Has there been a time when science has played a more significant, more direct role in the quality, if not quantity, of our lives? The most obvious example, of course, is Covid-19 – from understanding the pandemic to developing a cure in record time.

And yet simultaneously – just as science brings us together, allowing individuals and societies to connect again –  has there been a time when science has divided us more? Not only in our acceptance of how to manage Covid, but even extending to our climate.

How should we – in business, public policy, and our own lives – reconcile the seemingly contradictory trend that arguably science is as inspiring and dividing right now as perhaps any time in history?

For answers, if not insights, few are better to ask than Nicholas Dirks.