Chapter 1 The 21st century is the century of biology!
2022.
On the campus of the University of Science and Technology of China.
West District AED.
Outside the building, the three words "library" mentioned by Mr. Qigong are shining in the sun, and the words exude the tenacity and vitality that are in the blood of every HKUST person.
At the same time, inside the library.
A young man was sitting alone in a deserted corner, writing furiously:
"Everyone knows."
"The 21st century is the century of biology."
"Probably around 2000, this slogan became popular unknowingly. Computers were actually very popular before, but everyone knows that the Nasdaq collapsed at that time, the Internet bubble burst, and biology was even more responsible.
fulfilled an important historical mission."
"This was reflected in a group of high school students. Biology became the major with the highest scores in each school at that time. Basically, it was either first or second."
"Even in the popular list of department transfers during my sophomore year, biology ranked first."
"At that time, our major classmates joked that we gave up the opportunity to enter Qingbei to embrace the future of the 21st century."
"Who would have thought that, more than ten years later, 'the 21st century is the century of biology' has become a common joke among those in our profession - the joke is not on the sentence itself, but on those of us majoring in biology.
"
"In today's parlance it's 'It's a sad story'."
Then the young man paused, seemed to sense something, picked up his phone and pressed the screen.
As a result, no messages came from the phone.
The young man's mouth twitched, he lowered his head and continued writing:
“In fact, in my opinion, the saying ‘the 21st century is the century of biology’ is becoming more and more likely to become a reality.
Now the development trend of the biological industry has become increasingly clear. With the development of science and technology, many biological fields may achieve breakthroughs in the future."
"Of course, outstanding talents in the industry can also gain both reputation and financial benefits - there is a good example around us. A senior student from Teng University graduated with a doctorate from a top ten university and is now working as a CTO in a domestic gene sequencing start-up company with an annual salary of one million
, if the company can be listed, it will be worth over 100 million yuan."
"In the past ten years, the application of computer, physics, automation and other technologies to biological science has not only made rapid progress?
Apart from anything else, look at the diagnostic equipment in the hospital. Compared with ten years ago, how much progress has it made?"
“Ten years ago, biological sequencing was still an extremely expensive project that could produce large papers.
What now?
Any decent hospital can do it."
"For another example, ten years ago, gene mapping was a large project that was time-consuming and labor-intensive. But now its price is so low that even the starting authors can afford it."
“Ten years ago, there was a saying circulating in the biology community:
Biologists spend their days doing experiments and analyzing data, and computers and mathematicians analyze and interpret data.
But now?
If a Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Biology can only do experiments, but doesn't know a few languages or R, he will be embarrassed to say hello to others."
"Now, 30 years have passed, and laymen's understanding of life sciences is still limited to flowers and plants, planting and fertilizing, chickens, ducks and fish, looking, smelling, asking and cutting, operating surgeries and injections, and performing PCR tests... It still remains at a time when jobs are hard to find and no one wants them...
...
"As everyone knows, life sciences are no longer what they used to be."
“For example, big data, which became popular around 2012, was driven by the leap in sequencing technology in life sciences that began in 2008.
In addition, AI, machine learning, and genetic algorithms, which one is not brought about by life sciences?
I started learning big data analysis from the junior class of HKUST, and started to get exposed to AI and machine learning in 11 years, all of which I learned in professional courses in life sciences.
And when did these concepts become popular?—At least three years in the future!”
Write it here.
The young man's emotions were gradually aroused, and his handwriting couldn't help but become a little deeper:
"Currently, the biggest problem in the entire biosphere is volume."
"This is like a lottery. The lottery does not require intelligence and anyone can enter. It only requires money and labor, so everyone just participates."
"Everyone knows that there are only a few sets of numbers that are likely to win, so it often happens that multiple research groups try to draw the same number."
"The one drawn first will have the upper hand, and then they will start working hard. The students will work until 11 o'clock without resting on weekends;
The student sends the results to the instructor, and the instructor gets up in the middle of the night to review and submit."
"I would rather send my hard-earned lottery numbers to junk journals for publication, than be one step ahead of my opponents."
"As a result, professors from prestigious universities and researchers with numerous works have been thrown into chaos because of the dispute over the order of lottery draws, and their dignity has been completely lost."
As he was writing, the young man suddenly came back to his senses:
This is the material for my doctoral defense, and the second half obviously cannot appear in that situation.
So he shook his head and drew a long horizontal line from the center of the font in this part of the manuscript.
At the same time, the sound of chairs clattering suddenly came from the desk not far from the young man.
The young man's train of thought had stopped and he subconsciously looked up.
It turned out to be a pair of dogs that had finished their studies... Ahem, there was a noise when the young couple left their seats.
The young man suddenly thought of his paper figurine wife. Should he go to Tifa or Alice tonight?
Then he came back to his senses, shook his head slightly, and continued to write:
"Of course, for now, the field of biology may still be some distance away from a standard outbreak."
"What are the conditions for a subject that explodes like computers?"
“I think there are three premises:
1. Low-cost development.
2. High fault tolerance allows developers to quickly establish projects and iterate.
3.2C business model.”
"Unfortunately, the current bio-related industries do not meet this condition.
"For example, genetically modified crops require extremely high research and development costs - a giant screening machine similar to Monsanto, and the error tolerance rate is low. If one pollen drifts out, it will be serious."
"Another example is that the cost of research and development of new drugs is high, the error tolerance rate is also ridiculously low, and the FDA has strict requirements due to various internal and external reasons."
"This has resulted in biological entrepreneurship being highly dependent on resources and slow to advance, making it difficult to generate an explosion."
After writing this, the young man took a deep breath and concluded:
"But I think these difficulties will one day be overcome!"
"I am certain that the 21st century will still be the century of biology!"
"This is the pursuit of countless pioneers in the field of biological sciences, and it is also my lifelong dream!"
"Respondent: Xu Yun."
After writing these contents, the young man stretched himself leisurely.
Cover the pen carefully and collect the document.
Checked the surroundings one last time.
After finding that nothing was left behind, the young man took his belongings and walked out of the West District Library.
After returning to the small house he rented off campus, the young man took off his glasses and lay on his back on the bed with the word "tai" in his mouth.
He just stared at the ceiling aimlessly.
After a while, he shook his head helplessly, with a wry smile on his lips:
"Zhuo, if it weren't for the plug-in, who would be able to learn biology?"
