Nobel laureates look ahead: science, technology, medicine, peace, development
Nobel laureates look ahead: science, technology, medicine, peace, development
When a group of thinkers and leading figures in cultural life meet to discuss questions relating to the future of humanity, the event is likely to be noteworthy and its results interesting. If most of them happen to be distinguished members of the world scientific community, the discussions should be particularly fruitful, since the destiny of mankind is largely determined by modern science and its offspring, technology. Such a gathering was held earlier this year in Paris, when a Conference of Nobel laureates met at the Elysée Palace between 18 and 21 January, on the invitation of Mr. François Mitterrand, President of the French Republic, the American writer Mr. Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1986) and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. The title of the Conference was "Facing the 21st century: threats and promises".
With the kind permission of the hosts, The UNESCO Courier presents in this issue contributions from eight of the seventy-four Nobel Prize winners who took part in the Elysée meeting. The texts, which have been lightly edited, are a foretaste of a forthcoming book in which all the papers and reports presented to the Conference will be published.
Readers will note that most of the Nobel laureates whose contributions appear on the following pages are from Western countries. In this instance, The UNESCO Courier's obligation to give a hearing to writers from as many parts of the world as possible has been inevitably qualified by the fact that the overwhelming majority of Nobel Prize winners are from the West.
To introduce the issue we publish a short text by the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Federico Mayor Zaragoza, who writes both as the head of Unesco and in his personal capacity as a scientist particularly concerned by the proceedings of the Elysée Conference.