'Greed' of Facebook boss

(Baonghean) - Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is nurturing an even more ambitious goal than global internet coverage. That is what can be affirmed when he and his wife expressed their desire to support the eradication of all diseases in the world in this 21st century.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at the ceremony announcing the $3 billion investment in disease treatment research. Photo: AP.

Term target… 80 years

According to the latest information, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged to spend a not insignificant amount of $ 3 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate basic scientific research activities. The money will be "poured" into the process of creating research tools, from hardware to software, even undiscovered techniques, in the hope of leading to breakthroughs in science, similar to the inventions and discoveries of microscopes and DNA sequencing in previous generations.

With the goal of “curing, preventing or controlling all diseases” in the next 80 years, the famous couple, now in their 30s, are unlikely to live to see the results. They admit that the goal may sound crazy at first, but they still show strong confidence when looking back at the great strides that medicine and science have made in the past 100 years – with the advent of vaccines, statins to prevent coronary heart disease, chemotherapy, ... after millennia of almost no progress.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes that at the current rate of progress, most of these problems will be solved “by the end of the 21st century.” The Zuckerberg-Chan couple spent two years talking to scientists and experts in other fields before planning their “ambition.” In an interview, Zuckerberg emphasized that the decision “is not something we learned from a textbook.”

Through their philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the couple’s pledge includes $600 million to establish a new research center in San Francisco, where scientists and medical researchers will work with engineers on projects spanning years or even decades. The goal is not to focus narrowly on specific diseases, such as bone cancer or Parkinson’s disease, but rather to conduct basic research. In other words, mapping the body’s different cell types could help researchers develop new drugs.

When their daughter was born, the Zuckerbergs decided to donate almost all of their assets to solving world problems. Photo: AP.

Inspirational

Many believe that perhaps Chan's work as a pediatrician was the great motivation that prompted the couple to pursue such a noble goal. Sharing with the US news agency AP, Mrs. Zuckerberg said: "I have been with many families when they have reached the limits of what is possible in medicine and science. I have had to inform many families of the terrible leukemia, or simply that we were not able to save their children's lives."

Zuckerberg and Chan hope their efforts will inspire far-reaching collaborations and efforts across science, medicine, and engineering, so that basic research never has to be limited. On the current state of affairs, Zuckerberg also expressed his opinion: “We spend 50 times more on health care and disease treatment than we do on scientific research to make sure no one gets sick in the first place.”

Eric Lander, a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he had about 20 conversations with Zuckerberg and Chan over the past year about the initiative, calling it “the right goal in the right time frame.” Although not directly involved in the project, Lander, like many of his colleagues, expressed confidence in its prospects, praising that “Mark has brought new models to the field through Facebook.” Zuckerberg himself has also affirmed that with the current funding for scientific activities, it is difficult to build scientific teams on the scale that can be found in “a world-class technology company.”

In Science magazine, Nobel laureate David Baltimore also wrote that private sector efforts like Zuckerberg's and Chan's could supplement government funding and "spark breakthroughs in unproven research directions that are not traditionally supported by government funding."

The Zuckerbergs’ upcoming center, called the Biohub, will operate as an independent research center at the University of California, San Francisco, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be led by renowned neuroscientist Cori Bargmann and promises to offer a unique opportunity to take science in entirely new directions.

The Zuckerberg-Chan couple are often compared to Bill and Melinda Gates, a billionaire couple who also devote a lot of effort and resources to health and education issues. Photo: BI.

Admirable couple

Surely many people still remember the time at the end of 2015, the couple Zuckerberg and Chan also shocked the media when they announced that they would donate 99% of their total assets to charity activities. When their baby daughter was born, the couple did not hesitate to decide to "give away" almost all of their assets to help solve the world's problems.

At the time, the 99% figure was valued at more than $45 billion in Facebook stock, and the Zuckerbergs transferred it to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with Zuckerberg still holding control of the Facebook shares. In their bold decision, Zuckerberg and Chan have only emphasized that they believe the goal can be achieved, if not in their lifetime, then in their children’s lifetime. Clearly, they are not concerned with ever “making a profit,” but only with the benefits that the community will enjoy in the future.

The Zuckerbergs are often compared to Bill and Melinda Gates, a billionaire couple who also devote much of their energy and resources to health and education. The Gateses have said that investing in basic scientific research is at the root of the world’s most important innovations and achievements. And the Microsoft founders have noted that Zuckerberg and Chan “have an incredible commitment to research and development that is leading the way to breakthroughs in treating disease and lifting millions out of poverty.”

Phu Binh