Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

A few days ago, Yahoo! news mentioned that the “Geobacillus Zalihae enzyme extracted from protein crystallisation that was tested in space by Malaysian astronaut Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor last year has received a patent in the United States”.

(Photo thanks to orangperlis)

This brought a lot of excitement as the potentials seem endless: produce job opportunities for biotechnology graduates; enzyme used for industrial purposes; and we can even sell the technology to other countries! Sounds too good to be true? Well, the government seems excited enough to consider sending a second mission to space to the tune of RM 96 million! (o.O)

The Yahoo! Malaysia Editors had posted a question to ask all of you here, Should we spend US$30m (RM96m) on a second mission to space? So far we’ve had 40 answers, and many of you felt that we should actually spend that amount of money on basic infrastructure (or even improving our proton cars!) instead of exploring space. What do the rest of YOU think?