Scientific responsibility and developmental complexity - Response to Rhodes and Sulston

Science, technology and international development are inextricably linked, and the role of the scientist, and the research institution, has become increasingly urgent, and in some respects questioned, as the developmental promise of the early post-war years has given way to the development impasse of the late Millennium. Within science may lay many of the solutions for underdevelopment, but also some of the risks. Furthermore, scientific responsibility, or placing undue responsibility in science, risks diverting attention away from other pressing issues; structural poverty, iniquity, oppression, misuse of power, to name but a few. The technological promise of tomorrow must not absolve us from making the difficult political, economic and societal decisions of today.