What's going to happen if we carry on burning fossil fuels at the rate we are today? How are we going to feed a global population of more than ten billion? If coffee contains carcinogens, how much is safe to drink?

The questions thrown up by modern society come thick and fast, and an increasing number of them are directed towards scientists.

Yet even as we clamour for more information our willingness to take the answers on trust has withered away.

The Today programme's science correspondent Tom Feilden along with Today programme guest editor Sir Paul Nurse, ask if what needed is a new contract between scientists and society on how to deliver, and receive, information about risk and uncertainty.

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.