Last Saturday I bought a bit of saffron from an Asian grocery store for making a paella the next day. The price of that smidgen of saffron looked innocent enough, A$3.5 (US$2.9 or 2 euros) for 0.25 gram, but took me aback when I figured that it was the same as A$14 per gram (US$11.5 or 8 euros). If you happen to know that gold is trading these days at about US$950 per ounce (28.3 grams), which is US$33.6 per gram, then you would realise the saffron costs 1/3 as much as gold!
I have no way to tell if the grocery store was running a scam with their saffron, nor can I decide if the saffron was indeed worth the money after all. The saffron didn’t give any distinctive taste in the paella, and although it was indeed the ingredient that gave paella the vibrant yellow colour, I’ve also read recipes which claimed that there were other means to produce the same colour. But what I can definitely say is that the preparation and cooking were no walk in the park, especially as the chopping took up a lot of time, and that the costs of the ingredients did add up to a fair bit – more if I had used more seafood as some of the typical local recipes would call for.
Making a paella is certainly not the most time- and money-consuming affair in this world, but scientific research can easily qualify for this description. We all know that research results don’t come overnight, but very few of you would probably appreciate how expensive this venture is. Take the protein I’m studying at the moment as an example. The protein can only be produced in large-scale fermentors and may not always come in high quantities. The most recent production run yielded only about 40 milligrams – or 1/6 of the smidgen of saffron that I bought, concentrated into a volume of 2 mL – or 1/100 of a glass of water, at a cost of A$35000 (US$29000 or 20000 euros). The price of gold becomes insignificant in comparison, and in fact it was not even a meagre 1/20000 of the protein if one considers that the production cost of the protein is equivalent to US$725000 per gram! It’s definitely too good to waste in the literal sense. Experiments could only be carried out after much discussion and deliberation, and with the utmost care so as to minimise wastage. My former lab in Germany would also strike many people in awe with its expensive electron microscopes, which come with a price tag of at least 2 million euros each (almost US$3 million or A$4 million). Imagine a place with 6 of those and expanding by one every a couple of years!
Perhaps these examples sound extreme, but there’s no hiding that scientific research these days requires ever more financial input. This point could not have been better illustrated by comparing the state of research at my current institute, during a speech by our deputy director in farewell of our former director in July. It was said that the current research funding was four times that of the time when the former directory took helm, but the annual research publications had not even doubled during the same time frame. Scientific research burns money real fast, but countries including Australia and the US are still willing to pump more money into it during these financially difficult times. They’re obviously in for the long haul.
上星期六在賣亞洲雜貨的商店裡買了一點番紅花準備翌日弄西班牙燴飯（paella），那怕祇是買了一丁點，價錢卻甚驚人，0.25克索價澳幣$3.5（港幣$22，$2.9美元，2歐元左右），另小看這個價目，化作每克計算便是14澳元（88港元，11.5美元，8歐元左右）。大家可知道黃金的價值嗎？以最近倫敦金每盅司（28.3克）報價950美元，即每克33.6美元計算，那丁點番紅花的價值已是黃金的三分之一之多！
究竟那家雜貨店有沒有開天殺價我不得而知，究竟那點番紅花是不是物有所值我也不太懂衡量，味道我在飯裡嚐不出，那個飯鮮豔的黃色固是靠番紅花的功勞，不過有人寫食譜指不用番紅花也可造出那個鮮黃色。但我可肯定說，那個飯工序頗長（最主要是切剢需時），而連同其他食材，那個燴飯成本也不少（特別是如果捨得多用海鮮者）。
小弟從事的科研，也是又花時間又花本錢的，科研成果不是一朝一夕的事不必多贅了，但不妨告訴大家箇中的成本吧，相信會令你一驚！小弟研究的蛋白質，要靠大型發酵槽（fermentor）生產，而且產量不高，最近一次祇有數十毫克（即那丁點番紅花的六份一），濃縮至少少的兩毫升（大概一杯水的百份一），生產成本便要澳幣$35000（220000港元，29000美元，20000歐元），亦即每克725000美元，是黃金的二萬多倍！如此矜貴的物資，做實驗前自當深思熟慮和跟上司反覆商討後才下決定，做實驗時更不容浪費，不容出錯。之前在德國的實驗室也同樣誇張，每次購置電子顯微鏡，便得花上二百來萬歐元（二千多萬港元，接近四百萬澳元，接近三百萬美元），屈指一算，那裡坐擁的儀器是可以用港幣億元計算的！
此兩個例子也許有點極端，不過今時今日的研究成本日益高昂卻是不爭的事實。六個月底在歡送研究所上任總監的儀式時，副總監便提到，研究所現時的經費，是上任總監就職前的四倍，但每年研究論文發表量，卻增長不足一倍。說得白一點，科研就是燒錢，真的不是人人都玩得起，澳洲和美國在金融海嘯下仍不惜工本增加研究撥款，香港最近說推出六大產業也包括科技，不過那班甚會打算盤的一眾官員不可不知，搞科技是要代價的；財政上的代價，時間上的代價，他們願意付嗎？
I have no way to tell if the grocery store was running a scam with their saffron, nor can I decide if the saffron was indeed worth the money after all. The saffron didn’t give any distinctive taste in the paella, and although it was indeed the ingredient that gave paella the vibrant yellow colour, I’ve also read recipes which claimed that there were other means to produce the same colour. But what I can definitely say is that the preparation and cooking were no walk in the park, especially as the chopping took up a lot of time, and that the costs of the ingredients did add up to a fair bit – more if I had used more seafood as some of the typical local recipes would call for.
Making a paella is certainly not the most time- and money-consuming affair in this world, but scientific research can easily qualify for this description. We all know that research results don’t come overnight, but very few of you would probably appreciate how expensive this venture is. Take the protein I’m studying at the moment as an example. The protein can only be produced in large-scale fermentors and may not always come in high quantities. The most recent production run yielded only about 40 milligrams – or 1/6 of the smidgen of saffron that I bought, concentrated into a volume of 2 mL – or 1/100 of a glass of water, at a cost of A$35000 (US$29000 or 20000 euros). The price of gold becomes insignificant in comparison, and in fact it was not even a meagre 1/20000 of the protein if one considers that the production cost of the protein is equivalent to US$725000 per gram! It’s definitely too good to waste in the literal sense. Experiments could only be carried out after much discussion and deliberation, and with the utmost care so as to minimise wastage. My former lab in Germany would also strike many people in awe with its expensive electron microscopes, which come with a price tag of at least 2 million euros each (almost US$3 million or A$4 million). Imagine a place with 6 of those and expanding by one every a couple of years!
Perhaps these examples sound extreme, but there’s no hiding that scientific research these days requires ever more financial input. This point could not have been better illustrated by comparing the state of research at my current institute, during a speech by our deputy director in farewell of our former director in July. It was said that the current research funding was four times that of the time when the former directory took helm, but the annual research publications had not even doubled during the same time frame. Scientific research burns money real fast, but countries including Australia and the US are still willing to pump more money into it during these financially difficult times. They’re obviously in for the long haul.
上星期六在賣亞洲雜貨的商店裡買了一點番紅花準備翌日弄西班牙燴飯（paella），那怕祇是買了一丁點，價錢卻甚驚人，0.25克索價澳幣$3.5（港幣$22，$2.9美元，2歐元左右），另小看這個價目，化作每克計算便是14澳元（88港元，11.5美元，8歐元左右）。大家可知道黃金的價值嗎？以最近倫敦金每盅司（28.3克）報價950美元，即每克33.6美元計算，那丁點番紅花的價值已是黃金的三分之一之多！
究竟那家雜貨店有沒有開天殺價我不得而知，究竟那點番紅花是不是物有所值我也不太懂衡量，味道我在飯裡嚐不出，那個飯鮮豔的黃色固是靠番紅花的功勞，不過有人寫食譜指不用番紅花也可造出那個鮮黃色。但我可肯定說，那個飯工序頗長（最主要是切剢需時），而連同其他食材，那個燴飯成本也不少（特別是如果捨得多用海鮮者）。
小弟從事的科研，也是又花時間又花本錢的，科研成果不是一朝一夕的事不必多贅了，但不妨告訴大家箇中的成本吧，相信會令你一驚！小弟研究的蛋白質，要靠大型發酵槽（fermentor）生產，而且產量不高，最近一次祇有數十毫克（即那丁點番紅花的六份一），濃縮至少少的兩毫升（大概一杯水的百份一），生產成本便要澳幣$35000（220000港元，29000美元，20000歐元），亦即每克725000美元，是黃金的二萬多倍！如此矜貴的物資，做實驗前自當深思熟慮和跟上司反覆商討後才下決定，做實驗時更不容浪費，不容出錯。之前在德國的實驗室也同樣誇張，每次購置電子顯微鏡，便得花上二百來萬歐元（二千多萬港元，接近四百萬澳元，接近三百萬美元），屈指一算，那裡坐擁的儀器是可以用港幣億元計算的！
此兩個例子也許有點極端，不過今時今日的研究成本日益高昂卻是不爭的事實。六個月底在歡送研究所上任總監的儀式時，副總監便提到，研究所現時的經費，是上任總監就職前的四倍，但每年研究論文發表量，卻增長不足一倍。說得白一點，科研就是燒錢，真的不是人人都玩得起，澳洲和美國在金融海嘯下仍不惜工本增加研究撥款，香港最近說推出六大產業也包括科技，不過那班甚會打算盤的一眾官員不可不知，搞科技是要代價的；財政上的代價，時間上的代價，他們願意付嗎？
Comments
我而家有好多都喺搵其他公司做就算。例如subcloning，genotyping，adenovirus之類。
不過啲實驗用品真喺好貴，有啲又冇乜原因咁貴。例如個啲plate heater，真喺同廚房用嘅電爐冇乜大分別。用嚟run gel嘅，只喺一個膠盒加啲電線。我覺得真喺擺明掠水。有啲唔work嘅野又冇得回水，例如喺santa crap啲antibody。
將來有可能要做下baculovirus，聽講set up個stable cell line都要一年半載，又係錢，又係光陰……
Santa Crap的確臭名遠播，都係Abcam或New England Biolabs好d啦。