This term is also used to refer to programs which may have a negative effect on society, humanity, and the universe at large in the name of progress.

For instance, The Human Genome Project, and cloning.

Other things that are commonly refered to as Pandora's Box are events which would set a precedent that could have a dramatic negative impact on some or many things. However, whether something is or isn't a Pandora's Box is usually open to debate and controversy.

Just understand that when someone says that a piece of legislation, a scientific revelation, or anything else is a Pandora's Box, they think that it will unleash many consequences, and generally speaking the term isn't used in a manner where the person who invokes it thinks that the consequences are a good thing.

1929 silent movie, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and based on Wedekind's play, Lulu, Pandora's Box was the film that brought Louise Brooks to international notice. Yes, Jack the Ripper appears as a character, and Brooks plays a seductress/prostitute who destroys men with her beauty but this a complex, tragic film that never dips into the strange campiness and melodramatic weirdness of other silent films of the era. Brooks' performance is magical.

In Greek Mythology, Pandora and her Box were actually made by Zeus to punish mankind. Prometheus stole the heavenly fire from Zeus, and gave it to man, and this angered the god.

Zeus created Pandora ("all-gifted") with the help of the other gods at Mount Olympus. She was an incredibly attractive creature, endowed with many charms. Zeus offered her as a gift to Prometheus, but he wisely rejected her, expecting a trap from the king of gods. Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, could not believe such a beutiful creature could be evil, so he took her in under his wing.

Pandora is then given a box by Zeus, which she opens in spite of being told not to. In the box, Zeus has placed all diseases, sorrows, crimes and misery that would inflict humanity once the box was opened. The only good thing was Hope lying in the bottom, which even Zeus had not managed to remove.

The story is very much like the Christian creation myth. After man has received the heavenly fire, he lives a wonderful, worryless life (Paradise). He is given a beautiful woman by the god. The woman yields to temptation, doing what she is told not to. This causes all the pain in the world.