**1. Time to choose the right path**

Earth today is experiencing visible climate changes, the one battle for which the humans are still not prepared enough to win. Existing economic, social, and cultural discrepancies between developing and developed countries are a constant obstacle for the "way forward," and the decisions about environment, food, and education brought today will influence our children tomorrow. This book is intended for those who still believe that our greatest strength is actually our curiosity. Basic research scientists worldwide are constantly struggling to obtain enough, mostly public, funds to provide sound foundations for innovations in all aspects of life; however, the pressure to publish first occasionally neglects the fact that every creative idea needs a considerable amount of time to be realized, often with negative results. Although the criticism in science is always welcomed, whether it comes from the fellow scientists or from the public voice, due to the lack of understanding, the complicated problems we are trying to solve become even more difficult. For example, if tomorrow the bacterium *Xylella fastidiosa*, outlined by Alyson Abbott in Nature (8 June 2017) as a huge problem for the olive groves in Southern Italy, spread to the rest of Europe, the only measure would be to uproot the contaminated plants. Although the infection could have been stopped/decelerated years ago, environmentalists challenged scientific findings and fight against contaminated olive plants uprooting. Italy has already allocated more than 5 million euros for the containment measures and will be forced to increase the funding in the future. We should ask ourselves, "Could we rely on science to find a more creative solution?"
