Today, as the new particle accelerator fires up to discover the "God Particle" that is believed to be the embryo of the galaxy, Webdiary publishes John Pratt's thoughts on the words of a prominent UK scientist.

God bothering or restructuring? time to think again!

by John Pratt [0]

The most brilliant minds [1] should be directed to solving Earth's greatest challenges, such as climate change, says Sir David King.

The former UK chief scientist will use his presidential address at the BA Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers.

He will suggest that less time and money is spent on endeavors such as space exploration and particle physics.

He says population growth and poverty in Africa also demand attention.

"The challenges of the 21st Century are qualitatively different from anything that we've had to face up to before," he told reporters before the opening of the festival, which is being held this year in Liverpool.

"This requires a re-think of priorities in science and technology and a redrawing of our society's inner attitudes towards science and technology."

The greatest threat to our way of life and the lives of many species on the planet comes from climate change, over population, and peak everything.

It is time, as Sir David King says, to focus our smartest brains on solving these, the most pressing issues of the 21st Century. If the threat was from another nation we would move our scientists to a war footing and the focus would be on defeating the enemy. We have a real threat but this time it is not weapons of destruction that will overcome the problems we face. We need alternative energies; we need more efficient agriculture and aquiculture. We need to be more efficient in everything we do. We need to cooperate at an international level more than we have ever cooperated in the past.

We should be prioritizing our scientific research to tackle these immediate threats. When we have found solutions then we can go back to more abstract research.

We need to be developing global organisations to tackle the global nature of many of these issues. We must not let national jealousies get in the way.

We can overcome these enormous challenges but not by acting unilaterally – we need multilateral agreements and sharing of knowledge and resources. We should use these challenges as a way of making us come together to work for a better future for all.

The market will not be able to solve these problems – we will need multinational cooperation and a common goal.