European science would not be what it is without paying particular attention to the fall: Galileo, the father of modern science, used to drop balls from the leaning Tower of Pisa, Newton was inspired by watching the fall of apples, etc. Quick translation into fashionable language: the rise of European science is a narrative of falling objects.

In this first entry to a dialogue, which we hope will encourage other members to similar, informal messages, I will look back further than the last few days inside and outside the Celsius meeting in Berlin on Friday and Saturday. Simply because the Berlin trip, and my last trips to London coincided with recent European events, confronting me with the English perspective more fully than usual, and finally returning me to Geneva, and Switzerland’s latest psychodrama as to how it integrates or not with the outside world. It seems that these few disparate vignettes taken from my recent experiences all address our experience of a continent crisscrossed with connections and community, and our commitment to European dialogue and understanding as it faces challenges of apathy and hostility which are as destructive as ever.