Besides radium, what other world-altering discoveries can you think of that both led to advancement, and also tragedy?

Besides radium, what other world-altering discoveries can you think of that both led to advancement, and also tragedy?

Splitting the atom and creating nuclear bombs.

The discovery of cancer and addiction linked to smoking tobacco and how the industry tried to cover it up.

The discovery of oil and other minerals in the West--resulted in Westward expansion and the destruction of Native civilizations. Oil has allowed us to heat without wood and coal, travel on land and sea and in the air easily but look at the damage to the environment--polluted air, devastated trees and other plant-life, the production of plastics that do not degrade and fill our landfills and oceans, asphalt that covers acres of what were fields of air cleansing plants. Look at the stratified products produced from oil and then look at the damage those products have caused to our planet.

Definitely, the creation of nuclear.

Well, of course, the continued nuclear problems. I also think of the opioid crisis, with pain medicine leading to continued use of drugs. Also the recent case of the weed killer that a man won a case that the ingredient in the spray caused his cancer. Then we have the electric cigarettes that were to help people stop smoking and yet are found now to have more problems. This is not to say that we should stop developing new things, after all the shining watches were helpful during the war, but we need more stringent rules to study the end results of new products before they are easily obtained and used.

Plastic

I can think of two immediately. First, is the cigarette. This took the world by storm. Smoking was the 'it' thing to do - at is until it was linked to cancer. Secondly was in invention of plastic. Plastic revitalized the American household. The thought of what is made from plastic is beyond comprehension. However now we have an ocean full of it - killing off our fish and polluting our waters.

While writing this I thought of a third one. Aerosol. The aerosol can is also a large market item, however in recent years it has been proven to be a deterrent to the ozone.

But as we all know, none of the above has been banned from production. Harmful and unhealthy appears to mean very little to an addicted population.

I certainly agree with all the other postings...but I want to add nutrisweet (and other artificial sweetners), processed convenience foods (and all their associated additives) and the iPhone (and ohter similari smart phones). Now on that latter, don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone, but what it's doing to generations of kids is appalling. I'm watching my own granddaughter morph from a thin, svelte girl into a stocky girl with a big stomach and she 's only going into the 4th grade. Video games and social media have sucked the lifeblood out of one on one relationships! Kids are going to have permanent crooked necks from all the looking down, and I've already noticed in the workplace that people who have grown up with the smart phone don't have the ability to retain information since it's all so easy to look up these days. I'm sure the processed foods are contributing to rises in an array of health issues and while not like the radium impacted the luminous dial business, these things are taking a toll in ways that might not be so directly apparent. As I mentioned in a prior post to another question for this book, we all know smoking is bad; but we still have smokers and it's scary how young they are.

Upon further thought, and a little research, the discovery of asbestos (chrysotile, the mineral that is white asbestos, but there are a few others as well). in 1876 was when it came to the attention of the industrial age (even though it's use dated back to the bodies of Pharaoh's being wrapped in asbestos cloth). It's fireproofing properties had it incorporated into all kinds of building materials and it was widely used for the purpose of protecting the working people (including being used by all branches of the military). Much like radium, as its harmful properties were discovered the facts were hidden and one researcher in 1960, J.C. Wiggins is known to have sold to the big asbestos manufacturers. Asbestos has created a cottage industry of class action lawsuits and is known to cause asbestotis, msohelioma and lung cancer.

These are such good and honest, yet worrisome replies!

And then there's the current EPA making moves to allow for more asbestos use, with less regulations - really makes you wonder what we learn from historical mis-steps.

Nuclear fission, computers, tv, fast food, freeways, couches, tobacco, processed foods and a host of other things meant to make our lives easier.

Nuclear fission, computers, tv, fast food, freeways, couches, tobacco, processed foods and a host of other things meant to make our lives easier.

All good answers. Mine would have been asbestos. My family home was built in the late 1800's. Through the generations improvements and renovations were done. After both my parents and my older brother died and I was diagnosed with cancer I found out it had asbestos in it. I had to hire the guys in the white suits with the respirators to demolish it So I say asbestos followed by lead paint.

Nuclear fission, sending humans into space, thalidomide, electro shock treatments and lobotomies, tobacco products, asbestos, agricultural chemicals, hormones and antibiotics in animal feed, coal mining, lead in paint, agent orange, convenience foods, napalm, aerosols, urban sprawl and killing millions of trees, painkillers/opiates and a host of other pharmaceuticals, GMOs, harmful emissions and wastewater from factories - the list goes on and on. We are literally killing ourselves and this planet even today.

Wow, kind of a depressing thread, but truth.

I fail to see how cigarettes ever led to advancement-tragedy, yes. And the way the media projected them as good for you-advertisements claiming more doctors smoked a certain brand of cigarettes. They must be safe if your doctor enjoys them. My husband grew up in Florida during the 60's and remembers how much he enjoyed riding his bike behind the mosquito insecticide spraying trucks that drove around his neighborhood. I think there was an element of ignorance involved, too.