6. The development of genetics and molecular biology (mid-1900's)

Advances in these areas opened up the exciting but also perilous and problematic prospect of genetic engineering. They introduced the possibility of designing and producing new species of plant and animal life, as well as manipulating the genetic makeup of individual specimens of these species.

 

Ivan Soll is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His Top 10 list also focuses on large-scale, far-reaching developments. He sounds a note of caution based on rapid world population growth and technological development, referring to our "tendency to pollute, or otherwise destroy without using, the very resources we so desperately need."

1.

Advances in physical theory (early 1900's)

2. The development of nuclear energy (mid-1900's)
3. The rise of the Information Age (middle to late 1900's)
4.

The worldwide revolution in transportation (throughout the 1900's)

5. The development of antibiotics and other medical therapies (mid-1900's)
6. The development of genetics and molecular biology (mid-1900's)
7. The rise and fall of Communism in Europe (1917-1990's)
8. The explosion and concentration of the world's population (throughout the 1900's)
9. The depletion and pollution of the world's resources (middle to late 1900's)
10. The impact of globalization (middle to late 1900's)