Without doubt, the study of science and technology is right now about as sexy as anyone can imagine, at least when it comes to the education of American Youth. Yes, indeed, local TV stations play up the "STEM" curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

For all their benefits, it must be noted that science, technology and engineering have also given us grave problems facing the world (human-caused climate change, environmental degradation, weaponry of mass destruction et alia). It would be nice to think that the some of the efforts of STEM would be to correct these threats. More likely, STEM will be a way of discovering the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, get full benefit of their talents and increase corporate profit margins (and hang the consequences).

The study of History, by contrast seems to be a step-child again. At best it becomes a form of entertainment (why open a history book, when you can watch "Turn"?); at worst the past is manipulated and distorted to support political agendas. General Washington exemplifies both extremes: to many he's a cartoonish figure replete with wooden teeth, while simultaneously he's a demigod, sans reproche.

Many people have expressed their dislike of history considering it to be nothing but an amorphous mass of "names and dates," which seems to be an excuse to deemphasize its study. Yes, history has names and dates that need to be recalled, but it is ultimately the study of human activity. All of it, including arts and sciences, material culture and intellectual activity, peace and conflict, progress and regress, good times and bad is what history is all about.

Does history offer anything useful beyond rote memorization? Rather. Language arts — reading and writing — are perhaps the most obvious benefits. Studying history also promotes critical thinking by analyzing documents; using the historical record to go beyond the simple "when, who and what" to the "why" of historic events.

Consider this account from the Annual Register of 1769: "On the 28th of August, about eight in the morning, much lightning fell, at Brescia, upon a magazine, in which were about twelve thousand rubbi of fine cannon powder… This powder instantly took fire; and the explosion was so great, that it overturned about a sixth part of the houses in the town, and buried near 3000 persons under their ruins… The explosion was so violent, that the strongest fastenings, at 18 miles distance, were forced open: some pieces of stone carried ten miles, and a cannon of twenty five cwt. driven two miles and a half."

The mathematics alone are striking: one rubba consisted of 25 libbra or "pounds." A libbra varied from about 11 to 14 ounces. The total gunpowder works out to approximately 103 tons — and a cannon weighing 2,800 pounds was launched two and a half miles.

The disaster was caused by a lightning strike. Just a few years before this incident, Benjamin Franklin had shown lightning to be electricity — a discovery that fascinated educated 18th-century people. Franklin is credited with dubbing the combination of Leyden jars a "battery," comparing the power of electricity to a battery of artillery.

Luigi Galvani was dissecting frogs in the 1780s when his scalpel touched a brass hook holding frog's legs and the muscles contracted. Alessandro Volta later proved it was the interaction of two metals creating an electric charge — but that didn't stop Victor Frankenstein from using electricity to revive dead tissue in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel.

The explosion at Brescia could have been prevented with 18th-century cutting-edge technology: lightning rods. Franklin, Henry Cavendish, William Watson and J. Robertson proposed in 1772 to the Royal Society that all powder magazines be protected by lightning rods.

There is one other very important lesson students of STEM ought to gain from the terrible event at Brescia in 1769: responsibility. Gunpowder was the most powerful agent in the hands of humans in the 18th Century; its storage should have been done in a safer manner. History can and does teach us that there are consequences of our actions. One can only hope that proponents of STEM will pay attention to lessons from history. If so, it would be a first for our species.