Science &

Technology
READING PACKAGE 2015

River Valley High School

General Paper

Chapter 1

Aims &
Purposes of GP
and this Unit
This chapter looks at the aims and purposes of
General Paper and this unit.

Section 1

Aims & Purposes of GP and this Unit

GENERATIVE QUESTION FOR 2015

General Paper aims to develop in students the ability to think critically, to construct

cogent arguments and to communicate their ideas using clear, accurate and

Is it possible to make the world a better

place?

eective language. The subject encourages students to explore a range of key

issues of global and local significance and provides students with a good

GENERATIVE QUESTIONS FOR THIS UNIT

Does science & technology lead to the
progress of mankind?
Are there limits to what we should do with
Science and Technology?
Should science and technology be
regulated?
Does technology improve our quality of
life?

foundation to thrive in a fast-changing world. At the end of the course, students

should have a broader understanding of the world, and be ready to meet the
challenges of higher education and the workplace of the future.
The syllabus aims to enable candidates to achieve the following outcomes:
1. Understand better the world in which they live by fostering a critical awareness
of continuity and change in the human experience
2. Appreciate the interrelationship of ideas across disciplines
3. Broaden their global outlook while enabling them to remain mindful of shared
historical, social and cultural experiences both within Singapore and regionally
4. Develop maturity of thought and apply critical reading and creative thinking
skills
5. Develop the skills of clear, accurate and eective communication
6. Develop the skills of evaluation of arguments and opinions
7. Promote extensive and independent reading and research.

At the end of the course, the candidate will be expected to

demonstrate:

3. Eective communication and proficient use of language. This

1. a broad and mature understanding of a range of subject matter

includes the ability to:

from the humanities and culture as well as science and

technology, including current aairs, issues of global significance
and issues of significance to Singapore. This includes the ability
to:
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of diverse topic
areas
analyse and evaluate issues across disciplines, showing

use the accepted conventions of spelling, punctuation and

grammar
use a variety of linguistic styles and expressions appropriate to
the context, task and audience
use and demonstrate understanding of a range of vocabulary
present information clearly.

awareness of their significance and implications for the

individual and society
express understanding as well as critical and creative thinking
through informed personal responses
formulate cogent arguments.

This unit focuses on the topic of Science & Technology. Through

the use of generative questions and thought-provoking articles,
this reading package aims to be a springboard for students to do
their own reading and research in order to achieve the aims of the
subject.

2. Comprehension, interpretation and application of a range of

subject matter. This includes the ability to:
comprehend the text(s) in detail and as a whole
identify information
infer relevant information
summarise information
evaluate information
make observations of trends and relationships
apply understanding and interpretation in a task derived from
the text(s).
3

Chapter 2

What is
Science?
What is scientific inquiry?
Are there principles of science?
Why do scientists do what they do?
How is science dierent from art? religion? How is
science similar?

Section 1

Classroom Activity: Jigsaw activity

QUESTIONS

1. Do classroom jigsaw activity by following the instructions of the teacher.

1. What is science?
2. Why do scientists do what they do?
3. How is science dierent from art? religion?
How is science similar?

2. After the activity

In groups, come up with as many aspects of what doing science is like.
3. In groups, come up with a definition of Science.
4. How is science and art/ religion dierent? How are they similar? Use the
thinking routine Claim/ Support/ Question to structure your response
(7mins individual work)
5

Section 2

Quotations
From the list below, choose 1 quotation that most appeals to you.
Using Think-Pair-Share, discuss your thoughts.
1. The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers

6. Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are

mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little

knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac

by little to the truth.Jules Verne,A Journey to the Center of

Asimov

the Earth

2. Science and religion are not at odds. Science is simply too

young to understand. Dan Brown,Angels & Demons
3. Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear
less.Marie Curie
4. Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man
knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom,
which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion
deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.Martin

7. Science is organised knowledge. Wisdom is organised

life.Immanuel Kant,Critique of Pure Reason
8. Wonder is the seed of knowledge. Francis Bacon
9. We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as
possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
Richard P. Feynman
10. Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.
Franois Rabelais,Pantagrue

Luther King Jr.

5. The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers,
he's one who asks the right questions. Claude Lvi-Strauss

Chapter 3

Science &
Poetry
A divergent foray into a comparison between
science and poetry.

Section 1

Science & Poetry

SOME QUESTIONS
1. What is the dierence between the mind
and the brain?

Presentation 2: Science & Poetry

2. Which is your worldview more influenced

byscience or poetry? Is one more
important than the other?
3. Is it possible to resolve the rift between the
two?

Chapter 4

Science &
Religion
Can science and religion coexist?
Science without religion is lame; religion without
science is blind. Albert Einstein

Section 1

Albert Einstein on Religion & Science

This article by Albert Einstein appeared in the
New York Times Magazine on November 9, 1930
pp 1-4. It has been reprinted in Ideas and
Opinions, Crown Publishers, Inc. 1954, pp 36 40. It also appears in Einstein's book The World
as I See It, Philosophical Library, New York, 1949,
pp. 24 - 28.

Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the
satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep
this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their
development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor
and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves
to us. Now what are the feelings and needs that have led men to religious thought
and belief in the widest sense of the words? A little consideration will suce to
show us that the most varying emotions preside over the birth of religious thought
and experience. With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions
- fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence
understanding of causal connections is usually poorly developed, the human mind
creates illusory beings more or less analogous to itself on whose wills and actions
these fearful happenings depend. Thus one tries to secure the favor of these
beings by carrying out actions and oering sacrifices which, according to the
tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make
them well disposed toward a mortal. In this sense I am speaking of a religion of
fear. This, though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation
of a special priestly caste which sets itself up as a mediator between the people
and the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony on this basis. In many cases a
leader or ruler or a privileged class whose position rests on other factors combines
priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure;
10

or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of

in their own interests.

their conception of God. In general, only individuals of

The social impulses are another source of the crystallization of

religion. Fathers and mothers and the leaders of larger human
communities are mortal and fallible. The desire for guidance, love,
and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception
of God. This is the God of Providence, who protects, disposes,
rewards, and punishes; the God who, according to the limits of
the believer's outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or

exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded

communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But
there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all
of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it
cosmic religious feeling. It is very dicult to elucidate this feeling
to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no
anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.

of the human race, or even or life itself; the comforter in sorrow

The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the

and unsatisfied longing; he who preserves the souls of the dead.

sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in

This is the social or moral conception of God.

nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses

The Jewish scriptures admirably illustrate the development from

the religion of fear to moral religion, a development continued in
the New Testament. The religions of all civilized peoples,
especially the peoples of the Orient, are primarily moral religions.
The development from a religion of fear to moral religion is a great
step in peoples' lives. And yet, that primitive religions are based
entirely on fear and the religions of civilized peoples purely on

him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe

as a single significant whole. The beginnings of cosmic religious
feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in
many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets.
Buddhism, as we have learned especially from the wonderful
writings of Schopenhauer, contains a much stronger element of
this.

morality is a prejudice against which we must be on our guard.

The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this

The truth is that all religions are a varying blend of both types,

kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God

with this dierentiation: that on the higher levels of social life the

conceived in man's image; so that there can be no church whose

religion of morality predominates.

central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the

heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this
highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded
11

by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints.

needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a

Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and

poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and

Spinoza are closely akin to one another.

hopes of reward after death.

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one

It is therefore easy to see why the churches have always fought

person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God

science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I

and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of

maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and

art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those

noblest motive for scientific research. Only those who realize the

who are receptive to it.

immense eorts and, above all, the devotion without which

We thus arrive at a conception of the relation of science to

religion very dierent from the usual one. When one views the
matter historically, one is inclined to look upon science and
religion as irreconcilable antagonists, and for a very obvious
reason. The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal
operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain
the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events provided, of course, that he takes the hypothesis of causality
really seriously. He has no use for the religion of fear and equally
little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes
is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man's actions
are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in
God's eyes he cannot be responsible, any more than an
inanimate object is responsible for the motions it undergoes.
Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality,
but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be
based eectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and

pioneer work in theoretical science cannot be achieved are able

to grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such
work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue.
What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what
a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the
mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to
enable them to spend years of solitary labor in disentangling the
principles of celestial mechanics! Those whose acquaintance with
scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results
easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the
men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way
to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through
the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends
can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and
given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of
countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man
such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this

12

materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only
profoundly religious people.

Questions
1. Explain what Einstein refers to as a religion of fear.
2. Identify Einsteins reason for believing that religion fulfills a
societal function.
3. Explain the irony of Einsteins examples of individuals who
embody cosmic religious feeling.
4. Explain why people see science and religion as
irreconcilable antagonists.
5. Explain why Einstein believes that the cosmic religious
feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific
research.

13

Section 2

Isaac Newton, John Locke and God

Isaac Newton, John Locke and God
An article by Theresa Hemsoth, published Jan
20, 2006.

It is dicult to resolve the seeming opposition in belief structures of seventeethcentury philosophy and science with the church and organised religion, especially
considering these entities had so little in common. However, many of the thinkers
of the time had faith in God, even though their sciences and thinking further
alienated the church teachings. Perhaps the best way to view this opposition is to
look at it as more of a dierence in doctrine rather than belief. More specifically,
although the church and these philosophers had the same belief in god, their view
of the laws of this God diered greatly.
If a contemporary of Newton were to ask Newton himself what forces were
involved in making an apple fall to the ground, he would likely tell you all about the
forces of gravity. However, before, and even for some time after Newton, if you
were to ask the church authority what makes the apple fall, the answer would
more likely be less scientific. They would talk about the mysterious ways of God,
but probably wouldnt talk about physics or other scientific matters. In this age,
when science and new ways of thinking were blossoming, the clash was not so
much between actual science and belief in God, but rather, because of ways of
believing how God (does or does not) work.

14

One of the best ways of looking at the god/science debate in

John Locke is another interesting example of a revolutionary

terms of religion is by examining the role Isaac Newton played at

seventeenth-century thinker who had a strong faith in God, but

the beginning of the new scientific era. Newton once said,

had trouble with the doctrine that permitted certain activity or

gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain

thought. The founder of empiricism, a scientific way determining

who set the planets in motion. This quote sums up the point of

truths and learning about the process of knowledge, it would

this article since it is bringing science and God together, allowing

seen than that came from a thinker that would be more worried

them to work in unison (as opposed to the churchs view that all

about proving the existence of God, rather than accepting the

things were the doing of God). Unlike some other thinkers of the

idea of a great creator. Still, like Newton, Locke was able to

time, Newton held political oce and was generally accepted by

merge his thoughts with his faith in God, the hindrance being the

his peers. It took some time for his ideas to become mainstream,

doctrine of the church itselfnot a question of belief in the deity

but the point remains: he had some scientific success by merging

being worshipped. Oddly enough, Locke became a devout

his faith in God with science.

member of the Church of England, and he believed that a national

If there is anything that Newton was unable to reconcile, it was

the doctrine of the churchwith its strict rules of nature versus
sciencethat were more dicult for him to overcome. Newton,
although a believer in God, doubted the existence of the Holy
Trinity. Like other philosophers and scientists of the time, this is
yet another example of a devout believer who goes against the
church not in fundamental belief, but in doctrine. For example,

church would create social order and peace. Still, this seems
more because of Lockes ideas about the equality of human
beings and the fact that they all had natural rights and the only
way to create peace was through a church government. This
seems like a strange push and pull of ideology as well. Locke was
concerned with empiricism and humanistic ideas, yet he was still
a backer of the church, in which he had many dierences with.

Newton, although a believer in God, doubted the existence of the

Locke introduced new ways of viewing politics as well as

Holy Trinity and his own ideas about how faith in God worked.

integrated the notion of natural rights for all human beings into

As a scientist however, he was able to merge his ideas about both

politics. Instead of direct church rule and their ability to dictate so

into one wholeeven if this belief structure didnt fall into what

freely, the new tradition of humanism was beginning to emerge as

the church considered to be correct.

people saw that they had rights. At a time when politics and
religion were so intertwined, the impact of Lockes philosophy
cannot be underestimated.
15

During this age of scientific and knowledge-based expansion,

viewing the shifting role of the church is interesting. While neither
of these philosophers were executed for heresy or any such thing
that may have happened in earlier times, there must have been
unbelievable pressure on the church to defend itself against a
growing awareness that God might not be the force behind all.
Newton and Locke freely (and almost without question, it seems)
believed in Godeven without any proof, so it may be concluded
that any dissentment that had with religion were with the way the
church dictated, rather than believed.

Adapted from the original by Theresa Hemsoth, published Jan 20,

2006.

Questions
1. From paragraph 2, identity the main difference between
Newtons and the churchs explanation of why an apple
would fall to the ground.
2. From paragraph 5, explain what the author noted about
Locke that was odd and strange.
3. Summarise Newtons relationship with the church. How is it
similar or different from Lockes?

16

Section 3

Further Reading
1. Why science does not disprove God
http://time.com/77676/why-science-does-not-disprove-god/
2. Science finds God
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/newsweek/
science_of_god/scienceofgod.htm
3. Pope Francis Progressive Statement on Evolution Is Not
Actually a Departure for the Catholic Church
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/10/28/
pope_evolution_francis_statement_on_science_echoes_earlier_c
hurch_pronouncements.html
4. Where Science and Religion Coexist
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/wherescience-and-religion-coexist/?_r=0
5. Ted Talk Science can answer moral questions by Sam Harris
https://www.ted.com/talks/
sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right

17

Chapter 5

On progress
& paradigm
shifts
How has our understanding of our world changed?
Have there been any paradigm shifts in our
understanding?
In your opinion, what is the most exciting discovery
or invention in science and technology?

Section 1

On Progress and Paradigm Shifts (& Interstellar)

Presentation 1: Key Players in Physics and Astronomy

Looking ahead
In your opinion, what is the most exciting discovery or invention
in science and technology? Why is it exciting to you? What are
its limitations?
Links to consider:
Neuromorphic Engineering (Wikipedia)
Stem Cell Research (Wikipedia)
3D Printing (Wikipedia)
Advances in todays energy systems (MIT)
The Internet of Things (Wired)
New technology in 2014 (LiveScience)
Top 10 Astronomical Discoveries (ESO)
Smart textiles and nanotechnology (Innovation in Textiles)
Bonus: The Movie Interstellar

Key Players in Physics and Astronomy

Nicholus Copernicus (1473 - 1543)
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)
Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630)
Sir Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

How scientifically accurate is the movie Interstellar?

What is the movies view about science and tech? Is it
positive or negative? How do you know?
According to the movie, what ought to fuel our desire to save
the world? Should we trust our ability to reason or our ability
to love?
19

Chapter 6

Science
Fiction
A foray into gothic literature

Introduction

Science Fiction: Frankenstein

WHY ARE WE READING FRANKENSTEIN?

Plot Summary

Frankenstein, published in 1818, is a gothic novel

and also considered one of the earliest examples
of science fiction, a genre of literature that
explores an imaginary world plausibly within
scientifically established laws of nature.
While science fiction is not science per se, it is a
way for us to consider all the ways science and
technology can aect human beings, whether in
positive or negative ways. At the core of science
fiction is the notion of extrapolation, of asking, If
this goes on, where will it lead?
Read this article (The Purpose of Science Fiction,
by Robert Sawyer) to find out more.

Frankenstein, set in Europe in the 1790's, begins with the letters

of Captain Robert Walton to his sister. These letters form the
framework for the story in which Walton tells his sister the story
of Victor Frankenstein and his monster as Frankenstein told it to
him.
Walton set out to explore the North Pole. The ship got trapped in frozen water and
the crew, watching around them, saw a giant man in the distance on a dogsled.
Hours later they found Frankenstein and his dogsled near the ship, so they
brought the sick man aboard. As he recovered, Frankenstein told Walton his story
so that Walton would learn the price of pursuing glory at any cost.
Frankenstein grew up in a perfectly loving and gentle Swiss family with an
especially close tie to his adopted cousin, Elizabeth, and his dear friend Henry
Clerval. As a young boy, Frankenstein became obsessed with studying outdated
theories about what gives humans their life spark. In college at Ingolstadt, he
created his own "perfect" human from scavenged body parts, but once it lived, the
creature was hideous. Frankenstein was disgusted by its ugliness, so he ran away
from it.

21

Henry Clerval came to Ingolstadt to study with Frankenstein, but

monster's companion. Frankenstein, fearing for his family, agreed

ended up nursing him after his exhausting and secret eorts to

to and went to England to do his work. Clerval accompanied

create a perfect human life. While Frankenstein recovered from

Frankenstein, but they separated in Scotland and Frankenstein

his illness over many months and then studied languages with

began his work. When he was almost finished, he changed his

Clerval at the college, the monster wandered around looking for

mind because he didn't want to be responsible for the carnage

friendship. After several harsh encounters with humans, the

another monster could create, so he destroyed the project. The

monster became afraid of them and spent a long time living near

monster vowed revenge on Frankenstein's upcoming wedding

a cottage and observing the family who lived there. Through

night. Before Frankenstein could return home, the monster

these observations he became educated and realized that he was

murdered Clerval.

very dierent from the humans he watched. Out of loneliness, the

monster sought the friendship of this family, but they were afraid
of him, and this rejection made him seek vengeance against his
creator. He went to Geneva and met a little boy in the woods. The
monster hoped to kidnap him and keep him as a companion, but
the boy was Frankenstein's younger brother, so the monster killed
him to get back at his creator. Then the monster planted the
necklace he removed from the child's body on a beautiful girl who
was later executed for the crime.

Once home, Frankenstein married his cousin Elizabeth right away

and prepared for his death, but the monster killed Elizabeth
instead and the grief of her death killed Frankenstein's father.
After that, Frankenstein vowed to pursue the monster and destroy
him. That's how Frankenstein ended up near the North Pole
where Walton's ship was trapped. A few days after Frankenstein
finished his story, Walton and his crew decided to turn back and
go home. Before they left, Frankenstein died and the monster
appeared in his room, mourning the loss of his creator. The

When Frankenstein learned of his brother's death, he went back

monster explained his reasons for vengeance to Walton, as well

to Geneva to be with his family. In the woods where his young

as his remorse. He then told Walton of his plans to head to the

brother was murdered, Frankenstein saw the monster and knew

North Pole and burn himself to death, as death would be less

that he was William's murderer. Frankenstein was ravaged by his

painful than life. He leaped from the ship into an ice-raft and was

grief and guilt for creating the monster who wreaked so much

"borne away by the waves."

destruction, and he went into the mountains alone to find peace.

Instead of peace, Frankenstein was approached by the monster
who then demanded that he create a female monster to be the
22

Excerpt from Frankenstein

Chapter 2 of Frankenstein
Chapter 2
WE WERE brought up together; there was not quite a year

they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I

can remember.

dierence in our ages. I need not say that we were strangers to

On the birth of a second son, my junior by seven years, my

any species of disunion or dispute. Harmony was the soul of our

parents gave up entirely their wandering life, and fixed

companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsisted in

themselves in their native country. We possessed a house in

our characters drew us nearer together. Elizabeth was of a

Geneva, and a campagne on Belrive, the eastern shore of the

calmer and more concentrated disposition; but, with all my

lake, at the distance of rather more than a league from the city.

ardour, I was capable of a more intense application, and was

We resided principally in the latter, and the lives of my parents

more deeply smitten with a thirst for knowledge. She busied

were passed in considerable seclusion. It was my temper to

herself with following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the

avoid a crowd, and to attach myself fervently to a few. I was

majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss

indierent, therefore, to my schoolfellows in general; but I united

home -- the sublime shapes of the mountains; the changes of the

myself in the bonds of the closest friendship to one among them.

seasons; tempest and calm; the silence of winter, and the life and

Henry Clerval was the son of a merchant of Geneva. He was a

turbulence of our Alpine summers -- she found ample scope for

boy of singular talent and fancy. He loved enterprise, hardship,

admiration and delight. While my companion contemplated with

and even danger, for its own sake. He was deeply read in books

a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearances of

of chivalry and romance. He composed heroic songs, and began

things, I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to

to write many a tale of enchantment and knightly adventure. He

me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research

tried to make us act plays, and to enter into masquerades, in

to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as

which the characters were drawn from the heroes of

Roncesvalles, of the Round Table of King Arthur, and the

23

chivalrous train who shed their blood to redeem the holy

our species. The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-

sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.

dedicated lamp in our peaceful home. Her sympathy was ours;

No human being could have passed a happier childhood than

myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness
and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our
lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all
the many delights which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other
families, I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot
was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.

her smile, her soft voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes,
were ever there to bless and animate us. She was the living spirit
of love to soften and attract: I might have become sullen in my
study, rough through the ardour of my nature, but that she was
there to subdue me to a semblance of her own gentleness. And
Clerval -- could aught ill entrench on the noble spirit- of Clerval?
-- Yet he might not have been so perfectly humane, so thoughtful
in his generosity -- so full of kindness and tenderness amidst his

My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement;

passion for adventurous exploit, had she not unfolded to him the

but by some law in my temperature they were turned, not towards

real loveliness of beneficence, and made the doing good the end

childish pursuits, but to an eager desire to learn, and not to learn

and aim of his soaring ambition.

all things indiscriminately. I confess that neither the structure of

languages, nor the code of governments, nor the politics of
various states, possessed attractions for me. It was the secrets of
heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the
outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the
mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were
directed to the metaphysical, or, in its highest sense, the physical
secrets of the world.

I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of

childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind, and changed
its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow
reflections upon self. Besides, drawing the picture of early days, I
also record those events which led, by insensible steps, to my
after tale of misery: for when I would account to myself for the
birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny, I find it
arise like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten

Meanwhile Clerval occupied himself, so to speak, with the moral

sources but, swelling as it as it proceeded, it became the torrent

relations of things. The busy stage of life, the virtues of heroes,

which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.

and the actions of men, were his theme; and his hope and his
dream was to become one among those whose names are
recorded in story, as the gallant and adventurous benefactors of

Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I

desire, therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led
24

to my predilection for that science. When I was thirteen years of

When I returned home, my first care was to procure the whole

age, we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon:

works of this author, and afterwards of Paracelsus and Albertus

the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day

Magnus. I read and studied the wild fancies of these writers with

confined to the inn. In this house I chanced to find a volume of

delight; they appeared to me treasures known to few beside

the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the

myself I have described myself as always having been embued

theory which he attempts to demonstrate, and the wonderful

with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite

facts which he relates, soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm.

of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern

A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind; and, bounding with

philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and

joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked

unsatisfied. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt

carelessly at the title page of my book, and said, "Ah! Cornelius

like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored

Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is

ocean of truth. Those of his successors in each branch of natural

sad trash."

philosophy with whom I was acquainted appeared, even to my

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain

boys apprehensions, as tyros engaged in the same pursuit.

to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded,

The untaught peasant beheld the elements around him, and was

and that a modern system of science had been introduced, which

acquainted with their practical uses. The most learned

possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the

philosopher knew little more. He had partially unveiled the face of

powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former

Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a

were real and practical; under such circumstances, I should

mystery. He might dissect, anatomise, and give names; but, not

certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and have contented my

to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary

imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to

grades were utterly unknown to him. I had gazed upon the

my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas

fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human

would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.

beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and

But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no

ignorantly I had repined.

means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents; and

I continued to read with the greatest avidity.

But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated
deeper and knew more. I took their word for all that they averred,
25

and I became their disciple. It may appear strange that such

thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura;

should arise in the eighteenth century; but while I followed the

and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various

routine of education in the schools of Geneva, I was, to a great

quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted,

degree, self taught with regard to my favourite studies. My father

watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the

was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's

door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and

blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge. Under the

beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house;

guidance of my new preceptors, I entered with the greatest

and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had

diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir

disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When

of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth

we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a

was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery,

singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely

if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man

reduced to thin ribands of wood. I never beheld anything so

invulnerable to any but a violent death!

utterly destroyed.

Nor were these my only visions. The raising of ghosts or devils

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of

was a promise liberally accorded by my favourite authors, the

electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural

fulfillment of which I most eagerly sought; and if my incantations

philosophy was with us, and, excited by this catastrophe, he

were always unsuccessful, I attributed the failure rather to my

entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on

own inexperience and mistake than to a want of skill or fidelity in

the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new

my instructors. And thus for a time I was occupied by exploded

and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the

systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand contradictory

shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the

theories, and floundering desperately in a very slough of

lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of

multifarious knowledge, guided by an ardent imagination and

these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It

childish reasoning, till an accident again changed the current of

seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All

my ideas.

that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew

When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house
near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible

despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind, which we are

perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my
former occupations; set down natural history and all its progeny
26

as a deformed and abortive creation; and entertained the greatest

disdain for a would-be science, which could never even step
within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I
betook myself to the mathematics, and the branches of study
appertaining to that science, as being built upon secure
foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.
Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by such slight

Questions
1. What is the warning Shelley is issuing in this novel?
2. Is Victor Frankenstein a positive or negative model for
todays scientists? Do you think scientists should pursue
knowledge at all costs? Why or why not?
3. Are there aspects of Shelleys imagined world of horror
present today?

ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin. When I look back, it

seems to me as if this almost miraculous change of inclination
and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of
my life- the last eort made by the spirit of preservation to avert
the storm that was even then hanging in the stars, and ready to
envelope me. Her victory was announced by an unusual
tranquillity and gladness of soul, which followed the relinquishing
of my ancient and latterly tormenting studies. It was thus that I
was to be taught to associate evil with their prosecution,
happiness with their disregard.
It was a strong eort of the spirit of good; but it was ineectual.
Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my
utter and terrible destruction.

---------Further Reading: Frankenstein: The Man and the Monster, by

Suzanna Storment (some spelling errors)
27

Chapter 7

Prolonging &
Enhancing
Human life
Science, Medicine and Sports

Introduction

Ethical considerations in the quest to prolong human life

In the previous chapter, we looked at Mary Shelleys warning about how an
Ethics is knowing the dierence between
what you have a right to do and what is right
to do. Potter Stewart

unbridled pursuit of knowledge, for knowledges sake, can bring about unintended
and horrifying consequences. The need to take into account ethical considerations
is especially pertinent in the field of medicine and the life sciences. In this chapter,
we will look at the issues surrounding a few controversial issues, namely
reproductive technologies, genetic engineering, and sports.

29

Section 2

Genetic Engineering and Genetic Testing

TOPICS

Gene therapy oers the hope of repairing genes to correct for diseases that result

1. Reproductive technologies: IVF

from a loss or change in our genetic material. It is a promising fieldFrancis Crick,

2. Human Genetic Testing

3. Cloning

one of the discoverers of the DBA double helix, said, We used to think that our
fate was in our stars. Now we know that, in large measure, our fate is in our
genes, but for all its promise, it is also a field fraught with ethical land mines. We
will consider 3 sub-topics in this area.
1. IVF
IVF is not genetic engineering, but it opens the door to many genetic technologies
Presently, the use of IVF is widespreadthe Australian, British, and NZ
governments, all concerned about low birth rates, have now agreed to fund a
portion of the IVF cycle.
Process of IVF
IVF involves super-ovulating the woman and taking about 20 to 25 eggs. These are
then fertilised outside the body from the mans sperm. 2 to 3 eggs are then
implanted. The remainder are usually kept for subsequent IVF cycles.

30

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

In the case of males with low sperm counts, Intercytoplasmic
sperm injection will be used to directly take the few viable sperm

(However, if a woman understands fully what she is doing, then

should she be allowed to make the choice herself?)
2. Women could be coerced to donate eggs if they cannot aord

from the testes. Viable sperm will then be injected into the egg.

fertility treatment. (Is it possible to be coerced if her choice is

One concern in ICSI is that normally, between 15 and 100 million

informed?)

sperm compete in the six inch race to the egg, and only the fittest
sperm will get through. But with ICSI, low quality sperm may be
used. Research is ongoing as to whether this will result in children

3. There are medical risks to the woman. (But the HFEA says that
the level of risk is small and can be easily managed.)

with a higher than normal rate of abnormalities.

New Ethical Frontiers with IVF

Egg Donation

Apart from the issue of ethical acceptability, the IVF technique

In March 2007, The British Human Fertilisation Embryology

Authority (HFEA) announced that women would be allowed to:
- Donate their eggs for research even if they were not undergoing
fertility treatment
- Donate eggs in return for a reduction in the cost of fertility
treatment.
In 2011, HFEA allowed for a compensation of 750 per cycle of
donation.
Ethical issues in egg donation:
1. A woman would be the biological mother of children who were
not her own. This could cause social problems.

opens up new ethical dilemmas.

Creating Life after Death
Kevin Cohen, a 20 year old Israeli soldier, was shot dead by a
sniper in the Gaza strip in 2002. A sample of his sperm was taken
after his death and frozen. His mother, Rachel Cohen, petitioned
an Israeli court to be allowed to use his sperm to father a child.
This was novel as he did not leave a will to say he wanted to do
this, even though there was a video recording of him saying that
he would one day like to have children.
Older Parents
Women can now have babies post menopause using IVF using
either their own eggs or donor eggs from a young woman. (See
Apple and Facebook to pay for women to freeze their eggs) It is
now relatively common for poorer women to have IVF funded by
31

Discussion
1. What do you think about Apple and Facebook offering to
pay for the freezing of female employees eggs? Use the
circle of viewpoints thinking routine to consider the
perspective of the female employees, the employers,
sociologists, and feminists.
2. How do you feel about paying women to donate their eggs?

allowing some of their eggs to be used by someone who provides

the funding. (Read up about the London Egg Bank.)

Spotlight on Surrogacy
1. Youtube clip links:
a. Indian Surrogacy Helps Lift Some Poor, but Raises
Ethical Issues
b. Stolen and SoldIndia
2. Ethical Aspects of Surrogacy (Excerpt from Fertility and
Sterility: A Current Overview, by J. Bringer, B. Hendon)
3. Gammy and surrogacy: an ethical dilemma (ABC Net)

Further Reading
Youtube clip: Insight: Designing Babies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3TJLqAGObk

4. Surrogacy laws around the world (The Straits Times, 5

Aug 2014)
5. Australia parents face India surrogacy barriers: expert
(Tribune, 5 March 2013)

Synopsis: With a focus on Australian society, this

documentary examines the social issues surrounding the
ability to select the sex, health, personality and even
intelligence of ones ospring.
IVF in Singapore:
Fertility Business Booming in Singapore
Singapore: Judge rules woman in IVF mix-up can sue for
expenses to raise child
32

1. Problem with discarding embryos

2. HUMAN GENETIC TESTING
Genetic testing is already widely available. The technology is fairly
straightforward and this is likely to have a greater impact in the
medium term than human genetic alteration.
Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)
Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis is already common. With the
increase in infertility, it is certain for it to become even more
common, perhaps even routine. Professor Carl Djerassi, father of
the Pill, expects that within the next 40 years, there will be a
separation between sex and reproduction (see this article in The
Telegraph). At present, PGD involves testing fertilised eggs to
ensure the best eggs are selected for implantation, where
best means those without specific abnormalities. It is also used
on early embryos before implantation in order to select embryos
that are matched to a child in need of a bone marrow transplant.
(More info on how this is done here.)

People who feel that the embryo is a person will object to

destroying embryos. (Read more about the debate over the
moral status of the embryo here.)
2. Risks of selection
a. Deontological
This refers to the ethical judgement that it is wrong to
choose traits of ospring, no matter how well intentioned.
The argument is that human reproduction is a gift and that
any form of selection or manipulation turns the child into a
manufacture.
b. Consequentialist
This arises from the fear that increasing the frequency and
scope of genetic screening of prospective children will move
us toward a eugenic world in which children are valued more
for their genotype than for their inherent characteristics,
eventually ushering in a wold of designer children.
(Read more about the current use of PGD and the ethical

Ethical Considerations on New Uses of PGD

considerations of possible new ways of using PGD here.)

There are two main sets of ethical objections: one set arises from
the discarding of embryos that are not selected, the other set
concerns the fact of selection itself.

33

3. CLONING
Ten years ago, cloning was a scientific dream with no prospect of

Singapore, China, Belgium, Israel, Britain, Japan, Sweden, and

the United States.

it being implemented. The last ten years have seen tremendous

Stem cells can also be used to test the toxicity of drugs as animal

progress, although there is no present indication of the possibility

research will not always demonstrate the harmful eects of drugs.

of a human clone. There are two types of cloning:

(Read about the case where six men almost died from the drug

Reproductive cloning

trial of TGN1412 here.)

This would produce a genetically identical copy of a human

Oppositions to therapeutic cloning

being. Scientists are quite a way from this being possible. Few

The Catholic Church rejects embryonic stem cell research as it

consider it to be desirable.

means killing human embryos. (Read more here.)

Therapeutic cloning

In 2001, President Bush banned experimenting on stem cells in

This creates cloned embryos which may be able to produce

U.S. Government labs (except for stem cell lines identified),

embryonic stem cells from a persons body that are tailored to a

based on Christian opposition to experimentation with embryos.

particular individual or disease.

Therapeutic cloning involves creating a human embryo solely for
the production of stem cells. As stem cells are pluripotent, i.e.
they have the ability to turn into any tissue in the body, they can
be used to grow into the type of tissue needed. Scientists hope
that this would eliminate the problems of tissue rejection when

In 2009, Obama overturned Bushs policy on stem cells.

Opponents of therapeutic cloning argue that there is no need to
use embryonic stem cells for research as the sam work can be
done using adult stem cells. These are extracted from human
blood, bone marrow, or the placenta.

someone elses tissue is used in a transplant. Cloning embryos

There have been some reports of researchers being able to turn

for their stem cells would also provide a steady supply of cells for

regular cells into stem cells, but these have turned out to be false,

research.

and the principle researcher guilty of scientific misconduct.

Therapeutic cloning will enable an unlimited supply of cloned

embryos for experimentation purposes. However, not all countries
approve such cloning. Therapeutic cloning is allowed in
34

Singapores position

1. Singapore Acts as Haven for Stem Cell Research (The New

York Times, 17 Aug, 2006)
Think: Why is Singapore, notoriously conservative in many
social issues, so receptive to the prospect of stem cell
research? Consider the demographics of the nation, agenda
of the various stakeholders and the
2. The Singapore approach to human stem cell research,
therapeutic and reproductive cloning (Paper by Catherine
Tay Swee Kian and Tien Sim Leng, published in Bioethics,
Volume 19 Number 3 2005)

Spotlight on Eugenics
1. Youtube documentary: Lisa Lings This is life series
Genius Experiment
Lisa examines the question- can we manufacture
genius? A genius sperm bank created by eccentric
millionaire and businessman Robert Graham has
produced 200 progeny in their 20s and 30s in hopes of
being created more intelligent than their peers.
2. Forced sterilisation of female prison inmates (TIME,
July 2013)
3. Movie recommendation: Gattaca

Additional resources

Gattacapresents a vision of a future society driven

byeugenicswhere potential children are conceived

1. Stem Cell Society Singapore

through genetic manipulation to ensure they possess

http://www.stemcell.org.sg/

the best hereditary traits of their parents.

The movie centers around the protagonist who was

2. Genome Institute of Singapore

conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles

http://www.gis.a-star.edu.sg/internet/site/about/welcome.php

to overcomegenetic discriminationto realise his dream

of traveling into space. The movie draws on concerns
overreproductive technologieswhich facilitate
eugenics, and the possible implications for society. The
film's title is based on the first letters
ofguanine,adenine,thymine, andcytosine, the
fournucleobasesofDNA.

35

Sports and Beyond

Better all the time, by James Suriowiecki

How the performance revolution came to athleticsand
beyond. (The New Yorker, Nov 2014)
BY JAMES SUROWIECKI
In the summer of 1976, Kermit Washington was in trouble. He
was a power forward in the N.B.A., and had just finished his third
season with the L.A. Lakers. He had been a highly touted player
coming out of American University, where he averaged twenty
points and twenty rebounds a game and was a second-team AllAmerican. But with the Lakers his performance had been less
than mediocre. The problem was that Washington didnt know
how to play basketball all that well. He had picked up the game
late (in high school, hed warmed the bench), and never learned
the skills necessary to thrive as a big man in the N.B.A. In
college, Washingtons size (he was six feet eight) and athleticism
had allowed him to dominate other players, who were typically
smaller and weaker. But in the pros, where most players were big
and strong, Washingtons lack of skill caught up with him. By his
third season, his playing time had diminished sharply, and he
feared that his career was on the line.

What Washington did next changed the N.B.A.: he called a man

named Pete Newell and asked for help. Newell had been a
legendary college coach, and was working for the Lakers as a
special assistant. But his coaching skills were being wasted,
because, as David Halberstam wrote in The Breaks of the
Game (1981), N.B.A. players didnt want to admit that they still
had something to learn. That summer, Newell put Washington
through a series of gruelling workouts, and schooled him in the
basics of footwork, positioning, and shooting. The following
season, Washington improved in every aspect of the game. The
next summer, he worked with Newell again, and got better still.
Washington was suspended for part of the 1977-78 season after
he landed a devastating punch on another player during an oncourt brawl, but his performance as a player continued to
improve. By the end of the decade, he had become an All-Star.
Other basketball players, seeing Washingtons progress, started
to ask if they could work with Newell, too, and within a few years
there was so much demand for his services that he opened a
training camp. During the next two decades, many of the

36

N.B.A.s greatest forwards and centers made the pilgrimage to

onboard as well, McClusky says. This technological and

work with the man who had saved Kermit Washingtons career.

analytical arms race is producing the best athletes in history.

Professional athletes had always worked out, of course. But,

The arms race centers on an obsessive scrutiny of every aspect

historically, practice was mainly about getting in shape and

of training and performance. Trainers today emphasize sports-

learning to play with your teammates. It was not about mastering

specific training over generalized conditioning: if youre a baseball

skills. People figured that either you had those skills or you didnt.

player, you work on rotational power; if youre a sprinter, on

There is an assumption that a player arrives in the league in full

straight-line explosive power. All sorts of tools have been

possession of all the basic skills, Halberstam wrote, describing

developed to improve vision, reaction time, and the like. The

the N.B.A. in the late seventies. Either that, or he sinks. Bob

Dynavision D2 machine is a large board filled with flashing lights,

Petrich, a defensive end for the San Diego Chargers in the

which ballplayers have to slap while reading letters and math

nineteen-sixties, told an interviewer that most N.F.L. players of his

equations that the board displays. Football players use Nikes

era even scorned the idea of lifting weights. Most of the guys

Vapor Strobe goggles, which periodically cloud for tenth-of-a-

had this mental attitude that if youre not good enough the way

second intervals, in order to train their eyes to focus even in the

you are, then youll never be good enough, Petrich said. The

middle of chaos.

prevailing philosophy was What you are is what you are.

Training is also increasingly personalized. Players are working not

Today, in sports, what you are is what you make yourself into.

just with their own individual conditioning coaches but also with

Innate athletic ability matters, but its taken to be the base from

their own individual skills coaches. In non-team sports, such as

which you have to ascend. Training eorts that forty years ago

tennis and golf, coaches were rare until the seventies. Today,

would have seemed unimaginably sophisticated and obsessive

tennis players such as Novak Djokovic have not just a single

are now what it takes to stay in the game. Athletes dont merely

coach but an entire entourage. In team sports, meanwhile, theres

work harder than they once did. As Mark McClusky documents in

been a proliferation of gurus. George Whitfield has built a career

his fascinating new book, Faster, Higher, Stronger (Hudson

as a quarterback whisperer, turning college quarterbacks into

Street), they also work smarter, using science and technology to

N.F.L.-ready prospects. Ron Wolforth, a pitching coach, is known

enhance the way they train and perform. It isnt enough to eat

for resurrecting pitchers careershe recently transformed the

right and put in the hours. You need to have the best PhDs
37

Oakland As Scott Kazmir from a has-been into an All-Star by

cyclist possible. Andsince his competitors werent slacking,

revamping his mechanics and motion.

eitherhe still won by only a fraction of a second.

Then theres the increasing use of biometric sensors, equipped

You might think that this pressure to improve reflects the fact that

with heart-rate monitors, G.P.S., and gyroscopes, to measure not

the monetary rewards for athletic success have become

just performance (how fast a player is accelerating or cutting) but

immense. Theres something to this. It has become economically

also fatigue levels. And since many studies show that getting

rational to invest a lot in player training. Forty or fifty years ago,

more sleep leads to better performance, teams are now worrying

professional athletes routinely had other jobs in the o-season.

about that, too. The N.B.A.s Dallas Mavericks have equipped

Willie Davis, a future N.F.L. Hall of Famer, taught mechanical

players with Readiband monitors to measure how much, and how

drawing at a high school. Lou Groza, a legendary kicker, sold

well, theyre sleeping.

insurance. Today, athletes spend the o-season working on their

All this eort may sound a bit nuts. But its how you end up with

game.

someone like Chris Hoy, the British cyclist who won two gold

Yet money isnt the whole story. Weve seen similarly dramatic

medals at the London Olympics in 2012, trailed by a team of

improvements in performance over the past few decades in fields

scientists, nutritionists, and engineers. Hoy ate a carefully

where money doesnt play a huge role. In the nineteen-seventies,

designed diet of five thousand calories a day. His daily workouts

there were only two chess players who had Elo ratings (a measure

two hours of lifting in the morning, three hours in the velodrome

of skill level) higher than 2700. These days, there are typically

in the afternoon, and an easy one-hour recovery ride in the

more than thirty such players. Analyses of great players games

eveninghad been crafted to maximize both his explosive power

from even thirty years ago uncover moves that, by todays

and his endurance. He had practiced in wind tunnels at the

standards, are clear blunders. Thanks to the advent of powerful

University of Southampton. He had worn biofeedback sensors

computer programs, players can now practice daily against

that delivered exact data to his trainers about how his body was

relentlessly good opponents. They can review and analyze games

responding to practice. The eighty-thousand-dollar carbon-fibre

(not just their own but those of other great players) more quickly

bike he rode helped, too. Hoy was the ultimate product of an

and eciently. They can instantaneously compare the

elaborate and finely tuned system designed to create the best

consequences of potential moves. All this has led to fewer

38

mistakes and better tactics, as chess theory has grown

m.p.h. fastball used to be noteworthy. Today, there are throngs of

increasingly sophisticated.

major-league pitchers who throw that hard. Although a Wilt

The quality of classical musicians has improved dramatically as

well, to the point that virtuosos are now, as the Times music critic
Anthony Tommasini has observed of pianists, a dime a dozen.
Even as the number of jobs in classical music has declined, the
number of people capable of doing those jobs has soared, as has
the calibre of their playing. James Conlon, the conductor of the
Los Angeles Opera, has said, The professional standards are
higher everywhere in the world compared to twenty or forty years
ago. Pieces that were once considered too dicult for any but
the very best musicians are now routinely played by conservatory

Chamberlain would still be a great N.B.A. player today, the overall level of play in the N.B.A. is vastly superior to what it was forty
years ago. There are exceptions to this rulefree-throw
percentages, for instance, have basically plateaued in the past
thirty-five years. But, as the sports columnist Mark Montieth
wrote after reviewing a host of games from the nineteen-fifties
and sixties, The dierence in skills and athleticism between eras
is remarkable. Most players, even the stars, couldnt dribble well
with their o-hand. Compared to todays athletes, they often
appear to be enacting a slow-motion replay.

students. And, if anything, the rate of improvement in technical

What were seeing is, in part, the mainstreaming of excellent

skill has been accelerating. Music programs are better at

habits. In the late nineteen-fifties, Raymond Berry, the great wide

identifying talented young musicians, training methods have

receiver for the Baltimore Colts, was famous for his attention to

improved, and the pressure of competitionwith so many

detail and his obsessive approach to the game: he took copious

talented musicians competing for so few slotskeeps pushing

notes, he ate well, he studied film of his opponents, he simulated

the over-all standard of performance higher.

entire games by himself, and so on. But, as the journalist Mark

Thats actually the biggest change in performance over the past

few decadesits not so much that the best of the best are so
much better as that so many people are so extraordinarily good.
In fact, McClusky points out that in some sports, particularly in
track and field, the performance curve at the top is flattening out
(possibly because were nearing our biological limits). But the

Bowden observed, Berry was considered an oddball. The golfer

Ben Hogan, who was said to have invented practice, stood out
at a time when most pro golfers practiced occasionally, if at all.
Today, practicing six to eight hours a day is just the price of
admission on the P.G.A. Tour. Everyone works hard. Everyone is
really good.

depth of excellence has never been greater. In baseball, a ninety39

I hope you sat me next to someone who wants to hear all about

force players to practice at midday in the middle of August in full

my bathroom renovation.

pads; Don Shula, when he was head coach of the Baltimore

The story of how sports has changed isnt just a story of

individuals taking a new approach to their jobs. Teams, too, have
learned. Theyre better at scouting and screening players, at
getting and keeping them in shape, and at using analytics to get
the most out of those players. When the Cleveland Browns won
the N.F.L. title fifty years ago, they had only five assistants; today,
most N.F.L. teams have fifteen or more. Coaches can specialize,
and focus more intently on those small details which cumulatively
add up to better performance. Technologysuch as the new

Colts, insisted that his players practice without access to water.

Today, teams are savvier about maximizing the benefits of
practices, and sometimes that means knowing when not to
practice. The Portland Trail Blazers, pioneers in using data to
protect players health, will sometimes tell a lagging player to lay
o practicing, lest he injure himself. To coaches of Madden and
Shulas generation, this would have sounded like mollycoddling.
But last season the Trail Blazers had the healthiest team in the
N.B.A.

SportVU system, which has put fleets of high-definition cameras

A key part of the performance revolution in sports, then, is the

in fifteen N.B.A. arenashas provided a flood of data about

story of how organizations, in a systematic way, set about making

whats happening on the court or the field, and teams are smarter

employees more eective and productive. This, as it happens, is

about using Moneyball-style analytics to improve tactics and

something that other organizations started doing around the

strategy. Montieth, reviewing those fifties and sixties basketball

same time. Look at what happened in American manufacturing, a

games, found the perimeter defense, especially, to be

transformation that also has its origins in the nineteen-seventies.

laughable, and the oense not much better. Half the shots

At the time, big American companies were in woeful shape. In the

would be booed by todays fans, who would find it dicult to

decades after the Second World War, they had faced almost no

accept 15-foot hooks or a steady stream of o-balance jumpers,

foreign competition, and typically had only a few domestic rivals.

he writes. Coaches hadnt yet come up with oenses

That made them enormously profitable but complacent about

sophisticated enough to create what are considered good shots

quality and productivity. The result was that, by the early

today.

nineteen-seventies, American productivity growth was stalling,

Training methods are also far more rational and data-driven.

When John Madden coached the Oakland Raiders, he would

while American products were often defect-ridden and unreliable.

One study, in 1969, found that a third of the people who bought a

40

new American car judged it to be in unsatisfactory condition

The prospect of losing all their business to foreign competitors

when it was delivered.

persuaded American companies to change their ways. They

This state of aairs became untenable when high-quality

Japanese products started to appear in American markets.
Japanese companies had, since the late nineteen-forties,
completely overhauled their approach to the assembly line.
Where American companies preferred to churn products out and
then test them to see if they were defective, Japanese
companies, drawing from the ideas of American management
consultants such as W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran,
embraced the idea that quality was about catching mistakes
when (or just before) they happened, rather than repairing defects
after the fact. Japanese workers had the authority to stop
assembly lines if they saw a potential problem, and regularly met
in small groups to talk about quality improvement. At the same
time, Japanese firms emphasized what came to be known as
lean production, relentlessly looking to remove waste of all
kinds from the production process, down to redesigning
workspaces, so workers didnt have to waste time twisting and

borrowed as liberally from the Japanese as the Japanese had

from Deming. By the nineteen-eighties, manufacturing
productivity had rebounded, and it has risen steadily ever since.
(Factories are also much safer than they once were: the rate of
injuries in manufacturing is now less than half what it was just
twenty years ago.) Product quality, at least when it came to
products manufactured in the developed world, took an even
greater leap. Although products are more complex today, theyre
also typically more reliable. The average age of a car on the road
today is almost double what it was in 1970. And, the recent spate
of recalls notwithstanding, the average number of problems
reported in J.D. Powers annual survey of new-car buyers has
fallen sharply over the past twenty-five years. In manufacturing,
just as in professional sports, the gap between top and bottom
has narrowed. In 1987, the worst model had 3.3 more problems
per car than the best. In 2012, that number had shrunk to 0.8.
Lemons, for the most part, have become a thing of the past.

turning to reach their tools. The result was that Japanese

The ethos that underlies all these performance revolutions is

factories were more ecient and Japanese products were more

captured by the Japanese term kaizen, or continuous

reliable than American ones. In 1974, service calls for American-

improvement. In a kaizenworld, skill is not a static, fixed quality

made color televisions were five times as common as for

but the subject of ceaseless labor. This idea is more applicable to

Japanese televisions. By 1979, it took American workers three

some fields of endeavor than to othersits easier to talk about

times as long to assemble their sets.

improved performance in sports or manufacturing, where

peoples performance is quantifiable, than in writing or the fine
41

artsbut the notion of continuous improvement has wide

sizes, implemented national standards, and amped up testing.

relevance, leading to dramatic advances in fields as disparate as

Weve increased competition by allowing charter schools. And

airline safety and small-unit performance in the military. Which

some schools have made it a little easier to remove ineective

raises a question: what are the fields that could have become

teachers. None of these changes have made much of a

significantly better over the past forty years and havent?

dierence.

There are obvious examples. Customer service seems worse than

All sorts of factors, of course, shape educational performance.

it once was. Most companies underinvest in it, because they see

For one thing, the United States has more poor kids relative to

it purely as a cost center, rather than a source of potential profits,

other developed countries, and poor kids do worse on tests, on

and so workers are undertrained. Customer-service centers have

average, all over the world. Schools cant make up for that gap

often been set up to maximize the very thingsspeed and

entirely. But there is one crucial factor in how kids fare that

volumethat make for a poor customer experience. Continuous

schools do control; namely, the quality of their teachers.

improvement is of no use if youre not improving the right things.

Unfortunately, as two new books, Elizabeth Greens Building a

Medicine, too, has not seen the leap in performance one might

Better Teacher (Norton) and Dana Goldsteins The Teacher

have expected. Technology has given doctors many more tools,

Wars (Doubleday), point out, teacher training in most of the

and has materially improved patients lives. But the number of

United States has usually been an afterthought. Most new

serious medical errors has remained stubbornly high, as has the

teachers enter the classroom with a limited set of pedagogical

amount of wasted spending in the system. Reformers are now

skills, since they get little experience beforehand, and most

calling for a focus on performance in medical schools, precisely

education courses dont say much about how you run a class.

because it hasnt been a focus in the past.

Then teachers get little ongoing, sustained training to help them

In one area above all, the failure to improve is especially

egregious: education. Schools are, on the whole, little better than
they were three decades ago; test scores have barely budged

improve. If American teachersunlike athletes or manufacturing

workershavent got much better over the past three decades,
its largely because their training hasnt, either.

since the famous A Nation at Risk report came out, in the early
nineteen-eighties. This isnt for lack of trying, exactly. We now
spend far more per pupil than we once did. Weve shrunk class

Some educational reformers in the United States insist that we

dont need to worry about training: firing all the bad teachers
42

would be enough. Yet countries that perform exceptionally well in

There are logistical hurdles to Finland-style reforms in the United

international comparisonsamong them Finland, Japan, and

States. Because we dont have a national educational system, we

Canadaall take teacher training extremely seriously. They train

have to rely on local governments to make the necessary

teachers rigorously before they get in the classroom, and they

changes. But the biggest problem is that were in thrall to what

make sure that the training continues throughout their work lives.

Green calls the idea of the natural-born teacher, the notion that

Green writes about how Japanese elementary-school math

either you can teach or you cant. As a result, we do little to help

teachers rely on jugyokenkyu, a bucket of practices that

ordinary teachers become good and good teachers become

Japanese teachers use to hone their craft, from observing each

great. What we need to embrace instead is the idea of teaching

other at work to discussing the lesson afterward to studying

as a set of skills that can be taught and learned and constantly

curriculum material with colleagues. Theyve developed a

improved on. As both Green and Goldstein detail, school districts

vocabulary to describe successful teaching tactics. They spend

in the United States that take teacher training seriously have seen

hours talking about how to improve things such as bansho, the

student performance improve, often dramatically. More

art of writing out a math problem (with possible solutions) on a

accountability and higher pay for teachers would help, too. But at

chalkboard in a way that helps students learn. And they get

the moment most American schools basically throw teachers in at

constant feedback from other teachers and mentors.

the deep end of the pool and hope that they will be able not only

The key, Green writes, lay in the fact that no teacher worked
alone. This methodwith its systematic approach to learning, its
emphasis on preparation, and its relentless focus on small details
and the need for constant feedbacksounds like the way
athletes train today. The results have certainly been comparable.
Finland had lacklustre schools until, in the nineteen-seventies, it
revamped its educational system, including the way it recruited

to swim but also to keep all their students afloat, too. Its a
miracle that the system works as well as it does. To make gains,
schools should take advantage of the training techniques that
other countries have mastered: record classes so that teachers
can study their own work and that of colleagues; let teachers
observe each other; measure performance; and deploy a sta of
full-time trainers.

and trained teachers. Now its schools are among the highest

These measures will cost money, although they may not cost

performing in the world.

more than constantly replacing struggling teachers (not to

mention the long-term economic cost of churning out mediocre
students). And there will be some teachers who will find all the
43

feedback intrusive. But whats happened in sports over the past

forty years teaches that the way to improve the way you perform
is to improve the way you train. High performance isnt, ultimately,
about running faster, throwing harder, or leaping farther. Its about
something much simpler: getting better at getting better.
Link to Article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/10/
better-time

44

Chapter 8

Medicine and
Big Pharma
How do market leaders in the pharmaceutical
industry decide which drugs to develop?
With advances in medicine, shouldnt diseases like
Malaria be eradicated by now?
How is scientific research funded?

Section 1

Readings
Readings
1. Who pays for Science? (Understanding Science, University of
California at Berkeley)
2. Opinion: Big Pharma has an interest in rich people being sick
(The Guardian, October 2014)
3. All Hands on Deck: Low-cost technological solutions to Ebola
(The New Yorker, Oct 2014)
4. GlaxoSmithKline Leads In Getting Drugs to Poor (New York
Times, Dec 2014)

46

Chapter 9

GM Food

Genetic modification of food Involves the insertion

of DNA from one organism into another or
modification of an organisms DNA in order to
achieve a desired trait in food. Is GM food the
solution for world hunger? Why or why not?

Section 1

Readings
1. Monsantos Genetically Engineered Wheat Scandal Is No
Surprise (Forbes, June 2013)
2. Youtube clip: BBC Animal Farm
Synopsis of entire series: Based on an imaginary farm, food
journalist Giles Coren and scientist Olivia Judson introduce
viewers to dierent types of genetic engineering on plants,
animals and humans and their implications on society.

possesses a broad overview of classical and modern

techniques of plant breeding. For many years he has been
following advances in the field of genetically modified
organisms and wishes for better understanding of the issue
among the general public.
6. GM Fish could hit dinner plates soon (AsiaOne, Feb 2013)
7. Documentary: Food, Inc.

3. Youtube clip: BBC Farm for the Future

Synopsis: Rebecca Hosking, a wildlife film maker, returns to
her family farm in Devon in the UK and explores the reality of
our energy intensive agricultural systems in the face of

On Singapore
1. GM Food in Singapore is safe for consumption (AVA)

increasing energy costs. She ends up with the realisation that

only low energy sustainable systems like permaculture hold
any hope for our future.
4. Tedx Talks GMO Controversies Science vs Public Fear
Borut Bohanec at TEDxLjubljana
Synopsis: As Chair of the Department of Agronomy, head of
the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology at the
Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Borut Bohanec

48

Chapter 10

Technology:
Two steps
forward, one
step back?
Marshall McLuhan said that the medium is the
message in the same vein, has technology
irrevocably changed us as human beings? Can we
use technology without being changed ourselves?
Are we the masters of technology or vice versa?
Class discussion

Chapter 11

A Level
Questions

Section 1

A Level Questions on Science and Technology

To what extent can the regulation of scientific or technological developments be justified? (14)
`Scientific research into health and diet is unreliable as it so often contradicts itself. Is that is fair comment? (13)
How far is it acceptable for technology to be used only for financial benefit? (12)
`Science is unreliable, being based as much on theory as on fact. Is this a fair comment? (11)
Can space research be justified nowadays? (11)
How far should medical resources be used to extend life expectancy? (11)
To what extent is it acceptable for private companies to be involved in financing scientific research? (11)
To what extent has technology had a negative impact on the skill levels of people? (10)
Should every country have the right to carry out unlimited scientific research? (09)
To what extent has technology had an impact on both privacy and security in your country? (09)
`The more science advances, the more religion will decline. To what extent do you agree? (08)
Should research into expensive medical treatments be allowed when only a few can aord them? (07)
Does modern technology always improve the quality of peoples lives? (06)
`Medical science has been so successful that people now expect too much of it. Discuss. (05)
Is eective farming possible without science? (05)
'How inventions and discoveries are used is not the concern of the scientist.' Do you agree? ('04)

51

Does the modern world place too much reliance on technology? (03)
Should medical science always seek to prolong life? (03)
Science and religion will always conflict. Discuss. (02)
Examine the implications of cloning for the human race. (`01)
`Computers and mobile phones have made us all worse at talking to one another, not better! What do you think? (`01)
Science never provides solutions- it only poses more questions. Is this a fair comment? (00)
Is a sound knowledge of science and technology essential for a well-educated person in today's world? ('99)
Can the transplanting of animal organs into human beings ever be justified? ('99)
Is a world dominated by science a dream or a nightmare for future generations? (98)
The first duty of a doctor has always been to preserve life. How far can this principle still be maintained? (98)
Discuss the benefits and disadvantages which technological development is likely to have upon education in the future. (97)
Why, in a scientific age, are people still interested in or afraid of the supernatural? (96)
Should any limits be placed on scientific developments? (96)
To what extent is continued research into nuclear power justifiable? (95)
As science advances, the importance of religion declines. To what extent is this an accurate claim? (94)
Science can never provide the final answer to things; it is only a way of studying them. (92)
How far should scientists be held responsible for the eects of their discoveries? (91)
What scientific or technological advances have most aected modern life in your country? (90)
Is space exploration worthwhile? (90)
How far should scientists be held responsible for the uses made of their discoveries? (90)

52