Manu Prakash, professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University, USA, at a public talk organised by NCBS in Bengaluru on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.
Noting that science-based problem solving should take an inclusive approach, Manu Prakash, professor at Stanford University, said people should have access to the right set of tools.
He was talking at a lecture held by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the Murty Trust.
Problem of focus
“I live in San Francisco where streets are covered with self-driving cars. On the other hand, we have tremendous challenges like Malaria that need to be solved. But we choose the wrong problems to work on sometimes,” he said, adding that a remarkable number of tools that have been built for other purposes that could be repurposed.
Prof. Prakash, who is known for the “frugal science movement” and innovations like foldscope, stressed the importance of wider access to the right set of tools. Given the lack of adequate scientists and doctors across the globe, he pointed out that the role of community health workers was paramount and their access to the right set of tools critical.
“What are the kind of tools that we can provide these individuals? We can work with individuals, but we have to provide them the right kind of scientific tools. One such tool is foldscope. You can build on any of these tools, we open-source almost everything we do,” he said, terming the platform developed by his team an “app-store for diagnostics,” he said.
Noting that children across the world today use foldscope, Prof. Prakash said that the world needs to be more “ambitious.”
In every corner
“We have to look at everybody as a baseline. It’s not sufficient for science to thrive just in Bengaluru. It has to thrive in every corner of the country. To a certain extent, that responsibility falls on many of our political partners, and on us as scientists,” said Prof. Prakash.
Published – September 06, 2025 10:34 pm IST
