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Gordon Brown gives Romanes Lecture at Oxford University; Gordon Brown speech SOT - And this technology, this ability to communicate with each other and this new mobility that people enjoy is also creating for the first time in human history the potential for a truly global society / This new global age brings huge opportunities but, also as we are seeing, massive insecurities / Washington demonstrations, 'worldwide campaign against globalisation', we have to confront inescapable challenges which cannot be met without our working together / We need a means of ensuring global financial stability and prosperity; of addressing climate change and energy needs; of ensuring security in a more mobile and potentially more dangerous world; and addressing the poverty and inequality that grievously scar the poorest parts of our world / And surely facing this challenge we are fortunate to be able to summon up the best of scientific progress to minimise the insecurity of the new world while maximising the opportunities it presents - Whatever is likely to happen, the world economy will almost certainly double in size in the next 20 years - as the people of China, India and Asia become consumers for the first time, that's twice as much business as today; twice as many opportunities, and among the winners in globalisation will be the industrialised countries that can create the high value added products and services and train the people with the highest possible skills to make and create them / And so the economic role of science will be of even more importance than before, and when it comes to all the challenges of creating a truly global society - which require us to eliminate poverty, tackle climate change and mitigate the impact of disease around the world, it is science alone that can give us hope - of a global and sustainable response to the challenges of food and water shortages; of preserving our environment for future generations; of reducing death and suffering from i...