ABSTRACT
At 8:15 am on 6 August 1945, the first atomic bomb used against human beings exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb, packed full of uranium-235, exploded 600 metres above the city as two pieces of uranium were catapulted into each other, creating a super-critical mass of radioactive material that initiated a chain reaction. This uncomfortable truth, that scientific knowledge has the propensity for both good and bad, is rarely captured in the school science classroom. Instead, science is portrayed as a method in search of objective truths, without much thought as to why these ideas arose in the first place. For a long time now, school science has been justified on the basis that science teachers need to educate future scientists. This virtuous aim makes perfect sense until they consider that only 20% of the UK workforce need scientific training to do their jobs.
