When reading about the history of science, you often learn about individual people and the amazing things they discovered or invented. However, when learning about experiments from long ago, you might not agree with the methods used at the time. If scientists repeated the experiments today, they would probably make some changes in how they are carried out.

Priestley’s experiments, for example, were a remarkable breakthrough in the understanding of photosynthesis. He helped show an important relationship between plants and animals. However, his experiments resulted in the death of a lot of mice.

Answer one of the following prompts to begin your discussion:

Do you think that the results of Priestley’s experiments were important enough to make it okay that so many mice were killed in his experiments? Why or why not?
If you could do the experiment again, how would you design it so that you could reach the same conclusions without harming any animals?