Robert May: Science and ethics cannot be divorced

From the Lubbock lecture, given by the Royal Society president at the Said Business School, in Oxford

Our increased understanding of the external world has, over the past 50 years and more, improved life in both developed and developing countries: longer lifespans, more food, labour-saving devices based on fossil-fuel energy.

Our increased understanding of the external world has, over the past 50 years and more, improved life in both developed and developing countries: longer lifespans, more food, labour-saving devices based on fossil-fuel energy.

But we increasingly recognise the adverse consequences of our well-intentioned actions: ever-expanding human populations, decreasing biological diversity and climate change. We need to do a better job of asking what kind of tomorrow we want to create, rather than just letting things happen.

There is now a false expectation that life can be "risk-free", and faith in the system tends to be further undermined every time this proves not to be the case. The resulting crisis in public trust is one of the greatest challenges facing scientific policy-makers. To ignore such fears would be wrong, even if it were possible. But to follow the weather-vane of public opinion is not always a solution, either. A decade ago restrictive legislation introduced in Germany in response to public concern almost destroyed its indigenous biotechnology industry, with companies sighting factories and laboratories overseas.

Central to many current debates – GM foods, stem-cell research, extinction rates – is a public yearning, and in my view an objective need, for a sustainable future.

We need, in economic and technological sciences, and even more importantly undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, to reflect the need to engage not only the technical issues, but also the ethical questions and public concerns. However good our innovative ideas and delivery may be, they will have difficulty in being realised if general public ascent is not secured through thoughtful and open discussion.