THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE is a cycle of annual international conferences jointly organised by the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, the Fondazione Silvio Tronchetti Provera, and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The aim of the Conferences is to examine the importance of scientific development as a means of improving the quality of our lives, and to delineate a new role for science in the society of the third millennium.
The idea of these conferences springs from an awareness that the problems and dilemmas generated by unrelenting scientific and technological progress are not being adequately discussed in society as a whole. As science exerts an ever more pervasive influence on our lives, society seems ill-informed about the short and long term implications of scientific advance, and in particular is unaware of the social, economic and cultural consequences of the continuous technological revolution. Experts of international renown from various spheres and disciplines have been invited to give their points of view on these issues − which are crucial to the destiny of our society − addressing a public of scientists, philosophers, theologians, industrialists, politicians, economists, journalists, students and others interested in the social, economic and political consequences of constant scientific development.

 

THE 2009 CONFERENCE
The Fifth World Conference on the Future of Science has once again explored a theme that puts science at the centre of the social debate: the DNA Revolution. The discovery of the structure of DNA, more than fifty years ago, and the realization that it encoded the genetic information that determines the nature of all living organisms, created a true revolution in our understanding of biology and medicine, whose impact on essentially every aspect of life continues and expands to this day. While genome sequencing of multiple organisms, from humans to bacteria, has revealed exciting new information about our genetic make-up and the mechanisms of disease − leading to what has been called the post-genomic era − the function and purpose of much DNA remains to be discovered. The Conference has assessed the impact that the “DNA Revolution” has had and will continue to have on science, technology and the quality of human life. It has focused on the significance of the most recent genetic research to our understanding of evolution and natural selection, health and disease; on how the knowledge provided by DNA research has dramatically changed the practice of medicine, agriculture and the management of biological resources; and on the bioethical issues raised by such discoveries. Major topics to be discussed have been genes and genome evolution, the impact of recombinant DNA on biotechnology and pharmaceutics, the genetics of human diseases, gene therapy, and the molecular genetics of cancer.    

Programme overview