rage Wi4 Apri 4, 1990. This Week

FUTURE WATCH PROFILE.

The biotechnology uproar cometh

matter which side of the fence you
are on over the abortion issue, the
controversy will soon diminish in the
glare of the new uproar of the 1990s
— biotechnology.

Electronic technology has been the guiding
star of the 1980s, leading into a world of flying
electrons moving at the speed of light. That
field moved so fast that as the Eighties drew to
a close the lifespan of the average consumer
electronic product on the shelf of a Tokyo retail
outlet was down to 90 days!

Bio-technology too will move at unbelievable
speeds during the 1990s. Remember “barriers”
believed impossible in the past? In the early
part of this century many people thought that
no one could travel a “mile a minute’ in a car or
train because they would be unable to breath at
such a fantastic speed. Not very long after that
driving speeds accelerated.

Then the “barrier” was moved to the sky,
where no man could drop out of a plane in a
parachute suc-

canola to prevent damage from early frost.

Again, many, in spite of existing evidence,
will say “impossible.” Even those who may
reluctantly agree it can happen will oppose it on
moral, political or religious grounds, And this
controversy pushes abortion out of the picture.
Abortion will be such a minor matter in the face
of what may develop that it will fade away.
Much like the controversy: that once produced
violent opposition to divorce.

Even when opposition against such “outra-
geous” developments as the car, train, plane
and speed of the past ocurred, some countries
and companies still proceeded with develop-
ments. They prospered, creating the industrial
revolution that provided our present levels of
influence and affluence. Those countries that
ignored, restricted (P.E.I. didn’t allow a car into
the province until 1922. Fort Myers, Fla. —
home of Thomas Alva Edison — had laws
against electric lights, which legislators
thought would keep the cows awake) or pre-
vented rapid

cessfully be-
cause he
would die

progress of
such early de-
velopments of

from lack of

the industrial

=Dlomorrow—

breath before age, fell be-
the chute hind. They
could open. never became
They were By FRANK OGDEN the Detroit,

proven wrong
too. Next came the “four-minute mile.” No man
could run that fast. Animals yes, but not
humans. That took until 1954 when, in the
British Empire Games held in Vancouver's
PNE Stadium, Roger Bannister of England
(who had broken the barrier six weeks earlier in
Oxford) did it again, running against John
Landy of Australia. They both broke the “im-
possible” four-minute mark! This changed what
previous pessimists “knew,” at least in that
field.

In the early 1940s the majority of the world’s
population “knew” man could not exceed the
speed of sound (roughly 750 miles per hour at
sea level). After a few fatal accidents — most
dramatic being that of Geoffrey de Haviland
who was testing his new British jet — that
barrier too was broken (in October 1947 by the

_US. Bell X-1). Other supposedly impossible

barniers have fallen in recent years.

In biotechnology another “impossible barrier”
has been lifted before many governments and
most citizens knew what was happening. The
gene that causes the “glow” in a firefly has been
successfully transferred from the insect, ani-
mal, human life sector to the plant world.
Tobacco plants that can now glow in the dark!
Slides of such “new” forms of life shock many of
my seminar audiences. The tobacco plant was
chosen because, due to the cancer scare, it has
become the most studied plant on earth.

This is just the beginning. Theoretically, at
least, any gene from any living organism can be
transferred to any other living thing. Plant to
man, insect to animal, parrot to sheep. The
“anti-freeze” gene from the Atlantic flounder
has been moved to the Atlantic salmon. Now in
Alberta it is being transferred to rapeseed or

Windsor, Phi-
ladelphia or Seattle of the world. By the time
resisters to change saw the light it was too late
to set up highly profitable freight-hauling and
taxi companies, railroads and airlines. They
had failed to see what such change could bring
and so failed to benefit from it. They hadn’t
learned how to “get in on the ground floor”!
Now the dawning of another “age.” Biotech-
nology. Last April, U.S. government-approved
laws allowing the development of “new forms of
life” came into being. Dear readers, this could
be you. Already this field, that relatively only
started yesterday, has provided new ways to

_ conquer or eliminate some diseases. In Scotland

they are milking genetically-altered sheep, that
provide Factor Seven and Eight, which allows
human blood to clot or coagulate, an urgently
required blood component for hemophilics. Sim-
ilar developments are progressing against
hundreds of other illnesses. But many are
fearful — the Frankenstein syndrome. “But,
what if.....?”

Some countries are surging into this field.
Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan see that
biotechnology will allow small countries with
highly educated populations to accomplish
what they couldn’t — or failed to enter soon
enough to accomplish — in the industrial age.
Those countries viewed biotechnology as an
entree into one of the highly paid and highly
profitable industries of tomorrow. They are
rushing — in times when photons are replacing
electrons — to get in, not on the ground floor
(far too late in the days of the “crystal Jane”) but
on the excavation!

The biotechnology controversy during this
next decade, will overshadow the abortion issue
of the 1980s.

He has the hands of a sailor
and the heart of a dancer, this
larger-than-life latter day Vik-
ing. Bearded and burly, Sven
Johansson is probably best
known to Victorians for his
popular lecture series offered
at the Maritime Museum of
British Columbia on ocean ad-
venturers such as Captain
John Voss and Joshua Slocum.

Johansson himself complet-
ed some Herculean adven-
tures. From 1982 to 1989, Jo-
hansson skippered the steel
cutter “Belvedere” as the 60-
foot yacht made her way
through the Northwest Pas-
sage. The voyage, which began
in San Diego and ended in New
York City, marked the first
time a pleasure yacht had nav-
igated the passage from west to
east. -

The Swedish-born Johans-
son has had lots of experience
in the North - both on sea and
on land. His knowledge of tra-
ditional methods of reindeer
husbandry used by the Laplan-
ders led to a contract, with the
Ministry of Northern Affairs
after he emigrated to Canada
in 1962. Johansson worked in
the MacKenzie Delta for five
years reorganizing reindeer
herding methods. In 1967, he
bought his beloved “North Star
of Herschel Island”, a 57-foot
wooden sloop (he has changed
the rig to that of a square-
rigged schooner) that had been
built in San Francisco in 1935.

Aboard the North Star, he
conducted early environmental
studies for the Geological Sur-

vey of Canada, trained
northerners in seamanship
and also spent three years re-
surveying the Canada-Alaska
border. He brought the vessel
down the coast from Tuktoyak-
tuk in 1973 and has lived
aboard in Victoria since 1975.
He is presently readying his
North Star for a voyage to the
South Pacific he hopes to unde-
rtake in the next two years.
Just as incredible as his
brawny bare-chested seafaring
exploits are his innovations in
the field of dance. That’s right -

dance, “What I have to say in
art is best expressed in dance,”
says Johansson simply. For the
past two years, Johansson has
been perfecting his ES tech-
nique, building a metal boom
that pivots on its fulcrum with
one end clasping the dancers
by the waist to propel them
into the air. It’s like being

strapped to the end of a teeter: *

totter while someone at the
other end manoeuvres the
equipment. While it’s easy to
imagine Karen Kain on a tram-
poline or Rudolph Nureyev on
steroids, the effect is much
more fluid, much more languid
than frenetic. :

Johansson, with his Disco-
very Dance Society, has just
completed a demonstration
video to show off the new tech-
nique. Using the proper light-
ing, the equipment is invisible,
and the dancers seem to float
and move effortlessly using the
whole stage.

Johansson explores the con-
trast between beauty and the
grotesque as well as the interp-
lay of human relationships in
his dances.

Not surprisingly, Johansson
has been inspired by the sea as
he develops his dances. In one

of the 20 pieces he has choreo- _

graphed, the central character
is a mermaid who gets caught
in an oil spill. Johansson care-
fully weaves mythology and
modern environmental sensib-
ilities in this powerful ballet,
The peripatetic sailor also
has firm ideas about the impor-
tance of a strong arts commun-

j ation is known by what
it does in art,” he said. “Victoria
is a distinctive town because of
what it does in the arts - the
opera, the symphony, the Pho-
enix and Belfry Theatres.
What else is there? That is
what makes us special.”

For now, you can experience
Johansson at the podium April
5-8 at the Maritime Museum of.
British Columbia when he pre-
sents a lecture entitled North
Star of Herschel Island: Last of
the Eskimo Schooner Fleet.
by Susan Down

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