Any Scientific Discoveries with only Positive Uses?

[ThinkingSapien]

The Cosmos episode on Clair Patterson’s measurements of lead content (see here) only seems to have a positive side.

That was a good episode! Also parts of it were an illustration of what Sochi said about where morals go when money is involved.

 

[Sochi]

That was a good episode! Also parts of it were an illustration of what Sochi said about where morals go when money is involved.

Yes, it was. If you think that was something, you might look into the history of porcelain in Europe!

I was thinking that immunizations were untouched in this way, but I see that they are sometimes used to extort money, are in some cases toxic, and have been suspected of being used to implant microchips. Have a story about that, but not for here.

 

[StrawberryJam]

I was going to say that any discovery that was entirely neutral, that just added to our understanding of the world, would be a contender. Like evolution.

But then…

You realized that Catholic Answers banned that topic, therefore you can not speak about it directly?

How would they have fun talking to each other about related topics if we could do that?
Adam and Eve would be a topic we could weigh in on.
That would also give Original Sin another look see.

But, it is a forum where they decide what their faithful can handle. They can’t handle the truth.

 

[zippy2006]

Hmmm…not sure about that one. While a weapon is an application of discoveries of nuclear processes the discoveries themselves have been used both constructively and destructively.

This highlights an important ambiguity in your question: what counts as a discovery? It seems that there is scientific knowledge and the application of scientific knowledge. The former is morally neutral because knowledge does not directly impact the world, while the latter is morally significant because action–including application of knowledge–is always morally significant. Scientific knowledge is something like an accurate description of reality, while the application of scientific knowledge exerts some influence and change on the world (for good or for bad).