Millennium 105 Bas E. Dutilh and Ramy K. Aziz 7. Nanomedicine for Cancer Treatment and Theragnostic 117 Patrick Couvreur 2. THE GLOBAL CHALLENGES OF A CHANGING CLIMATE 8. The Psychology of Denial: Forms of Self-Inflicted Blindness in the Anthropocene Era 125 Alberto Zucconi 9. Global Change and Ecosystem Management 133 Jeffrey A. McNeely 10. The Psychology of Global Climate Change 149 Walter Truett Anderson 11. Climate Crisis and the Challenge of Collective Transformative Learning 159 Aftab Omer 3. NURTURING A HUNGRY BOOMING HUMANITY 12. Where Will the Food Come From in a Hotter, More Crowded World? 167 Nina Fedoroff Contents vii 13. SEKEM–Greening the Desert 177 Helmy Abouleish 14. The Uncertainties of Genetically Modified Plants 189 Constantin Canavas 15. Education for Sustainable Development 197 Sewilam, H., McCormack, O., Osório-Peters, S., and Mader, M. 16. Teaching Genes to School Children and Farmers 207 Mittur N. Jagadish 17. Meeting an Increasing Global Food Demand 217 Teunis van Rheenen and Jenna Ferguson 18. The Global March of “Conservation Agri-Culture” 227 Amir Kassam 19. Access to Food, Access to Life: Food Security and Bio-economy 237 Joachim von Braun 20. Towards Global Food Security: The 21st Century Challenge 245 Malcolm Elliott and Fiona Pring 21. An Agroecological Route to Agricultural Development 255 Norman Uphoff 22. The Contribution of Biotech Crops to Food, Feed and Fibre Security and Sustainability 273 Clive James 4. PLUGGING THE WORLD OF TOMORRow INto GREEN ENERGY 23. DESERTEC — Clean Power from Deserts 291 Hani El Nokraschy 24. Tackling Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment 297 João de Saint Brisson Paes De Carvalho Acknowledgements We are grateful to everyone who made the BioVisionAlexandria 2012 Conference the success it was. First and foremost, we thank the Egyptian Government whose support for the Conference is highly appreciated especially in this extraordinary time. Our deepest appreciation also goes to the distinguished Nobel laureates; top notch speakers in the realms of industry, science, policy- making, media and society; as well as to the session chairs and rapporteurs for their invaluable contribution. Special thanks go to our dear promising participants without whom this Conference would not have been possible. Sincere thanks are due to our partners; The World Life Sciences Forum, BioVision who inspired us to take this road and have supported us ever since. Special thanks are due to Mohamed El-Faham, Marwa El-Wakil, Yasmin Maamoun, Marwa Amin and each and every member of the Conference organizing team at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina who worked day and night to make this event a success. Thanks also go to Cherine Bayoumi for her creativity and super-efficient design and layout of the book, Mai Etman for the creative cover design and Marian Roushdy for the efficient data collection and for attending to every single detail of the proceedings preparation. Many thanks to Esraa Ragab and Magdy Khalil, for proof-reading and Sara Zakarya, Merihan Tarek and Passant Eid for helping in data collection. A very sincere thanks to Omnia Fathallah, Nevine Noureldin for the book citations, Olfat Gafour and Noha Omar for their continuous support and guidance, and Mohamed Gomaa for his efforts with the book printing. Furthermore, thanks are due to all the staff at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina who contributed to the production of this volume especially during this very difficult time. x Acknowledgements The following organizations have in many different ways supported the Conference, and we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to them all. Sponsoring Organizations Official Partners The World Life Sciences Forum; BioVision; the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS); Qatar Foundation; Research, Development and Innovation Program (RDI); EU-Egypt Year of Science and Innovation; the Islamic Development Bank (IDB); and the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum. Sponsors British Council as platinum sponsor, Sanofi, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) as gold sponsors. Novo Nordisk, PHARCO Corporation, Elsevier, Sedico, BioMed Central; Agriculture & Food Security as regular sponsors. EgyptAir as the official airline and San Giovani as the official travel agency. Conference Supporters Virtual Incubator for Science-based Business; the Hashemite University; Nature.com; International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA); Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CIGAR), International Development Research Center (IDRC); DESERTEC Foundation; Istituto dell’Approccio Centrato sulla Persona (IACP); International Service for the Acquisition of Agri- Biotech Applications (ISAAA); University of Guanajuato; University of Michigan; the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Grand Challenges Canada, the Center for Development Research (ZEF); University of Wisconsin; Taylor & Francis Group; Sandra Rotman Center; Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia-IIT; Allconferences.com; Confradar; Conference Alerts; Prof. Ingo Potrykus; Prof. Francois Sauer; Mr. Ehsan Masood; Prof. Amir Kassam; and Prof. Constantin Canavas. Contributors Abouleish, Helmy. Managing Director, SEKEM, Egypt. Alberts, Bruce. Former President, National Academy of Sciences; Editor-in- Chief, Science Magazine, United States of America. Anderson, Walter Truett. Co-Chair, World Academy Program on Climate Stability Governace, United States of America. Aziz, Ramy. Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Egypt. Canavas, Constantin. Prof. Dr.-Ing, Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Catley-Carlson, Margaret. Chair, BOT, Crop Diversity Trust, Canada. Couvreur, Patrick. Full Professor of Pharmacy, Paris-Sud University, France Christie, Werner. Former Norwegian Minister of Health, Norway. Desmarescaux, Philippe. Chairman, The World Life Sciences Forum, BioVision, France. Dutilh, Bas. Associate Faculty Member, Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics, Nijmegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, Netherlands. El-Faham, Mohamed. Director, Center for Special Studies and Programs, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt. El-Nokraschy, Hani. Vice-Chairman, DESERTEC, Supervisory Board, Germany. Elliott, Malcolm. Founding Director, The Norman Borlaug Institute for Global Food Security, United Kingdom. Elwakil, Marwa G. Acting Head, Scientific Activities Section, Center for Special Studies & Programs, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt. Fedoroff,