"Scientists have a special responsibility, a moral responsibility, in ensuring that science serves the interests of humanity in the best possible way. What they do in their own specific disciplines has the power to affect the lives of all of us. For ;whatever historical reasons, scientists have come to enjoy a much higher level of public trust than other professionals.

It is true, however, that this trust is no longer an absolute faith. There have been too many tragedies related either directly or indirectly to science and technology for the trust in science to remain unconditional. In my own lifetime, we need only think of Hiroshima, Chernobyl, or Bhopal in terms of nuclear or chemical disasters, and of the degradation of the environment - including the depletion of the ozone layer - among ecological crises."

And that's before we even consider the daunting social, political and ethical implications of genetic research.

Today's scientific community does not serve the best interests of all humanity or of this planet. Scientists serve the interests of the political/economic/military/scientific "powers that be" who pay their salaries, give the grants and thereby control and direct their research.