The Erice International Seminars are multidisciplinary seminars attended by over 100 eminent participants from all fields of science. Each year, a few scientific issues are selected and experts are invited to present contrasting views during the plenary multidisciplinary sessions of the seminar, followed by general debates. These sessions offer a unique opportunity for specialists to enlarge their vision of their related fields by being confronted with ideas and suggestions from high-level scientists in complementary domains of science. Associated workshops allow the experts to further refine and process the ideas evoked during the seminar. This year’s topics are all actual. For instance, on climate issues we have focused on the management of a global warming and on new theoretical alternatives to climate modeling. On global monitoring of the planet, we have focused on the US missile defence shield, the energy externalities and waste disposal and the historical dive by Dr Chilingarov on the North Pole shelf. On the medical side, we have investigated the Alzheimer epidemics and the role of infectious agents in cancer.