M3L1: Why Research matters?

Before starting this topic, lemme ask you people, what is the role of the government? Obviously, you will answer this way. Welfare of its people.

Okay, then why has the government come out with this policy, Make in India? Most of you may answer that it is done to promote manufacturing so that it can absorb the excess amount of disguised unemployment that exists in primary sector.

Now lemme ask you, one more thing, how do the governments play a role in promoting industrialization?

First let us understand the world ‘industrialization’. It may mean

[1] improving competitiveness in product quality

[2] increase in the number of goods produced per working hour input i.e improvement in labor productivity

[3] a complete shift of the economy from labor-intensive production to capital intensive production through the use of modern machinery, technology and innovation.

[4] producing commodities in large numbers through the making of guild or a cluster. (Industrial clusters aim at achieving geographical closeness among multiple firms and institutions and the centralization of all the resources that are necessary for it)

The theories of the “national innovation system”, puts technological development at the center of industrialization. The central proposal is that, the precondition for industrialization in countries that are undergoing development, is the building up, not just of production capacity, but also of the innovation capability. This innovation capability involves capabilities to absorbing, assimilating and improving upon the available technology.

Thus, as per this theory of economics put forward by Lazonick, industrialization means generation of new and innovative technologies in manufacturing sector and then finally, gaining a thorough mastery in it. We will accept this as a standard definition for industrialization.

Now some may of you may be believing, that the process of gaining technological mastery is very easy. It is actually the other way. It is risky and unpredictable

First of all, the cost and duration of the learning process vary according to the complexity and scale of the technology. Technology requirements to becoming an efficient garment assembler, say are far less costly and far less difficult than learning to make automobiles. Moreover, the process of gaining technological mastery is also dependent on interlinkages with other firms. This requires direct interaction with suppliers who provide inputs that may be intangible (for e.g. advices and instructions) or tangible (capital goods, technology etc.) It also needs close interaction with the buyers, consultants, competitors in the same sector and let’s not forget, that firms in other sectors that are not even remotely related are also connected. Other things that come under the category of extension services include technological universities, industry associations, and training institutions.

Government institutions vital for industrialization

·         Those that promote interfirm linkages in production technology or training. ·         Provide support for smaller enterprises to align their interests and capabilities with the intentions of the government. ·         The right set of instruments and incentives to support investments to help the firm to restructure and upgrade.

Developing countries find it generally easy to industrialize by fully importing, tried and tested, commercially proven technologies it from foreign suppliers. These suppliers provide hardware and software, help to train the engineers to manage the operation and other aspects of technology. This is an effective and less risky way to access technology but it leads to little capability acquisition in the developing country apart from production skills. This is explained as follows When some MNC comes with a new technology in the form of FDI, it doesn’t reveal the processes through which the innovation-based activities have passed. These processes include failures and learnings, that are gained out of those experiences. This phenomenon is known as truncation of technology transfer. Developing country receives the results of innovation and not the process of innovation, which is equally vital for catching up with high income countries through industrial and technological upgradation. It also misses the understanding and knowhow of seller countries technological and production infrastructure. Lessons from South Korea One of the factors, that helped South Korea become industrially powerful is the fact, that the government designed an overarching strategy to target short cycle technology-based sectors rather relying on existing technologies. These short cycle technology-based sectors act as a platform for the continued emergence of new technologies. For example, in the 1980s, the Korean electronics companies had targeted the emerging digital technology-based products while the Japanese companies decided to continue manufacturing the then dominant analog products. This helped the Korean companies get a breakthrough in the export markets without following the series of steps, that were followed by the companies in Japan to reach similar levels of technological maturity. So, now comes my billion-dollar question. How do the countries discover what technologies are more promising? What are those short cycle technology-based sectors, that can help us achieve a breakthrough without competing too much with existing technology giants that have already established their monopolies in that field? Such things are never known, unless and until we discover them. And how do we discover them? Two letters. R&D. (Research and Development)

When a country start industrializing, it has to improve not only its technological capabilities but also organization capabilities. This requires the firms, that are located within to improve its human and technical resources, managerial competence and expertise in supply chain, research capabilities, operational support like availability of finance, availability of strategic knowledge about export opportunities and competitors in markets where it is trying to export. This may then include further information about the state government’s policy, awareness about the customers’ expectations, relations with potential investors, business networks and contacts that are usually created through foreign buyer visits, trade shows, and trade missions etc. The knowledge on which firms’ competitiveness is based also includes internal organizational planning to sustain high levels of productivity, alignment of machinery to maintain highest standards of quality control, efficiency in inventory management, low levels of input wastage and downtime, after sales services, customer feedback and support etc. Combined, when all these aspects work together in tandem, they help to improve firm-level capabilities and export competitiveness. This will be manifested in the rise of its profits, increase in market share and achievement of a strong foothold in export markets. The aggregate increase in the volumes of high technology exports by these firms will help to examine the level of industrial success of a country.

Okay so, we just studied that it’s the Research that leads to a discovery of new technologies. We call this discovery, only as a science. But I hope you understand this, that UPSC is more interested in technology. So, how can this science become a technology?

Science is basically an information. Technology is the application part of it. Just like there is a difference between being a literate and being an educated, there is a huge gap between information and knowledge. In Gujarat, the colleges only help to make a person literate (Lolz)

Remember, in the last lecture, I mentioned you something about knowledge-based economy. In neo-classical economics, knowledge is considered as a factor of production. It is as important as other factors like land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship. Infact, this factor of production is now giving rise to a completely new sector of economy that we recognize as quaternary sector. 

We understand this thing with an example.

When the scientists intend to do research, they do it because they are curious. They want answers to certain questions. In order to get those answers, they have to experiment with completely new set of tools and instruments. Had those tools existed, the answers would have already been got. But the answers are not yet available. In order to get those answers, they design new instruments, that creates a demand for completely new set of technologies. Once firms mature it, they commercialize the technology after getting it patented.

For example, scientists at CERN are trying to figure out how the first protons were born after big bang. Protons are made up of sub-sub-atomic particles known as hadrons. So, the facility in which this entire experiment happens, is named as Large Hadron Collider. Here they are trying to collide a proton with a proton, to see how they first get divided into hadrons. Once separated, scientists want to capture the event, in which these hadrons come near and assemble again to form a new proton. Scientists believe that, this will help us understand how first protons were formed after big bang. During this event, the temperatures inside reach 100,000x hotter than the temperatures inside the sun..

Now recall the fact, that atoms are mostly empty spaces. A hydrogen atom is about 99.9999999999996% empty space. The remaining space is occupied by a single proton. We can’t see the largest molecules, leave alone the single atoms of it. And here the scientists are trying to collide bunch of protons with protons from other side. 

To build instruments capable of creating such extreme conditions and then analyzing the results with extraordinary precision is a daunting challenge which demands advances in many highly complex technologies. You can refer them on the following site https://home.cern/science. In short, to cater the requirements of scientists, the firms engaged push their limits beyond today’ frontiers.

In order to steer the proton, extremely powerful magnets are required. The main magnets in CERN operate at a temperature of 1.9 K (-271.3°C). This requires extraordinary level of cryogenic engineering. At low temperatures, they become superconductors. They carry 1000 times more current, than traditional electrical wires. These superconducting magnets have multiple applications in other industries like energy, transport, and medical technology.  Can you name me few examples of it? Maglev trains, Electrical grids that do not lose electric current, batteries for e-vehicles, batteries for storing renewable energy etc. In medical, we can use them to scan soft tissues through MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). MRI is mostly used for neuro-imaging. This will then open up a new window into our understanding of the working of human brain.

Do you know what is the market potential of it?

To study the collisions of the tiny quarks locked deep inside protons requires a microscope on a larger scale than ever before built. These collisions happen in ¹/_{100,00,00,000}^th part of the second. To capture high-resolution images of particle collisions so much quickly, a hybrid pixel detector was developed. It detects and count each and every individual particle, that hits the detector and depending on how many x-rays hit a certain area, a different color will be assigned. Thus, it uses a combination of detection and imaging technology, and therefore termed as hybrid.

This also has seen many practical applications. For e.g. the different tissues in our body have the tendency to reflect different amounts of X-rays. Tissues containing fat and water, reflect a smaller number of X-rays while bones reflect more.  Thus, on the basis of the energy of the x-rays, that is reflected from these different parts, different parts of the body can be identified. Thus, it can be used in medical imaging, esp. computer tomography (CT-scan). There it is named as MediPix technology.

This technology can also be used to study microbes and cells under the electron microscope, study the expansion of universe through CMBR (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation), assessment of the ionizing radiation dose absorbed the human body during chemotherapy/gamma therapy/ radiotherapy to treat cancer (for e.g. in molecular breast imaging) etc.

This technology can also be used to analyze the interior of the solid material to detect internal cracks. It has been found to detect micro-cracks with a spatial resolution below 55 µm. This creates a powerful tool for non-destructive testing for the aviation industry.

 

To determine a protein's structure, researchers direct the beam of light from an accelerator called a synchrotron through a protein crystal. The crystal scatters the beam onto a detector. From the scattering pattern, the position of every atom in the protein molecule is calculated and a 3-D image of the molecule is created. 

So where else can we use it? Is it possible to use this to detect radiation coming out of Nuclear sites? Or to detect any radioactive content in airport scanners? Or to make optics for drones, satellites etc. Think over it and reply me on my email.

So, have you learned the lessons? I hope you do.

When the scientists try to search for their answers, they create a demand for an extremely new set of instruments. These instruments and newly developed technologies may find applications in many other fields. But to exploit its potential in sales, we need to commercialize it.

Now let’s go one step ahead. When the protons are smashing, it generates an unprecedented amount of data that require advanced computing technology to analyze. To process this data, CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web to give particle physicists a tool to communicate quickly and effectively with globally dispersed colleagues at universities and laboratories. This later on became World Wide Web.

This data is now supposed to be analysed through highly sophisticated softwares and algorithms. This creates a demand for supercomputers and high-speed broadband technology that can transfer the data so much fast. Can you tell me, at what other places can we use this? They can be used for a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), and physical simulations (such as simulations of the early moments of the universe, airplane and spacecraft aerodynamics, the detonation of nuclear weapons, and nuclear fusion). Throughout their history, they have been essential in the field of cryptoanalysis.

Can you tell me what other multiplier effects are created by research at CERN? Refer this website and post me on my email. https://kt.cern/cern-technologies-society