What are some prospects and areas of competitive advantage that you see for Philippine science?
My hope is that our generation of scientists will be able to initiate a biotechnology initiative based on discoveries from the biodiversity of the Philippines. In my own research, the obvious application has been biomedical. However, I believe that with a little imagination, we should be able to explore all kinds of other applications. Some of the most promising applications could even be based on pests that bedevil us. For example, the traditional practice of kaingin is really no longer defensible given the density of the population of our islands, and its threatened ecosystems. In theory, however, we can convert all of the dry plant material during the dry season (that is traditionally burnt down) into a source of energy one key to this may be the termites that presently eat up our homes. They have the ability to convert dried wood into sugar, and it is relatively simple to convert sugar to ethanol. Working on the enzymes from termite guts that accomplish this is the type of biotech
