California Expert Software

Introduction

The LA Times reports that the effect of California's Prop 71 is immediate. The $3 billion authorized for Stem Cell research has catalyzed changes all over the country.

California is probably assured of the leading role in this and similar reseach for many years. This down payment is likely to bring billions more of investment funds into California. Other States cannot match this funding level. This may bring on yet another influx of highly skilled people into California, which has a multiplier effect on the hi-tech economy.

The differential effects of Prop 71 illustrate my views on the Blue State/Red State divide. California is the biotechnology leader in the United States, and maybe the world as well. There is a highly developed biotech industry in the San Diego and San Francisco areas, both highly desirable residential destinations.

Putting up some money for Stem Cell research hits the Red States (and George Bush) in the solar plexus, not only because those people don't believe in it, but also because they won't have a chance to regret their choices. California will remain a magnet for anyone who wants a better life, unrestrained by religious dogma and social conformity. Most of the people involved in scientific research are such people. Thus, the culture wars are likely to intensify, and cultural distances likely to increase, as advanced technologies abandon the backward areas in favor of the enlightened ones.

Ms Garvey points out that the Illinois legislature was unable to muster the votes to pass Stem Cell research funding. The downstate redneck population is strong enough to prevent that sort of spending. This shows that any State with a sufficiently large, backward population will be hobbled and eventually dragged down into the abyss. Even the slightest weakness will end up dooming everyone. [This is why it is important to separate the advanced and backward populations, as I suggested in an earlier article.]

An important secondary effect of this investment in research is that it multiplies. The sorts of people involved in stem cell and other research have a high probability of making discoveries and inventing things in related fields. That is what happened in the semiconductor industry, which eventually spread all over the world. Biotechnology requires hi-tech tools, such as the latest computers, software and test instruments. It requires people who know how to run the existing equipment, and how to improve it. Very often, technical staff has to invent its own testing machines and procedures. Thus, for example, the race to map the human genome created whole new industries devoted to making new kinds of test equipment and DNA synthesis equipment.

The multiplier effect assures major growth of California's biotechnology industries - not just Stem Cell research - for decades.

Rack up 1 for our side.

From the LA Times:

California Stem Cell Project Energizes Other States to Act

To keep researchers from being lured away, other funding efforts are in the works.

By Megan Garvey, Times Staff Writer

As California moves quickly toward setting up a $3-billion embryonic stem cell research agency, other states are scrambling to prevent their top researchers from being raided.

The lure is clear: $300 million a year for embryonic stem cell research in California for the next decade, more than 10 times the yearly federal funding available and free of the Bush administration's tight restrictions on what research can be conducted with federal money.

"Everyone I talk to wants to move to California," said Kevin Wilson, director of public policy for the American Society of Cell Biologists. Wilson, only half jokingly, suggested "staking out the airports" to get a preview of which top researchers outside the state are thinking of relocating.

...

Even in states where there has been political support for research, there have been debates over how much should be done at the state level financially. California's $3-billion initiative is well beyond most states' reaches. Officials elsewhere say the difficulty they face is not only keeping top scientists, but also holding onto promising graduate students, postdoctoral students and skilled lab technicians.

Introduction
The LA Times reports that the effect of California's Prop 71 is immediate. The $3 billion authorized for Stem Cell research has catalyzed changes all over the country. California is probably assured of the leading role in this and similar reseach for many years. This down payment is likely to bring billions more of investment funds into California. Other States cannot match this funding level. This may bring on yet another influx of highly skilled people into California, which has a multiplier effect on the hi-tech economy.

Open your Golden Gate