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The Social Responsibilities of Scientists Summaries
Exploding the Genes Myth(Summary)

Bertrand Russell Russell describes scientists as citizens where they also have to consider other citizens' safety before they take any actions. Consequently, there are more restrictions that have been imposed on scientists now than ever before. He analyzes the responsibilities the scientists carry now are different than they used to be. In addition, he also states the main source that affects public opinion is from numerous and powerful organizations, such as the press, radio, and television. Because the scientists make research secret, the general public will not know what they have done unless there are great efforts made. Over all, Russell thinks people should have the courage to take risk, because the modern world depends upon scientists who continuously experiment and bring us into a more advanced world.

John T. Edsall Edsall thinks the responsibilities for today's scientists have changed in character- that they have become far more vast and more complex. He says basic science has expanded our intellectual horizons such as in today's technologies. On one hand, applied science has hugely freed people from the terrors of infectious disease; but on the other hand, it also exchanged that with new terrors. On the whole, there should not be too many restrictions put on scientist for medical researches, because its benefits for human health. Also, he believes that science should not be kept secret, unless in a major war situation, because generally the public should have the right to share it also. Besides, the report illustrates some general conclusions and shows that secrecy usually creates obstacles for scientific progress. In conclusion, the development of new technologies is inevitable because they advance us from ordinary to technological world.

Joseph Rotblat Rotblat spent forty years as a member of Pugwash; a group gathers scientists for debate on each particular topic in certain times. He illustrates what he has seen and changed those years as he worked at Pugwash. He mentions that the biggest impact of science on society is in the areas of security and military applications. The best demonstration of this is the development of nuclear weapons during World War II in which scientists took big part of it. Sometimes scientific research has a direct impact on politics, and political events directly affect the ways in which scientific research is done, thus it was sort of interaction.

Knowledge makes scientists take social responsibility, where they can provide technical advice and assistance for solving the incidental problems that may emerge. Furthermore, they also can warn of further dangers that may arise from current discoveries. In spite of all this, every bit of research can have good and evil applications though the most important thing is how they benefit people and research for the prevention of disease and relieve the suffering from people.

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Chapter one

In the first chapter, the author separates it into five sections. The first one describes the role of genetics in our lives, where he mostly talks about molecular biology and other biology terms. In those years, molecular biology had become the most prestigious of the biological disciplines, because it is the most complex study of humans: DNA molecules and genes. Most modern biologists believe that work at the molecular level will yield a more profound understanding of nature than any study of organisms or cells. In the second section, it says in the present, genes are newsworthy and virtually any theorizing about them is taken seriously. For instance, in this section it analyzes a few studies from news articles that refers to genes and how they causes problems for people.
The third section is about the role scientists take parts in the society, where they are not detached from observing in the natural phenomena. Yet scientists construct facts by constantly making decisions about what they will consider important, what experiments they should pursue, and how they will describe their observations. Today scientists still try to explain the differences in mathematical abilities of girls and boys in terms of brain structure and genes. The fourth section, it states the traits or personalities of a person are mainly formed by heredity or influence by the environment they grow up in. However, scientists also find it hard to answer whether a person's personality traits are inherited by family genes or influence through their lives. The last section is defining what are genes, and different kinds of biologists who have different answers of it. Nevertheless, most of them agree that genes are functional segments of DNA molecules.

Chapter Two

In this chapter, the author lays out some examples of how people in the past have attempted to improve people's inherited genes that make them into a higher form of person. It is so shocking that the Nazis used such method of eugenic, where they were sterilizing and killing adults and children who had been diagnosed as disabled or mentally ill. Of course that did not turn into effect. Yet, most of the "mental defects" of someone has do with hereditary which means it is relevant to our genes. In order to make people of a better standard, some eugenics program have been formed. There were two kinds of eugenics, positive and negative. Positive eugenics was intended to encourage the "fit" to have many children, and negative was meant to prevent the "unfit" from having any.

Chapter three

The chapter brings up different methods of new eugenics in today's societies. For instance, to avoid diseases or abnormalities causing birth defects, Chicago Bar Association in Illinois requires premarital tests for that before issuing marriage licenses. Of that, it may help reduce the people with "hereditary defects." Nowadays, there are many ways we can find out genetic problems: 1.Genetic tests that prospective parents can use to find out whether their child is likely to have a specific inherited condition; 2. Genetic screening, it is different from genetic tests because it involves testing the population rather than individuals who may be concerned about their or their children's health; 3. Fallacies of Genetic prediction, whether it involves testing or screening, are based on the assumption that there is a relatively straightforward relationship between genes and traits. In addition, it also gives out examples of how genes associated with Huntington disease, is relates to chromosomes and DNA.

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