Science, Technology, and Society - Chapter 2 PDF

# Science, Technology, and Society ## Learning Outcomes At the end of the unit, the students will be able to: 1. Explain the historical timeline of Science and Technology. 2. Analyze the differences among the different periods involved in the development of Science and Technology. 3. Synthesize a...

# Science, Technology, and Society ## Learning Outcomes At the end of the unit, the students will be able to: 1. Explain the historical timeline of Science and Technology. 2. Analyze the differences among the different periods involved in the development of Science and Technology. 3. Synthesize and create their own definition of Science and Technology based on the discussion in this unit. ## Science, Technology and Society: World History Science and Technology have been evident since the beginning of time. New knowledge made it possible to create new things that would help them improve their everyday living. Development in the field of Science has helped humans to have a better life while advancement in Technology made the lives people much easier by developing new machines that helped the way of living of humans effortless. In combination, Science and Technology transformed the lives of humans. They help provide growth in the fields of medicine, transportation, engineering, and even entertainment that until today people are benefiting from. The development of Science and Technology has gone so far, tracing how it all began would give us a better idea of how they have developed since then and what significant changes that have happened throughout time. By looking back at the history of Science and Technology we will be able to determine its progression. ## Historical Antecedents and Developments in Science and Technology ### 1. Science and Technology in Ancient Period Accumulation of knowledge and passing it from generation to generation has begun when the modern humans evolved from their hominid ancestors. They used stones as tools and then learned how to shape stones to make more efficient tools. As the tools improved, people were able to use them to fashion weapons and other artifacts from bone, antler, and wood. They also learned how to capture fire from natural sources such as wildfires, and later to make fire for themselves by using the heat generated by friction or sparks from stones, or by concentrating the sun's heat. Listed below are some of the developments in Science and Technology during the Ancient period (Goddard, J. 2010): | Period | Description | |---|---| | ca 750,000 | Fire was used by Homo erectus. | | ca 45,000 | Stone-headed spears were used in Europe. | | ca 20,000 | The wooden bow and arrow were used in Spain and Saharan Africa. People in Southern Europe used sewing needles made from bone. | | ca 2000 | The Minoans built palaces on Crete. | | ca 1000 | Ironworking was introduced in Greece. | | ca 1000 | Etruscan craftsmen made false teeth from gold. | | ca 8,500 | North Americans made stone arrowheads. | | ca 8,000 | The Folsom people living on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains developed sophisticated tools. | | ca 6000 | Pottery was made in South America. | | ca 2500 | People in the Arctic made flint tools. | | ca 1750 | Peruvians built a long canal to irrigate their crops. | | ca 1200 | Fishermen in Peru made rafts and boats from reeds. | | ca 1200 | Olmec sculptors carved figurines and giant human heads. | | ca 11,000 | The earliest-known clay pots were made in Japan. | | ca 5200 | People in Iran made wine. | | ca 4000 | Bronze was first made in Thailand. | | ca 3500 | The plow was invented in both China and Mesopotamia. | | ca 3000 | Boats in China were equipped with anchors. | | ca 2950 | A lunar calendar was developed in China. | | ca 2500 | Clay pipes were used as drains in Pakistan. | | ca 2500 | Chinese doctors began using acupuncture. | | ca 2296 | Chinese astronomers recorded the sighting of a comet. | | ca 1361 | Chinese astronomers recorded a solar eclipse. | | ca 1000 | The Chinese began writing on bamboo or paper made from bark. | | ca 1000 | The Hindu calendar of 360 days was introduced in India. | | ca 850 | The Chinese used natural gas for lighting. | | ca 1,000,000 | Homo erectus used stone tools. | | ca 1,000,000 | Homo erectus began chipping flakes off stones to sharpen for tools. | | ca 1,000,000 | Homo erectus used antlers to create tools for cutting and drilling. | | ca 15,000 | In Africa, bone harpoons (barbed spears) were used for fishing. | | ca 10,000 | People in Palestine built houses from sun-dried bricks. | | ca 7500 | Clay tokens were used for record-keeping in Mesopotamia. | | ca 600 | The world's first known city was built by the people of Catal Huyuk in Anatolia (modern Turkey). | | ca 6000 | The world's first known city was built in Anatolia | | ca 4236 | Ancient Egyptians devised a 365-day calendar. | | ca 3500 | The wheel was invented in Mesopotamia. | | ca 3100 | Egyptians began using hieroglyphics. | | ca 3000 | The Sumerians introduced a 360-day calendar. | | ca 3000 | Egyptians dam the Garawi River. | | ca 2630 | Egyptians began building pyramids. | | ca 2600 | Mesopotamians made glass. | | ca 2300 | Babylonian astronomers studied comets. | | ca 2300 | The earliest known maps were produced in Mesopotamia. | | ca 2000 | Babylonian mathematicians introduced a positional number system. | | ca 2000 | Medicine became an important science in Syria and Babylon. | | ca 1800 | Mesopotamian mathematicians discovered the "Pythagorean Theorem". | | ca 1750 | Babylonian astronomers compiled lists of planets and stars. | | ca 1550 | Egyptians were using about 700 drugs and medications. | | ca 1350 | The symptoms of leprosy were described in an Egyptian text. | | ca 1200 | The Egyptians dug a canal to join the Nile River to the Red Sea. | | ca 1000 | The Phoenicians developed an alphabet. | | ca 900 | Farmers in Mesopotamia used an irrigation system to water crops. | ### 2. Science and Technology in Medieval Period The Medieval Period, also known as "Dark Ages," was considered to be one of the creative periods in the history of humans and said to be the start of the first industrial revolution. The term "Dark Ages" came up because the few written records remained from the said era. There was very little evidence that will support that there was progress in the society during the periods 500 to 1400. In the years immediately after the fall of Rome, there was a period of readjustment, where medieval society was more concerned with keeping peace and empire-building than nurturing centers of learning. Despite this, Charlemagne (742-814) tried to establish a scholastic tradition, and the later Middle Ages saw advancements in the philosophy of science and the refinement of the scientific method. Far from being a backwards-medieval society, overshadowed by Islam and Byzantium, scholasticism acted as a nucleus for the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This was the time for discovering great inventions in the field of Science and Technology. There is greater advancement in technology and adaptation of Eastern technologies in the West including the invention of vertical windmills, spectacles, mechanical clocks, greatly improved water mills, building techniques like the Gothic style and three-field crop rotation. One of the greatest inventions during the Middle Ages was the "Printing Press" of Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century AD. It was Gutenberg who made printing mechanized. The invention of the printing press itself obviously owed much to the medieval paper press, in turn modeled after the ancient wine-and-olive press of the Mediterranean area. A long handle was used to turn a heavy wooden screw, exerting downward pressure against the paper, which was laid over the type mounted on a wooden platen. In its essentials, the wooden press reigned supreme for more than 300 years, with a hardly varying rate of 250 sheets per hour printed on one side. ### 3. Science and Technology in Renaissance Period The term used to refer as the period of rebirth as age of preparation for the 17th century scientific development and achievements. Renaissance, one greatest achievement in Western Europe, was the technology of printing books and other documents because it helped to rapidly spread knowledge and information as well as the preservation of culture. The technology of the Chinese in preparing printed materials was followed and used by the Muslims and later introduced in Europe. Renaissance connects the period of Middle Ages to modern history. It is closely connected with Italy, where it began in the 14th century, although some European countries also went into the same cultural changes and phenomena. Many historians prefer to think of the Renaissance as primarily an intellectual and cultural movement rather than a historical period. In a published article by Jarus and Szalay (2022), a U.K.-based historian, Robert Wilde, shared that interpreting the Renaissance as a period, though convenient for historians, "masks the long roots of the Renaissance." Accordingly, the historian shared that "the demand for perfect reproductions of texts and the renewed focus on studying them helped trigger one of the biggest discoveries in the whole of human history: printing with movable type." It allowed Bibles, secular books, printed music and more to be made in larger amounts and reach more people. On the other hand, people and a lot of steps were involved. Wood printing first came to the West from China during the year 1250-1350, papermaking originated from China reached to 12th-century in Spain, and the new printers' ink originated from Flemish oil painting. In Germany, Gutenberg made the final steps in the wooden press by casting a metal type and locking into it. The invention spread fast, reaching European countries from 1467-1483. By 1500, Europe had already produced some six million copies of books. Without the printing press, the communication revolution would not have happened and it wound not have transformed the condition of life. The communications revolution greatly made an impact on human opportunities for enlightenment and pleasure and created unimaginable possibilities for manipulation and control on the other. The consideration of these contradictory effects may shield us against a ready acceptance of triumphalist conceptions of the Renaissance or of historical change in general. Also, Polish Mathematician and Astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) made one of the greatest scientific achievements. He presented the theory of heliocentric where he said that the sun is at the center of the solar system instead of the earth. It was a breakthrough in the history of science, though the Catholic Church banned Copernicus' book. Galileo Galilei was also a major Renaissance scientist persecuted for his scientific experiments. Galileo improved the telescope, discovered new celestial bodies, and found support for a heliocentric solar system. He conducted motion experiments on pendulums and falling objects that paved the way for Newton's discoveries about gravity. The Catholic Church forced him to spend the last nine years of his life under house arrest. ### 4. Science and Technology in the 18th Century It began in Great Britain and spread across Europe, America, and even Asia from 1760 to 1840. It was a fundamental change in the way goods were produced, and altered the way people lived. The Industrial Revolution was a time of scientific and technological advancement. The revolution spanned the period from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. Partly through good fortune and partly through conscious effort, Britain by the early 18th century came to possess the combination of social needs and social resources that provided the necessary preconditions of commercially successful innovation and a social system capable of sustaining and institutionalizing the processes of rapid technological change once they had started. One of the major setbacks of Industrial Revolution was skilled workers were set aside because the operation of new machines was used. The companies also hired more women and children which cost less than of the skilled workers. Manual/physical labor was changed into machine-operated devices, even tradesperson replaced the craftsperson and the applied scientist replaced the amateur inventor. Aside from that, three important technologies can be identified that formed the foundations of the first industrial revolution namely iron production, steam engine, and textiles. The steam engine has been around but was later improved by Watt and others after 1778. It was used to run machines and made a major contribution to the first industrial revolution. The steam-powered machine was improved gradually and was adapted for many uses and the use of more complex machinery was made possible. The development and refinement of machine tools by such individuals as Henry Maudslay and Joseph Whitworth played a key and crucial part in the later phase of the first Industrial Revolution as machine tool technology enabled standardized manufacturing machines to be fabricated. Some of the greatest inventions during this period were Robert Fulton's steamboat that used one of James Watt's engines, Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell who patented the telephone, and George Stephenson who developed the first steam-powered locomotive and a whole lot more. ### 5. Science and Technology in the 19th Century The 19th century witnessed the rise of modern industry from agriculture to industrial manufacturing and technology-intensive services. An unending stream of new products turned out by factories employing radically new technologies, skills, and organization drove this emerging modern world. Based on the Gregorian calendar, the 19th century lasted from 1801 to 1900. The invention of usable electricity, steel, and petroleum products led to a second industrial revolution during the 19th century. This century was considered to be the age of machine tools. Tools were made for tools and machines were made for other parts of another machine. During the 19th century, science also made great progress. - John Dalton (1766-1844) published his atomic theory in 1803. Dalton also studied color blindness. - Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) formulated the Periodic Table. - Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) formulated the law of the Conservation of Energy in 1847. In 1851, he invented the ophthalmoscope. - In the late 19th century, physics made great strides. - James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) showed that light is an electromagnetic wave in 1873 and was later proved by Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) in 1888. - Henri Becquerel (1852-1908) discovered radioactivity in 1896. - Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906) discovered radium in 1898. - Joseph Thomson discovered the electron in 1897. - In the 19th century, people mastered electricity. - Hans Christian Oersted discovered that an electric current in a wire caused a nearby compass needle to move in 1819. - Michael Faraday (1791-1867) showed that a magnet can produce electricity and in 1831 he invented the dynamo. - Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph in 1837. - In the 19th century, machines in factories were usually operated by steam engines. At the end of the 19th century, they began to convert to electricity. In the mid-19th century, railways revolutionized travelling and made travel much faster. Steam locomotives pulled the carriages. - Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler made the first cars in 1885 and 1886. - Meanwhile at sea, the steam ship revolutionized travelling. By 1815, steamships were crossing the English Channel. Furthermore, it used to take several weeks to cross the Atlantic. Then in 1838, a steam ship called the Sirius made the journey in 19 days. However, steam did not completely replace sail until the end of the 19th century, when the steam turbine was used on ships. ### 6. Science and Technology in the 20th Century It is not skeptical that the 20th century is one of the most noticeable in the history of humans for its incomparable technological advances and scientific discoveries. There were a lot of new technologies made and science discoveries. Technology was rapidly developed in the 20th century. The the use of scientific method and funding for research has helped to achieve the advancement of modern Science and Technology. With the ascension of new technology, it enhanced the communication and transportation system of humans and brought it closer to people. Military research and development brought about the rise of electronic computing and jet engines. Radio and telephony enriched greatly and have reached a wider population of users, though near-universal access was impossible until mobile phones became affordable for people in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The relationship between Science and Technology has become more problematic on several levels in the 20th century. In the face of an ever-growing complexity, technology has become more scientific and the natural sciences more technological, as the social scientific concept of "technoscience" indicates. At the same time, many technological innovations since the 1970s have only slowly resulted in job-creating new products. Some of the greatest technological advancements during this period was the creation of personal computers. In 1971, Intel developed a microprocessor that made computers smaller, easier to use, and cheaper which replaced the early computers that were bulky and had a tube-powered behemoth. Computer has become a dominant tool in the global economy and a necessity in many homes that until today we greatly rely on them. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak have redefined the meaning of computers by introducing Apple in 1976. While in connection with the invention of personal computers, the Internet was also created in 1969 for defense-related research and is known as ARPANet or Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. It has helped us in terms of global communication, gathering information through searching, conducting business matters, and our everyday affairs thru the World Wide Web which was created in 1989. Another one are the automobiles or cars, which were considered to be one of the most revolutionary technological advancement of the century. Exploitation of the said technology was made possible because of Henry Ford's devising a system of mass production for the Model T in 1908. It made cars affordable to people and also made a dramatic change in the society. Using automobiles as a form of transportation has connected people together including those in the rural areas to urban centers. One of the breakthroughs during the century was the invention of Artificial Intelligence which has the capacity for a computer to perform humanlike intellectual processes and it was later developed during the 1940s. Modern A.I. features specially designed computers that can "think" similarly to humans. A.I. is also being used to assist doctors in making medical diagnoses. However, there are no programs or computer existing today that can match man's full intellectual capacity.