Scientific responsibility

RESPOSIBILITY

Scientists are human beings like anyone else, with the same ability to accept or evade responsibility for their actions. It can be argued, however, that scientists have a particular duty to accept responsibility for what they do in their professional capacity. 
Science does not stand still: there is always something new to learn. (In 1933 Ernest Rutherford, who first split an atom, told the public that the idea of atomic power was ‘moonshine’.) 
Long-term effects cannot accurately be foreseen, or foreseen at all. (The defoliant known as Agent Orange, used by America in Vietnam, has since been found to cause genetic defects.) 
Risks and catastrophes are discovered after the events which caused them. (The devastating medical and social effects of the sophisticated weapons technology used in the Gulf War have not yet been fully recognised.)

Even when scientists perceive possible implications and potential risks arising from their researches (as developers of the atomic bomb did), it is often very difficult for them to make these public or to take responsible action. 
Scientists, like doctors, are often perceived as having a special power and authority. 
Whistle-blowing requires a courage, and an indifference to personal consequences, that few people possess. 
Individuals are not usually in positions from which they can control events, foresee effects, or be certain that they hold all the necessary information. Nor can they halt the flow of knowledge-hunting.

There are, however, many scientists who do feel that they have a special responsibility to consider the implications and consequences of what they do. They have formed groups and organisations to increase public awareness. These are people who say: ‘Peace is the most important preventive skill’; who, in this uncertain world, look for ‘a new vision for science and scientists appropriate for a socially responsible democratic society’.

Not every invention is created with the best of intentions, and not every new technological development is a welcome one. Even creations designed innocently can have the potential to devastate humanity. Some destructive inventions damage the environment, while others threaten the health and life of both humans and animals. It's a scary fact that some individuals, groups of people, and entire militaries will try to harness the annihilative power of inventions to destroy their enemies and use for their own �good.� While the inventors of these creations may not have intended them to be deadly, unfortunately, these are some of the most lethal creations in all of history.

The atomic bomb was invented during World War II in the famous Manhattan Project led by scientist Robert Oppenheimer. It was first tested on July 16, 1945 in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The blast was so bright, a blind girl 120 miles away claimed to see it, and it caused a mushroom cloud of radioactive vapor to hover at 30,000 feet. This ushered in the Atomic Age, and led to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a month later, killing 66,000 and 39,000 respectively. The nuclear fallout of the blasts led to radiation poisoning, illness, disease, and leukemia in many survivors. The atomic bomb has only been used these two times, so far at least. Hopefully the world will keep it that way.

Trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT, is an explosive chemical compound that was first synthesized in 1863 by German physicist Joseph Wilbrand. His intention was to use the compound as a yellow dye, as its explosive properties were not discovered until 1902, when the German army filled their artillery shells with it. Still widely used by the U.S. military and construction companies all over the world, TNT is poisonous, and skin contact can cause the skin to turn bright orange.

�Off with her head!� The Guillotine was invented in 1791 by a group led by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a Parisian anatomy professor. This execution device used a lunette to immobilize a victim's neck and a crescent blade to chop off the head. It was thought to be a humane method of execution, but led to more violence, including France's �Reign of Terror� from 1793 to 1794 when as many as 40,000 were executed by the Guillotine. It continued to be used as a method of public execution until 1977, and was retired as France's main form of execution in 1981 when France abolished the death penalty.

Mecixan General Manuel Mondragon invented the world's first automatic rifle in 1887, beginning a period of invention of ever-improving semi-automatic and automatic weaponry. Some of its descendants are the AK-47, the M16A1, and the M-14. These rifles are more dangerous than others because they are self-loading and capable of delivering both semi- and fully-automatic weapon fire. Although at one time just used by the military, automatic rifles are now all too common among international gangs. The automatic rifle has unfortunately become glamorized in cinema, television and other media as well.

Agent Orange was originally intended by its inventor Arthur Galston to be a chemical growth hormone fertilizer that would increase the growth rate of soybeans when sprayed on them from the air. In high concentrations, however, Galston discovered it could become a herbicide. The army later took his invention and used it during the Vietnam War to kill and injure 400,000 people and cause another 500,000 to be born with birth defects. It was used to destructive effect by the U.S. military through the late 1970s.

The first recorded use of explosive land mines was in 1277 AD in China. Land mines are explosives which are triggered by contact, and can damage both soldiers and civilians. For this reason they are now called indiscriminate weapons. The problem is that many land mines are still buried underground, with removal difficult since exact locations are not know. Many innocents have been maimed and killed as a result of unremoved land mines. A ban on the use of land mines was singed by 158 countries in 2007, but 37 countries, including the United States, Russia, China and India have not yet signed it.

A dirty bomb is a weapon that combines radioactive material with explosives. Because they do not cause immediate death, dirty bombs are not classified as Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, radiation exposure from a dirty bomb can cause severe illness or death. Dirty bombs are therefore classified as psychological weapons designed to create panic and terror. Although no dirty bombs have actually been used, unexploded ones have been developed, and there is a fear of terrorists getting their hands on dirty bombs. It is difficult to say the exact impact a dirty bomb would have, since one has never been exploded, but most likely it would be devastating both economically and psychologically.