High-Energy Dispute

Thank you, Paul Ciotti, for your stereoscopic view of science’s latest Eureka. There’s an inescapable law of physics that says for every action there’s a reaction. A corollary might be that everything in life is a trade-off.

The past and present are rife with “Gee whiz!” discoveries and inventions whose advents were hailed as the miracle cure for all that ailed mankind. But truth and time will out. Invariably, too many of these earthshaking elixirs turned out to be Pandora’s box rather than panaceas.

Relentless in their tunnel-vision striving for the gold in the quantum high jump, scientists all too often seem indifferent to the trade-offs their efforts produce. Better than being hell-bent in the pursuit of progress at any price, the scientific community would do well to remember the wisdom embodied in an old, mundane TV commercial: It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

ED MITCHELL

Los Angeles