Since when I was little my family lived out in the country
on a two acre piece of land, nature has had a special place in my heart. We planted a garden and harvested apples and
peaches from our fruit trees each year. There
were even eleven one hundred foot tall pine cone trees that marked the
territory around our yard from the farmer’s corn, soybean, and tomato fields. All and all, the care and cultivation of
nature and protection of life means more to me than scientific discoveries.In the essay “A Measure of Restraint” by Chet Raymo, the scientific discovery of radium leads to many causalities, because its properties are unknown. The essay begins with an anecdote about how a six year old girl dies after covering herself in a mysterious powder. She has no clue the substance in which she covers herself in is cesium-137 (a radioactive substance). Even female factory workers who paint the handles of clocks with radioactive paint put the brushes continually to their lips in which to sharpen the brush tip. Thus, later in life all these women receive jaw deformations and mouth problems.
Just
like the little girl, they are unaware how harmful and destructive Curies’ glowing
substance in reality actually is, because it is new and undiscovered yet.
The essay sweetly exemplifies upon the famous quote, “Ignorance
is bliss-” at least from the viewpoint of scientific discovery. If humans decided to not go out into the
world and discover unknown substances, animals, or plants, we would be safe
from their at times dangerous, unknown consequences. Sadly, humans feel it is their right to own
nature and exploit every substance available; casualties and injuries from scientific
discoveries will continue to occur.
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