No abstract

Science is at present passing through a credibility crisis*. One could almost say a moral crisis. As a matter of fact we are standing at a turning point in the relationship between science and society, a turning point marked by the change from a social evolution characterized by high productivity and growth, into an evolution which might lead humanity to a new balance between individuality and collectivity.At the beginning of the 20th century and during its second half the scientific world had suffered the impact of two significant revolutions: first of physics and then of biology. The basic discoveries in the field of physics led to applications in realms of energy, transportation, communication, electricity, electronics, and data processing.

No abstract