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TOPIC: ISSUE69 - "Government should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development"
WORDS: 739 MODIFIED
What is the role of government on scientific research and development? Some people assert of the work of society, of course including scientific research, should be put under the direction of government policy or regulation, while there are all also some people, especially the researcher involved in these research, recommend that government's restrictions should be as few as possible, just as the author mentioned. I believe, there are some circumstances in which government should place some regulation, and in most cases government should reduce its interference in scientific research.
The first reason I believe government present free research atmosphere to the research lies in the potential harm the government's regulations inflicted on the research works. First, few will argue that the scientific research work are usually a little advanced than the current requirement, and the research's ideas are sometimes far beyond our imagination, which in the eyes of common people are more like a fantasy rather a serious scientific research work, even be regarded as ridiculous imagination. History are replete with such examples, Copernicus’ discovery that sun is the center of universe instead of the earth which was suppressed and not accepted by his contemporaries; The idea that one day human can fly on the sky like birds was criticized as unreasonable; the idea that send human people to the universe was thought to be crazy fantasy. Government official, who generally share the same view with the common people rather than the professional scientists because of their professional and educational background, can hardly understand this ideas. And it will be even harder for them to approve fund, which they may think to be used to invest in some practically useful items such as build a high building, or buy several new weapons and the like, to risk on these strange ideas of crazy scientists. Second, it will take relatively long time to see the effects of such research works, though they can bring revolutionary influence on human's life and work. The government, which supposed to do some pragmatic things, generally cannot afford such a long time. They will prefer some items which can bring rewards in a short time, even though such rewards perhaps are smaller compared with those the scientists anticipated from their research works. Thus, the advanced research works will not be adopted according to the standards of government.
The second reason I think government will serve as an impediment rather than an aid to the research work has to do with their attitudes towards some basic and fundamental researches. To witness this, you need look no further than he basic disciplines in the universities and colleges. Few and few students like to choose these subjects as their direction. This can reflect, to some degree, the attitude of the government towards these subjects. They prefer some engineer subjects, which can bring more direct benefits to the development of nation. The lack of fund, instruments and researchers has make the research work in these areas--such as mathematics, theory physics and the like--stop proceeding. The ignoring of these basic research work, which serve as a tool or assistance to the other research, directly affect the research in the other fields which seems can bring benefits in a short time.
Nevertheless, government’s regulations can show their advantage in the case of some research issue which will bring disastrous consequence if left unaddressed. One paradigmatic example in the current world is human clone, which has sparked a debate around the world. It is believed to be morally and ethically wrong thing to clone humans, even though technology is constantly advancing, due to the killing of human embryos, the unsafe process of cloning, and the resulting consequences of having deformed clones. Therefore the many governments have explicitly banned the human clone in their laws. The similar example is vast destruction weapon, including the nuclear weapon, between its potential threats to the world.
In sum, the scientific research works, which has its inherent characters, make them a special profession in the society. Free research atmosphere is important--and, perhaps, essential--to whether they can develop effectively and bring benefits to the people at best advantage. The Soviet's heavy-handed on the scientific research work in 1930s served as a lesson for all the nations, demonstrated the potential harm of government interference in research work, though we believe the regulations on some controversial subject, such as human clone and chemical weapon, is necessary. |
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