The current technological age in which man's power has reached a dimension and hitherto unimaginable implications, requires an ethical awareness. The imminent possibility of destroying or altering the planetary life requires that the magnitude of the unlimited power of science is accompanied by a new principle, that of responsibility. Only the principle of liability may return the lost innocence of environmental degradation and the exploitation of atomic energy, and harness the tremendous potential of genetic research. Under these parameters responsibility to man and the world will save their freedom and invulnerable to any threat or "naivete" of new powers.