Congressional DNA-destruction material ban proposal

Europeans were doing something else more recently. One time, twenty years ago, my old thesis advisor walks into my office. He had a copy of the periodic table and he had X-ed out chlorine, because the Norwegians had decided that chlorine was a bad actor in the environment, and they were going to eliminate chlorine from the environment. How are you going to do that when the oceans are full of three-and-a-half percent chlorine? We just get rid of the oceans, right? Once Congress was about to pass a law — someone stopped them — but they were going to ban any material that would destroy DNA. One of the most potent materials for destroying DNA is called oxygen. Under this law, Congress would have banned oxygen. You know what, we wouldn't have had to worry about any environmental problems from then on — we'd all be dead. This is what happens when non-scientists try to dabble in science.

Congress nearly passed a law banning anything that destroys DNA; would have outlawed oxygen. Used as the punchline for "politicians taking over science."

Congress once almost outlawed oxygen. They were trying to pass a law saying that anything that destroys DNA was going to be illegal. One of the most potent things that destroys DNA is oxygen. It oxidizes the polymer, just like other polymers oxidize. And Congress was going to write this law that said anything that destroys DNA will be outlawed. They didn't realize until someone finally stopped them that they were going to outlaw oxygen. That would be really effective law, wouldn't it. We wouldn't have to worry about cancer anymore — everybody'd be dead.