18 January to 25 January

Understanding nature; shaping nature; gambling with nature

The means to end human history has been available since we started to believe that we could use technology to determine our fate. This belief is rooted in the industrial revolution, when the focus of scientific investigation shifted from understanding nature to shaping it.

The consequences of this way of thinking were brought into focus with the first ever atomic explosion (the so-called 'Trinity Test') on July 16th 1945, in the desert of New Mexico. The subsequent dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities and people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th 1945 respectively, demonstrated the ultimate capability of human endeavour. However, even before the Trinity Test took place, there was concern among scientists that it could have detonated a nuclear fusion reaction that set the entire atmosphere on fire, thus ending all life on Earth. Reflecting on this concern, the author Edward Sullivan has pointed out how relieved scientists were to discover that the chance of this result had only been one in three million. He said:

One would think that the fact that there was any chance at all, however remote, of igniting the atmosphere would be reason enough not to detonate the bomb.

Dave Webb, Professor of Engineering, Praxis Centre and School of Applied Global Ethics.