Bad Ideas? An Arresting History of Our Inventions

We don’t want an incinerator near us for fear of being ‘dandruffed’ with falling dioxins and we don’t want to hear about an incinerator burning for decades in the middle of Vienna. We feel safe getting into a car but can’t convince ourselves air travel is much safer.

Robert Winston wants to change all that. “The key to successful living in a society dominated by advancing technology,” he says, “lies in better public engagement with science and technology ... People from all sections of the community have a responsibility to learn and understand more about science in order that, in democratic societies at least, they will have a more powerful say in how science is used.”