Ismail Serageldin and Jacob Palis, co-chairs of the IAC panel on capacity building in S&T, presented their panel’s report to a large audience at the UN’s meeting room no.1. Secretary-General Kofi Anan presided over an hour-long session with the UN ambassadors in which the inter-Academy Council Report on “Inventing a better future” was presented by Serageldin, Palis and Mamphela Ramphele. Mark Malloch-Brown, Administrator of the UNDP presented the participants and after the Q&A, Bruce Alberts formally presented to the SG a copy of the report. Serageldin referred to the occasion as “the presentation of the views of the scientists of the world to the decisions-makers of the world”. The promise of what science can do for the people of the world is so clear, that the best of S&T must be harnessed to serve the needs of the poorer majority on this planet. The report is available on the Internet [Report Link].