SINGAPORE – Some of the world’s brightest minds gathered in the Republic from Jan 6 to 10, to mingle with and inspire more than 340 younger counterparts at the annual Global Young Scientists Summit.
The Straits Times spoke to these prominent scientists about their work and what drives them.
Professor Louis Ignarro
Never overlook the small things, said Nobel Prize winner Louis Ignarro.
It was this approach to science that led Professor Ignarro, to discover how nitric oxide, a gaseous chemical in both the earth’s atmosphere and in human cells, could be used in medications to treat not only heart and cardiovascular diseases, but also impotence.
It is no wonder that Prof Ignarro, now 83, is sometimes called “the father of Viagra”. His experiments with nitric oxide in the 1990s found that the compound is the one that transmits signals in the body for erectile function.
His research showed that nitric oxide widens blood vessels and increases blood flow.
He was not directly involved in the development of Viagra, nor was he paid royalties for the sale of the drug.
Professor Joan B. Rose
Being on the losing team turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Professor Joan B. Rose.
Hers was the team that lost when two groups vied for the Newater project in 1998.
Prof Rose had signed an exclusive contract to join a consulting engineering group bidding on a wastewater reclamation project in Singapore.
Although this team lost the bid, she had made her mark. Her name was put forward to be on the independent advisory panel, overseeing the science, research and engineering of the project.
And so began a 25-year relationship between Prof Rose and Singapore to come up with better ways of developing clean, safe water.
Professor Sue Black
Dame Sue Black, a world-renowned forensic scientist, has spent her life immersed in the mysteries of death, a relationship that she first began to understand through the wisdom of her late grandmother.
“It was my (paternal) grandmother who talked to me from a young age about death. She would always say to me, ‘Death walks beside you every single day of your life, and at some point or another, your paths are going to cross, and if death is going to walk alongside you, best to make her your friend, because you do not want to walk every day with an enemy,’” said 63-year-old Professor Black.
Because her grandmother was born in the 1800s, it was improper to have a man as a friend. “Death to me has always been female,” she told The Straits Times.
Join ST’s WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
This post was originally published on here
