 | Dr Alan McHughen
biotechnology specialist and geneticist at the University of California in Riverside
Science is the modern world's lingua franca, providing the unique means to unite society's global diversity and - all too often - adversity
I should teach the world that science is the modern world's lingua franca, providing the unique means to unite society's global diversity and - all too often - adversity. While we hold disparate, even contradictory beliefs in politics, economics, theology and other value-laden areas, we can agree that science enables an objective, value-free common ground - a stable foundation, upon which to build mutual respect for differing cultures, values and beliefs. Without the universal recognition that, for example, E = mc2, or that 2 + 2 = 4, and without the universal recognition that scientific facts evoke or impose no particular cultural value or preference, we lose the only thread connecting all of humanity. When we lose this thread, we lose the hope for a felicitous future. When pondering the mysteries of nature, do not turn to science and scientists for the answers, as we cannot always provide them. Instead, we offer something far more valuable - the questions. Alan McHughen is author of Pandora's Picnic Basket: The Potentials and Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods (buy this book from Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA)), and coeditor of Transgenic Plants and Crops (buy this book from Amazon (UK) or Amazon (USA)).
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