Two stories in the news recently caught my eye. In the first, a janitor allegedly shut off the power to a freezer after hearing “annoying alarms.” He ended up ruining decades of research. In the other story, an American couple found dead in their hotel room allegedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning after hotel staff had disabled alarms for the deadly gas. Guests reportedly repeatedly complained about the loud alarms.

Despite very different circumstances, the stories had much in common. In both cases, controls (alarms) had been put in place to prevent a potentially serious problem. In both cases, the controls were not enough, costing two lives and the loss of years of work.