Expanding liabilities, science and the precautionary principle — the greatest risk of all?

One hundred years ago, science had little impact on people’s daily lives. Scientists might have been trusted experts but this was of minor consequence for most people who rarely brushed with science, either in the laboratory or in the field. During the twentieth century, modern warfare probably brought about the biggest change to the speed of scientific innovation and discovery. The development of the atomic bomb, jet propulsion, radar, satellites and space flight, microelectronics and biological weapons have all produced technologies that have transformed our lives. Together with medical experimentation on humans these developments began to create the view that science could no longer remain independent from social and ethical issues. Science today is very much centre-stage and represents some 2–3 per cent of GDP in major industrialized economies. Both the benefits and the risks associated with scientific innovation are becoming more and more visible and, in our fast flowing world, scientists have a crucial role to play in assessing new hazards — both real and perceived.