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Hiroshima
was destroyed in World War II by the first atomic bomb used in warfarein fulfilling the promise of "betterliving through chemistry" research has given uschemical weapons for human slaughter.. Chemical warfare & biologicalwarfare& biochemical warfare
研究与投资 31
money spent on researchis generally a sound investment because it is an investment in the advancementof human knowledge and in human imagination and spirit.
While we must invest in research irrespective ofwhether the results might be controversial, at the same time we should becircumspect about research whoseobjectives are too vague and whose potential benefits are too speculative.
比如 moneymight spent toward addressing society’s more immediateproblems, such as enhance AIDSawareness and education, and so forth
科学”theory” and “fact”
when it comes to scienceour wishes and desires ultimately yield to the stubbornness of facts--by whichI mean empirical scientific evidenceand the laws and principles of the physical world. Admittedly,in many cases it is difficult to distinguish between scientific"fact" and mere "theory." History is replete with examples of whatwere considered at one time to be facts, but later disproved as incorrecttheories. Yet it is telling that many such obsolete theories were based on thesubjective inclinations, desires, and wishes of theorists and of the societiesin which the theorists lived. For example, the notions of an Earth-centereduniverse and of linear time and space were both influenced by religiousnotions--that is, by human wishes and passions. As our factual knowledge increased, such theories ultimately giveway.