In our everyday imaginations we use the laws of nature with their tremendous possibilities of technical progress for the benefit of mankind. The three catastrophes of Chernobyl (26 April 1986), Fukushima Daichii (11 March 2011) and in the Gulf of Mexico, explosion of the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon (20 April 2010), have shaken this world view. Who directed this development? Is it a matter of human error or technical failure? For the answer, approaches from the natural sciences and the humanities are presented.