Irrational ideas about nature repeatedly creep into the environmental sciences. In the 1940s, scientists attempted to create a science of nature, ecology, which was based on cybernetics, the science of self-regulating systems, which had been usefully applied in World War II for guiding antiaircraft missiles. Cybernetics also applies to systems like thermostats, which turn on the furnace when it gets too cold and turn it off when it gets too hot.
