Week 6 -- Armageddon Science

I have always found the Cold War fascinating. One semester of my undergrad I actually took three separate history classes all dealing with the Cold War. So, as you can imagine, the part of the text this week that kept me interested was the nuclear and atomic sections Clegg discusses. Particularly, I really enjoyed the history of the atomic bomb as discussed in chapter three (Atomic Devastation). I thought the following quote from President Eisenhower was particularly interesting after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during WWII: "We have spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history -- we won (50)." I think that this quote sums up the book in a nutshell, at least what I took from it. We are in an age of constant competition, especially between governments. No country wants another country to one-up them and even in the news last night there was speculation as to what Obama was going to do in response to the Pakistanis arresting those who helped to bring down Bin Laden. Every country and every government want to be, as Eisenhower would say, the "winner." We are living in an age where winning literally means having the most physical power and, ultimately, the biggest bombs. As was brought up in discussion, we are a world addicted to science and progress and, in this case, that means major destruction and devastation to the globe and the inhabitants in it if this power ever extends too far (which I personally believe that it will).

As for the discussion itself, I really enjoyed the last question: How do we teach the ethics of science in a social studies classroom? I loved Dustin's point comparing the ethics of science to the importance of civics. Science is, as we've seen throughout the course, a driving factor that plays into every aspect of our society. Just as we learned that technology is everywhere (not just electronics), so too is science. It fuels our culture and, as we have seen, can alter it greatly. From Sputnik days of fear to medical scientists working tirelessly to find cures for diseases, science plays a huge role in our lives as individuals and as a people. It is important that we illustrate for students this fact and teach the history of science and the impact it has made on our society if we want them to find interest in the topic. Like Dustin said, just as we aim to teach healthy civic attitudes, we should also aim to teach about ethics... and this includes science! These shouldn't be separate!!

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