In July, 1943, rocket scientist Wernher von Braun traveled to Hitler’s military headquarters in East Prussia to brief his Führer on the A4 Wunderwaffe, or wonder weapon.
Articles with Ethics
Wernher von Braun (center) with other Nazis at Peenemünde • Deutsches Bundesarchiv (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash
Knowledge and love
Foraging Saharan desert ants roam hither and yon from the nest looking for food. When they find a source, they head straight back to the nest along a beeline, in an environment devoid of landmarks.
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Who gets to have the new smart pills?
“I am a little world made cunningly of elements and an angelic sprite,” wrote the poet John Donne in about the year 1609. He meant, of course, that he was a creature of matter and spirit, body and soul. Today, we would amend his lines to read: “I am a little world made cunningly of elements.” Full stop.
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Facing new questions about transplants
In a recent story in The New York Times Magazine, author Charles Siebert recounts his interview with Dr. Peter Butler, a British plastic surgeon who is prepared to supervise the first transplant of a human face. That’s right, a human face.
Photo by José León on Unsplash
Cloning and the human self
I started writing this column on cloning six months ago, then put it aside.
A juvenile Rhesus macaque • Photo by Charles J. Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Grappling with moral arithmetic
An adorable 3‑month-old rhesus monkey looks out at us from the pages of the journal Science. His name is ANDi. He has, apparently, not a care in the world; a healthy little scamp who is presumably treated affectionately by his keepers.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Life-enhancing drugs should be lifesavers
A hundred years from now, historians will look back and see the 20th century as the time when scientists discovered that the human self is a biochemical machine.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Cloning humans: It’s going to happen
Ever since Dolly the cloned sheep made her bombshell debut last year, everyone is asking, “What do you think of cloning?”
Detail from “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo (c. 1512)
Do we really want to go there?
A 63-year-old California woman gives birth to a child conceived with donor egg and sperm.
A research mouse • Photo by Rama (CC BY-SA 2.0)
It’s love vs. knowledge
The other day on a nature walk with students, I used my penknife to open a gall — one of those woody growths on plants that are caused by insects. At the center of the gall was a tiny larva.