Science creates knowledge!
The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, but one who asks the right questions. Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009)
Science involves methodical research, the recognition and understanding of causal properties and relationships. People working in science are scientists.
Freedom of research is an essential pillar of science and the scientific community. A large part of research activities is financed by public funds. At the beginning of research is the definition or the concrete question, i.e. the research objective. Research results or partial results are usually published and discussed in established media. In some cases, states are also interested in targeted research activities from a military background - here, as a rule, no publication takes place.
Research also forms the basis for teaching. Research should be largely neutral and open-ended. Research should serve people and be ethically responsible. Research should be critical and also influence or advise politics. Conversely, however, it is also important for politicians to listen to and involve science in their decisions.
Limits of science
Experience shows that research without ethical and moral principles can also be extremely problematic.
Examples from the Third Reich or the simple greed-eats-brains issue, which can be justified not only financially but also in terms of personal reputation (falsification of research results), should only be mentioned here as examples.
High dangers exist today, for example, in genetic engineering (gene scissors), stem cell research and weapons of mass destruction.
A high degree of responsibility must therefore be demanded of researchers. Science and research owe this to the society that finances them.
The Covid-19 pandemic could go down in the history books as an example of a potentially devastating consequence of research activity that got out of control. It is extremely surprising, for example, that the cause of the pandemic cited by the Chinese government was seen as a zoonosis shortly after the outbreak, i.e. the jumping of a virus via an intermediate host to humans, which to date has neither been proven with facts (intermediate host not found) nor scientifically substantiated.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Prof. h.c. Roland Wiesendanger comes to the conclusion in a study on the coronavirus pandemic that, after evaluating a wide variety of published research reports and sources, there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence to suggest that a laboratory accident at the "Wuhan Institute of Virology" was by far the most likely cause of the corona pandemic.
The study published in early May 2021 can be found at the following link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349302406_Studie_zum_Ursprung_der_Coronavirus-Pandemie
In the institute in question, so-called "gain-of-function" research with coronaviruses was carried out over many years.
Within the framework of this research, coronaviruses were deliberately manipulated with the aim of making them more infectious and dangerous for humans. This research is documented in original publications.
Research with such goals must be rejected on principle!