In European policy, initiatives to attract young people to scientific careers abound: visions of future lives in science are drawn as fascinating, rewarding and a good career choice. However, there are many indicators that for a considerable number of those who choose an academic scientific career, the circumstances they encounter do not measure up to these high expectations, as for example short-term contracts, long periods of reoccurring mobility and the partially fierce competition for academic positions with a more long-term perspective overshadow the fascination for science.

This session aims at opening an interdisciplinary debate on careers and lives in science. Its goals are: to engage perspectives of junior and senior scientists, policy makers and social scientists on visions and realities of careers and lives in science; to critically discuss the basic values guiding current career patterns in science; to scrutinise the role and responsibility of scientific institutions for shaping careers and providing perspectives; to compare how national and institutional contexts matter in shaping increasingly mobile and boundaryless careers; to ask for the motives which draw young people into science, as well as for the reasons why young scientists choose to leave academia to pursue different careers.

Professor Wüthrich started his professional life in natural sciences by obtaining university degrees in chemistry, physics, mathematics and sports. This multifaceted training made him particulalry perceptive to the reactions of his body to stress in sports competition, and this awakened his curiosity to get a deeper insight into the mechanisms by which nature works on the level of the molecules of life. For example, being interested in the interplay between oxygen uptake and performance in physical exercise, his early work in structural biology was focused on the oxygen-transporting protein haemoglobin, and today he is heavily involved with the problem of blood-doping in amateur and professional sports. This lecture intends to convey an impression of the joy and excitement that a scientist had the privilege to experience during decades of exploring ever new secrets of living organisms.

For much of the 20th century two radically opposed strains of discourse about science and technology met and clashed in public debate. The optimistic strain held that scientific innovation brings continual progress, in the form of better and longer lives, enhanced creativity and communication, and reduction of disease and poverty. The pessimistic strain held that science and technology enable domination, rationalize human actions and rob them of meaning, and bring unintended harm to health, safety, and the environment. But we need a new, less polarized discourse on science and technology, one that can celebrate their genuine achievements without neglecting their real limitations. Skepticism, humility, experimentalism, and civic engagement are virtues that science shares with democracy, and they need to be restored.

Just as desert roads shift over time to fulfill their critical functions, scientific knowledge proceeds through various trajectories and multiple dimensions to generate a dense network of hypotheses, uncertainties, results, failures, emotional distresses, and hopes. These scientific investigations may begin at a single molecule, a stem cell, or an evolutionarily distinct species, but entrance into the laboratory inevitably leads to systematic dissection and elucidation of the unknown that surrounds them. Science, however, does not occur in a vacuum, and its inextricable links to philosophy, politics, and society should be taken seriously. Public outreach, accountability, transparency, and integrity should be the banners of any scientific endeavour, as they all contribute to the strengthening of the bond between science and society. Taken together, these seemingly diverse factors synergise to turn the desert of the unknown into a desirable land of knowledge and love.

Food security is a key challenge for mankind. Global agricultural production needs to be doubled to feed an ever-growing world population that may reach nine billion by 2050. We will address these global issues in a two-part session. A panel involving scientists, stakeholders and civil society will discuss with the audience how to adapt the current agro-food system to the food security challenge, as well as ethical, social and other concerns such as safety, productivity versus environmental sustainability, preservation of the biodiversity, and third world development issues.

The first part – Matching food demand and food supply – presents the many factors that will drastically affect the production and distribution of food worldwide (climate change, availability of land, demographic changes, etc.), as well as public policies (EU CAP, production of bio-energy) and social drivers (life style, consumption trends) that determine the market economy of the agro-food system.

The second part – Can science and technology help find sustainable solutions to feed nine billion people? – discusses scientific and bio-technological developments aiming at improving the quality, productivity and adaptability of plants to environmental conditions, notably using agro-engineering and land management strategies, as well as genetic engineering to improve agricultural production in a sustainable manner.

“When scientists describe the relations between axons, dendrites, perception, memory, concepts and the world outside a brain, I feel I am reading a description of what I always sensed was happening, but could not describe” (A.S. Byatt).

What can science learn from art and what can science say about the triggering of the creative process? A novelist and a leading neuroscientist (whose team discovered mirror neurons), world-class personalities in their fields, will talk about their work and seek to explore common grounds. What happens in the brain of a novelist when she is sketching the outline of a new work, chiseling characters, connecting places and memories, playing with the rhythm of the language? Are mirror neurons (which may be impor- tant for understanding the actions of other people, and for learning new skills by imitation) somewhat involved in the process? Is empathy towards fellow human beings the key factor? Conversely, is it possible that a deeper exploration of the creative process could help neuroscientists in their interpretation of the brain’s workings? Maybe even put forth new hypotheses or devise new experiments? The ultimate goal is to explore the possibility of true interdisciplinarity and to shed light on the shadow of metaphors in different contexts.

Found throughout nature, aquaporin water channels confer high water permeability to cell membranes. Discovered in human erythrocytes, AQP1 has been characterized biophysically, and the atomic structure of AQP1 is known. Twelve homologous proteins exist in humans. Some transport only water (aquaporins); others transport water plus glycerol (aquaglyceroporins). These proteins are required for generation of physiological fluids (urine, cerebrospinal fluid, aqueous humor, sweat, saliva, and tears). Involvement of aquaporins in multiple clinical states is becoming recognized—renal concentration, fluid retention, cataract, skin hydration, brain edema, thermal stress, glucose homeostasis, malaria, and even arsenic poisoning. Aquaporins are particularly important in plant biology. This information now provides the challenge of developing new technologies to manipulate aquaporins for clinical or agricultural benefits.