Boston Globe: Update on DNA Bay
>>>There is an extraordinary concentration of today's biotech industry in Massachusetts, with 275 companies in the state – 54 of them within a mile of the MIT campus. The big pharmaceutical companies are establishing a huge research and development presence here. Most notably, a few weeks ago Novartis announced it would create a biomedical research institute in Cambridge that within a few years will employ nearly 1,000 professionals and many more staff workers. We are at the center of action in the emerging world of systems biology. The future is ours.
But wait – we've seen this movie before. We were once the center of the computer industry. MIT and its Lincoln Laboratory spawned the minicomputer. Digital Equipment Corp. became the epicenter of technological entrepreneurship. Companies and jobs grew around Route 128, and the Massachusetts Miracle occurred. And then, we largely missed the fundamental transformation brought about by the ''silicon revolution'' of the microprocessor. The Massachusetts computer industry struggled, sputtered, and spiraled downward while Silicon Valley was born and the industry, jobs, and hot economy moved to California.<<< [John Robb's Radio Weblog]