BUDAPEST, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- World Science Forum 2019 kicked off here on Wednesday, focusing on the ethics and responsibility of science this year.
"Science remains today a common edifice on which researchers from a variety of nations work to discover and understand the same truth," Hungarian President Janos Ader said at the opening ceremony of the World Science Forum in the Palace of Arts of Budapest.
In his speech, Ader recalled the famous Hungarian physicist Lorand Eotvos, who died a hundred years ago, and quoted him as saying "Nations do not work on different sciences; the structure is one, we all contribute to building. What one begins, the other continues, and ultimately the result can be claimed by anyone who contributed to its construction."
"What was true 130 years ago, is even more so today," Ader added.
The World Science Forum discusses the hottest topics in the scientific community, according to Laszlo Lovasz, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The basic idea of the forum, which has a history of two decades, is that the society of the 21st century needs a new type of cooperation between scientists, politicians, economic leaders and the media, Lovasz stressed.
"Today, humanity faces huge challenges from climate change to extreme poverty, and scientific knowledge and its sharing with the widest possible range of society is becoming increasingly important," said Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences at UNESCO.
The four-day forum was attended by more than 1,000 scientists, decision-makers and journalists from 120 countries and regions, including 150 speakers.
