Preface
The Pandora Foundation was established because of the experience scientists have to make whenever their research work leads to results that are in the way of politics and industry. In science history we find many examples that science was and still is misused at the will of persons and organizations powerful in society, and that there are enough scientists ready to comply.
It was the idea of the three Council members, all of them intensively involved in the controversial public discussion on possible health risks of electromagnetic fields, especially of mobile radiation, to establish this Foundation. They had to realize that politics and industry lull the public into a false sense of security from this kind of radiation and both constantly expand the field of applications, although numerous scientific investigations point to possible risks for the people. As the current state of knowledge in this area is still poor and the interest of the industry and their allies to clarify the open questions is limited, independent research is urgently needed.
If we look for the reasons why science failed so far to prove or disprove a health risk for the people there is one obvious explanation. In the middle of the last century industry recognized the huge economic potential of the technical use of electromagnetic fields, yet did not want to be blocked from their application by early warnings of possible risks for the health of the people. Up till today industry was successful with a strict control of research that suits their intentions. That it could also rely on constant support by politics comes as no surprise when we regard the economic potential behind.
What is valid for mobile radiation goes also for the areas of atomic energy, genetic engineering, drug efficiency and safety, etc. In many cases the rare independent investigations show that we cannot always be sure about things claimed safe by politics and industry, and that we are deliberately left in the dark about certain dangers and risks. The methods to push research in the right direction are always the same: Independent research does not receive financial support in order to avoid from the very beginning being confronted with research results that are not in line with particular interests. Should this procedure not be successful, the unwelcome results are then brushed aside as junk science. It is the rule that commercial interests are served very favourably by politics, while health, environment and future are rather carelessly dealt with.
It is in the interest of our society to prevent a further movement in this direction. Therefore, the Pandora Foundation wants to persuade the Pandora of Greek mythology to keep the harm accompanying uncontrolled technical progress in her vessel, but to open this vessel as wide as possible for the benefits of controlled technical progress. And it counts that with many small donations exactly the same can be achieved as with a few large ones.