by Over the past century the world has seen many wars, battles and disputes, including that of armed forces, and war on invisible enemies, such as COVID-19 and The Swine Flu. Although persistent fighting has taken a devastating amount of lives and proven to be economically exhausting, the world of science and technology has seen overhauls during periods of war. The pressure of war brings scientists a sense of urgency, forcing them to drop motivation in some pursuits and solely focus on the progression of technology for war itself. Because of this, war and science find themselves in a love-hate relationship, within which aspects of the S.T.E.M. world are put on the backburner to bring forth revolutionary progress in war-related fields. World War 2 and The Cold War has brought the world of Science to incredible new feats, but also halted the progression of ongoing projects in the S.T.E.M. field.
On September 1st, 1939, Adolph Hitler invaded Poland, starting the infamous World War 2 and showing the world the power of the Nazi regime. The rush for technological superiority over the Allied powers during World War 2 brought Nazi scientists to extremes. The Nazi’s brought Darwinism to an horrific racist level, using the rational of superior German genetic fitness in the murder of millions. While their methodology lacked any regard for humanity and many scientists were justly tracked down and tried for their crimes afterward, underneath the Nazi regime the world of science saw many advancements which hold significance today. In hopes to preserve German genetics and overall health, the Nazis heavily opposed smoking, considering it a Jewish activity and connecting it to cancer. Along with this, the Nazis were the first to draw the link between asbestos and lung cancer. And in the world of biology, developed the first high-powered electron microscope, which allows scientists to get a closer look into microorganisms, cells, large molecules, and other non-living specimens. While much of their research was beneficial to the world of science, their methods were extremely inhumane, often using live patients to test the strength of diseases and chemical warfare. Terrifying testing even went so far as cutting the breasts off of a woman to test how long it would take her child to starve. However, these horrific actions did not go unpunished, with the War Crimes Trials being conducted, under which Nazi scientists and other members were tracked down and persecuted. In the end, presence of pressure from the Allied Forces brought the Nazis to outrageous extremes, propelling science to new levels at the cost of a horrific loss of humanity.
In 1983, President Reagan announced his “Star Wars” plan, within which he looked towards space-based X-Ray lasers to detect and deflect nuclear warfare. Although the plan’s intentions were pure and antiwar, it was undoubtedly over-ambitious, and was in response to the growing pressure of the Cold War. The SDI plan immediately gained immense press and popularity, with the congress and press widely disregarding the plan and putting time and effort into ensuring the plan wasn’t seen through. The plan entailed a new defensive tactic, within which X-Ray lasers would destroy any detected soviet nuclear weapons before they were able to reach another country. The soviets were not happy with this, dedicating nearly 70% of their propaganda towards denouncing the idea, and making sure the world was not on board. While the program never got off the ground, it still culminated in a progression of negotiations regarding destroying nuclear arms, resulting in the creation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which ensured the dismantle of thousands of nuclear weapons. Although this was a great step in ending the Cold War, the scare of nuclear weapons forced many Americans to turn a blind eye to a major problem in the S.T.E.M. world, the Aids epidemic. HIV entered the U.S. in the 1970’s, but didn’t make traction in the media until the 1980’s. The Reagan administration’s first reaction to the epidemic was shocking, treating it as a joke, labeling it as “the gay plague”. Reagan directed most of his attention to the war effort, giving a lackluster response to the breakout of Aids, and today over 700,000 people have died from aids. The political pressure that came with the Cold War brought America to focus on new revolutionary sciences, tragically failing to give the Aids epidemic the attention it needed, costing the lives of many.
Humanity has been ridden with global conflict for all of history, but the rapid progression of cutting edge technology has escalated the consequences and potential harm of modern conflict. The fear of World War 3 has been in the back of the minds of many, with many countries violating the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) put into place by The United Nations, and secretly putting scientists to the task of building nuclear arms. The pressure and conflict that comes from modern global concerns of war such as nuclear weapons takes priority, taking attention and resources away from scientific problems and motives.