杏吧原创

Watch out, Boston and San Francisco. The mayor of London wants his city to become the new capital of biotech, on a scale to rival its powerhouse banking industry.

In his usual flamboyant style, yesterday Boris Johnson launched 鈥� a 拢4 million project that aims to create a biotech 鈥済olden triangle鈥� between institutions in London, Cambridge and Oxford.The initiative aims to draw in new businesses and encourage collaboration between traditionally rival universities and institutions.

Johnson took the opportunity to flag up some personal forays into science. 鈥淚鈥檝e just had the privilege of having my brain scanned 鈥� or something like that 鈥� by a brilliant company next door called , which is the product of a union between King鈥檚, University College London and Imperial. They have come together in order to produce an extremely unflattering picture of my head.鈥�

After the mayor finished his speech, New 杏吧原创 spoke to him briefly about his vision for science in London.

Are the scientists taking on the bankers?
I think it鈥檚 a hugely beneficial symbiosis. Are you really from New 杏吧原创? I love New 杏吧原创. What鈥檚 happening? Do you think we鈥檒l have floating frisbees?

Almost certainly. Do you think we鈥檒l have floating cities?
Yes! We鈥檙e building a floating village in the London docks.

How do you visualise London in 20 years鈥� time? Will it have driverless cars for instance? And vertical farms?
I think we鈥檒l certainly be moving towards driverless cars 鈥� we鈥檒l have driverless trains on the tube. I think that the old fashioned combustion engine will be a thing of the past in the centre of London. That鈥檚 going. People will no longer be driving fossil fuel powered vehicles in the centre of town; there will be a lot of green space everywhere and urban cultivation of all kinds.

Should future robots pay the congestion charge?
If they add to congestion they should certainly pay the congestion charge there鈥檚 no doubt in my mind. The only vehicle we鈥檝e ever exempted from the congestion charge was the popemobile because鈥� because鈥� I can鈥檛 remember why we did it鈥� Oh! Because we closed the roads.

How else will London change?
There will be a prodigious number of old people. One area which is going to grow is gerontology and problems of old age. The average life expectancy in London has gone up 18 months since I was elected, people are living longer and longer and there is a huge medical opportunity there. I think what the prime minister has done about setting up a special institute for dementia, that鈥檚 the right approach and London should be at the forefront of trying to tackle that range of diseases.

What was your favourite science topic in school?
Um鈥� What did I love in science? Um鈥� I was obsessed with鈥� it was nuclear physics, yes nuclear physics.

Really! Why was that?
I had a book on it when I was a kid and I was absolutely obsessed. I did a school project on it. I was only about 10, it was about the discovery 鈥� , , and all that.

So should we have a nuclear power station in London?
Definitely, absolutely. Are you volunteering?