In most nations and in most international forums, there is increased openness and debate as scientific exchange flourishes more than ever. Indeed, science has developed a set of complex experimental methods and symbolic languages, the broad acceptance of which has allowed it to cross the ordinary linguistic barriers that so often separate people from one another. In this sense, science has achieved more universality than any other distinctive mode of knowledge. A new finding, theory, proof, conjecture, set of computations, or formula can be 'read' and evaluated by individuals and groups across very different cultures. This is essentially because the receiving parties, despite their widely varying local cultures, share with the originator certain ways of observing, analyzing, describing, and interpreting natural phenomena.
As a consequence, there is a considerable 'world community' of scientists who know each other's work, frequently collaborate on projects, and build on one another's discoveries. Not only does this process add to the vigor of scientific advancement, it also creates many personal and professional international friendships that aid mutual understanding - strands of connectedness across cultures that represent an especially important asset at this moment in history.
Two important assumptions that scientists share are also critical to the process of international collaboration and the building of a global community. First, there is the paramount goal of seeking truth without being con-strained by ideologies or their possible forms of interference. Essentially, scientists trust that their work, if done with care and integrity, will eventu-ally lead to conclusions that contribute to a deeper understanding of nature. In that spirit, the 'openness' of science is profoundly important. Given the fact that some scientific findings, if they are held in confidence, can lead to substantial financial rewards - or that the findings can be very useful, if kept secret, to national security - it is significant that most of the world's universities are committed to the prompt communication and publication of research findings. In this way, new ideas are made widely available in order to be studied, critiqued, and tested by others. This moral, ethical, and professional commitment to openness is what upholds the integrity of the scientific enterprise.
And second, a dynamic such as the one just described - involving the swift exchange and intense scrutiny of new findings - creates considerable energy that, in effect, takes on a life of its own. The rapid international circulation of new discoveries or theories accelerates the process of generat-ing new ideas, which in turn leads to additional discoveries. Indeed, looking back over the past half-century, it seems clear that the major investments made in basic and applied research after World War II have had a cumula-tive and compounding effect, the benefits of which we have begun to reap. The rate of significant observations and discoveries, across all scientific fields, has quickened noticeably in the past 10 to 15 years, and the decades immediately ahead could potentially become one of the most significant eras in the history of scientific advancement.
There is a central core of universal values - rationality, creativity, the search for truth, and an adherence to codes of honorable behavior - that any truly modern society should possess, and these are values that science promotes. They are corollaries of independence, of dissent against received wisdom that require the ability to challenge the established order - the right to be heard however outlandish the assertion - subject only to the test of rigorous method.
Without independence of inquiry, there can be no true scientific research. The safeguards that independence requires are obvious: free inquiry, free thought, free speech, tolerance, and the willingness to arbitrate disputes on the basis of evidence. These are societal values worth defending, not just to promote the pursuit of science but to yield a more open-minded society that adapts to change and embraces the new.
Thus science is not only itself a culture of global dimensions, it induces a cultural current that strongly and positively affects societies in which it flourishes - including those that at first were wracked by poverty and hunger, riven by civil strife, and embedded in fiscal crisis. Science brings imagination and vision to bear not only on theoretical speculations but on practical problems and critical decisions, allowing people to analyze present (and future) situations, make sounder choices, and invest their resources more wisely. The culture of science and the open, honest values it engen-ders are enormously important above and beyond the material benefits that they help produce for human welfare.
