12 October 2019 | New Scientist | 21M
ORE than 300 years
ago, philosopher and
scientist Robert Boyle
compiled a list of breakthroughs
that he hoped future scientists
would make. The list is a
fascinating glimpse into
17th-century society: its desires,
the limits of its technology and
the boundlessness of imagination.
Some items on Boyle’s list
remain largely outside the bounds
of science: “The Attaining
Gigantick Dimensions”, or
“The Transmutation of Species
in Mineralls, Animals, and
Vegetables”. But many now
exist in some form or another:
“The Prolongation of Life”,
“The Art of Flying”, “The Cure
of Diseases at a distance or at
least by Transplantation” or
“Potent Druggs to alter or Exalt
Imagination”. The list shows
the power of blue-sky thinking
and the importance of scientific
research in making ideas reality.
This summer, the UK national
academies started a public
conversation to develop a new
“people’s list” of things we would
like to be able to do, or better
understand, through research
and innovation. The results are
as varied as you would expect,
from tackling climate change
and cancer to the colonisation of
planets outside our solar system
and communicating with pets.
Similar items would probably
feature on such a list anywhere
in the world. But the list carries
particular lessons for the UK as it
JOSgrapples with its future global role.
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enjoys a pared-down
whodunnit p32Boyle’s list shows how
seemingly pie-in-the-sky dreams
can become the future norm. For
that to happen today requires
investment from government
and industry in creative research.
The UK government is committed
to 2.4 per cent of GDP being
invested in research from public
and private sources by 2027.
But it is some way off this target,
and the country lags behind
international competitors. The
likes of Germany, Israel, South
Korea and Japan already invest
more than 3 per cent of GDP.The UK has a great deal to build
on. The country is at the forefront
of climate science, as the second
largest contributor of expertise to
the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, behind the US;
it has discovered and developed
a quarter of the world’s top
prescription medicines; and
it leads the world in machine
learning and artificial intelligence.
Scientific advances don’t
exist in a vacuum, and the UK
can play to the well-developed
cooperation between the sciences
and the humanities. Humanitiesresearchers are busy developing
ethical and regulatory
frameworks for new technologies:
the University of Oxford recently
received a record £150 million
from US investor Stephen
Schwarzman to tackle the
ethical questions of AI.
UK anthropologists use their
expertise to engage sensitively
to strengthen medical
interventions around the world,
for example in vaccination
campaigns and in the Ebola crisis
in West Africa in 2014.
With a general election in the
UK potentially around the corner,
backing research is also a vote-
winner. According to the UK
Public Attitudes to Science Survey,
79 per cent of those surveyed
agree that even if it brings no
immediate benefits, research
that advances knowledge should
be publicly funded.
Boyle’s list and the people’s
list prove that in our capacity
to dream of a better, safer and
more exciting world, we are
just like our predecessors and,
indeed, our successors. The UK
government has an opportunity
now to set an example by
committing fully to research
for a common global future. ❚The future from the past
A 17th-century wish list shows the importance of blue-sky research, and of building
cooperation between science and the humanities, says historian David CannadineDavid Cannadine is president of the
British Academy, the UK’s national
academy for the humanities and
social sciences