Science and Technology: Lesson 1 Overview

Lesson 1: Science and Technology in the World

• This lesson covers different historical periods and the development of science and technology within those periods.

Ancient Age: Three-Age System

• The three-age system was introduced in the early 19th century by Christian Jurgensen Thomsen.
• This system categorized artifacts based on the materials they were crafted from.
• The system gave rise to the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. These are chronologically successive prehistoric periods.

Stone Age (2.5 MYA-3000 BC)

• The Stone Age was a period where tools, weapons, and other objects were made from stone, wood, bone, or other materials.
• John Lubbock further categorized the Stone Age into the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, representing evolving tool technology.
• In the 19th century, De Mortillet proposed the Mesolithic period as a transitional phase between Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.
• This period saw a shift from chipped to polished stone tools. This period is also associated with the use of fire and cultural advancements.

Paleolithic Period (Old Stone)

• This was the longest phase of human history. Lasting from 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BC.
• Early humans transformed from ape-like creatures to Homo sapiens.
• Humans were hunter-gatherers and employed tools made from stones, flints, bones, and antlers.
• They lived in small, nomadic or semi-nomadic bands.

Lower Paleolithic Period

•  This is the earliest Paleolithic period.
•  Simple tools, including stone choppers, were developed more than 1 million years ago by early humans.
•  These early humans were likely Australopithecus ancestors
•  Tools were used in hunting and food gathering.
•   These types of tools fell into core and flake categories.

Middle Paleolithic Period

• This period featured early human ancestors, the Neanderthals.
• Neanderthals were known to use fire, stone tools of flake types, for hunting.
•  They developed bone implements such as needles for sewing garments made of animal hides or furs.
• Evidence of intentional burial rituals and possible religious practices suggests a higher level of cognitive and social development.

Upper Paleolithic Period

• Various Homo sapiens cultures dominated during this period.
• Communal hunting and fishing.
• There were complex beliefs and practices.
• Making personal ornaments out of materials like bones, horns, and ivory.
• The first evidence of pit dwellings, man-made shelters.
• Paleolithic art, such as carvings and paintings on cave walls, emerged.

Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone)

• Occurred between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.
• Characterized by a gradual change in human life due to receding glaciers and the formation of forest and desert landscapes.
• Humans started making pottery and utilizing bows.
• A transitional shift emerged from gathering food to cultivating crops (food production).
• Stone tools, smaller and more delicate than Paleolithic tools, known as microliths became prominent.

Neolithic Period (New Stone)

• This period was primarily based on agriculture and wide-spread domestication of plants and animals.
• The development of numerous settled villages.
• Evidence of agricultural practices (cultivating crops).
• The production of pottery and weaving.
• The increasing population led to the formation of various urban civilizations.
• Metal tools started to appear towards the end of this period.

Bronze Age (3000 BC-1200 BC)

• The production of tools from bronze (an alloy of copper and tin), became widespread.
• Metal extraction, smelting, melting, and molding were key processes to create bronze tools.
• Sumerians made important discoveries related to blending copper with tin to create bronze, a more durable and robust metal.
• The knowledge about bronze-making spread to different parts of the world gradually.

Iron Age (1500 BC – 450 AD)

• The utilization of iron tools and other materials made from iron, began.
• Smelting pits, capable of creating higher temperatures, were necessary to produce iron ore.

Middle Ages (450-1450 AD)

• Subdivided into Dark and High Middle Ages.
• Significant advancements in science and technology occurred.
• Examples: motion and obstruction laws, 365 ¼ day calendars, decimals, and acupuncture.

Scientific Revolution

• This period saw tremendous advancements in science and intellectual pursuits.
• The shift from a geocentric view of the universe (Earth-centered) to a heliocentric view (Sun-centered).
• This period also marked significant changes in the methodology of scientific inquiry
• key contributors include Copernicus (heliocentric model), Kepler (planetary motion laws), Galileo Galilei (motion analysis), and Newton (laws of motion and universal gravitation).

Industrial Revolution

• This period marked technological advancements through machines to replace human and animal labor.
• Examples of technological innovations: steamships, bunsen burners, telephones, radios, the cotton gin, and the fly-shuttle.

18th-19th Century

• Significant advancements in science emerged
• New discoveries and contributions: Alessandro Volta (battery), Wilhelm Roentgen(X-rays), John Dalton (atomic theory), Robert Hooke (cells), Anton van Leeuwenhoek (microorganisms), and Robert Brown (cell nucleus).

20th Century to Date

• Methodological and structural changes in science and technology were visible.
• Inventions that emerged include biogas, cellular phones, atomic bombs, calculators, and airplanes.
• This period saw important advancements in scientific knowledge, including the discovery of proton (Ernest Rutherford), neutron (James Chadwick), first moonwalk (Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin), and Continental Drift theory (Alfred Wegener).

Information Age

• This era followed the industrial age.
• Marked by the shift from traditional industries to an information-based economic model.
• Fueled by computerization, personal computers, and easy access to information. Often referred to as the digital age or new media age.

Pre-Gutenberg World

• Books were handwritten and rare prior to Gutenberg's invention.
• Access to information was limited to the elite—most information was spread via word-of-mouth.

Gutenberg Revolution

• Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type printing.
• The printing press enabled broader access to information from printed materials (books).
• Initially the primarily topics written about were religious and scientific topics.

Post-Gutenberg World

• The era of the internet and the world-wide web.
• The easier access to, sharing, and uploading and downloading of different forms of media such as videos, audio, images became possible.
• Dissemination of information was faster and easier

Technology in Digital Age

• Charles Babbage is considered the "Father of Computers".
• The invention of more advanced computer capabilities for calculations and decision making during the early part of this era.
• Development of the internet starting in the 1960s, initially a government controlled project - later becoming more accessible to the general public
• Emergence of different technologies such as World Wide Web (Tim Berners-Lee). Development of email (Shiva Ayyadurai), search engines (Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin), social networks (Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg). other social networking technology such as Twitter (Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams), videos sharing applications (YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen). photo/video sharing applications such as (Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger)