Science opens up a universe of probabilities
THE death last Wednesday of well-loved physicist Stephen Hawking, considered one of the world’s greatest scientists, got me thinking of his memorable quote that reflected my guiding principle when I once chaired the Senate Committee On Science and Technology.
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” Hawking used to say in encouraging people to broaden their horizon. “Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.”
Curiosity can indeed spur brilliant minds to explore the range of possibilities and further open up a world of scientific knowledge that can be tapped and applied to develop technology to make our lives a lot easier and contribute greatly to our nation’s progress.
Without curiosity, one misses new ideas that could become invaluable. Encouraging Filipino scientists and inventors to be in constant pursuit of further scientific knowledge leading to inventions was a main objective of the Senate Science and Technology Committee I headed in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when I was senator.
In line with our national policy to “give priority to invention and its utilization on the country’s productive system and national life,” we at the committee viewed the inventor as the genius and source of all the inventions marketed to boost the export side of our economy.
With support of the Filipino Inventors Society, Inc., we crafted a law (RA 7459 enacted on April, 1992) that “set up a climate conducive to invention and innovation, give encouragement and support to inventors who are creative and resourceful, as well as imbued with a deep sense of nationalism, and maximize the capability and productivity [of] inventors through incentives and other forms of assistance and support.”
Among the incentives are Presidential Awards consisting of cash rewards for patented inventions, exemptions of inventors from payment of license fees, permit fees, and other business taxes in the development of inventions.
RA 7459 further provides that inventors shall be exempt from paying any fees involved in their application for registration of their inventions. This I want to make clear in connection with a request of Filipino inventor Antonio Mateo, PhD, asking the Intellectual Property Office and the Technology Application and Promotion Institute to resolve what he said is “the lingering issue of Inventors’ Right to Free Registration.”
The law also states that “to promote, encourage, develop, and accelerate commercialization of technologies developed by local researchers or adapted locally from foreign sources, including inventions, any income derived from these technologies shall be exempted from all kinds of taxes during the first 10 years from the date of the sale.” The law further states the tax exemption “shall be extended to the legal heir or assignee upon the death of the inventor.”
We ensured that the law –primarily aimed at tapping the ultimate human resource of “inventive genius and creative productivity” – will give the inventor and the product of his invention the rightful place in our country and in the world.
Such “inventive genius” undoubtedly draws inspiration from the brilliant minds of those likeHawking who shall be remembered for his incredible contributions to science and in making his perplexing concepts and complex theories interesting to ordinary folks the world over.
Considered one of the most respected scientists and the most popular since Albert Einstein, Hawking was also a mathematician, cosmologist, astronomer, and bestselling author of popular science books, including “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes” that sold more than 10 million copies.
Hawking, who died at age 76, was also a pop icon, having appeared in the Star Trek series, The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, and in the 2014 movie The Theory of Everything that won Eddie Redmayne a Best Actor Oscar for portraying the famous scientist in the film that was also nominated for Best Picture.
World-renowned for his immense work on the mysteries of the universe – black holes, general relativity, thermodynamics. quantum mechanics, singularity – and other complex science theories, Hawking inspired thousands of young scientists to follow in his footsteps and explore the countless possibilities that scientific knowledge unlocks.
But more than Hawking’s brilliance in unraveling scientific ideas, his triumph over adversity has mesmerized many. Bound to a wheelchair most of his life while suffering, since 1963, a rare debilitating neuromuscular disease that eventually paralyzed his entire body, he expressed his ideas only through a voice synthesizer.
“I want to show that people need not be limited by physical handicaps as long as they are not disabled in spirit,” Hawking said when asked how he managed to plod on amid his condition which gave him physical control only of his eyes, a finger, and a muscle on his cheek.
With his dazzling display of how the human mind can compensate for limitations of the human body, Hawking certainly inspired millions of his worldwide followers who cherish his constant reminder: “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”