SlashNOT

matthew writes: Having successfully thrown off the negative mantle of “Mad Science” that dominated public perception of scientists from the beginning of time until March 13th, 1933 by developing amazing products that stupid people could use but not understand, such as radio, television, the microwave oven, and remote control, Scientists have now slipped back off the precipice into the realm of mad science.

“It was Albert Einstein, really, who provided the calming face and presence to science. He combined madness with a nature so non-threatening that he made something as terrifying as nuclear energy palatable to the thronging hordes” says Dr. Egon Frump, Ph. D. “I mean, as soon as he died in the mid fifties, nuclear science went from being the savior of all mankind to, well, the scariest thing imaginable.”

“Who do we have now? Steven Hawking? He’s damned scary. You know he’s working on a cybernetic body to go with that electronic voice gizmo. I mean, he scares me. It’s no wonder people are convinced that their cell-phones are giving them cancer, that genetically modified foods are giving them cancer, and that the Internet will somehow find a way to give them cancer.”

“But this will all come full circle again, as soon as we have nano-bots that can seek and destroy cancer cells inside the body. Then, everyone will feel safe about science again.”