Musings of a STEM professional from recent escapade in the world of art

2024 & Beyond: May the force be with you….

Over the year-end holidays, we took a tour of Washington DC (the capital of USA) and New York City (my 2nd most favorite city in the world – I will let you figure out which one is the first!). The tour was opportunistic given our daughter in high school has been studying US history in detail for the first time this year (she studied in India through her middle-school) and we are big fans of history in general. There was another element to our tour and that was art – from historical perspective all the way to a contemporary digital one. I am not an artist or a big aficionado of it either. However, fortunately, because of my daughter – I am gaining more understanding of it. Now, you are probably wondering what do - history, art, and history of art – have to do with many of us who claim to be STEM professionals?

Here - I obviously invoke history and art in their purest forms – anything that is past is history and anything that has been created by living beings is art. Walking through the historical sites and art museums made me realize how much we truly stand on the shoulder of giants that came before us. The things that we take for granted today are made possible by creativity and hard work of many before us.

Going back to history and art though, I think it is very helpful and therapeutic to recognize the role other people play in our accomplishments. It is humbling, but also helpful as we aspire to achieve everything that is meaningful to each of us.

Additionally, and importantly, history has told us that we as individuals, we as communities – survive and thrive only when we continue to learn to be a better version of ourselves – in every aspect. History has told us that individuals who continue to learn new skills and gain new perspectives – continue to positively impact not only their own lives but also the lives of their communities and some of them shape the future like no one else could. You can reflect on how your favorite personality – be it a scientist, a politician, or a sports figure or from some other vocation– made their impact through this one lens – Continuous Learning. Of course – it would be amiss to not mention examples of corporations that have disappeared because they chose to not learn fast enough – perhaps because they were the market leaders in their fields - only to be replaced by a better product based on better technology (or better science or better user experience).

The world of medicine is going through its own pivotal moment – be it in GLP-1’s role in weight loss, or cell therapies for cancer or gene-editing therapies for sickle-cell disease. Any of these technologies could turn out to be as disruptive for any therapies as search engine technology did for the internet, cloud computing did for e-commerce or image processing & image compression did first for digital pictures & then for social media. Today, we have new interventions and therapies that have become mainstream and were still considered niche only 10-20 years ago e.g., Lasik eye surgeries, hip, and knee replacement surgeries (through materials and surgical intervention innovations) and new drugs and vaccines for many diseases – many enabled by the progress in the tech sector combined with advances in chemistry, biology, and medicine.

And add to these three – drugs that can control or even reverse leading causes of chronic conditions, cell therapies, and gene-editing therapies – the two new technologies knocking on the door for innovations in drug discovery and delivery viz., Artificial Intelligence (well beyond connectivity and patient monitoring that’s already showing good penetration and success in the field) and Quantum Computing. Just like any new technologies – maybe not all of 5 of them would change drug discovery and delivery radically– but – each of them (& technologies that spin-off from research in these areas) have that potential. We only need a couple of these to mature to a level where drug discovery & delivery (including preclinical in-vivo vs. in-vitro testing and clinical trials) will be radically different than it is today! Each of us needs to stay abreast - possibly at different levels of details - about each of these depending on our roles and aspirations.

So – here is to a first wish from a long-winded narrative: In 2024 & beyond, may the force be with you to be a continuous learner!

So, What about Art? Where does that fit in – if at all!?

So – if you are still reading this, you may be wondering that we perhaps connected history with the importance of learning. But what about art?

As Henry Fountain wrote in a NY Times article “...Engineering and art were not always completely separate disciplines”. Well – learning to appreciate art (ok- I at least connected art & learning for myself!) – especially over the past few days of vacation, made me think about why art has been so central to human evolution. And the answer – in my mind – lies in the creativity, different perspectives, and open-mindedness that art in general unleashes or at least encourages. Our creativity and embracing of different perspectives with an open mind are going to be ever so more critical in the world of artificial intelligence.

In the least, appreciating art – in any of its form – from Monet’s paintings to levitating high-speed trains to our innovative medical devices (like tiny hearing aids) – helps us gain perspectives that at times we as scientists may miss (because of our keenness to look for data & numbers). Designing human centric products is not just a fad – it’s the future and that requires each of us in STEM to be a bit more appreciative of perspectives that may not always be measurable. As the famous saying goes – "not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted".

Art allows us to imagine what’s possible and does not judge us for being radically different, in fact to some degree encourages it. History has told us that products and services are shaped by visionaries and not by mere extrapolation of the past. Let us give each other a chance to express ourselves. Let us make sure we listen to understand, and not to judge. All these attributes perhaps come naturally to many artists since they are not thinking about the next EXCEL/Python analysis. Let us celebrate diversity of opinions just like the world of art and artists has always done (arguably better than the world of science?). I am sure there are other attributes that art and artists are more likely to nurture and exhibit which are highly valuable for research and product development rooted in science and technology.

So – here is a second wish: In 2024 & beyond, may the force be with you to adapt and adopt from the world of art all that is relevant, fascinating & enduring! (& please do not reach out to discuss art with me -as you would be disappointed :) - though we can always discuss qualities of artists that we all should aspire to imbibe in our day-to-day science endeavors.)

Cheers and wishing you again that you achieve everything that’s most meaningful to you in 2024 & beyond!

This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own views & thoughts and are not related to any of the organizations & institutions that I am/have been associated with and do not represent the views of the organizations or individuals mentioned & cited in this blog.