Geek Nation: How Indian Science Is Taking Over The World - Angela Saini

Interview with Angela Saini, the British author of the new Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over The World - Here (yeah, the subtitle is quixotic):

"What was the most surprising thing you uncovered while researching your book?

There wasn't a day in my research that I wasn't surprised by something. I traveled the length of India, north to south, and met such fascinating characters. What impressed me most is that so many Indian researchers have such a social aspect to their work. They want to help India's poor and vulnerable, as well as to do good science.

One interviewee, Sujatha Narayanan, was a tuberculosis researcher I met in Chennai. A few years ago, when she didn't have enough healthy volunteers for her work, she started running tests on herself. One day she found some TB bacteria in a tube that had been in her throat, which meant she may have accidentally infected herself. She had to undertake a grueling drug treatment for months, which she believes triggered her diabetes. She put her life on the line for her work, but it has not diminished her passion or her commitment to science.
Can you explain why you compared India's current situation to Japan in the early 1970s?

When you read academic studies about the attitudes that people had toward Japan's technology industry in its early days, it's very similar to what people have been saying about India recently--that scientists and engineers are hardworking and educated, but not particularly creative or original. In Japan's case of course that all changed, giving rise to a truly powerful scientific nation. I think similar stirrings are happening in India now. There are shoots of creativity all over the country, particularly in areas like biotechnology, life sciences, and computing. I don't want to forecast what might happen, because I don't think anyone can know for sure, but India does at least have the ambition and willpower to want to be the next scientific superpower."