Uncertainty is interwoven into human existence. It is a powerful incentive in th
e search for knowledge and an inherent component of scientific research. We have
developed many ways of coping with uncertainty. We make promises, manage risks
and make predictions to try to clear the mists and predict ahead. But the future
is inherently uncertain - and the mist that shrouds our path an inherent part o
f our journey. The burning question is whether our societies can face up to unce
rtainty, learn to embrace it and whether we can open up to a constantly evolving
future.In this new book, Helga Nowotny shows how research can thrive at the cus
p of uncertainty. Science, she argues, can eventually transform uncertainty into
certainty, but into certainty which remains always provisional.Uncertainty is n
ever completely static. It is constantly evolving. It encompasses geological tim
e scales and, at the level of human experience, split-second changes as cells di
vide.
