I see a very clear link here between British science, the development of British universit

ies and the technological revolution. A couple of weeks ago, I had a presentation at Downing Street from some of our leading scientists. It covered fields such as nanotechnology, brain transmitters and the latest in IT. The potential in all cases was immense, for industrial production, medicine and communications. The connection between top quality scientific research and business spin-offs and development was obvious. And in the end, of course, it is business managers or public service reformers that will apply the technology in new ways.

The point I am making is this. Part of winning this IT battle for the future is to create a culture in which the worlds of education, academia, science, technology and business are engaged in a perpetual conversation and exchange of views. A conversation in which we are breaking new ground in scientific and technological advance, in which our schools and universities feel comfortable with its potential; in which business and society are naturally looking for ways of applying the advances made.

There are now 600 million people online. Worldwide 140,000 more people connect to the net every day. In the last three decades the price of a transatlantic phone call has fallen to a small fraction of its original level. In the same period, just as Intel's Gordon Moore predicted, computing power has doubled every eighteen months to two years. A 3G handset, soon to be on sale in every high street in the UK, has around 20,000 times more computing power than the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

Recently, we witnessed an incredible moment when scientists at MIT in the US and UCL in London teamed up to pull off the first transatlantic virtual handshake. Using second-generation Internet technology, they recreated the sense of touch over a 3,000-mile distance — a remarkable development that could have applications for areas as diverse as medicine and design.