The coronavirus crisis and the race for a vaccine have thrust us into a new era of science

Finding a way to prevent or treat Covid-19 is the overwhelming focus in medical research facilities around the world, and the rate of development and international cooperation is ‘unprecedented’, says Dr Shaun Fitzgerald

Around 200 vaccine projects have been launched globally (AP)

For most of us whose calling in life was science, we have not only been captivated by the expansion of knowledge, but how new understanding can transform our lives.

It underpins our fundamental understanding of how the world works, how the universe exploded into existence roughly 14 billion years ago, how the stars and planets formed, how the 92 natural elements were forged in those stars, and how life on Earth began 3.8 billion years ago. All knowledge we owe to science.

But for a long time now, interest in science has been dwindling. In March this year the Wellcome Trust published its Science Education Tracker for England in 2019 and the results were startling. Its survey of over 6,000 students aged 11 to 18 found only 41 per cent believed an understanding of science was important to their daily lives. And yet the whole of our modern lives, from technology and engineering to revolutions in healthcare, are based on it.