Cat’s Cradle Ch. 13-27 Discussion

Readaround Upon finishing the quiz, review the boxes you filled in for your unit guide. Select a question or a quote to read aloud to the class when it is your turn.

Scientific Truth What is the objective of science? What does it mean to think scientifically? Is a scientist responsible for the outcomes of his research and discoveries?

Dr. Breed “The trouble with the world [is]… that people [are] still superstitious instead of scientific…. [I]f everybody would study science more, there wouldn’t be all the trouble there [is].” “New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.”

Vonnegut “I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a color photograph of God Almighty—and sold it to Popular Mechanics magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable. What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima.”

Ice-Nine What is ice-nine? What if…?

Interview INTERVIEWER Some of the characters in Cat’s Cradle were based on people you knew at G.E., isn’t that so? VONNEGUT Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the absentminded scientist, was a caricature of Dr. Irving Langmuir, the star of the G.E. research laboratory. I knew him some. My brother worked with him. Langmuir was wonderfully absentminded. He wondered out loud one time whether, when turtles pulled in their heads, their spines buckled or contracted. I put that in the book. One time he left a tip under his plate after his wife served him breakfast at home. I put that in.

Interview VONNEGUT His most important contribution, though, was the idea for what I called “Ice-9,” a form of frozen water that was stable at room temperature. He didn’t tell it directly to me. It was a legend around the laboratory—about the time H. G. Wells came to Schenectady. That was long before my time. I was just a little boy when it happened—listening to the radio, building model airplanes.

Interview VONNEGUT Anyway—Wells came to Schenectady, and Langmuir was told to be his host. Langmuir thought he might entertain Wells with an idea for a science-fiction story—about a form of ice that was stable at room temperature. Wells was uninterested, or at least never used the idea. And then Wells died, and then, finally, Langmuir died. I thought to myself: “Finders, keepers—the idea is mine.” Langmuir, incidentally, was the first scientist in private industry to win a Nobel Prize.

Ch. 15-17 Reread the chapters. Discuss #1-3 with groups. Individually, write thoughtful responses to each.

Irony example: Quote - Speaking to John of a mass murderer, Dr. Breed exclaims, “Think of it! … Twenty-six people he had on his conscience!” (29). Irony: Dr. Breed, who could have hundreds of thousands of people on his conscience due to the destruction of the atomic bomb, marvels at the prospect of someone feeling guilt for 26 deaths. Point: Immoral uses for science are enabled when scientists, like Breed, sever all connection between their work and their consciences.

Ch. 28 Read the chapter. Thoughts? Read on.

Homework Read Ch. 28-41 400+ word reflection: Unit Guide boxes! 400+ word reflection: Is a scientist responsible for the outcomes of his research and discoveries? Explain your opinion by referring to examples from the book and also examples from real life. In order to establish a “real world example” you should cite a minimum of one other source. Please cite your source at the bottom of the reflection. A hyperlink is not a citation! Post to Turnitin.com.