Understanding Science and Technology Impact

Behavior Setting

• The material environment that human behavior occurs in.
• Technology can influence this setting and the speed at which socio-cultural change occurs.

Consequentialist Ethical Theories

• The "rightness" or "wrongness" of actions is determined solely by their consequences.

Big Science

• Scientific research since WWII has required large amounts of funding, personnel, and resources.

Big Technology

• Technological activity since the mid-19th century has required significant funding, staff, and resources.

Context of Science and Technology

• The social and natural environment in which scientific and technological activities occur.
• The context is affected by and affects the process and products of these activities.

Cultural Convergence

• Similarity of content or structure in different cultures.

Cultural System

• The complete set of a society's values, beliefs, and behaviors - often divided into four subsystems:
  • Ideational
  • Societal
  • Material
  • Personality-Behavioral

Culture

• A group's or society's inherited and transmitted way of life.
• Includes ideas, beliefs, values, social structures, and material artifacts.
• Behavior is influenced by and influences culture.

Cumulative Synthesis Theory of Invention

• Inventions are a cumulative, synthetic social process with four stages of novelty:
  • Perception of a problem
  • Setting the problem up for a solution
  • Critical act of insight
  • Critical revision

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)

• DNA is a double helix molecule.
• All organisms have only two forms of base pairs:
  • Adenine-Thymine (A-T) or Thymine-Adenine (T-A)
  • Guanine-Cytosine (G-C) or Cytosine-Guanine (C-G)
• Determines the accurate copying of nucleotide sequences during cell division or protein biosynthesis.

Ecosystem

• A biological system in a specific location with a unique mix of living organisms and physical properties.

Engineering

• A profession that designs, produces, and operates technical systems to meet human needs.

Enskilling Effect

• Work situations that require workers to learn and use new skills not needed in previous roles.

Environmental Impact Statement

• A systematic assessment of the potential effects of a technological initiative on the environment and human-built structures.

Health and Safety Issues

• Risks associated with science and technology, such as exposure to chemicals or radiation.
• May lead to fewer fatal accidents but increased disabling diseases.

Heroic Theory of Invention

• Inventions are created by individuals due to their genius, determination, and hard work.

High Technology

• Technologies that rely on advanced scientific or engineering knowledge, such as those used in microelectronics, biotechnology, and aerospace.
• Characterized by companies using a higher than average ratio of research and development expenditures to sales.

Hypothesis

• A testable scientific idea that can be proven right or wrong.
• A hypothesis is a question that can be predicted, verified, or falsified.

Public Participation in Science and Technology

• Involvement of the general public or their representatives in decision-making about scientific and technological affairs.

Purposes or Functions Characteristic of Scientific and Technological Activity

• Science: to understand the natural world
• Technology: to expand the realm of human possibilities

Quantum Mechanics

• Explains the behavior of atoms and subatomic particles.
• Explains the wave-particle duality of light, chemical bonds, and radioactivity.

Rationalization

• Shifting from decisions based on tradition or sentiment to decisions based on calculations and knowledge.

Scientific Management

• Techniques for analyzing and specifying work tasks, evaluating worker performance, and using knowledge and procedure to manage work.

Science

• Organized and well-founded knowledge of natural phenomena.
• Systematic inquiry into these phenomena.
• A field of human cultural activity.
• The total societal enterprise dedicated to the study and understanding of the natural world.

Scientific Theory

• An established and experimentally verified fact or collection of facts about the world.
• Not an unproved idea or just theory, unlike the everyday use of the word.

Technology

• The complex of knowledge, materials, and methods used in making a particular technology.
• A distinctive form of human cultural activity.
• The societal enterprise dedicated to researching, developing, producing, operating, and maintaining technology.

Technology Assessment

• Systematic estimation of the potential social, economic, environmental, and health consequences of new technologies or policies.

Technology Transfer

• The transmission of technical systems and knowledge associated with technology.

Time Orientation Toward Work

• A modern cultural view of work as replaceable labor carried out for a set period of time, regardless of task completion.

Virus

• The smallest type of organism, often not considered alive.
• Relies on a host organism such as bacteria, plants, or animals for reproduction.
• Viruses have no metabolism of their own and depend on passive carriers for transportation.