Science has been intertwined with armed conflict for centuries. The Greek despot Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse is thought to have invented the catapult around 400 B.C., a technology upgrade that changed the course of battle through medieval times. Alchemists in China invented gunpowder around A.D. 850; initially used in fireworks, its use in cannons and handheld firearms followed. European forces enlisted hot air balloons for attacks and reconnaissance not long after they were invented in the 18th century. And airplanes were key to the course of World War II, including dropping atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.
In this issue, we examine the health effects of tear gas, which evolved from being one of the first chemical weapons made for World War I to a tool for civilian crowd control. In a bizarre twist, one of its first uses in the United States was against World War I veterans protesting delays in bonus payments from the federal government.
Though tear gas is sometimes considered more benign than other crowd control tools such as rubber bullets, it may cause long-term health problems, staff writer Nikk Ogasa reports. Quantifying that risk has become salient due to the widespread use of tear gas against people protesting U.S. administration actions.
Connections between science and civil protest also resonate in space exploration, astronomy writer Lisa Grossman notes. In gearing up to cover this year’s Artemis II moon flyby, she imagined the mission as a unifying moment, like the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. The impact of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions on her Minneapolis neighborhood made her question that premise. It turns out that people also questioned the value of Apollo 11, at a time when the country was riven by conflicts over civil rights and the Vietnam War. Science News’ top editor was among them.
“It is impossible to minimize the astronauts’ accomplishment,” Warren Kornberg wrote in the July 26, 1969, issue. “But the verdict of history may well be that, while the world erupted, we ignored the real challenge and chased a rocket trail to the moon.”
There’s much to question in the world’s current state. Finding value in supporting our fellow humans and in doing groundbreaking science should be a given.