Certainly the development and use of the atomic bomb and the incidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl have instilled in many a profound ambivalence or anxiety about the work of scientists. Those conducting animal experimentation and gene re search are subject to outright condemnation, as are the scientists who have developed drugs or products that have an unforeseen and devastating impact on users. Toxic waste from industrial production such as the Rhine spill and unsafe pesticides have also tainted the reputation of science. More recently, the Challenger disaster and subsequent failed missions of NASA have under mined confidence in an agency that previously stood as a clear and bright symbol of the new worlds that could be attained through science and technology. Finally, the disease of AIDS, like cancer before it, appears to many as insoluble and those who battle it as ineffective.
Against such a backdrop, is it ...
