In the era of modern science, hardly a week goes by without a big advance in biology. Although such progress will continue in 2018, it will not bring a cure for cancer, a remedy for Alzheimer’s or a pill to slow ageing. That is because biology, as a field, is largely still about exploring and not yet about engineering.Some of the greatest scientific successes of the past century have come by marrying science and engineering, from the Apollo mission to the Large Hadron Collider. Similarly, the Human Genome Project required both basic research and technology development.

In the era of modern science, hardly a week goes by without a big advance in biology. Although such progress will continue in 2018, it will not bring a cure for cancer, a remedy for Alzheimer’s or a pill to slow ageing. That is because biology, as a field, is largely still about exploring and not yet about engineering.Some of the greatest scientific successes of the past century have come by marrying science and engineering, from the Apollo mission to the Large Hadron Collider. Similarly, the Human Genome Project required both basic research and technology development.