Then Wismann bumped into another scientist, David Martin, who had spent years working on what he calls the hyperpolarization of matter. The idea sprung from Martin’ s passion for playing with magnets, where he became fascinated with how the iron filings acquire “molecular memory.” Working together, Martin and Wismann combined their discoveries, applying them to medical technology, electronics manufacturing, and, more recently, oil production in Utah’s tar sands and Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale. The end result of this strange, new knowledge alchemy? Pure, clean-burning hydrocarbons that are now flowing from the ancient lakebeds that oil industry engineers had completely given up on.
A Whole New Old World
Ancient knowledge about how nature works, augmented by modern molecular science and instrumentation, is starting to create new, previously unimagined breakthroughs. For example, ancient stories from the Albanian Alps tell of certain types of flora that can signal the presence of underground metals. The soil in the region contains nickel, but not nearly enough to extract using conventional mining.
Today, Boston-based Metalplant (metalplant.com) uses the hyperaccumulator Odontarrhena chalcidica, a yellow flower indigenous to the region, to pro- duce raw nickel. This variety naturally pulls metals out of the soil through the roots, which are then accumulated in stems and leaves at concentrations rivaling raw ore. The grade is comparable to the ore extracted from traditional mines, but comes without the human and environmental hazards.
Meanwhile, tasked with finding a new treatment for chloroquine-resistant malaria, Chinese researcher Tu Youyou realized that the hot extraction protocols used in mainstream pharmaceutical processes were destroying the active ingredients present in plants. While reading a 4th-century manuscript on traditional Chinese medicine, she discovered and applied a low-temperature, ether-based extraction method, producing what has become known as artemisinin. This new remedy, based on an ancient extraction process, was eventually recommended by the World Health Organization as a first-line treatment for malaria and ultimately led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. So much for document disposal!
Not a Doomsday Clock, But It Is Ticking ...
As KM’ers, we should be all over this. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible. As more ancient texts become digitized and translated, let’s go all-in by using human-augmented AI, combining ancient knowledge artifacts with our modern body of research. And let’s not just be confined to one or two disciplines. Infinitely large numbers of breakthrough innovations even more impactful than the examples shared are possible.
But we’d best do it now. We hope the grid will hold up, but you never know. Which brings us to the subject of knowledge preservation. But that’s a topic for another day ...