Nobel Prize winner Andre Geim gets a less than warm reception at Davos (via FT):
"'What are you doing here?' The software billionaire choked in astonishment when I told him I was a physicist. The reaction was informative: it was as if he had encountered a seasonal labourer at our meeting place, the World Economic Forum in Davos."
So why did Geim bother showing up? Oh right:
"The distinguished crowd at Davos last month discussed the poor health of the global economy...The only thing they shared was a belief that a quick fix was available...The advantage of ivory towers is that they allow a view beyond immediate problems. Where one sees banking crisis, debt crisis, currency crisis or some other crises, academics may see even more worrying developments. We are in the midst of a technology crisis. Disruptive technologies now appear less frequently than steady economic growth requires."
"'What are you doing here?' The software billionaire choked in astonishment when I told him I was a physicist. The reaction was informative: it was as if he had encountered a seasonal labourer at our meeting place, the World Economic Forum in Davos."
So why did Geim bother showing up? Oh right:
"The distinguished crowd at Davos last month discussed the poor health of the global economy...The only thing they shared was a belief that a quick fix was available...The advantage of ivory towers is that they allow a view beyond immediate problems. Where one sees banking crisis, debt crisis, currency crisis or some other crises, academics may see even more worrying developments. We are in the midst of a technology crisis. Disruptive technologies now appear less frequently than steady economic growth requires."
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