Armageddon Science (29 page)

In the end we have to face the fact that science has dangers. Of all the forms of knowledge, it has the greatest potential for harm and the greatest for good. It does make Armageddon at our own hands possible. But science brings us hope, too. More than that, it brings us insight. It responds to our curiosity. And curiosity is a natural and desirable trait. Despite the old saying about what curiosity did to the cat, most cats survive. And unlike cats, we can combine curiosity with wisdom and knowledge.

Treated correctly, the Pandora’s box of science brings us much more than hope. We wouldn’t expect to take a coal out of a red-hot fire with our bare hands so we could look at it or use it. In the same way, we need caution and the right protection when exploring the nature of the universe and the applications of the scientific discoveries we make. But to say that Pandora’s box should remain shut is not the answer. To do so would be to miss out on many treasures.

Take care. But do open the box.

Chapter 1

Mad Scientists

The ability to imagine the future and its impact on human beings is described in Brian Clegg,
Upgrade Me
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008).

The archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon, making the first use of the term “weapons of mass destruction,” is quoted in “Archbishop’s Appeal,” the
Times
(London), December 28, 1937.

Mary Shelley,
Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus
(London: Penguin, 2004).

Information on the suspicions about medieval philosophers dealing with the devil, and about talking metal heads, is from Brian Clegg,
The First Scientist
(London: Constable & Robinson, 2003).

Chapter 2

Big Bangs and Black Holes

For more on the big bang and alternative theories see Brian Clegg,
Before the Big Bang
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009).

The analogy between finding a watch on a heath and finding the complexity of nature is from William Paley,
Natural Theology
(Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1860), available at Google Books.

The suggestion that the U.S. Air Force is working on antimatter weapons and information on antimatter from Frank Close,
Antimatter
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Chapter 3

Atomic Devastation

Sue Guiney’s reminiscence of air-raid drills is from her blog,
www.sueguineyblog.blogspot.com
.

Rutherford’s fifteen-inch shell and tissue paper comparison is from
www_outreach.phys.com.au.uk/camphy/nucleus/nucleus5_1.htm.

Rutherford’s remark that atomic power was moonshine is from the
New York Herald Tribune,
September 12, 1933.

Leo Szilard’s conceiving the nuclear chain reaction while crossing the road is described in his collected works, noted in P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).

Information on the origins of nuclear fission and the development of atomic weapons during the Second World War is from Jim Baggott,
Atomic
(London: Icon Books, 2009).

H. G. Wells introduced the term “atomic bomb” in
The World Set Free
(first published 1913; First World Library, 2007).

Letter from Paul Harteck to the German war office on April 24, 1939, is described in Jim Baggott,
Atomic
(London: Icon Books, 2009).

Glenn Seaborg’s admission that the plutonium he showed off was often green ink is referenced in P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).

Section of
Holy Sonnets
14 from John Donne,
Poems of John Donne,
vol 1, ed. E. K. Chambers (London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896).

Robert Oppenheimer’s letter about the origins of the name Trinity for the atomic bomb test site is quoted in David Quammen,
Natural Acts
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

Otto Frisch’s account of the Trinity bomb test is from Otto Frisch,
What Little I Remember
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980).

Isidor Rabi’s account of the Trinity bomb test is from Isidor I. Rabi,
Science: The Center of Culture
(New York: World Publishing, 1970).

Paul Tibbets’s recollection of being on the flight deck of the
Enola Gay
is quoted in Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

The White House press release on Hiroshima is available at
www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Hiroshima/PRHiroshima.shtml.

Information on Marie Curie is from Denis Brian,
The Curies
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2005).

The Franck report is described in Jim Baggott,
Atomic
(London: Icon Books, 2009).

The plan for a preemptive strike on the Soviet Union formulated soon after the first atomic bombs were dropped is described in Arthur Krock,
Memoirs
(New York: Funk & Wagnall’s, 1968).

The majority and minority annexes from the General Advisory Committee’s October 30, 1949, report on hydrogen bombs are from
www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Hydrogen/GACReport.shtml.

President Truman’s address announcing the work on the hydrogen bomb is available at
www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Hydrogen/HBomb.shtml.

Edward Teller’s response to the H-bomb test is described in Edward Teller,
Energy from Heaven and Earth
(San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1979).

Edward Teller’s likening the risk of fallout to being an ounce overweight is quoted in Peter Goodchild,
Edward Teller: The Real Dr. Strangelove
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004).

The observation that the permanent members of the UN Security Council all have nuclear weapons is from Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

The
University of Chicago Round Table
show on atomic weapons is described in P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).

Among the support for the practicality of the cobalt bomb was James Arnold’s assessment in the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
6 (October 1950): 290–92.

Tom Lehrer’s song “We Will All Go Together When We Go” is in Tom Lehrer,
The Tom Lehrer Song Book
(New York: Crown, 1954).

General MacArthur’s plan to make an unpassable zone between Korea and China is described in “Gen MacArthur Complained of British Perfidy” the
Times
(London), April 9, 1964.

The Russian Perimetr automated defense system is described in P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).

Luis Alvarez’s comments on the ease of making a bomb with enriched uranium are quoted in Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

The report of the Committee on Medical Preparedness for a Terrorist Nuclear Event is
Assessing Medical Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Nuclear Event: Workshop Report
(Washington: National Academies Press, 2009).

The activities of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team and the various attempts at nuclear extortion the United States has faced are described in Jeffrey T. Richelson,
Defusing Armageddon
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2009).

The use of Geiger counters around Three Mile Island is described in Richard A. Muller,
Physics for Future Presidents
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

The accusation by the chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that the Soviets lied about the cessation of the chain reaction at Chernobyl is mentioned in Richard A. Muller,
Physics for Future Presidents
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

The impact of the Chernobyl accident on local flora and fauna is described in Mary Mycio,
Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl
(Washington: Henry Joseph Press, 2005).

Information on the pebble-bed design of nuclear reactor is from Richard A. Muller,
Physics for Future Presidents
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).

Information on nuclear fusion power generation from Brian Clegg,
Ecologic
(London: Eden Project Books, 2009).

Chapter 4

Climate Catastrophe

Richard Turco’s decription of nuclear war causing climate change is from “Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions,”
Science
222 (1983): 1290.

Senator Barbara Boxer’s discovery of payments for articles, Tim Worth’s comparison with the tobacco industry and the Exxon meeting are described in Sharon Begley, “The Truth About Denial,”
Newsweek,
August 13, 2007.

Information on climate change and its impact from Brian Clegg,
The Global Warming Survival Kit
(London: Transworld, 2007) and
Ecologic
(London: Eden Project Books, 2009).

Details of the May 2009 U.S. scheme to reduce car emissions are from the BBC Web site,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8056908.stm
.

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks to capture CO
₂
are described in Andy Coghlan, “Crystal Sponges Capture Carbon Emissions,”
New Scientist,
February 23, 2008.

Methane being twenty-three times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is described in Dave Reay,
Climate Change Begins at Home
(London: Macmillan, 2005).

The assertion that livestock contributes 18 percent of greenhouse emissions is made in Bijal Trivedi, “How Kangaroo Burgers Could Save the Planet,”
New Scientist,
December 25, 2008.

Ken Caldeira’s comments on solar shields are from Catherine Brahic, “Solar Shield Could Be a Quick Fix for Global Warming,”
New Scientist
, June 5, 2007.

The Russian proposal to release 600,000 tons of sulfur into the atmosphere is described in Catherine Brahic, “Earth’s Plan B,”
New Scientist,
February 28, 2009.

Chapter 5

Extreme Biohazard

Information on the 2009 swine flu pandemic from the BBC News Web site,
http://news.bbc.co.uk
.

The potential lethality of anthrax is taken from “an official American study” quoted in Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

The German officer’s likening the use of chemical weapons to killing rats is from Edmund Russell,
War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

The suicide of Clara Haber is described in P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).

Details of the April 1915 gas attack are from P. D. Smith,
Doomsday Men
(London: Penguin Books, 2007).

Winston Churchill’s enthusiasm for the use of gas is described in Martin Gilbert,
Winston S. Churchill, 1917–22
(London: Heinemann, 1975).

Secretary of State Shultz’s observation in 1989 about the risk of terrorist use of chemical weapons is quoted in Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

The story of the siege of Feodosia and the use of plague victims as a biological weapon is from Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

Ken Alibek’s assertion that the outbreak of tularemia among German soldiers attacking Russia was caused by an early biological weapon is made in Ken Alibek and Stephen Handelman,
Biohazard
(London: Arrow Books, 2000).

Examples of terrorist groups using or intending to use biological weapons are from Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

Methods for spreading biological weapons are discussed in Frank Barnaby,
How to Build a Nuclear Bomb
(London: Granta, 2004).

Ken Alibek’s comment that the manufacturing technique is the weapon is from Ken Alibek and Stephen Handelman,
Biohazard
(London: Arrow Books, 2000).

Ken Alibek’s assertion that the Soviets were developing a new biological weapon every year in the 1980s is from Ken Alibek and Stephen Handelman,
Biohazard
(London: Arrow Books, 2000).

Chapter 6

Gray Goo

Michael Crichton,
Prey
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002).

The early suggestions of the existence of atoms are from Brian Clegg,
The Instant Egghead Guide to Physics
(New York: St. Martin’s Press / Scientific American, 2009).

Richard Feynman’s 1959 speech on nanotechnology, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” is transcribed at
www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html.

For more on nanotechnology and assemblers see K. Eric Drexler,
Engines of Creation
(New York: Bantam, 1986).

Bradley Edwards’s comment on a space elevator is from an interview with
Space.com
at
www.space.com/businesstechnology/space_elevator_020327-1.html.

The Soil Association’s assumption that nanoparticles are safe if they are “natural” is reported in an editorial, “Natural Does Not Mean Harmless,”
New Scientist,
January 26, 2008.

The Soil Association’s defense of its stance on nanoparticles is from an e-mail from Soil Association representative Gundula Azeez, dated August 4, 2008.

For more on bees as a superorganism see Jürgen Tautz,
The Buzz About Bees
(Berlin: Springer, 2008).

The NASA scientist predicting self-replicating robots by 2001 is quoted in K. Eric Drexler,
Engines of Creation
(New York: Bantam, 1986).

Friends of the Earth’s comment that having nanotech applications will confer huge advantages on the countries that control them is from the Friends of the Earth submission to the
Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering Study on Nanotechnology,
June 2003 (
http://www.nanotec.org.uk/
).

Near-term military implications of nanotechnology are discussed in chapter 6 of the
Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering Study on Nanotechnology,
June 2003 (
http://www.nanotec.org.uk/
).

Chapter 7

Information Meltdown

The rat and the workman disrupting communications in New Zealand is described in “Rat Blamed for Latest Telecom Blackout,”
New Zealand Herald,
June 21, 2005.

Information on ARPA and ARPANET is from Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon,
Where Wizards Stay Up Late
(New York: Touchstone, 1996).

Information on the ARPANET worm and Robert Morris is from Clifford Stoll,
The Cuckoo’s Egg
(London: Pan Books, 1991).