Humankind on Public Radio

Humankind on Public Radio


The Clash of Science and Ethics

July 24, 2023

We consider the moral implications of scientific research, especially when the aim is to develop military arms. Are the scientists involved morally responsible for the use of these weapons on civilians? Author and historian Robert Neer recounts the top-secret research conducted at Harvard in the early 1940s, which yielded the weapon napalm.  We also hear from Harvard science historian Everett Mendelsohn, who signed an anti-napalm petition in 1967, and who studied and taught about the gap between weapons research and a deep awareness of how weapons development can lead to great human suffering.


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