Challenges of Globalization for Science and Research

Globalization challenges all social systems in all nations – how then could it spare the sciences? A question however is: what is new about this? Has not this happened throughout history? And a further question is: what is special for the sciences in all this? Although globalization may not be a new thing, with a population of over 6 billion people its impact becomes all-pervasive and its consequences are severe. It is not only that science enters into all cultures, whether advanced or less developed. Humans also come to depend on it more and more, and this for better or for worse. Science is literally vital to human beings in that they have come to rely upon it for food, potable water, energy, and security in their environment, or in old age. All people, in ever-increasing numbers, therefore have to be instructed in science so that they become aware of how dependent they are from the continuing progress in science, and to what extent innovation and advantages in economic competition depend upon their abilities to make the best use of science. In fact, science has become so powerful an influence on all ways of life that it can no longer be left to the scientists alone. Their power has to be constrained by morals and by laws, and it becomes inevitable that economists and lawyers, and above all politicians intrude upon what the scientists often regard as their exclusive turf. This may in time be the biggest challenge of the globalization of science.