Teaching scientists to be citizens

Deep in the German forests above Heidelberg, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), in its infancy in the late 1970s, was a haven of basic research and serenity. I remember hard experimental work, intensive discussions and unexpected ideas emerging along the wooded paths. On a recent visit, I saw that the busy buzzing of EMBL has by no means receded. But I also saw that EMBL is changing. The explosive growth of the parking lots and the new buildings for commercial companies are reshaping the glade; scientists are sitting behind their computer screens most of the time; there are more females than males; last summer, the temperature broke another record high. And, probably much more important, the scientists working there are becoming aware that there is a world outside the laboratories. It started with rumours rising from the valley that first reminded us that a wider world was bubbling not far away. We were amazed at the gossip reported in the local press that clover, growing around the Laboratory, had a suspicious number of leaves because of some mysterious genetic manipulations. We were shocked when the media widely covered the claim made by an East German scientist that AIDS was a product of the US Secret Services. Nowadays, news about cloning, stem‐cell research, bioterrorism and the turbulence of the stock market is pouring in daily.Biologists know about change. For more than 3 billion years, life has undergone changes, and no one would be here to witness anything if evolution had not been hard at work. But the changes that are now occurring are different, because they are anthropogenic and because they are happening increasingly rapidly. And they are not met with enthusiasm by everyone: “Stop improving things!”, an angry hand had written on the door of the computer room. …