International and national aspects of science

When I started studying physics and medicine after the first World War, the word “science” had but one meaning for us: To search for truth, to understand the experimental world by means of logical deduction, and to mould an inductive conception of this world. “Experimental world” meant everything on this planet and everything available by optical and mathematical methods in the universe. The thought that scientific method might be influenced by any other aspects did not come to the mind of a Swiss student at that time.