[cliveowen]

>I don't consider the microprocessor in my smart phone with its billions of transistors, and the ever-faster global internet and wireless systems that enable nearly instant (certainly to human perception it's nearly instant) global communication to billions of people at any time, to be low hanging fruit.

BUt it is, proof is that even after we invested tens of billions in funding basic research in cancer and other areas of biology we still know so little of practical value. Even the simplest organism is infinitely more complex than the most intricate human made object (which might very well be the microprocessor). We solved the fast computing and global communication problems first because they're way easier, and there's no denying it.