Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong

by Paul A. Offit

Science can be Pandora’s beautiful box. And our curiosity about what science can offer has allowed us, in some cases, to unleash evils that have caused much suffering and death. In one case, it probably sowed the seeds of our eventual destruction.

THE LESSON FROM THE ILL-FATED WAR on pain is a simple one: It’s all about the data. When Friedrich Sertürner feared that in morphine he had opened up a Pandora’s box and let loose a monster, his warnings were ignored. When Heinrich Dreser claimed that heroin was safe, he had only tested it on a handful of people for a few weeks. And when Russell Portenoy launched a national campaign promoting opioid use, he based his claims on 38 patients, 12 of whom had taken OxyContin. As Clara Peller said in her now iconic television commercial for Wendy’s hamburgers, “Where’s the beef?” If you’re going to medicate a nation, at the very least you should base your recommendations on a mountain of evidence, not a molehill.

The key to avoiding the problem of hidden trans fats is to look for the phrase “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on the nutrition label.

The monk’s name was Gregor Mendel, and the subject was peas. Mendel wondered what would happen if he crossed a tall pea plant with a short one.

Francis Galton published Hereditary Genius, outlining his plans for a better tomorrow. Galton argued that the British government should issue certificates of fitness to worthy young men and women and offer money for every child produced. And it wouldn’t be expensive. Galton believed that if British citizens were willing to spend “only one-twentieth of the cost spent for the improvement of the human race that is spent on the improvement of the breed of horses and cattle, what a galaxy of geniuses might we not create!” He called his plan eugenics, from the Greek for “well born.” But there was a darker side. “I do not, of course, propose to neglect the sick, the feeble or the unfortunate,”

Those inspired by Silent Spring had spared mosquitoes from the killing effects of DDT. But they hadn’t spared children from

the killing effects of mosquitoes.