The impressive advancements made in the field of biological and biomedical sciences in recent years have brought to light a series of major ethical, social, and political issues. The comprehensive exploration of these issues requires a wide exchange of views among scientists from completely different fields. Responding to the needs of the times, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) organized the program "Science and Society," in which leading academics from the fields of social sciences, humanities, and biological sciences expressed their thoughts and concerns and debated their views on the aforementioned issues.
The need for broader information dissemination within the scientific community, as well as society at large, yielded another outcome of this specific program: a series of texts by the most important speakers, which were published as essays in a special edition of the scientific journal "Journal of Molecular Biology" (JMB), focusing on the relationship between science and society. These very texts are included in the book you are holding in your hands, and we hope that it will decisively contribute to the enrichment of the corresponding reflection that is being developed in the Greek scientific community.