Lord Robert Winston for the first time in Greece

6 April, 2016 News

Has science benefited the humankind?
Do inventions have negative effects?

Professor Lord Robert Winston, one of the best known British scientists, who revolutionized IVF technique and infertility treatment, responds to these and many more questions as part of his talk “Bad ideas: an arresting history of our inventions” which promises to take us through the fascinating history of our inventions without any taboos, at the Athens Science Festival, on Thursday 7 April at 20.15.

We are born with the instinct to create and invent. Indeed our ability to do so is what separates we humans from the rest of the animal world. The moment man first converted a stone to a useful tool set him on a relentless path toward greater control and power over his environment. But have our creative ideas always produced desirable results in line with their original good intention? How many ill-effects and dangers have they brought about along the way? And have they really served us well?

From the hand axe to modern nanotechnology and the ability to create life in the laboratory, technology has brought positive changes in our lives, but it also has a downside that we had never predicted at the time and it threatens us now. How do we deal with all these problems that we create ourselves? Get ready to be surprised….