It is May 7, 1959, and a tall, burly man with little hair on his head walks decisively into the Senate House, an 18th-century neoclassical building. This is Charles Percy Snow, a chemist, successful novelist, and advisor to the British government, recently named Baron of Leicester by the Queen for his services to the country. He is preparing to give the Rede Lecture, a prestigious conference held every year at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. He does not know it yet, but he is about to create a considerable stir that will awaken the wrath of many powerful people and generate a public debate that will last for years.

It was the thirties. Robert Moses, the most powerful urban planner in New York's history, ordered the construction of bridges so low that buses could not pass. Buses were the transport of the poor and the black population. No law was needed: the bridge was exclusionary by design and by default.

Ethics deals with the moral principles that govern a person's behavior and the way they act. In most civilizations, ethics has been closely linked to different religions, which provide guidelines for behavior for their followers and prescribe what is right and what is wrong.