Time & Perspective Quote by Kenichi Fukui

The line lands like a benediction, but it’s also a quiet assignment of guilt. Fukui is ostensibly praising “younger researchers,” yet the praise is conditional: the future “may depend” on them, which turns scientific work into moral burden. That phrasing matters. “May” leaves room for uncertainty, but it still frames research as the hinge on which humanity swings, a move that elevates the lab from a place of curiosity to a frontline.

The subtext is postwar and planetary. A Japanese Nobel-winning chemist speaking in the late 20th century can’t invoke “the lasting survival of mankind” innocently: it echoes the age of nuclear brinkmanship, industrial catastrophe, and the dawning realization that chemistry and physics don’t just explain the world, they can end it. Fukui’s diction - “preservation,” “inheritance,” “survival” - belongs less to the romance of discovery than to stewardship. Science becomes custodial work: maintaining a fragile estate rather than conquering a frontier.

There’s also a strategic idealism here. “All the scientific wisdom at their disposal” implies that knowledge is not the limiting factor; judgment is. Fukui is implicitly defending science against cynicism by insisting that researchers are acting wisely and for the common good, even as he acknowledges the scale of their responsibility. It’s a vote of confidence aimed at shaping behavior: tell the next generation they are guardians, and you’re more likely to get guardians.