It is indeed ironic on that month which I planned to focus on biotechnology, I turn instead to reflect on the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Technology is a remarkable tribute to human accomplishment the application of human knowledge to direct and palpable improvements in the human condition. Perhaps nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the field of medical biotechnology, where science and engineering meet to yield products and devices which not only help to cure and treat disease and to relieve suffering (as if that was not enough!), but also stimulate and suggest advances in our scientific understanding itself. The phenomenon is sort of a self-accelerating process, all powered by human thought and effort. We see this progression very clearly in cardiology, where new imaging techniques not only provide the opportunity to make diagnoses less invasively and earlier, but also provide us with new insights into the disease process itself. The future of genetics, cell therapy and nanotechnology are wide open frontiers onto which we have barely begun to venture.
So how can we reconcile this lofty vision of human endeavor with the manifest frailty of the human condition so painfully exposed by Katrina? The more religious amongst us might well emphasize that our creative abilities surely seem to pale in the face of the powers of our Creator. Even those less spiritually inclined must certainly reflect upon the limitations of human effort. The engineers of the city of New Orleans had models of the impact of a direct hit from a hurricane with 120+ mile per hour winds that after the storm would pass, the levies would break, and that the city would then be flooded, causing mass devastation and possibly killing thousands. Sound familiar? Armed with the knowledge that the levies were inadequate, they applied for federal assistance to repair them for decades. “Obvious pork barrel besides, why should we spend millions of precious dollars for a contingency that has never happened?” Katrina took a wrong roll of the dice.
And what are we left with? Stories horrific stories of snipers firing at boats trying to ferry supplies to Charity hospital, of women being raped in the sanctuary established to try to save lives, of rescue workers being told to just leave the numerous dead bodies for now because time was too precious to try to save the living, of faulty buildings constructed without code collapsing and crushing their inhabitants. But there are other stories, stories of miracles of babies surviving weeks without their primary caretaker, tales of human courage, and remarkable and abundant tales of that greatest of all human strengths kindness.
In what at first would seem to be a complete non sequitur, I consider the fact only 25% of the people in this country with hypertension an extremely well-known, easily diagnosed and readily treatable disease receive adequate therapy. I contemplate how it can be that the leading killer of men and women in this country cardiovascular disease is, to a very large degree, preventable. And one of the many lessons of Katrina starts to shout. Regardless of any advance in human knowledge or creativity, our health and well-being will largely be determined by the choices we make. Even greater than the power to create seems to be the power to decide. And for that, our knowledge alone, would not seem to be sufficient.
It is indeed ironic on that month which I planned to focus on biotechnology, I turn instead to reflect on the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. 
