Macmillan: Full Excerpt for Armageddon Science: The Science of Mass Destruction: Books: Brian Clegg: "Armageddon Science
Chapter One
Mad Scientists
It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn.
—Mary Shelley (1797–1851), Frankenstein (1818)
Mass destruction—killing on a vast scale—is a uniquely human concern. It’s not that other animal species aren’t threatened by it. Many have been driven to extinction, and many more now teeter on the brink. But unlike human beings, even the most intelligent animals don’t worry about the possibility of being wiped out in a terrible catastrophe. It is only thanks to the human ability to contemplate the future that fears of mass destruction have arisen. As the continued popularity of disaster movies at the box office demonstrates, we are all too aware how, as a race, we might be wiped out."
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
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