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that we become more aware of the fact that only if we conserve this legacy handed down to us,
this treasure that is our Earth, only if we avoid the degradation of our beautiful planet —our true
home— to irreversible limits, shall we have fulfilled one of our major duties as human beings
Our Laureate has known how to highlight the fact that it is impossible to find solutions to this
problem if we are not capable of thinking globally; since no people, culture, race or country is free
from its devastating effects. If we learn to work with this vision, we shall understand how related
it is to other serious evils of our time, and we shall have more of a chance to get closer to solutions
that are compatible with both progress and life.
The Award for the Arts has been bestowed on the musician, singer and poet Robert Allen
Zimmerman, known to us all as Bob Dylan, a symbol for millions of people, who sing his beautiful,
suggestive songs convinced that —in unison with his dreamer’s cry— something might change for
the better in the world. The answer is blowing in the wind, he has told us time and time again to
the sound of his guitar and unmistakeable voice. The answer to so many evils that threaten human
beings is blowing in the wind so that each and every one of us can capture it and feel the strength
of unity, of shared will, of the courage to change.
Although it has not been possible for him to accompany
us here today, we wish to remember and acknowledge the
unyielding hope of this austere musician, his sensitivity and the
strength of his dreams.
Dedication to others, serving juster causes as a way of life
takes on greater value when what is at stake directly affects
human life and, in particular, the knowledge of its biological
bases as a means to solving the major problems caused by the
most serious illnesses.
The two eminent biologists who today receive the Award
for Technical and Scientific Research, Britain’s Peter Lawrence
and Spain’s Ginés Morata, embody the scientific attitude of the
present day, enthusiastic about as well as committed to pushing
back the limits of what we as humans know as reality.
If for Albert Einstein true art and true science arose frommystery, on awarding them this prize,
the Jury has highlighted the fact that both scientists have done no more —and no less— than work
“on the last mystery of life”, convinced of the present-day possibilities of eventually understanding
the programming of living matter and, hence, the alterations that separate health from illness, life
from death.
There is a basic unit in the physical support of all living beings, in the phenomena that
characterize them. This finding has been fundamental for the spectacular progress of the life
sciences over the last six decades That is why it makes sense to study simple living beings that
serve as experimental models, obtaining results that are of general value The possibilities that
this form of knowledge offers will continue to astound us. Such as the fact that a living being so
small in size —which nonetheless is equipped with the attributes of more complex organisms,
with their symmetry and their differentiated organs— has been the basis for constructing an entire
genetic theory of animal design. Understanding this developmental program allows scholars to
extrapolate the findings to human beings, analyse the controlled growth of body organs, discover
why hundreds of types of differentiated cells may arise from one single cell, and address the lack of
control caused by tumours, among other issues.
The two scientists receiving the Award today exemplify the value of intelligent, lucid endeavour
aimed at adding to the legacy of our knowledge the details of the formation and regeneration of
complex organisms, why some cells are programmed to die so that living beings may develop, and
also the way in which these age.
The fructiferous cooperation between Peter Lawrence and Ginés Morata, at Cambridge and
at other centres and universities here in Spain, has contributed to the creation of a school of
“We have been forewarned for a long time
now by scientists, ecologists, institutions
and people that are sensitive to this
issue of the need to combine industrial
progress with the conservation of the
environment and biodiversity.”
26
th
O
ctober
2007
