Pros And Cons Of Lasers

In the articles, “Lasers: The Light Fantastic!” and “The Steam Engine Powers a Revolution” both texts offer valid points of the positive and negative effects of technological advances. The first article gives insight into the pros of lasers, while the second article show us the cons that the steam engine had. Both articles expresses the idea, that not all technological advances are going to be great and not all or going to fail.
Technological advances has pros, both articles express that. In, “Lasers: The Light Fantastic!” the author shows the pros of lasers by expressing the purpose of creating the laser. Scientists wanted to keep the intensity of the light the same as it is at its source from a farther point. Scientists created the laser

so that it could emit light and not diffuse the way an ordinary light does. Six decades after its creation, the laser have become an important part of scientific research, industry, medicine, and daily life. Lasers have been used to measure the distance between Earth and the moon. It has also been used to map rivers, mountains, mines, and also to identify the source of earthquakes. Lasers play a great part in medicine, now most surgeries include using lasers. Lasers also play a role in our daily life, if we put a CD or DVD in lasers are scanning it to reproduce what we want to see or hear. While there are some “cons” to lasers, the pros outway any future inventions. Lasers are a great technological advance and the author shows that in the article.
In, “The Steam Engine Powers a Revolution” the author shows that great inventions can also have cons by showing the cons of the steam engine.

One con was that the steam engine was powered by wood and coal. As the demand for wood and coal increased, forests all over Great Britain and Europe were cut down and people were working 24 hours a day mining coal wherever the resource was found. A few generations later, the negative effects started to set in. A mixture of smoke and fog, or smog, with other dangerous chemicals from factories filled the skies of major cities, killing thousands of people yearly. Coal miners suffered the disease “black lung” which was the pollution turning their organs used for breathing into useless tissue. The text also states, factories not only polluted the air but, they polluted the water also. Deadly substances including: dyes, human sewage, rotting carcasses, and mercury were spilled into waterways and contaminated drinking and bathing water. Population of cities grew because poor people came from different areas looking for work. Workers, including children as young as 6 or 7, spent up to 16 hours a day to afford barely enough milk and bread to survive. Even though the steam engine was thought of as a great invention, when we look back upon the Industrial Age we shouldn’t forget all the hardships the steam engine caused and all the lives lost because of

it.
In conclusion, technological advances can have both pros and cons. Both articles,”Lasers: The Light Fantastic” and “The Steam Engine Powers a Revolution” express this idea by giving examples. The first article showed the pros of lasers, stating how it has made a big impact on the world in fields such as: medicine, industry, and scientific research. While, the second article states the cons of steam engines, expressing this by showing how the steam engine caused thousands of lives to be lost. Both of these articles give insight into the good and bad of technological advances.