Year 8 Science · Unit 2 · Lesson 19
Challenge Worksheet
Learning Goals
Evaluate the claim
Someone claims...
"Science always makes things safer and better. Every new scientific discovery improves human life and removes danger from the world. History clearly shows a steady march of progress, each generation is safer than the last because of science. The cases of radium and asbestos are rare exceptions and should not make us doubt scientific progress or the people who bring it to us."
(a) What part of this claim is supported by the science you have studied in this lesson? Use at least one specific example to back your answer.
(b) What is misleading about this claim? Why is it wrong to call radium and asbestos "rare exceptions"? Refer to the lesson to support your reasoning.
(c) What process or institution would you need to see functioning properly before you could trust that a newly discovered material is safe to use? Describe at least two specific features of that process.
1. Teflon (PTFE) was discovered accidentally in 1938 when a scientist named Roy Plunkett was trying to develop a new refrigerant gas. The resulting compound had remarkable properties, non-stick, heat-resistant, chemically inert, that were not what he was looking for at all. Does the accidental nature of this discovery make it less valuable than a planned discovery? Evaluate whether accidental discoveries are less scientifically reliable or useful than deliberately planned ones. Use evidence from this or another lesson to support your view.
2. The lesson describes a chain: discovery → small-scale use → industrial production → societal change. Radium followed this chain, but the societal change it caused was harm, not benefit. Does this mean the chain itself is flawed as a model? Or does it show something important about what is missing from the chain? Explain your thinking carefully.
Wrap Up
In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?