I’m afraid. I’m afraid, James.
James, my mind is going.

I can feel it. I can feel it.

My mind is going…….

NASA has been responsible for a number of missions to Jupiter, so I’m sure even they will agree there is more they can learn.

NASA budget is minuscule compared to the military budget and the world gains a lot more from our understanding of the universe in which we live than from wars.

When has Science ever been a waste of money?

Depends on who is doing the science and for what purposes, scientists are human beings not angels remember, there has been plenty of money wasted on bad science, however on the whole, publicly funded research with good institutional governance and transparency is money well spent. I would also say money on the arts and humanities is also money well spent.

Not necessarily. For example, the US military is responsible for pretty much all of the early development in the computer industry, and if it wasn’t for them we would probably be a good few years behind where we are now.

Because governments pump money into warfare technology, doesn’t justify military spend. Had they pumped similar amounts into socially beneficial public science rather than weapons guidance systems, we’d be a lot better off in many respects.

I wasn’t justifying military spending. I was pointing to an example that in my opinion shows that there is no such thing as “bad” science. Scientific research leads to knowledge. It is then up to us how we use that knowledge.

So you believe the development of nuclear or biological weapons or Nazi science is all good. Anyway I’m done here, seeing as you don’t believe it exists perhaps you ought to take this up with Ben Goldacre, who writes extensively about bad science.

I don’t believe the development of nuclear or biological weapons is bad. Like my example of the US military and the computer industry. I do however believe that the way in which they are used is bad. I’m sure the development of nuclear and biological weapons has led to breakthroughs in other areas of science.

And I think that Nazi science is completely different, because in my opinion that was mostly pushed by cruelty and some other sick reasons, not by a need for knowledge. There were lots of their experiments which were pointless or conclusions they reached which could have been achieved without hurting people. However, I don’t know much about the experiments, but I’d say some results could have benefited future research into other areas. And no, I am not condoning Nazi science at all by the way.

Exploring our solar system is never a waste of money. In fact , I believe that we should focus most of our money on outer space . We would learn a lot more about world we live in .