The Most Important Revolution

Physicist and former Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently gave a public address on the main issues facing the world and the potential of science for helping. He began by mention the two biggest revolutions of the past century. The second was in communications, from the telegraph to the internet.

The first one was the agricultural revolution started by the Haber-Bosch process of nitrogen fixation which is today keeping a third of the world alive. An equally important revolution was engineered by Norman Borlaug in the 70s, right after the doom-and-gloom prognosticator Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University predicted that no crash programs could possibly keep the world from starving in the 80s and 90s. Borlaug’s repudiation of Ehrlich’s dire prognosis taught us, firstly, that prediction is always difficult, especially about the future, and secondly, that scientific innovation can quell fears of imminent doom almost overnight.

I endorse this ranking; after all, if we were starving we wouldn't much are about posting cat pictures on the web.