Hello World!

Hello World and welcome.

This is my first message here on this platform, in this forum, and I do mean this to be an invitation. I do not know who will read, but thank you for reading, especially if you are someone that I do not know. What I intend to create here in the RB and LPX Foundation is community, a network of like minded citizens of the world. Please connect with me through this forum so that we can talk about science. Get to know me. Get to know others who come here for the same reason. Come with respect and stay with kindness.

Science is hot. Tech companies seek scientists because what scientists make is valuable. People seek to become scientists because doing science is fun, and making money doing science is even more fun. Nevertheless, I believe that science can serve more than selfish interest. I believe that scientists are eager to improve the world through learning, knowing and teaching. It is appropriate that we in this field should take care of ourselves and our families, there are so many other ways to make a living and to make money, if those were the only things that we wanted.

As I say, I intend for this to become a forum for scientists to meet and develop skills and professional connections. As much as I can, I want to encourage that the context of our conversations be science for the sake of Public Good. I want us to develop solidarity, to grow confident that we can trust each other professionally. I want us to develop a culture of ethics and courage.

Please, let us learn our craft by taking on challenging problems in ecology, medicine and social welfare. Let us discuss ethics and privacy in data gathering. By taking on these kinds of practice problems and discussing respectful and ethical ways of doing things here among friends, it will be easier when the inevitable time comes that we must choose at work what problems to solve and what conversations to have. Ethical and moral thinking are also skills to practice. Speaking truth and correctness is easier for those who have already decided what are the right things to say.