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by Lord Dick Taverne, founder, Sense about Science; member, House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, United Kingdom I want to start with two apologies. This afternoon’s is the only session I can attend. Having heard this session, it is clear that I have missed a great deal, because the contributions I have heard are

The 21st century has seen neuroscience develop rapidly and a new academic discipline emerge: neuroethics, the attempt to explain moral judgment in partly neurobiological terms. It is useful to distinguish between fundamental neuroethics, researching how knowledge of the brain’s functional architecture and its evolution can deepen our understanding of moral thought and judgment, and applied

Science is a process of trial and error. It always has been. Its strength lies in the fact that mistakes eventually are discovered for what they are, and in the long run, unlike any other global institutions, art, politics, religion, science comes through with the goods. We have been showered by the benefits of this

The unparalleled recent development of biological sciences and their convergence with other technologies (such as neurosciences, nanotechnologies and informational technologies) heavily impact the world of law. Indeed the present universal attitude of science and its global interaction immediately give a worldwide dimension to the question of legal regulations of conflicts arising from scientific research and

“Epistemological relativism and religious dogma: two strange bedfellows in the struggle against freedom of science” Contemporary culture is much more ambivalent towards science than before, and sometimes openly hostile. This is exemplified by the rise of the Creationist movement, who is spreading far beyond its birthplace in the American Bible Belt, or the increasingly self-assured

Scientific freedom is today often understood in terms of the idea of a “right to research.” It is often unclear, however, how the right to research is best justified, and what the recognition of such a right entails for science and science policy in democratic societies. In this paper, I examine two basic approaches to

I am grateful to Marco for the invitation. I have found this meeting to be very, very interesting, as I have heard some of the best intellectual discourses all together in one time. So I am happy to be here. Particularly in response to some of the presentations held yesterday, I have really changed the

Discomfort with the intellectual freedom associated with the scientific method, and a continuing resistance to secular ideas, are characteristic of many Muslim countries today. In this talk I shall address some fundamental questions: To what extent are Islamic teachings responsible for the poor state of scientific research in these countries? What accounts for the Golden

The First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state under a democratic government. This separation of religion and government protects both the education of children and the process of scientific inquiry. Two of the most important contributors to the founding of American democracy, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, were

Rapid progress in stem cell research has raised hopes in patients afflicted with serious diseases for possible new stem cell-based therapies. With the exception of hematopoietic stem cell transplants for leukemia and epithelial stem cell-based treatments for skin burns and corneal disorders, clinical translation for other diseases may still require many more years of pre-clinical