I just read something on boingboing.net about the government putting more regulations on the availability of various chemicals, including many used by kids in science experiments. The impetus is to avoid the easy availability of chemicals that are potentially dangerous in the wake of homebrew bombing incidents like the Oklahoma City thing several years ago. I understand the desire for this, but they aren't looking at the downsides much. Consider first that I hear time and time again that not enough Americans are going in to the hard sciences. Then consider how many people that are now high up at NASA or JPL or inventing new vaccines in a medical lab played around with chemistry kits in their basements when they were kids. Think they'd still be scientists if their curiousity was as restricted as the government seems to want it to be? I know my Dad played around with a lot of stuff in his basement lab as a teen. Granted, he did not go on to a career in the sciences, but a lot of other kids doing the same things did. You just can't put restriction after restriction on the toys of science that make children want to become scientists, and then expect a growth in those careers. It's stupid, and yet another reason the nanny state ideology is slowly destroying many of the things that make the U.S. so great.

Practically every tangible item on Earth has the potential to cause harm. How many people have been killed with fireplace pokers over the years? Maybe we should restrict those only to people who have proper licenses to use pokers in business-related activities.