Science,

Technology and
Society

GEC 107

1st Lecture
LSPU-San Pablo
First Sem
A.Y. 2020-2021
 Objectives
1. Discuss the interactions between
Science & Technology and society
throughout history
2. Identify the paradigm shifts in history
 Historical antecedents in which social consideration
changed the course of science & technology
HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. Science and Technology before Scientists: through 599 BCE

2. Science and Technology in Antiquity: 600 BCE through 529
CE

3. Medieval Science and Technology: 530 through 1452

4. The Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution: 1453 thru 1659

5. Scientific Method: Measurement and Communication:

1660 through 1734
 HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY…

6. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution: 1735

through 1819
7. Science and Technology in the 19th Century: 1820 through
1894
8. Rise of Modern Science and Technology: 1895 through
1945
9. Big Science and the Post-Industrial Society: 1946 through
1972
10.The Information Age: 1973 through present
 1. Science and Technology before Scientists:
through 599 BCE

Stonehenge, prehistoric
stone circle monument,
cemetery, and
archaeological
site located on Salisbury
Plain, about 8 miles (13
km) north of Salisbury,
Wiltshire, England
No person could be described as the first
scientist
Egyptians, Sumerians, Chinese, Maya,
and others worked out mathematical
rules, cured illnesses, built great
structures, created new materials, and
learned how to read the stars and planets
–– but their successes were largely a
collection of skills, rather than a science.
 The Stone Ages

stone tools have long been the first

recognized technology
tools were made by one of our direct
ancestors, perhaps Homo habilis or H.
rudolfensis
Paleolithic vs Neolithic
 Features of Stone Age
1. Knowledge among hunter-gatherers
The great apes live primarily by foraging, rather than
gathering –– the difference being that a gatherer brings food
picked up in various places back to a central location for
consumption or storage whereas a forager eats the food on
site.
2. The Agricultural Revolution and other revolutions
Starting about 10,000 years ago, or near 8000 BCE, people
made the major technological advance of domesticating
animals and plants
3. Start of Civilization

Following the Agricultural Revolution,

societies that we recognize as
civilizations began to arise. People
entered this period as either simple
farmers or (in some ways more
complicated) hunter gatherers.
 HAND AXE
Basic tool in hunting
The hand axe, or biface,
seen here in
two views, was the basic
tool of the ancestors of
humans from about
1,500,000 years ago to
about 100,000 years ago.
Despite its popularity,
no one is sure how it
was used—some think it
was thrown at game.
Stone technologies of the Old Stone Age

Many different stone

technologies (often called tool
assemblies, industries, or toolkits)
have been named by
anthropologists.
FIRST CARVED ANIMAL The figure of a horse from Vogelherd
Cave in Germany, dating from 30,000 BCE, is among the earliest
known realistic carvings. It appears as a work of art to modern eyes as
well.
 The first ceramics

Ceramics are produced by heating natural earth

until it changes form (without melting –– glasses
are formed by earth heated until it melts and then
cools). Ceramics are different from merely dried
earth or clay, which soften when rewet. Cements
and plasters, although similar after hardening in
some properties to ceramics, are produced by
powdering a mineral and bonding the grains
together with water.
 The first machines
Simple machines are devices that do nothing
but change the direction, duration, or size of a
force. The single pulley is the dullest simple
machine, changing only direction. Most other
simple machines are variations on the lever or
the inclined plane –– for example, the wheel
and axle (or crank handle) is a rotary lever, the
wedge is a pair of inclined planes, and the
screw is a helical inclined plane.
 MAMMOTH-BONE
DWELLING
The hut made from
mammoth bones, shown
here in a drawing, would
have been covered with
skins.
 During the Ice Age, mammoth
bones were more available
than trees in the frozen north
of what is now Ukraine.
 Bricks and Stone

The principal early building

material of civilization was brick,
most often unfired.
 Irrigation and the rise of
civilization

 farmers quickly learned the

importance of water and
sunlight to crops
 MEGALITH
All over Europe there are
structures made from very
large stones, hence the name
megalith (“great stone”), that
clearly were made by
humans, although the exact
purpose is often a mystery.
The megalith here is also
called a dolmen, and
sometime is known as a
megalithic table.
 Metals and early smelting

A few metals can be found in nature as

elements, not compounds; these are
called “native.” Native gold is relatively
common, especially small flakes
separated by weathering and transport;
it is segregated somewhat from other
minerals by its high density.
OTHER FEATURES OF STONE AGE

Inventing and writing numbers

The invention of the wheel
Early sailing
Early units of measure
Egyptian medicine
2. Science and Technology in Antiquity:
600 BCE through 529 C
 Greek Civilization

The rise of Greek

civilization, starting about
600 BCE
Philosophy, a precursor to
science
The PANTHEON Roman engineers rotated an arch about its vertical axis to
come up with the dome. One of their most remarkable domes, on the
Pantheon, still stands in Rome today, where it has always been a major
tourist attraction. The hole in the dome is for gods to enter and leave.
 The first great explorers

The earliest explorers are barely

remembered legends.
Among legendary voyages is that of
Jason and the Argonauts, now thought
to record the first Greek expedition into
the Black Sea, probably about 1000 BCE.
 The first known date
The earliest history of humanity has no known date.
After writing began to be used, people started dating events,
but these were usually in relation to other events that we can
no longer date. The long histories of Egyptian and Chinese
dynasties, however, provide fairly good year dates for those
cultures back to 3000 BCE.
the first specific day on which an event can be pinpointed as
having occurred – is May 28, 585 BCE. The event was a battle
between the Medes and the Lydians that was suddenly called
off when an eclipse of the Sun frightened both armies.
 Mathematics and Mysticism

Pythagoras was among the early Greek

philosophers. He is said to have visited
Thales and studied with Anaximander.
He traveled to Egypt and Mesopotamia,
learning the basics of philosophy,
science, and mathematics.
 The elements

The concept of an element, or irreducible part

of a substance, is of Greek origin, although the
Greeks did not think of elements as we do
today. The term element was coined by Plato,
but the idea existed before him.
The Parthenon
 Early atomists
The concept of the atom as the smallest,
indivisible entity is one of the oldest ideas of
science. It has its origin in a philosophical
problem the Greeks tried to solve.
Democritus and Leucippus, thought to be the
fathers of atomic theory, but of whom little is
known tried to reconcile these ideas. Democritus
argued that it is impossible to keep dividing
entities into smaller and smaller parts.
 Aristotle

[b. Stagira, Macedonia,Greece, 384 BCE,

d. Chalcis, Euboea, Greece, 322 BCE]
Influenced by his father, the physician
Nicomachus, Aristotle developed an
early interest in science. As a student of
Plato he formed a love of philosophy and
logic.
 Plato

[b. Athens, Greece, 427 BCE, d. Athens, 347 BCE]

Plato had a career in the military and politics and
traveled widely before (and even after) starting
his famous school, the Academy, in Athens. Many
of his views are known from imagined dialogues
that feature his friend Socrates [b. Athens, Greece,
469 BCE, d. Athens. 399 BCE].
 Period 3- Medieval Science and
Technology: 530 through 1452
Also Dark Ages
Proliferation and development of S & T stopped in Europe
Numerous conflicts all over Europe
Spreading of bubonic plague
Gave chance to Asians to lead the development T & T,
India became known in the field of Mathematics
Arabs became popular in health & medicine
 Period 4- The Renaissance and the
Scientific Revolution: 1453 through 1659

Also known as rebirth of knowledge

Brought back the S & T development
in Europe
Patent Law was imposed to give
credit to real inventors
Period 5- Scientific Method: Measurement
and Communication: 1660 through 1734
Start of Scientific Revolution
Development of S & T continued
Start of using scientific method in giving
reason of the existence of everything
Newton’s Law’s of Motion became very
popular
France, Netherland and England were known
 Period 6- Enlightenment: Industrial
Revolution 1735 through 1819

Enlightenment as defined by Immanuel Kant-

coined to reflect a change in the philosophical
approach
Philosophies regarding Science changed:
empiricism –– the idea that knowledge comes
from experience –– and rationalism –– the
view that knowledge comes from reasoning
 Period 6- …
Newton’s Law’s of Motion became very
popular
France, Netherland and England were
known
Start of Industrial Revolution- turn
toward the development of machines that
would make work faster or more efficient
 Period 6 - …
Several important developments occurred:
Introducing Newton to the French
France became popular in the field of science
Lavoisier used careful measurement and thoughtful
experiments to turn chemistry into a science. He was
the father of Chemistry.
There was a general turn toward the development of
machines that would make work faster or more
efficient – Start of Industrial Revolution
James Watt – invented the steam engine, which was
the main source of power
 Period 6 - …
Several important developments …
Rise of the engineer, John Smeaton was the
first person to call himself a civil engineer.
Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linne) a
Swedish scientist who introduced the
system of classification of living organisms
John Dalton was best known for his 1803
revival on a scientific basis of the ancient
Greek idea that all materials are formed
from tiny particles (atoms).He was the
father of Atomic Theory.
 Period 7- Science and Technology in the
19th Century: 1820 through 1894
With the discovery of electricity, inventions
intensified
Science became a profession leading to
capitalism
Several important developments occurred:
 19th-century science started with the discovery of
electromagnetism
 Germany, moved into the lead as the century progressed.
 Period 7 - …
Several important events &
developments …
Louis Pasteur – in Microbiology
 the eruption and explosion of Krakatoa in what is now
Indonesia, the major volcanic event
 Charles Babbage designed and partially built the first
mechanical computers
 Charles Robert Darwin- the 1859 publication of On the
Origin of Species
 Gregor Mendel – became known in Genetics
 Thomas Edison – America’s no.1 inventor
major inventions include the phonograph
 Period 7 - …
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev– known for
the Periodic Table of Elements
 Alexander Graham Bell- inventor of telephone
 JJ Thomson – discovery of electron
 Period 8- Rise of Modern Science and
Technology: 1895 through 1945
Reality could be understood by experience
alone
science, especially mathematics, was also
based on logical reasoning
inventions that mark the technological
development of the 20th century were put in
place during the last two decades of the 19th
century
 World Wars

 World War I – 1914-1918

 World War II- 1939-1945

 Period 8 - …
Several important events & developments …
 Eugene Dubois brought to Europe his Javanese fossils of what we now call
Homo erectus (the “Java ape-man”)
 Motion pictures, after groundwork in both the United States and France.
Gone with the Wind, a color sound film of 1939 that had the largest number
of viewers in the history
 Two important materials entered architecture and construction: steel &
concrete
 The discovery of the electron gave rise to an entirely new technology,
electronics.
 Alexander Fleming uncovered the most powerful agent for killing bacteria
in 1928, a mold of the strain Penicillium,the source of the chemical
penicillin.
 Period 8 - …
Several important events & developments …
 introduction of relativity theory by Einstein and the advent of quantum
mechanics
 development of the automobile

 Wright brothers -invention of airplane in 1903

 Wilhelm Roentgen – discovery of X-ray

 Alfred Wegener’s Continental Drift Theory

 Yuri Gagarin (Russian)- 1st man in the space, a cosmonaut

 Valentina Tereshkova- 1st woman in the space

 Early digital computers- in 1930’s and 1940’s George Stibitz, a mathematician
was the first prominent experimenter to use binary numbers
 Period 8 - …

Several important events & developments …

The Manhattan project – the operation (largest single
enterprise in the history of science up to that time) during
WWII comprised 37 installations in 19 states and Canada,
and employed 43,000 people. It ran on a budget of $2.2
billion
The first working computers – ENIAC (Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Computer)
 Period 9- Big Science and the Post
Industrial Society:1946 through 1972
Big science- The way science was conducted
changed. It became very expensive– BIG
SCIENCE
Existence of cold war and new technology
(1947-1991).
Use of chip- A chip is usually a fingernail-sized sliver of
silicon “doped” with impurities in a pattern that enables it
to serve as a computer memory or a central processing
system or a controller of fuel injection in an automobile.
 Period 9 - …
Several important events & developments …
 IBM introduces the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC).
 Discovering DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
 after World War II, governments instituted a search for peaceful uses
for nuclear e
 The introduction of interpreters was a major breakthrough in
computers. Interpreters translate a program written in an easier
programminglanguage into machine languagenergy.
 July 20, 1969 - first human beings to stand on the Moon, part of the
Apollo 11 mission (Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin stepped on the moon)
while Michael Collins orbited the moon
Period 10- Information Age:1973 through
present
 INFORMATION AGE

Considered a historic period in the 21st

century
Characterized by the rapid shift from
traditional industry, it is also called
computer age, digital and the new
media age.
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Began at around 1970s and still going on today
Also referred to people, information and societies
that chronicle the birth and growth of electronic
information (from ancient times to Samuel Morse’s
invention of the telegraph through the
development of the telephone, radio, television
and computers).
http.//www.tcf.va.edu/az/thistory.outline.htm
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
PCs had become widespread by the end of the 1980s. They can
be connected to local or national network through a device
called modem.
The internet was developed during the 1970s. The development
of the fiber-optic hastened the rate of sending message.
In the 1990s, the world wide web was developed mainly for
commercial purposes. Now, airline tickets, hotel reservations,
books and even cars and houses can be purchased online.
Colleges and universities would post research data on the
internet so students could find valuable information without
leaving their homes.
 Father of Information Age
Claide Shannon
  (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001)
was an American mathematician,
electrical engineer, and
cryptographer known as "the father
of information theory". Shannon is
noted for having founded
information theory with a
landmark paper, "A Mathematical
Theory of Communication", that he
published in 1948.
 Living in the Information Age

Advantages of Information Technology

1. Globalization – It has brought the world closer
together, led to sharing information more quickly and
efficiently and enabled countries to share ideas and
information with each other.
2. Communication – It has made communication
cheaper, quicker and more efficient. The use of the
internet opened face-to-face communication from
different parts of the world.
 Living in the Information Age

Advantages of Information Technology…

3. Cost effectiveness- it has led to
computerization of business processes and
increased productivity that gave more profits,
better pay and working conditions.
4. Creation of New Jobs – It has led to the
opening up of opportunity for computer
programmers, system analysts, hardware and
software developers and web designers.