Not all scientific studies are meaningful and worthwhile tax-payers’ dollars, like atomic bombs.
As a life science scholar, there are two areas of biological studies that I don’t want to be involved in.
One is anti-aging study. I don’t oppose disease treatment, I just think the idea of “being young forever” is greedy and ridiculous. We all have expiry day. That’s a fantastic concept to make human beings value their life and time. We live in the moment, for the past is gone and future is yet to come. When our time is up, “ash to ash dust to dust”, it is a natural phenomenon called metabolism for all the organisms in the earth. Humans are no exception.
The other is research on cannabis. I respect free wills and I do realize that recreational drugs can relieve mental health issues to some extent as well as being vital to patients under palliative care. However, the current cannabis studies are more like a grey zone which lack strict laws and regulations due to the various political policies in different regions. Private funding for cannabis focuses more on addiction than the medicinal aspect. I don’t feel at ease to perform such study for now.
Science and technology are double-edged swords.