I have just returned from Egypt, where I attended the annual board meeting of the Library of Alexandria and met with students and faculty at The American University in Cairo. This is a very exciting time to be in Egypt, with its people empowered by the success of their daring, peaceful demonstrations in Tahrir Square. But the exhilarating sense of freedom is combined with the tension of knowing that the revolution is still in progress and its end point not yet known. Clearly, a great deal of hard work will be needed to establish an effective democracy. In media interviews, I was repeatedly asked, “What should the role of science be in the new Egypt?”