British writer Charles Dickens once wrote in his book "A Tale of Two Cities": "It was the best of times and the worst of times."
In the development process of mankind, we have experienced countless vicissitudes of times before we have the prosperity and strength we have today.
We live in the 21st century, where science and technology are developing rapidly. Many things in life have been achieved through the unremitting efforts of inventors day and night. Shared bicycles, the Internet, smartphones...the once unimaginable functions of are now indeed appearing in our lives.
It is precisely because of their imagination and creativity that we can live a convenient and fast life today. It is precisely because of these inventions that provide convenience to our lives that we can improve our life happiness index and save a lot of time to enjoy our wonderful personal lives.
There is no doubt that all this is due to the fantastic ideas of inventors. The birth of an invention not only benefits mankind, but also makes a huge contribution to the entire world, promoting the process of social development, and even in certain This degree determines the direction of human development.
However, not every invention is popular. Even though the inventors' original intention was to benefit mankind, these inventions have gone astray for various reasons, causing harm to human society and becoming "murderers" directly or indirectly.
Since the inventors had good intentions at the beginning, how did these inventions go astray? What harm have they caused to human society?
1. Opium
When it comes to opium, I believe all of us will shudder. In film, television and literary works, directors and writers have presented and depicted many horrific scenes for us.
Those who take opium are often skinny, listless, and have sunken eyes. They seem to have lost their curiosity about everything. The only thing that can arouse their interest is the opium that brings them pleasure.
Only when they smoke opium will their eyes shine with a glimmer of light.
Once a person comes into contact with opium and takes opium, that person will struggle with endless pain throughout his life.
The pleasure opium brings to them is short-lived, but as long as they stop taking it, the sense of emptiness and powerlessness will gradually erode the person's spirit until they are defeated.
As Chinese, when it comes to opium, what we have to think of is the Opium War that has brought great harm to our country and our people.
After the UK completed the industrial revolution and , the domestic industry developed rapidly. At this time, they urgently needed a huge market to dump their products.
Looking around the world, they decided to target China, which was closed to the outside world. One of these products is opium.
After opium entered our country, it was immediately sought after by people. The first people to be persecuted for are those young men from well-off families.
They had enough money, time, and energy to squander opium, but those from less well-off families were not so lucky.
In order to raise enough "drug funds", drug addicts not only invest all their property in it, but even commit crimes such as robbery and theft. Blinded by opium, they completely lost their minds and could not judge what was right and what was wrong.
From June 3 to June 25, 1839, Lin Zexu destroyed a large amount of opium in Humen in public. This operation is to remove the large amount of opium dumped by the British in our country, and also to save the poor people who are dominated by opium.
But who could have expected that it would become the fuse of the war.
In June 1840, the United Kingdom launched a war of aggression against our country on the pretext of Lin Zexu's destruction of cigarettes in Humen. In this war, our country suffered heavy losses: it signed the first unequal treaty in modern history, the "Treaty of Nanjing", and began to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
It can be seen from this that the suffering that opium has brought to our people is self-evident. has torn apart countless families, caused countless aspiring young people to become sluggish and embark on a road of no return, caused countless poor people to go bankrupt just for temporary happiness, and even cost countless people their lives.
However, opium was not invented as a drug at the beginning. Its original purpose was completely contrary to its current use. In fact, opium started out as a drug.
Opium is made from a natural plant called poppy. After the juice secreted by the poppy fruit is dried and processed, opium is produced.
Opium has a long history. The earliest records of opium use can be traced back to the fifth century BC. In that era of underdeveloped information, intelligent humans had learned to use opium.
But at that time, opium was just a simple antidote and had no other uses.
Opium was first discovered to be toxic around 100 BC. A doctor in ancient Greece mentioned opium in his book. Although it can be used as a detoxification drug, it actually has certain Toxicity may cause people to become deranged and hallucinate.
However, information was underdeveloped at that time, so the fact that opium was toxic was not widely spread.
Several centuries later, as opium played an increasingly important role in surgery, people began to realize that opium was actually a double-edged sword.
Opium spread to our country from the Han Dynasty . When first entered our country, opium was mainly used as a precious medicinal material to treat diseases and save people. Moreover, in the beginning, only patients with very distinguished status had the opportunity to use opium, a precious medicinal material.
Later, people accidentally discovered that smoking opium can make people feel happy. However, as more and more people smoke opium, its huge side effects gradually surfaced: making people lose their minds, blurring reality and The limits of fantasy make people addicted and unable to extricate themselves.
This reality is too cruel. The original intention of the inventor of opium was to hope that opium could numb people's nerves, reduce people's pain, and help people recover as soon as possible.
But who could have expected that opium would eventually become a tool that destroys the human body and corrodes the human spirit.
2. Radium element
Although not everyone is interested in science, I believe everyone must have heard of the element "radium" when they were students.
Since the radium element has been mentioned, one person we have to mention is its discoverer-the famous Marie Curie .
In 1896, the famous French physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered an invisible ray in uranium salt while working. Although the discovery of is small, it aroused the curiosity of Madame Curie. What is this kind of ray?
After Madame Curie heard about the mystery of rays, this matter has been lingering in her mind. She is extremely capable of action without any delay or hesitation. In order to be able to explore the mystery of the mysterious rays, she and herself My husband Pierre Curie started researching day and night.
Pierre Curie was very supportive of his partner's ideas. In order to allow Madame Curie to devote herself wholeheartedly to her work, he even put aside the work he was doing to help his wife explore unknown areas.
It is said that "a husband and wife are of the same mind, and their strength can break through metal." With the joint efforts of this couple, this mysterious element was finally presented to the public in December 1898.
Later this element was named radium, which means "radiation" in Latin.
However, Marie Curie's discovery was not recognized by the scientific community at first. They believed that the element radium could not be seen with the naked eye, and it was impossible to prove whether it actually existed. Therefore, in order to prove the existence of radium to the world, Madame Curie began the road of purification.
If you want to prove the existence of radium, the simplest and most convenient way is to find its compounds.
The content of radium in pitchblende ore is very low. It will take a lot of time, energy and money to find its compounds in the raw materials. The difficulty is no different than finding a needle in a haystack.
In order to prove this magical discovery, during the four years from 1898 to 1902, Madame Curie and her husband Pierre Curie spent every day in the laboratory with the equipment.
Their hard work paid off, and the two finally extracted 0.2 grams of radium chloride from thousands of tons of raw materials.
With this outstanding discovery, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. This discovery caused a sensation all over the world. People praised Mrs. Curie for her carefulness and concentration, and Marie Curie received numerous praises. sound and flowers applause.
However, no one would have expected that this discovery, which condensed the countless hard work of Mrs. Curie and her husband, would eventually become a "murderer".
At first, Marie Curie hoped that the radioactivity of radium elements could be used in medical treatment to facilitate doctors' operations. However, as her understanding of radium elements became more and more comprehensive, Marie Curie gradually realized that this was simply impossible. of.
As a radioactive element, the rays emitted by radium can damage and kill various cells and bacteria. If can be fully developed, the radium element will play a huge role in the treatment of cancer . This is also the situation that Marie Curie most wanted to see from the beginning.
However, during the experiment, Madame Curie discovered that the radioactivity of the radium element was too powerful. If used rashly on the human body, it would definitely cause fatal and irreversible damage to the human body.
Therefore, radium is no longer widely used in medical treatment.
After leaving the medical field, the field of use of radium elements has undergone a 180-degree turn. Today, radium elements are mainly used in the research and development of nuclear weapons , and are used by many countries as an important strategic resource.
The deterrent power of nuclear weapons is frightening. During the war, the use of nuclear weapons caused the displacement and even the death of many people in the world.
The radium element was finally used in war, which was completely contrary to Madame Curie's original idea, which made people sigh.
3. Melamine
People living in the 21st century will certainly not be unfamiliar with the "melamine incident".
This major dairy product contamination accident in 2008 caused a bloody storm that year and made every parent panic.
The notorious "toxic milk powder" containing melamine has caused harm to the health of many children, affecting their normal growth and development. Some even unfortunately suffer from uremia. The bad consequences of make every parent hate melamine.
Tens of thousands of children and teenagers were involved in this major accident, and many well-known dairy brands were implicated. Their products were found to contain the illegal substance melamine.
After this incident, many parents said they could no longer believe in the quality of these products.
So, what exactly is melamine? Why on earth can it cause such significant harm to children's bodies?
In fact, melamine has been used in the chemical industry at first. Its chemical properties are very stable and its application fields are very wide. It plays a huge role in paint, plastics, rubber and papermaking industries, and is an indispensable product in the manufacturing industry. substance.
In addition, melamine can also be used in the agricultural field. The chemical properties of determine that it can promote the growth rate of plants and make them mature quickly, helping farmers harvest crops as quickly as possible to obtain more benefits.
It is precisely because of this special property of melamine that some people with evil intentions have come up with the idea of adding it to food, or even to milk powder that is essential for children, and vigorously advocate that such milk powder can Promote children's rapid growth.
Evil can never defeat justice. In 2008, children who used Sanlu brand milk powder suddenly fell ill in concentrated clusters within the same time period. This phenomenon attracted the attention of the country.
After investigation, it was found that these infant milk powders contained a large amount of illegal substance-melamine.
The legal network is wide open, and no omissions are missed. Violations of laws and regulations will inevitably be severely punished. In the end, these unscrupulous businesses with evil intentions were all punished without exception.
This incident has also sounded a wake-up call to people engaged in the food industry: food safety must be given top priority at all times.
In any case, the most innocent ones are those children who were inexplicably involved in the turmoil. Their new lives have just begun, but they have been cast a dark shadow by the unscrupulous businessmen. Those who will hurt them will spend their whole lives in the future. Time to heal.
"Poisonous milk powder" has caused irreversible physical and psychological damage to children, which no amount of money compensation can make up for. The discoverer of melamine must not have guessed that the agricultural fertilizer he developed would become a sharp sword that harms children in the future.
The inventions mentioned above are only three of the countless inventions that have emerged in the long history of mankind.
There is no doubt that the original intention of the inventors must be to benefit mankind, but they eventually became "murderers" who harmed people.
Technology is a double-edged sword. While it provides convenience to people, if people with evil intentions use new inventions in improper ways, then those inventions that were originally for the benefit of mankind will lose their original intention.
