他们和爱因斯坦一样，因自己的发明而后悔

    “我有罪，”听闻广岛遭原子弹袭击，爱因斯坦喃喃说道。

    发明家和科研工作者对他们的发明感到后悔的情形，其实并不罕见。虽然爱因斯坦并未直接参与原子弹的研制，但他认为自己是始作俑者，并对此深感后悔。

    与之类似，炸药和其它武器技术的发明者阿尔弗莱德•诺贝尔设立了诺贝尔和平奖，以表彰和平的促进者，但爱因斯坦认为，诺贝尔这样做其实是为了赎罪。

    至于任何一项发明在本质上是否具有正面意义或负面意义，你可以去问问亚瑟•高仕登，他的研究催生了橙剂，这种高效的除草剂本来是用于促进农作物生长的，但在越战期间，美军却将大量橙剂喷洒在越南游击队藏身的丛林中，不仅导致环境严重受损，还造成了大量畸形儿。

    高仕登在2003年说：“你知道吗，没有哪一件你为科学所做的事，能够保证为人类带来福祉。我相信，任何科学发现都是道德中立的，既可以用于建设性目的，也可以被用于破坏性目的。那并不是科学的错。”

    不过，依然有一些科学家向公众致歉，他们也觉得自己发明了难以控制的“怪物”，以下是10个近期或者不太为人所知的例子。

    “Woe is me,” said Albert Einstein on learning of the bombing of Hiroshima.

    It’s not unusual for inventors, researchers, and developers to rue their creations. Although Einstein didn’t work directly on the atomic bomb, he regretted his role in encouraging its development.

    Similarly, Alfred Nobel, who developed dynamite and other weapons technologies, launched the Nobel Peace Prize to award promoters of peace,which Einstein interpreted his motivation for establishing the prize as atonement.

    As to whether any invention or discovery is intrinsically positive or negative, ask Arthur Galston, whose research led to the development of Agent Orange, an herbicide intially intended to help grow crops but which caused extensive environmental damage as well as birth defects when used in Vietnam.

    He said in 2003, “You know, nothing that you do in science is guaranteed to result in benefits for mankind. Any discovery, I believe, is morally neutral and it can be turned either to constructive ends or destructive ends. That’s not the fault of science.”

    Still come apologies from those who feel they’ve created a monster. Here are 10 recent or less known examples of such regrets.

    1．咖啡胶囊(K Cup)

    1992年，约翰•沙利文与Keurig咖啡公司一道发明了这种一次性的速融咖啡胶囊。它造成的不可降解垃圾每年可环绕地球10.5圈。最近他对《大西洋杂志》表示：“有时我为发明这个东西感到后悔。”

    后来，沙利文创办了一家名叫Zonbak的光伏企业，期望部分抵销他的发明对环境带来的损害。同时，Keurig绿山咖啡公司宣称将于2020年之前生产一款可以回收的K-Cup胶囊。

    1.K Cups

    In 1992, John Sylvain developed the now ubiquitous single-serve, instant brew plastic pods for use with Keurig coffee makers that generated enough non-biodegradable waste last year to encircle the globe 10.5 times. He recently told the Atlantic, “I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it.”

    With his current company Zonbak, he’s in the solar panel business, in hopes of at least partially offsetting his creation’s environmental damage. Meanwhile, Keurig Green Mountain has pledged to create a recyclable K-Cup by 2020.