When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ranto my mom for help—but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand onfire.
After wrapping my hand with several layers of cotton, then soaking it in wine,she put a chopstick into my mouth, and ignited the cotton. Heat quicklypenetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me wantto scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my handburn - one minute, then two minutes –until mom put out the fire.
You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at thattime pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, noelectricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access tomodern medical resources. There was no doctor my mother could bring me to seeabout my spider bite.
For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’scure: heat deactivates proteins, and a spider’s venom is simply a form ofprotein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basicbiochemistry, isn’t it? But I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, Inow know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’thelp but ask myself, why I didn’t receive one at the time?
Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I am happy to report thatmy hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled bythe unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world. We havelearned to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancerprogresses. We can manipulate neuronal activity literally with the switch of alight. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research-exciting,transformative accomplishments. Yet, despite the knowledge we have amassed, wehaven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it’s needed most. Accordingto the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than$2 a day. Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Threehundred million people are afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world,we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resourcesimpeding the flow of scientific information. Lifesaving knowledge we take forgranted in the modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions. And in far too many places, people are stillessentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.
While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help othersin simple, yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to myvillage like a spell cast by demons. Our folk medicine didn’t even havehalf-measures to offer. What’s more, farmers didn’t know the difference betweencommon cold and flu; they didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethalthan the common cold. Most people were also unaware that the virus couldtransmit across different species.
So when I realized that simple hygiene practices like separatingdifferent animal species could contain the spread of the disease, and that Icould help make this knowledge available to my village, that was my first “Aha”moment as a budding scientist. But it was more than that: it was also a vitalinflection point in my own ethical development, my own self-understanding as amember of the global community.
Harvard dares us to dreambig, to aspire to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we areprobably thinking of grand destinations and big adventures that await us. Asfor me, I am also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experience herereminds me how important it is for researchers to communicate our knowledge to thosewho need it. Because by using the science we already have, we could probablybring my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take forgranted every day. And that’s an impact every one of us can make!
But the question is, will we make the effort or not?
More than ever before, oursociety emphasizes science and innovation. But an equally important emphasisshould be on distributing the knowledge we have to where it’s needed. Changingthe world doesn’t mean that everyone has to find the next big thing. It can beas simple as becoming better communicators, and finding more creative ways topass on the knowledge we have to people like my mom and the farmers in theirlocal community. Our society also needs to recognize that the equaldistribution of knowledge is a pivotal step of human development, and work tobring this into reality.
And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China who is bittenby a spider will not have to burn his hand, but will know to seek a doctorinstead.
