Investing in Science Infrastructure Key to India's Global Rise
New Delhi, October 27: Columbia University professor and Nobel laureate Joachim Frank has said India must expand its scientific infrastructure to produce research that stands at the global level. Amid a worldwide conversation about future technologies and scientific research, he offered a pointed assessment of India's potential and the challenges it faces.
Frank, who teaches at Columbia University in New York, said he had not previously grasped the full scale of the initiative he was now part of. He praised the approach of discussing the future through the lens of technology. He described India as a vast subcontinent rich in opportunity and capacity, particularly in human talent. The most pressing need, he said, is hardware technology.
In his field, the critical tool is cryo-electron microscopy. Frank pointed out that just six instruments are available for the many researchers who wish to conduct cryo-electron microscopy. To be competitive, he suggested India should raise this figure to at least 20 or more.
He also addressed the role of artificial intelligence in scientific work, describing it as a support system rather than a primary driver of discovery. He warned that widespread misconceptions about AI's capabilities exist and that depending on it in this way is highly risky. For those trained in science, including himself, research is grounded in experience, and AI can only assist.
AI is well suited to handling very large datasets and identifying trends, Frank acknowledged. Yet he insisted it cannot be autonomous and should not be. In structural biology, for instance, AI relies on training data. Decades of work in X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM have generated substantial data, from which AI has learned. However, many important research areas lack any data, and in these fields AI is entirely blind. It cannot produce output where it has been given no data.
For India, Frank said, basic science and the right equipment are indispensable. Although investment has gone into X-ray crystallography, the emerging technology essential for drug development is cryo-electron microscopy, and the number of available instruments is extremely small. He described this as almost negligible. With such limited investment, he cautioned that it will take India a long time to reach parity.
On the greatest challenges facing scientists, he offered advice rooted in his own experience. The internet and social networks have produced a flood of information, making it hard for young scientists in particular to set a direction. They often struggle to decide where to go and what matters for society. Frank urged researchers to concentrate on global problems such as climate change and challenges tied to fair thinking and political circumstances. Investment is needed to solve them, and the paths must be presented so that young scientists can see clear ways forward.
Frank recalled that when he began as a scientist, he faced similar uncertainty. Enough information was not available to show where to go, and the internet did not exist. Researchers had to visit public libraries to read the abstracts of conferences they attended. He found his way slowly over time. Today, he observed, the situation is reversed, and the overload of information can make finding one's own path very difficult.
To drive world-class discoveries in India, he argued that investment must be directed where it has the greatest significance. He called for national resource centres where researchers can send their samples. Structural biology, he said, is a crucial field for the development of molecular medicine. Medicine, in his view, should move toward truly personalised, individual-centred care, because medicines are presently developed for a hypothetical average patient.