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Two centuries of self-conscious science and technology may have given the world previously unimagined prosperity; can the same agents of change help avoid the calamity that seems to threaten?
In 1790 the French Assemblée Nationale set in train a process that would result in the metric system. But for quirks of history, the course of metrication might have had an Anglo-French dimension – and a different outcome.
Journals are bound to be concerned with and by the published products of scientific misconduct, but there must be doubts about their ability to keep a diverse profession's conscience.
