Too Valuable to Die?

Silke Ackermann, Nigel Biggar and Liz Bruton debate the ethics of
science and scientists going to war Silke Ackermann (Director,
Museum of the History of Science) Liz Bruton (Co-curator, “Dear
Harry”… Henry Moseley: A Scientist Lost to War) and Nigel Biggar
(Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of
Oxford) will discuss the ethics of scientists going to war in
response to the current Museum of the History of Science exhibition
exploring the life and legacy of talented English physicist Henry
Moseley. When Moseley was killed on the battlefield at Gallipoli in
August 1915, newspapers on all sides of the conflict denounced his
tragic death with one English newspaper headline proclaiming that
Moseley was "too valuable to die". Moseley's death contributed to a
changing attitude to scientists and science going to war with
scientists and engineers being kept away from the frontline.
Instead the work of scientists and engineers - research and
expertise - is used to meet military goals with scientific research
increasingly relying on military funding. In this discussion, the
speakers discuss the ethics of scientific research being used for
military ends as well as whether scientists being held back from
frontline service means others serve and die in their place.