Yes. I'm a doctor, an epidemiologist, and lots of my professional colleagues flip back and forth between industry and medical roles. I know them; they are not bad people. But it is possible for good people in bad systems to do things that inflict enormous harm.
Interpretation
Even well-intentioned individuals can cause harm when operating within flawed systems.
This quote highlights the complexity of human behavior, particularly in professional settings. It emphasizes that people who are fundamentally good can still contribute to negative outcomes when they are part of broken systems or structures that do not support ethical practices, suggesting a need for reform and awareness in such environments.
In practice
During a conference on public health, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of ethical practices in medical systems.
Teaching needs an ecosystem that supports evidence-based practice. It will need better systems to disseminate the results of research more widely, but also a better understanding of research, so that teachers can be critical consumers of evidence.
Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.
Our criteria is that it's okay to invest in companies so long as they stop lobbying in Washington, stop exploring for new hydrocarbons, and sit down with every one else to plan to keep 80 percent of the reserves in the ground.
The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response.
We live on a minute island of known things. Our undiminished wonder at the mystery which surrounds us is what makes us human. In science fiction we can approach that mystery, not in small, everyday symbols, but in bigger ones of space and time.
When I write a scientific treatise, I might reach 100 people. When the 'National Geographic' covers a project, it communicates about plants and fish and underwater technology to more than 10 million people.
It's often better to read first-rate science fiction than second-rate science - it's far more stimulating, and perhaps no more likely to be wrong.
Now I know what the atom looks like.
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