Claudio Ronchi Boeken

Whether considered a divine gift or a Promethean conquest, science has indisputably and indelibly marked the course of human history. A product of the intellectual elite, but always nourished by the many fruits of its applications, science appears today to be a perfect system, whose laws and discoveries guide all human activities. Yet the foundations of its authority remain an open question, entailing disquieting aspects that are also to be identified in modern science. Furthermore it is seen to be exerting an increasing power over mankind. Readers are invited to follow an itinerary through the history of science, a voyage which, in the end, enables them to catch a glimpse of two divergent futures: One in which science accelerates the downfall of Homo sapiens, and another in which it helps our species to engage in a new and positive adventure, whose outcome nobody can know.

In the beginning of the 1990’s, in the course of the events which were rapidly cha- ing the political con? guration of the East European countries, the crisis which - vested the vast research apparatus of the former Soviet Union was entailing con- quences whose dimension and depth were immediately realized by the international scienti? c community. In the same years, however, the most important branch of nuclear energy - searchanddevelopment, inparticularthatconcerning? ssionreactor, wasworldwide undergoing a substantial reduction due to a variety of decisional situations. Yet, paradoxically, it was a very good fortune that a number of concerns on the future of nuclear research were shared by East- and West-European scientists, especially those who were working in advanced ? elds. In fact, the only hope for coping with an uncertain future was to erect bridges between similar institutions and employ safeguarding tactics linked to a long term collaboration strategy. A decade later, this proved to be a winning decision, since the revival of nuclear energy is presently starting from a basis of common intentions and a network of established cooperation, whose seeds are to be searched in those initial, individual e? orts.