Future Insight-FROM A 350TH BIRTHDAY TO THE START OF A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Merck, a vibrant science and technology company, celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2018. Dr. Ulrich A.K. Betz, VP and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubator, highlights the vision the company has for the future as well as the series of science & technology programmes and activities that were set up in order to install a global movement, underlining the importance of science & technology to build a better world.
Over the millennia humanity has made incredible progress in advancing science and technology, just compare one of our first tools, the stone age wedge, with the complexity of a modern computer chip. With the help of science & technology our population has grown to the amazing number of 7 billion people creating an unprecedented imprint on our planet resulting in a new global era: the Anthropocene. But there is a series of unsolved global problems: nutrition for a growing world population, global pollution bringing the ecosystems to the brink of collapse, global warming, increasing pandemic threats just to mention a few. In addition, despite all progress we see, the dirty little truth is that it has been much slower than predicted. By the year 2000 we already had planned to have cities on the moon, colonies on
