The+Deep+Sea+Game

The Deep Sea Game

Archaea live without the need of light in the deep corner of the oceans, near by hydrothermal zones. A new form of life? To our scientific knowledge yes. To the history of living beings in this world probably not. Maybe Archaea are keeping the secret of our existence well hidden deep down the bleu sea. Our world is full of surprises and when we are sure that we know pretty much everything something new appears and changes our approaches. Scientists thought that living organisms needed oxygen and light in order to survive; now they know that this is not necessary. What this new knowledge offers to us?

The fact that Archaea survive in high temperatures makes their enzymes capable of running reactions faster and hotter. The fact that many of them thrive on hydrogen sulfide made them of great interest in cleaning up the biosphere. This is the biologists’ new playground. The game is competitive and certainly not free. Let me explain it a little bit.

The players: Scientists, governments, universities, companies. There are two kinds of players: the ones who have the power—governments and companies, and the ones who have the knowledge—scientists and universities

The playground: the common waters—oceans

The scope of the game: the companies and governments give money to the scientists—the scientists have most of the times bonds with universities. The scientists conduct research on the Archaea. Then the companies patent their findings and sell them.

The rules: Ok, here is the difficult part; the players don’t want any rules. Or they want the invisible hand of the neoliberal free market. But let’s see. The commons of this earth belong to all the humanity. They are valuable and must be protected; they must be managed in such a way that their natural treasure is maintained. Can scientists conduct research there? Scientific research is for the benefit of humanity. So, I believe that they can conduct research. The basic rule is more or less: the one who arrives first is the one who can claim first.

The ethical issues: Scientists will explore and will try to give answers to the great human curiosity—where did we come from? Or maybe not? The deep oceans are golden mines. The organisms living there may give some answers to our questions but they will also bring money to companies and governments. How? Through patents? What those companies’ patents has two different sides and it depends on what side we are approaching the subject. If we view Archaea as living beings the patents refer to life. Can we patent living forms, especially living forms that are common belongings, as our common natural heritage? If we view Archaea as information then the companies are patenting knowledge. Can we patent knowledge? Where the knowledge belong to? This is a difficult ethical question, and it doesn’t present a difficulty only in this case.

Knowledge and property make a very strange combination. Our organs are in our bodies but we cannot do whatever we want with them. The genes are in our bodies but companies can patent them and sell them. The information that our genes contain are valuable to our survival. The companies can take that kind of information and patent it. But as it concerns scientific knowledge what can be patent and what cannot be patent? When a research is conducted who can claim the knowledge? The scientist, the university, or the company? All those different individuals have a right to claim. But for a moment imagine what would happen if we had to pay Newton every time we are using his laws.

It seems that scientists play the game I described above in many different fields. The differences are very little but the main idea is exactly the same. The scientific research is conducted in an arena, not in neutral laboratories. The scientific request is not necessary the truth. And the scientific knowledge ends up to be a trade off for money and glory. But be aware, the rules of the game can always change, others control the game anyway. The scientists are not power players and they might no longer be players but just pawns.