Twenty-one Scientists on the Twenty-First Century [antikvár]

FOREWORD by Pál Pataki What a week it was! It all happened between 26 June and 1 July when the World Conference on Science took place in Budapest, Hungary. As we had expected it proved to be both historic and unique. The historical background was provided by history itself: the imminent turn of the century and the millennium. Uniqueness was embedded in the very way this conference was prepared and organized: all major stakeholders in science and technology took part, and the meeting was jointly organized by UNESCO, the intellectual arm of the United Nations and the International Council for Science (ICSU), the non-governmen-tal organization of national science academies, research councils and international scientific associations. A perfect team-up for a global meeting, one should admit Preparations for the conference showed that there were high anticipation for concrete results from the conference and also a willingness to contribute to the success of the event. And so it happened. Extensive and deep debates as well as key-note presentations on the relationship between science and society not only produced excellent discussions and new approaches but resulted in two - I believe - historic documents: The Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge and Science Agenda -Framework for Action. The World Conference on Science from the very first has been seen as a process in which the one-week convention in Budapest was, no question about it, a peak. Nevertheless, preparations, the national debates of the draft documents of the Conference, helped us to better understand the issues and the responsibility that all of us were to