London, 1955
World War II is still alive in everybody’s mind, and the Cold War is at its peak. USA and USSR are piling up nuclear weapons to prevent a nuclear confrontation. Hydrogen bombs are tested around the world, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki disasters notwithstanding, and governments are lying about the dangers of radioactive fallouts in an effort to calm fears. You, a scientist, understand the threat of the situation and decide to act in order to save humankind from its rather gloomy future.

Although it resembles an episode of Doctor Who, this was the reality facing a few academics during the first decade after the end of World War II. Working through the iron curtain, under unprecedented international cooperation and highly unstable political conditions, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, and a collection of influential, international intellectuals published the Russell-Einstein Manifesto to inform the public and governments around the world about the perils of nuclear proliferation.

“In the tragic situation which confronts humanity, we feel that scientists should assemble in conference to appraise the perils that have arisen as a result of the development of weapons of mass destruction, and to discuss a resolution in the spirit of the appended draft.

“[…]Almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but we want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings and consider yourselves only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history, and whose disappearance none of us can desire.”

From this manifesto, a conference followed in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, where an innovative transnational organization, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, was born.

Fifty-three years after the conference, the world is no longer overtly under the impeding threat of nuclear wars, yet spills across newspapers and TV screens are evidence of a failed dream. Nuclear proliferation continues to cast a haze over posturing and emerging world powers. Shifts in climate drive mass migrations of people across borders, while advances in synthetic biology allow rapid creation and dissemination of novel and potentially lethal organisms and toxins; and the dangers don’t end there. The need for Pugwash is still present, bridging the world of scientific and technological advances with the issues that governments and societies are facing. The accumulation of scientific data continues to grow exponentially, but the wisdom that comes with public and political discourse, regulation, and checkpoints crawls dangerously slowly.

Most of us believe that the work we do at the bench is disconnected from the inspirations, achievements, atrocities, and struggles around the world. With blinders on, we add to the tower of knowledge and push towards new scientific frontiers. How often do we reflect on the implication of the projects we choose, or even more importantly, on those we do not choose. Would we be willing to risk grant renewals to speak out against misuse of our discoveries? Would we take military funding, grants from big oil or big tobacco companies, and under what circumstances? Would we choose to work in an area of science that can help so many, but would force us to financially struggle for the rest of our career, or choose the “sexy” science with big bucks from the elite few? How far into our notebooks, and administrative files would we let “big brother” look, under the guise of “freedom” and “security?” What will happen once health insurance companies start using DNA footprints to uncover predisposition to diseases? What if the future as imagined in the film Gattaca became a reality? Is it sensible to re-create the dreadful flu virus from 1918 for scientific purposes? From where will the next generation of “green” technology come, and will it be in time?

Not only were Pugwash conferences important to address the nuclear threat, but also they called on scientists to perform a higher role in society: they gave them the right and the duty to be responsible for their research and to deal with the impact their discoveries could have on society. Given our aims as a biomedical institution, Rockefeller University hosts one of the student chapters of the Pugwash society. If you are interested in joining or learning more information, write to .