Nobel Laureates call for science to remain democratic

“Politics needs science, both as a cautionary voice and a corrective, especially in the light of rapid technological development.”

This was the message from German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his opening address to the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which this week brought together 71 Nobel Laureates and 600 early career scientists from 88 countries in Lindau, Germany, to network and learn from each other.

Steinmeier underscored that science needs freedom to operate, just as “democracy needs free science”.

He said that these ideas had been for decades “an almost irrefutable conviction” but that “the allure of authoritarianism is growing in many places”. He expressed concern that “enemies of open societies” were gaining influence and held dreams “of harassing, censoring, and silencing dissenters at will”.

While such limitations are not new in dictatorships and autocracies around the globe, Steinmeier expressed concern about how these are increasingly gaining foot in so-called liberal Western democracies.

“Freedom is no longer a given in some places – both within and outside of universities and research institutions,” he noted.

He was concerned about how in countries such as the USA, where previously academic freedom had been “exemplified like almost nowhere else”, political paternalism is taking hold.

He said this is done through an administration “that intimidates researchers whose positions and topics are unwelcome; where educational institutions are harassed if they don't comply with political directives; and where universities or entire branches of science have to accept arbitrary cuts to their funding”.

He noted: “Wherever the independence of research and teaching is systematically undermined, the very foundations of democracy are threatened. This cannot be a matter of indifference to either science or democracy. We must be determined to continue fighting for freedom!”

Closer to home, he also criticised the increased alienation and hostility in Germany from democracy and science in discussions about topics like man-made climate change or vaccinations.

“Scientific findings are particularly often questioned by those who also view democracy and its institutions with scepticism, rejection, or even hatred,” he added.

Science diplomacy remains important

Steinmeier congratulated Nobel Laureates on their longheld tradition of taking a stance on global issues such as climate change, nuclear weapons and nuclear war, and that the integrity of science and science diplomacy are key aspects of this year’s Lindau meeting.

The first of its kind was held in 1951, in the aftermath of World War 2, to help foster trust and exchange in science. In 1955 and 2024 participants signed the Mainau Declaration against nuclear arms, which according to Steinmeier “unfortunately remains as relevant as ever”.

The Declaration includes concrete policy recommendations, including renewed arms control and meaningful human control. It includes the recommendations of the Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War and is supported by 129 Nobel Laureates and many nuclear security experts.

The next meeting of the Nobel Laureate Assembly takes place in mid-July at the Vatican. Discussions with Pope Leo XIV will focus on the risks associated with artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons.

During a panel session at Lindau 2026, three Nobel Laureates in Chemistry and Physics called for urgent action on nuclear disarmament.

Nobel Laureate in Physics (2004) David Gross said that arms control treaties signed after the Cold War greatly reduced the “threat of annihilation” but “not to zero”.

“Unfortunately the last 25 years have seen a rapid decline in our ability to control these horrible weapons. All the arms control treaties that were produced over 50 years preceding have disappeared, have been dropped or not renewed,” he stated.

He said that the United States and Russia seem to have no intention to renew the New START arms control agreement that lapsed between them in February 2026, while the non-proliferation treaty is “under enormous threat” and currently “meaningless”.

“The long history of establishing trust and verification methods is disappearing completely,” Gross added. “With the nine nuclear-states we are in the middle of an arms control race. There are many potential nuclear states who are seriously considering building a bomb of their own for the first time. This makes sense if you consider that America will no longer protect Europe.”

According to William Moerner, the 2014 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, nuclear wars have so far been averted because “cooler heads prevailed”.

Moerner stressed that the principle that nuclear weapons decisions must always remain under effective human control and with at least two people involved, as articulated by the Nobel Laureate Assembly, is more urgent than ever given current developments in AI. He said that war-gaming simulations between AI systems show that full delegation to autonomous systems is unacceptable in the AI era, given that the models almost invariably escalated scenarios toward the nuclear option.

“The concept of values does not apply to AI,” he warned.

AI failures need accountability

To him the question of accountability in cases of AI failure remains unresolved: “If it makes a mistake – who is accountable?”

Nobel Laureate in Physics 2011 Brian Schmidt urged the young scientists in attendance to educate themselves on heightened tensions among countries with nuclear arms programmes, and to mobilise public interest and participation on nuclear disarmament as was done to put climate change on the radar.

The threat of nuclear war should interest everyone, said one of the 600 early career scientists invited to Lindau 2026, Peruvian Dr Anthony Torres-Ruesta, who studies aspects of biological warfare of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

He would like to see more interdisciplinary involvement, including the humanities, to inform political issues of security and emerging “frontier technologies”.

Sebastian Philippe, a nuclear security specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA, moderated the nuclear disarmament focused panel at Lindau 2026. He says the first United Nations report on the effects of nuclear war on the environment and people to be compiled since the end of the Cold War will be presented by more than 20 scientists to the UN General Assembly in 2027.

“We must work on multiple levels because the situation is degrading rapidly. Civil disobedience and building coalitions in society is key to achieving any changes on these issues,” said Philippe, who mentioned that scientist Carl Sagan famously was among those protesting at nuclear test sites during the Cold War years.

He believes the biggest advances in science diplomacy will come from countries in the Global South that realise that even though they do not have nuclear arms, they will be affected by cascading economic and climatic consequences of any being detonated.