Chemistry 127

Homework for week 3

Reading: All of Chapter 4

Exercises for Wednesday, September 17

Chapter 4: 8, 9, 10, 11, 44, 45

Exercises for Friday, September 19

Chapter 4: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.

Exercises for Monday, September 22

Chapter 4: 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 46, 58.

Reflective Questions (have your response ready by Friday and turn it in on Monday)

1. A popular play called Copenhagen deals with a mysterious visit of Heisenberg to his mentor Bohr that occurred during World War II. At the time, Heisenberg was head of the German nuclear project and Bohr was in German occupied Denmark. Heisenberg claimed that the German nuclear project was focused on creating nuclear power for use by Germany rather then focused on the atomic bomb. Anyway, the question is raised as to whether or not it is ethical to work on nuclear power of any reason. Suppose that at some point in the future, your job required you to use your training to work on something that may be of tremendous benefit to society (such as nuclear power) but could potentially be very destructive (such as the atomic bomb). Also suppose that it was out of your control as to how your results would be used. How would you react to this situation?

2. Read the following excerpt from H. Brown's The Wisdom of Science: Its Relevance to Culture & Religion.

...there is little general appreciation of the cultural significance of science beyond its impact on technology. Although the dictionary tells us that science is another word for knowledge and that technology is concerned with the practical application of knowledge, this distinction is rarely made in public discussions, nor is it particularly useful because it is so hard to make in practice. An old joke says that if some venture is successful, such as a landing on the Moon, then the scientists will call is a ‘triumph of science,’ and if is fails they will call it a ‘failure of technology.’ But this is not what actually happens. Nowadays almost every innovation from landing on the Moon to the invention of a better mouse trap, whether it is successful or not, is attributed to ‘science;’ the word technology is hardly ever used. Thus the popular image of science is inextricably confused with technology and is therefore seen as being primarily an instrument for getting new things, new machines, new medicines, but not new understanding. Nowadays it is almost true to say that in most people’s minds science is little more than a box of cleaver tricks which can produce the things which we want...

a) Is the primary value of science to our culture it ability to produce amazing new things?

b) Is there any way to justify spending taxpayer dollars to support basic science research (or science for science's sake) other than the fact that it might be useful from a practical standpoint some time in the future.