SCIENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE – Term Paper

Introduction

This refers to treating issues and themes that are scientific in scientific research and fields such as medical, physics as well as biological. As much as the majority may take popular culture and science for granted, in their daily lives. The truth is that popular culture is gradually emerging in the new age of movies films as well as plays. This creates a big difference between the traditional and modern ways in which movies are being filmed. For instance, in the current time, when an individual is interested in knowing what is happening in countries such as the United States of America. Majorities prefer to watch the current movies and films rather than reading the stars. This is because science is taking in popular culture in its development. The science historians know very little regarding the popular experience of cultural. This is due to the existing suspicion that these cultures are just “sideshows,” forgetting that they matter. 

The following three films have a common theme which relates to science as well as ethics. They are; a space odyssey films, the China syndrome, and the Andromeda strain. All the three films involve scientists who are seen trying to do the imaginable in the eyes of human beings. In the space odyssey films, the HAL computer of the spacecraft had a problem, and all over sudden it began to arrange on how it would remove astronauts that were on. His colleagues die, and Dave goes to interrupt the connection of modules memory that was supporting HAL. In this case, the human life is precious, and taking someone’s life weather scientifically or not is unethical. In the China syndrome films, it’s uncovered that there will be a great sudden accident that will happen at a power facility of the nuclear. In this case, it’s evident that the accident would be catastrophic damaging the human lives (Rotblat. 1999). More so, it gives a hint that a nuclear facility can lead to accidents if unhandled well. In Andromeda strain, scientists are seen trying to rescue the earth from a virus brought into it by returning military satellite. In this case, it also involves the human life. The military satellite was as a result of scientific actions that came up with it, so had it not gone to the satellite, no viruses would have come along. 

Scientific Advancement.

Scientific advancement refers to the scientists’ ability to invention new things and ways of doing things scientifically. Technology and science are significantly evolving at high rate and pace. It’s evident that as time goes by, greater changes are happening in the scientific world. This is because scientists are inventing new things as time goes by. These new scientific advances are gradually helping people to be able to view the world in a different dimension (Daniel, 2004). These technologies will soon help the world in battling some of the major problems that are seen as impossible. For example, in the medical field, there has been a breakthrough because doctors can now be able to view the human body by use of machines. Regarding the three movies mentioned above, some of the scientific advancement is the invention of computer chips with the capability of thinking. The human race has also been able to invent objects that can move to other worlds such as in the film of the military satellite. The nuclear fusion in the new age is also a scientific advancement as seen in the China syndrome.

Based on the three films, the scientific advances in them are all scientifically based in the physic field to be precise. In the past years, a computer was the biggest illusion in that not even a computer with a thinking capacity was thought of. In the recent past, many of them have been invented, which has transformed our lives broadly regarding learning and the medical field (Allgaier, 2016). Satellites were also never heard of in the past, and this made issues such as going to other worlds to study not necessary, in that scientist don’t have to go, rather, they can easily study in them using the satellites.

Identify Ethical Issues

The scientific world is greatly evolving. However, the fact is that it’s no longer neutral, and in that case, scientists ought to be more careful, and should consider aspects such as ethics and social in their works. One of the ethical issues identified in these three films is the robot’s intelligent similar to that of humans (Mark, 2000). It imitates the brain of human’s intricacies as it works in a way similar to them. This clearly shows that some science is compromising the human race in various ways. In this case, the human may feel intimidated by the robots, and the computers to be precise. On the other hand, ethically, the computers should not cause any harm to human beings, from diseases and invention of objects that may cause harm to the human race. 

Do Scientists Have a Moral Obligation to Science or Society?

Over the past years, there has been a heated debate on whether scientists should be morally obligated to the science or the society. Well, in my views scientists should have a moral obligation to the society rather than the science, considering the ethical issues that protect human beings as well as their surroundings. The moral obligation suggests that each scientific individual should be responsible (Van, 2003). They should consider the consequences as well as the implications of their deeds. By so doing, it will help to control scientific activities especially those with negative implications to the society.

Conclusion.

Popular culture is emerging at a steady and fast rate. Popular culture creates a bigger difference between the traditional world of science as well as the modern one. It is more educative and fun, and it has given rise to new scientists at every new dawn.

References

Rotblat J. (1999b). A Hippocratic Oath for scientists. Science, 286, 1475. Science (2000) 287, 1417–1426.

Rotblat J. (1999a). Science and human values. Proceedings of the World Conference on Science in Budapest, pp. 45–49. http://www.unesco.org/science/wcs/index

Daniel Patrick Thurs (2004), Science in popular culture: contested meanings and cultural authority in America, 1832-1994.

Mark Erickson (2000), Science, culture and society: understanding science in the twenty-first century Jump up. Bowdoin Van Riper, Science in popular culture.

Allgaier, J. (2016). ‘Science and South Park, Reddit and Facebook, Leonardo da Vinci and the Vitruvian Man, and modern fairy tales about emerging technologies: science communication and popular culture’. JCOM 15 (02), C01. Van Riper, A. B. (2003). ‘What the public thinks it knows about science’. EMBO Reports 4 (12), pp. 1104–1107.