Drawing on personal reflections and real-world examples, IIASA Young Scientists Summer Program participant, Avijit Pandit, explores the question of how scientists can ensure that their influence remains anchored in purpose rather than in power, and provides a quick guide for sustainability and systems scientists to navigate today’s science landscape.
I am participating in this year’s Young Scientists Summer Program, where we get a taste of what it is like to model climate futures, advise governments, and stress‑test global risks. It’s heady stuff – and really powerful.
But lately, I keep asking a simpler question: what is this power for? If we chase patents, headlines, or the next election cycle, we risk our research becoming an all‑purpose screwdriver in service of whoever is holding it. Science is rapidly filling the vacuum that religion left us with, and while it is gaining power, it is losing purpose. As scientists our original mission – nurturing open curiosity so society can thrive for generations – could fade into the background.
Below I share three quick stories that remind me why purpose matters, pinpoint three pressures that pull us off course, and end with a checklist any sustainability scientist can start using tomorrow. I don’t intend to provide any solutions, but only to spark a reflection and conversation on what it means to be a scientist in the modern world, where scientists are also consultants, influencers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and policy advocates.
Or as Carl Sagan put it in The Demon‑Haunted World: “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”
Curiosity in action: three real‑world fixes
The Ozone hole (1985): A puzzling satellite reading over Antarctica turned into a global alarm when scientists kept digging. Public labs like the British Antarctic Survey rang the bell, leading to the Montreal Protocol – still the fastest international environmental agreement ever signed.
Penicillin’s petri dish (1928): Alexander Fleming noticed a stray mold killing bacteria in his lab. No funding milestone asked for it; pure curiosity launched the antibiotic era and still saves lives each day.
mRNA vaccines (2005 - 2020): Katalin Karikó spent years on messenger‑RNA, long before it looked profitable. Her “impractical” papers laid the groundwork for COVID‑19 vaccines delivered in record time.
The common thread in these stories? Neutral, curiosity‑driven research—not quarterly profits—sparked solutions to global threats.
Power without purpose: three pressure points
- Privatized agendas: Roughly 70 % of worldwide research and development funding now comes from industry, tightening the focus on projects with quick pay‑offs.
- Political short horizons: Election calendars favor splashy pilots over slow‑burn fixes like soil rebuilding or biodiversity monitoring.
- Attention inflation: Social media rewards loud certainty, not careful caveats while doubt – the lifeblood of science – gets crowded out.
Left unchecked, these forces can turn any research center into a service bureau for narrow interests.
Finding purpose again
Enlightenment thinkers linked knowledge to the common good: roads, vaccines, education. We can do the same by building purpose checks into daily practice. Purpose is not a slogan; it’s a habit.
Quick guide for sustainability and systems scientists
| What we need | One thing we can do today | Why it helps |
| Open curiosity | Post datasets and code on open hubs such as Zenodo or GitHub to keep data FAIR and OPEN. | Open resources let others spot risks we miss. |
| Working humility | Host an annual Assumption Day – invite colleagues to poke holes in core model inputs and share negative results. | Normalizes uncertainty and builds public trust. |
| Human‑scale stories | Team up with a communicator to turn your key figure into a 90‑second explainer video or a popular science article tested on friends outside the field. | Data stick when people see themselves in the picture. |
| Built‑in stewardship | Add a one‑page impact table to each proposal: who benefits, who could be harmed, and how findings stay public. | Puts long‑term social‑ecological costs on the table early. |
| Neutral ground | Use our convening power to gather policymakers, businesses, and NGOs before positions harden. | Evidence speaks loudest on level ground. |
| Regular check‑ins | Schedule yearly progress reviews against real‑world feedback (sometimes called “reflexive monitoring”). | Keeps projects relevant as crises evolve. |
From intention to action
Science is still our sharpest tool for turning questions into reliable answers. Purpose is not a nice‑to‑have; it’s the compass that keeps power pointed toward the common good. Let’s keep that compass visible.
Want to Read More?
- Carl Sagan, The Demon‑Haunted World
- The Montreal Protocol story (UNEP)
- Alexander Fleming’s 1929 paper on penicillin
- Katalin Karikó’s early mRNA research in Immunity
- OECD stats on global R & D spending
Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Nexus blog, nor of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.