The Covid-19 pandemic has shown both the benefits of science as well as the need to explain its benefits better, as Ann-Kristin Achleitner (University of Munich) and Robbert Dijkgraaf (Institute of Advanced Study) discuss in their DLD Summer conversation.
The corona crisis is “a pivotal moment for science”, Dijkgraaf says, because it demonstrated that basic research pays off. “The vaccines that were delivered were amazing… The earliest vaccines were also based on the most innovative technology – a technology that was in development for at least 30 years.”
The pandemic also shows, the Princeton researcher says, that “we are indeed in an extremely complicated world that only gets more complicated”.
