Two days before the start of the “Congressof the Future: Science, technology, humanities and citizenship”, anactivity which takes place in the former National Congress between November 30to December 3, 2011 and which is attended by three Nobel laureates and morethan ten top international scientists, Senate’s President Guido Girardi visitedthis morning the Center for Mathematical Modeling at the University of Chile,to analyze the scientific advances of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics andMathematics of the Genome(LBMG), butabove all to support the development of science in our country.
“Parliament must understand and think aboutthe world is coming and that means knowing, because if you do not know is likegiven up to learn what happens and science hostage to the market, is a sciencethat only lead to more inequality,” Girardi said.
During his visit, accompanied by the NationalPrize in Exact Sciences Servet Martínez, President of the Senate met with thecell biotechnologists, civil biotechnologists, bioinformatics, mathematiciansand engineers bioinformatics lab, which among other projects, participate inthe study of bacteria for its use in bioleaching. It is alsocarries backups for the International Cooperation to Sequence the GenomeAtlantic Salmon (ICSASG), a consortium integrated by Chile, Norway and Canadathat aims to sequence and map the salmon genome. This international initiativenow awarded the prestigious J. Craig Vetner Institute (JCVI) the the phase IIcontract for next-generation sequencing and analysis of the Atlantic salmongenome.
At the end, Senator Girardi said Chile shouldbe the most “competent in the planet in addressing issues of miningpollution, copper production, improvement of wine grapes, poultry, fish. Wemust be the scientific leaders in those areas where our natural strengths.” He added that the most important from the standpoint of science “andthat will generate evolutionary change is the ability to generate living beingsand if we do not understand the complexity of what we're doing, do not knowwhere to go. As Parliament, we have a responsibility to learn and know; sciencehas to seek the common good. “
