Human beings are living a comfortable life today because of scientific inventions. Can we think about a life without electricity, cars, telephone, internet, television and thousands of scientific inventions that make our life comfortable? Nowadays we live longer because of the scientific innovations in the field of medicine. No one can deny the benefit of scientific discoveries, but we can not also under-estimate the dangers of scientific inventions to our society. It is the human nature to search for instant solutions to our problems without being aware of the hidden consequences.
We all see the drops of honey on the outer surface of the honeycomb but we fail to see the dangerous bees inside the honeycomb. It is also true in the case of scientific innovations. We want cars, automobiles and refrigerators without caring about the dangerous consequences of global warming. We want nuclear energy without thinking about the safe disposal of nuclear waste and the dangerous consequences of radiation. We also want papers, wooden furniture and houses without worrying about the loss of natural resources. There are a number of scientific discoveries that have dangerous consequences.
One of the best examples for a dangerous scientific discovery is the atom bomb. Millions of people were killed in the world’s first atom bomb attack on two Japanese cities. Even after the years of that incidence, many people are still suffering from the dangerous effects of atomic radiation in those cities. Nowadays many countries possess the atomic weapons. Some countries also possess dangerous chemical and biological weapons that can cause mass destruction. What would be the consequence of using those weapons of mass destruction? Have we really created a safe world for our children or grand children?
There are many questions still need to be answered. Many people do not know the dangerous effects of global warming. Our earth has a protective cover known as the Ozone layer, which prevents the harmful ultra violet radiation from the sun. Due to the high consumption of petroleum products, a lot of waste products are released in the atmosphere. This will result in global warming. Even our air conditioner machines and refrigerators release some gases which might cause holes in the ozone layer. The direct effect of global warming is climate change and the indirect effect is sea level rise due to the melting of ice in the Antarctic region.
Therefore the results of global warming can be dangerous to our future generation. The research on embryonic stem cells has created many controversies. Some people consider embryonic stem cells as the human life forms. They think that science has no reputation for human values. Cloning is another scientific innovation that has been debated all over the world. We can create a number of human beings who are similar in all aspects to the donor of the stemcells that used for cloning. Again, the process of cloning is viewed as a challenge for the basic human values. I accept that we enjoy a number of benefits due to scientific discoveries.
Though we enjoy a number of benefits we still have to consider the long term effects of scientific inventions. In my opinion, most of the scientific inventions are dangerous to human society in the long term. We need electricity to enjoy a number of scientific inventions. For producing electricity, we have to depend on natural resources so we are excessively utilizing those resources without thinking about our future generations. The same is the case in other scientific inventions also. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that the scientific inventions should be used only for the benefit of our society.
