Just a quick look at the scientific literature going back over 100 years
will convince you that several hundred million dollars have been invested
on gelatin research. You won't see this kind of investment on agar, for the
simple reason that the days of silver gelatin systems and conventional
photography are numbered.
Photography used to be in the hands of just a few players. Now that the
ballgame has been moved to the electronic arena, this business is getting a
lot more competition. Sony, Adobe systems, IBM, etc., never had much to say
regarding E-6 film compatibility, but they feel perfectly at home on the
silicon turf. Kodak alone is spending over $100 million a year on digital
systems.
The digital industry is not that clean however. Most computers are replaced
every three years of so, and here's the bad news that may come as a
surprise to many environmentalists: they don't grow on trees, and they are
not biodegradable... I remember reading a few years ago that Apple Computer
had hired a firm to fill up a landfill with thousands of obsolete Lisa
computers (the Mac's predecessor). Ten thousand years from now those
computers will still be there.
Luis Nadeau
NADEAUL@NBNET.NB.CA
Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
>Thank You All
>James McArdle
>Photography Lecturer
>Latrobe University, Bendigo
>PO Box 199, Bendigo
>Australia 3550
>j.mcardle@redgum.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au
>61 54 447 208 (w)