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Top Physicist Advocates Scientific Self-Censorship

Posted by michael on from the slow-down-cowboy dept.

spamania writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is running this article about a new book by Britain's astronomer royal, Sir Martin Rees, that advocates restricting scientific research in certain fields in the interest of public safety. In "Our Final Hour", Rees lends a sober, respectable voice to the oft-irrational ranting about nanotech, biotech, and other fields."

2 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Latest US Government cover-ups and lies by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 1, Troll

    1. Depleted uranium munitions fired in Iraq don't require cleaning up because they disapate instantaneously on impact and pose no long term threat to people or the environment.

    Jeez, I guess the UN science teams who detected DU munitions fired by US aircraft over the former Yugoslavia seven years earlier were just imagining things.

    Nice to know that, after bombing a society to hell and back in the name of "liberation", the US military doesn't even feel obliged to clean up its own mess.

    2. Saddam Hussein was the biggest user of chemical weapons since World War II.

    Isn't it funny how the US military conveniently forgets Vietnam whenever it wants to? Agent Orange any one?

    Only last week my girlfriend read an article about how third generation birth defects are all too common in Vietnam, almost 30 years after that war ended; about how, on aborted missions, US bombers would ditch their weapons packages over reservoirs before returning to base; and how the US government denies any link between use of chemical weapons then and the ongoing damage to that county.

    And let's not forget that it was the US that sold Saddam most of his chemical stockpile, even knowing his reputation for brutality.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
    1. Re:Latest US Government cover-ups and lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Only last week my girlfriend read an article about how third generation birth defects are all too common in Vietnam, almost 30 years after that war ended; about how, on aborted missions, US bombers would ditch their weapons packages over reservoirs before returning to base; and how the US government denies any link between use of chemical weapons then and the ongoing damage to that county.

      Yep, and every article is some pseudo scientific drivel. Vietnam has, statistically speaking, the rate of birth defects as most other third world nations. Even if it were slightly higher, any scientist would know that correlation!=causation.

      All the same, it's a moot point. The US also used to spray deet everywhere, back before it was linked to health risks and whatnot. Agent orange was a defoliant, designed to clear vegetation, not kill people.

      Nerve agents and mustard gas that Saddam has used was used for the purpose of killing the most people in the least time. I'm sure even a troll like you can see the difference.

      the US that sold Saddam most of his chemical stockpile

      Care to back that up?

      Everything that's been so found has a Made in Russia label slapped up on the side, including russian manuals about chemical warfare. Most of the supporting equipment is French and German. America provided Iraq assistance back in the 80s against Iran, sure, but to make the leap that they directly sold chemical/biological/nuclear weapons is fantasy.

      Anyways, blah blah. Go block traffic with the rest of the inbreds.