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Societal Aspects of Scientific Evidence. The results of scientific enquiry can raise ethical, social, economic and environmental issues. Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution. There is a lot of evidence to support his theory, much of it from fossils.
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Societal Aspects of Scientific Evidence The results of scientific enquiry can raise ethical, social, economic and environmental issues
Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution. There is a lot of evidence to support his theory, much of it from fossils. Darwin knew that his theory would upset many people and did not publish it till late in his life. Some scientists have produced theories that go against evolution. They believe in “creationism”, i.e. that god created the world in 7 days, as it says in the bible. Should science be used in this way, to support a viewpoint you hold anyway?
This is Isaac Newton. He believed that light is made up of tiny particles and he designed experiments to support his theory This is Thomas Young He believed that light is a wave and he designed experiments to support his theory Why do you think that people at the time believed Newton and not Young? Have you heard of Thomas Young before?
This man lead the American team that developed the atom bomb. Some would say that their work helped to end world war II (would the Japanese have surrendered otherwise?) It certainly helped to make the USA a world super power after the war. “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb”
Cluster bombs are hundreds of small bombs in a canister which spread out to cover a large area. About 5% do not explode and are a great danger to any civilians who may come across them. Western governments spend billions on developing new weapons. Is it money well spent? Should we ban the use of cluster bombs?
In 1964 the U.S. Surgeon General officially announced that smoking was bad for your health. Despite this American tobacco companies denied that it was dangerous for many years. They hired scientists to do experiments to prove that smoking doesn’t cause cancer. In June 2001, a Los Angeles jury ordered the Philip Morris tobacco company to pay more than $3bn to Richard Boeken, a smoker suffering from terminal cancer
Over 160 countries have signed up to the Kyoto protocol. This is an international agreement to greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they produce. A number of scientists do not believe that human activity has affected global warming. Most do. The United States has not signed this agreement despite being the single largest producer of CO2 from burning fossil fuels. The Republican Party in America receives a lot of funding from Texas oil producers. Could there be a link?
