[i习作temp] ISSUE44求拍。8月10号就考试了，考完后定回拍 [复制链接]

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发表于 2009-8-6 11:50:25 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

TOPIC: ISSUE44 - "Government should not fund any scientific research whose consequences, either medical or ethical, are unclear."
WORDS: 610
TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2009-8-6 11:41:15

The speaker asserts that government shouldn't provide funding to those scientific researches which has uncertain consequences, either medical or ethical. I cannot agree with this assertion. To me, any scientific research, given the reasonable purposes and methodology, should be supported in order to have progress. Without funding to these researches, our society could not have been developed so fast as it was.

Admittedly, most scientists prefer to devote themselves into the research which has a clear map and consequences. Certainty of the result guarantees a effective and efficient research path, and therefore the money and resources can be best allocated to places where they are most needed. However, in reality, this is very rare. Actually most scientific achievements were done under highly uncertain circumstance but still require a lot of funding to support their ongoing research. In these situations, can we simply conclude that government should have not provided fund to them? Apparently no. All sorts of scientific researches, from physics and astronomy to chemistry and biology, are all full of uncertainties, but only through the efforts of scientists and funding supporting them, these uncertainties have been explored and made clear gradually, therefore boost the advancement of our whole society.

I would introduce a principle in the field of finance to scientific areas. That is, risk is always highly correlated with return. When you want to achieve higher returns, you have to bear higher risks, and there is no arbitrage opportunities lasting for long. For scientific research, it is somehow like an investment. Without the tremendous funding support, Watson and Crick might now discover the double-helical structure of DNA in the 1950s, which later greatly accelerated the development of biochemistry, medication, and many other fields. Probably at the beginning of their research, no one could tell whether they would find anything meaningful.

Even in some fields which seem not very close to our daily lives, the funding from government is still necessary. Take astronomy as an example. By studying the movement of planets and stars, scientists can draw conclusion about how the Earth evolved, thus predict the future trend. These warn the public about the importance of preserving our resources and protesting our environment, as we all know that, given the current technology we possess, we haven't found any planets which we can live on if the environment of the earth is vastly destroyed. But at the beginning, who could tell the research on astronomy would have such a lot of implications?

However, we must bear in mind that scientific research should have a clear ethical guide at the beginning; no matter how advanced the science and technology would be, its ultimate goal is to serve our human beings by making our lives more comfortable and ordered. Those research which aim at maximizing some individuals' profits at the cost of the rest of the society should be guided to the right direction, and in the extreme cases, be stopped with funding. Research on the cloning of human beings is one example, which would undoubtedly have more detrimental effects than beneficial effects on our social lives. Cloning technology itself is useful and should be supported by the government, but it is also a double-edge sword for which the government should control the provision of funding and guide it to the right direction.

In summary, the government should not stop funding scientific research whose consequences are unclear. Most of these uncertain researches may have extremely influential results and benefit our society a lot. However, the ethics of the research is an important issue. The government should also be aware how the funds are used and instruct the research to the right usage.