Rating: 
Summary: Languages of science must be learned to stay ahead
Review: With a blend of lightweight prose, interesting statistics, and the ability to draw important conclusions from our current state of technology and science, Juan Enriquez delivers a book that you'll read in one sitting. As part of a team of scientists and software engineers that is building a genomic knowledge base, I completely agree that the unraveling of DNA sequences and the functions that each of the genes and proteins are coded for will forever change our future. The author illustrates key changes in human history as being brought on by the introduction of a new language and makes the point the digital technology is really the language of zeros and ones and that our life sciences will be written in a language of 4 characters. I was happy to see the author tackle the social impacts brought on by the rapid march of technology. He's keenly aware of the digital divide in the standard of living between countries that are harnessing and growing their technology skills and those that are not. The point is clearly hammered home when you see the large gap in the number of patents issues by a country like Mexico versus the United States. The situation is not being helped by many of the brightest minds leaving their lesser-developed homelands for greater financial rewards in the United States. The book offers up some obvious solutions for addressing the global divide in technology, but not at length. In all, the book serves as an excellent appetizer for getting a taste of our future direction.
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