Editing 1904: Research Risks

{{comic
| number    = 1904
| date      = October 18, 2017
| title     = Research Risks
| image     = research_risks.png
| titletext = The 1919 Great Boston Molasses Flood remained the deadliest confectionery containment accident until the Canadian Space Agency's 2031 orbital maple syrup delivery disaster.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a comparison of the possibility of the subjects of various sciences being a threat to humanity. It can either be an autonomous threat to the local population (i.e. by escape from a lab), or as part of a supervillain's scheme to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkT19uH2RQ rule the world]. 

In general, areas of study that could be used by supervillains, but are unlikely to "break free" refer to technologies that are unlikely to be self-propagating or self-maintaining, but could be used as weapons or for some other form of control. Subjects that could break free, but are unlikely to be used by supervillains are all living organisms (which could presumably breed and multiply without human intervention), but which have little potential as weapons.  Areas of study that fall in both categories are either more controllable forms of biology (microbiology, genetic engineering), forms of technology that could become self-propagating (robotics), or a study where a release could be dangerous without being self-propagating (chemistry).

The category of a low risk of either could, of course, contain many fields of study, as most research fields have limited potential for weaponry and little danger of going out of control on a large scale.  

See the chart below for detailed explanations of each scatter point.

There have so far been several similar comics with such [[:Category:Scatter plots|scatter plots]]. See for instance [[1242: Scary Names]], [[1468: Worrying]], [[1501: Mysteries]] and [[1701: Speed and Danger]].

The title text is related to the Molasses Storage entry at the bottom left of the chart, and references the {{w|Great Molasses Flood}}, also known as the Great Boston Molasses Flood. It occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of {{w|Boston}}, {{w|Massachusetts}} (the state in which [[Randall]] lives). A large {{w|molasses}} storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The joke in the title text is that in 2031 (14 years after the release of this comic) the {{w|Canadian Space Agency}} has an even more serious disaster, which will be known as the orbital {{w|maple syrup}} delivery disaster. The title text claims that this disaster then became the deadliest {{w|confectionery}} containment accident, thus killing more than 21 people.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Risk of Breaking Free !! Risk of Supervillain !! Research field !! Research Risks !! Comments
|-
| 6% || 90% || Prosthetics || Cyborgs || A large number of villains in media have had augmentative and non-augmentative prosthetics for various reasons. However, there's very little risk of individual prosthetic limbs getting loose and terrorizing people.
|-
| 21% || 83% || Neuroscience || Mind Control || Neuroscience is the study of the human brain. While the greatest risk in this field is the danger that mad scientists will adapt its findings for nefarious purposes, {{w|Fiend Without a Face|horror movies}} will attest that there is always a chance that brains will break out of their labs and perpetrate violence of their own accord.
|-
| 2% || 76% || Laser Optics || Something like {{w|Laser Weapon System}}. Or a powerful laser could be used to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQwKe0lggw cut a hero in two] as in {{w|Goldfinger}}. || See {{w|Directed-energy weapon}}. Lasers, like prosthetics, are unlikely to do much damage without people to wield them, though.
|-
| 36% || 77% || Pharmacology || Poisons, drug dealing || Pharmacology studies the effects of medicines and drugs. There are scores of instances where supervillains attempt to use some sort of drug to incapacitate the hero or the general populace, or may use drug trade as a method of generating revenue. It's possible that a laboratory accident may also result in a new or altered creature which can proceed to go on a rampage.
|-
| 19% || 69% || Materials Science || Villains: New materials used for villainous purposes. Escape: new materials turning out to be alive and also evil ||  Adamantium, Vibranium, Kryptonite, etc. Alternatively, {{w|Life (2017 film)|soil samples may contain predatory life form}}.
|-
| 24% || 62% || Sociology || Tyranny, manipulation. || Sociology studies the development and interactive patterns of human societies. While it's unlikely ({{w|American Revolution|though}} {{w|French Revolution|hardly}} {{w|Greek War of Independence|impossible}}) that societies will "escape" and wreak havoc and destruction, this field is very useful to the supervillain that seeks to ingratiate him/herself with people, or otherwise establish their power via Machiavellian means.
|-
| 5% || 57% || History || Supplemental research, {{w|historical negationism}} || History mostly consists of artifacts, data and records, which are unlikely to break free. A particular ''subject'' of history, however, can be of use to a supervillain--for example, one might adapt the methods of previous successful dictators and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9aYrURLHh0  learn from the errors of unsuccessful dictators] to fulfill one's goals. Alternatively, after achieving dictatorial rule, a villain might {{w|Ministries of Nineteen Eighty-Four#Ministry of Truth|alter history in order to consolidate their power}}.
|-
| 36% || 53% || Psychology || Manipulation, Hannibal Lecter || Psychology studies human mentality. It contains the topic of "[http://on-memetics.blogspot.com/2013/10/memetic-hazard.html memetic hazards]" (information bytes that do some sort of harm to the viewer--e.g., propaganda) which could "break out" into the local population. The same supervillainous possibilities as sociology apply. 
|-
| 73% || 95% || Robotics || Villains: Robot minions. Escape: evil robots, nanobots || Robots are minions of villains in many occasions, and research on it could be used to further power them up. Apart from supervillains, popular tropes include robots gaining sentience and killing everything, or nanobots going rogue and [[865: Nanobots|devouring]] everything in their path.
|-
| 92% || 90% || Genetic Engineering || Villains: Modified, super powered minions. Escape: Modified life forms || See {{w|Gene drive}}. Genetic engineering is generally the source of modern monster movie creatures, and the dangers of GMO food are often debated. Meanwhile, it's become common practice for villains to have an army of genetically altered superhumans at their disposal, or an array of useful monsters created via genetic engineering.
|-
| 61% || 77% || Chemistry || Explosives, corrosives, mutagens || Villains could obviously use certain chemicals, like nitroglycerin or chlorine trifluoride, to explode things and wreak general havoc. They could also use unspecified chemicals to modify creatures into monsters to do their bidding, or such monsters could be accidentally produced in a lab, escaping to threaten the locals.
|-
| 97% || 81% || Microbiology || Lethal diseases || See for instance {{w|12 Monkeys}}. Whether the microbes escape on their own (which Randall implies is all-but-inevitable) or are employed by a supervillain, the outcome is similarly horrifying.
|-
| 5% || 41% || Geology || Earthquake machines || Geology is the study of rocks.  Scores below average on the supervillain scale, since aside from the odd supervillain attempting to [https://ask.metafilter.com/28644/Lex-Luther-vs-the-San-Andreas-faultline cause earthquakes], geology is not highly useful to evildoers. It's also very unlikely that rocks will escape and terrorize the world, since they don't tend to move very much.
|-
| 9% || 31% || Linguistics || {{w|Newspeak|1984 Newspeak}} || Aside from the possibility that people in general or supervillains in particular will create deliberately misleading/manipulative language to achieve their purposes, linguistics doesn't pose too much of a threat.
|-
| 16% || 22% || Paleontology || Reviving dinosaurs and other such prehistoric creatures. || Study of fossils. Reviving dinosaurs {{w|Jurassic Park|isn't exactly good for human survival}}. Aside from this possibility, though, [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs|the majority]] of dinosaurs aren't terribly dangerous, being very dead.
|-
| 6% || 12% || Astronomy || Asteroid impact || A villain could divert an asteroid towards Earth. Randall also rates them as unlikely to "break free"; this is likely because asteroids are already "free" in space, because the risk of them "threatening the local population" is very real.
|-
| 33% || 12% || Molasses Storage || Flood || Breaking free chance is medium low as molasses did "escape" at least once in history. See {{w|Great Molasses Flood}}, as referenced in the title text.
|-
| 7% || 4% || Dentistry || Biting as an attack method || Teeth are neither likely to escape on their own, nor terribly useful to villains.
|-
| 70% || 43% || Botany || Man-eating plants, invasive species || Plants are [http://littleshop.wikia.com/wiki/Audrey_II commonly used] in [http://triffids.guidesite.co.uk/triffids horror films] where they mutate and eat everything. 
|-
| 93% || 41% || Entomology || Disease, famine, flesh-eating bugs || Entomology is the study of insects. Insects are small and can often escape through even small cracks, and are known for carrying diseases or destroying crops. They could also mutate into terrifying threats - see for example the movie ''{{w|Empire of the Ants (film)|Empire of the Ants}}''. Entomology is also referenced in [[1012: Wrong Superhero]].
|-
| 60% || 33% || Mycology || Disease, famine, mind-control || {{w|Mycology}} is the study of {{w|fungi}}. Fungi cannot move very far on their own, but their spores could easily spread, therefore, escape probability has been deemed medium high.
|-
| 91% || 26% || Marine Biology || Sharknado, Jaws, {{w|Cthulhu}} || Villains may keep [[1326: Sharks|a tank of sharks]] in order to dispose of opposition; however, as the linked comic implies, it is difficult to control what sharks will do (they might simply swim away). Randall implies that it's more likely that marine creatures will escape on their own and threaten local swimmers.
|-
| 79% || 16% || Ornithology || Escape: predatory birds; pesky invasive species. Villains may sometimes keep a bird of prey as a pet || Ornithology is the study of birds. The ability to fly makes escape easier for birds than, say, rocks, and it's possible that certain escaped species of birds may {{w|The Birds (film)|threaten the local population directly}} (by pecking/diving at them) or indirectly (perhaps they're an invasive species, capable of outcompeting native birds and unbalancing the local ecosystem).
|-
|}

Note : percentages refer to the position of the center of the smallest enclosing rectangle around each name. 0% and 100% correspond to the low and high arrow tips, respectively.

==Transcript==
:[A chart with two crossing lines with double arrows. Each arrow is labeled:]
:Y axis top: High
:Y axis bottom: Low
:X axis left: Low
:X axis right: High

:[Near each of the "high" ends of the two axis there is a label written in gray, with a line pointing to the relevant axis:]
:Y axis: Risk of your research being used by a supervillain for world domination
:X axis: Risk of the thing you're studying breaking free from your facility and threatening the local population

:[The following points are on the charts upper left quadrant (in reading order):]
:Prosthetics
:Neuroscience
:Laser Optics
:Pharmacology
:Materials Science
:Sociology
:History
:Psychology

:[The following points are on the charts upper right quadrant (in reading order):]
:Robotics
:Genetic Engineering
:Chemistry
:Microbiology

:[The following points are on the charts lower left quadrant (in reading order):]
:Geology
:Linguistics
:Paleontology
:Astronomy
:Molasses Storage
:Dentistry

:[The following points are on the charts lower right quadrant (in reading order):]
:Botany
:Entomology
:Mycology
:Marine Biology
:Ornithology

==Trivia==
* The comic initially had the erroneous spelling "Entymology" (possibly a mistaken mix-up between etymology and entomology, similar to [[1012: Wrong Superhero]]). This was later changed to the correct "Entomology".
* The SSL-Certificate of xkcd expired while this comic was online, causing a non-reachability of the site. 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]
[[Category:Mycology]]