501derful.org
Well whadda ya know. Here’s a more complete article about the molecular detection device Intel is building for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center I mentioned in The Data Tsunami.
The last sentence says that Intel is paying for the development. The reason is obvious: they are looking for more opportunities for payoff on their intellectual property and capital. If the machine works it will open a billion dollar market.
When you consider how much money goes into cancer research you have to think about how much is being spent by a whole range of industries that want a piece of the multi-, multi-billion dollar market for cancer detection and treatment. It’s not just the drug companies; it’s companies like IBM that has 150 PhD life scientists working with legions of engineers and programmers to come up with life science products. The growing assembly of companies dabbling in medicine in some way has been called “the medical-industrial complex,” and it going to get much bigger in the future. Life science product research is pumping many billions of investor dollars into research annually that directly or indirectly benefit the effort to reduce cancer mortality.
Makes me wonder: If the free-market is putting so much money into cancer-related research, what’s the appropriate role of resource-limited NOPs like the ACS?
