Zero risk does not exist

No entry: radiation risk

We would like to live in a world where we run no risks, but that is impossible. Whenever we get into a car, cross the street, turn on the gas, or play sports, we run a risk. The most elementary acts of our life entail a risk: breathing polluted air; getting exposed to the natural radioactivity in buildings; passing under a roof just when a tile is falling down... We have always known that life is synonymous with danger, and we have adapted to that. In our time, however, it seems that the threshold of risk we are willing to tolerate has fallen down. In other words: we are now more cowardly.

The media are largely to blame. Trying to attract readers and increase their profits, they often encourage states of opinion close to panic. We can see it in the way many news are presented, especially those affecting health (mad cow syndrome, bird flu, SARS, type A influenza, whatever...); the viability of human life on Earth (global warming, collision with an asteroid); or the economy (times of crisis). Many of these threats are real, but they are systematically exaggerated.

Exaggeration of scientific news: superconductivity

Levitation of a superconducting sheet

In 1986, a team from the IBM research center in Zurich discovered high-temperature superconductivity. Until then, this phenomenon, well known since it was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911, only occurred at temperatures close to absolute zero. Thanks to the use of ceramic materials made with copper and rare earths, the critical temperature rose first to 35K, and soon after to 92K (Kelvin, or degrees above absolute zero). As a comparison, take into account that the fusion of ice into water takes place at about 273K.

Immediately the media announced this discovery as the door to a new technological revolution. Among the revolutionary applications announced were nuclear fusion, high-speed trains and ships that would move in levitation, the lossless transmission of electrical energy over long distances, supercomputers, and many more. The “fever” of the media grew even more when Bednorz and Müller, members of the team that made the discovery, were awarded the Nobel Prize in just one year, in 1987.

Has research on the human genome stopped?

We all know the Human Genome project, officially launched in 1990, although it had been working partially since 5 years earlier. Its purpose was to identify and decipher all the genes in human DNA in 15 years. The project was completed in 2003, within the foreseen term, although in the year 2000 partial results were published. From the scientific point of view, the project was a success, but perhaps for a part of the public it can look like a failure, as the exaggerated expectations aroused by some media have not been fulfilled.

The media hailed the project as the door to a new medical revolution. Among the revolutionary applications announced were: gene therapy to prevent or correct genetic diseases; premature diagnosis of actual or potential diseases, even from the embryonic stage; or personalized medicine, which would adapt treatments of diseases to the ailing person. Possible dangers were also discussed, such as the manipulation of human embryos to adapt their genes to the wishes of parents or dictatorial governments; or the use of genetic data to select personnel, or to grant or deny insurance and credit...