Questions: Thomas Midgely was a skilled scientist, trained as a chemist and highly successful as a chemical inventor. Like many in science, he explored problems, posed solutions, and tested his inventions in the real world. Two of his major inventions turned out to be very bad for the environment. How do scientists know if they are creating something that will eventually turn out to be a disaster? What about things we are so used to now: Cell phones, food additives like Splenda, cloning, GMOs, wind turbines, social media, nuclear power, violent video games and artificial intelligence? What are the chances that a seemingly harmless invention might turn out to cause serious side effects?
Explorations: Students might divide into groups where one group “advocates” for a particular scientific discovery and the other side “cautions” science to carefully consider the implications. Topics, as suggested above, or historically controversial topics such as nuclear energy may be selected. Students can engage in debate and then deliberate on the role of science in society. Is science responsible to society or is science independent of society? Should all invention be encouraged or are their limits to what we should invent? If there are limits, what would we tell scientists that they should not invent?