Science Technology and Society
antimony at low temp and carved lower
CHAPTER 1: INFORMATION AGE
Introduction
 How many handwritten books could an
author produce in a year?
 Where will these "few" books go now?
 Who can read them?
 How many people can have access to
the information written in those books?
 What if the contents of a book are so
important that without the knowledge it
brings, life could be awful?
The Gutenberg Revolution
 Johannes Gutenberg – February 3,
1468 (Mainz Germany)
 Democratizing Information through his
printing press
 The Gutenberg Principle - refers to the
establishment of mass communication
Gutenberg’s Way of Printing
 use of wooden block to press ink into
the paper
 All written materials were produced by
hand.
 expensive
 painstaking task
 produced a very minimal number of
pages a day
 Gutenberg's Bible 0.6 % 49 copies - $35
million
 Utilized movable text that could produce
thousands of pages per day.
 Melted mixture of lead, tin, and
and upper case letters and punctuation
marks
 the transfer of ink from movable type to
paper was automatic
 characters were rearrange and reused
during printing
 Overall the printing accommodated 42
lines per page.
The Information Age
 An individual has the urge to understand
his commonalities with any other people
and the society where he belong
 This is a basic need to maintain sanity
and self-worth
 Communication - "commun" (common)
"ication" (understanding) - is a common
understanding of something
 The information age Also called
Computer Age, Cyber Age or Digital
Age
 Information can be effortlessly be
obtained or accessed through to
massive publications.
 Has greatly influenced the life of a
person and the life of a society.
 Info easily and quickly shared computer
became so powerful
 escalated the way of communication,
transportation, entertainment, culture
 Amplified economy of a society,
industries, and environment.
 People are now burdened with
complicated experiences and
confusions
Ten Truth of the Information Age 2. Life dissatisfaction, Negative psychological
effects including envy, materialism, and theft-
1. Media space must eat
tendency.
2. Information must compete
3. The early word gets the perm 3. Lead to personal isolation and severe
4. The frame makes the painting depression
5. selection of viewpoint
4. UK study 62% feelings of inadequacy, 60%
6. newer is equated with ruler
felt jealous.
7. The media cells what the cultures buy
8. You are what you eat and so is your
brain
9. All ideas are seen as controversial
10. anything in great demand will be
OTHER NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL
counterfeited
MEDIA

1. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

2. Unrealistic Expectations
3. Unhealthy sleep patterns
The Era of Social Media 4. Cyber bullying

 SOCIAL - refers to the interactions OTHER NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL

among people with different levels of MEDIA
communications
1. Efficient channel of communication
 MEDIA - instrument that aid
2. Promotion of collaboration via reviews
communication, such as TV, internet,
and opinions
radio, newspaper etc.
3. Business promotion via reviews and
 Study shows that people check out their
opinions
phone about 80 times a day. That is at
4. convenient shopping and selling
least every 12 mins.
5. entertainment
 NoMoPhobia - No Mobile Phone
6. media sharing and expression of talents
Phobia
and passion
 "Facebook Addiction Disorder" - neglect
7. Political activity and news reporting
personal life, social obligations,
8. Streaming of free tutorial for personal
academic duties.
and skill enhancement
RESEARCH FINDINGS ON FACEBOOK USE: 9. artificial intelligence and machine
learning and
1. Researcher from University of Missouri
10. Personal life-story keeping and

Facebook - Symptoms of Depression platforms for blogging.

CHAPTER 2: BIODIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
 The human population has doubled to
7.4 billion since 1960. The population
explosion has a great impact on nature
because of increasing demands for raw
materials. Raw materials are used for
the production of science and
technological inventions. Also, they are
used for human consumption to live.
Since the last century, in just a few
decades, concerns about the increasing
WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY?
rate of loss of biodiversity have become
widespread among the public. They
have ceased to be the exclusive
concern of well-informed person’s
ecology or biology scientists and
experts.
 Indeed, these losses have been
examined in the media, and it is
becoming common knowledge that the
loss of biodiversity is intimately linked to
ecosystem changes, some of which are
already visible and tangible.
 In many places, ordinary people are
already directly or indirectly coping and
adapting to the global atmosphere's
warming, which is a major change in the
global ecosystem. In some places,
people are facing historically
unpredictable flooding of formerly
inhabited lands or islands; in several
other places, people are facing severe
droughts, the spreading of deserts and
the consequent famine, shortage of
clean drinking water, or unexpected
health problems. These local upheavals
can be causally linked to the changes in
the global ecosystem, and the
increasing rate of loss of biodiversity is
another result.
 People are experiencing these changes
over the span of just one lifetime;
significant changes and loss of
biodiversity are in some places
observed and experienced not in terms
of millenniums or centuries but rather
over decades or years.
 The term biodiversity is made up of two
roots: Biology, which means "life" in
Greek and diversity or “variations”.
 Number of species of animals, plants,
and microorganisms, like bacteria and
other Protista in the ecosystem.
 Visible part of biodiversity – There are
about 1.7 million species that have been
counted by taxonomists.
 Not very accessible for study -
Microorganisms, like bacteria, are hard
to identify in their natural habitat
 A large part of inaccessible marine
biodiversity remains unknown - 95 % of
oceans are still unexplored.
 Recent studies estimate the total
number of species between three and
ten million.
 Living beings adapt to different
environments everywhere: on land
deserts, rainforests, or underground
galleries; in water, oceans, lakes,
ponds, or some other watercourses.
  It is in these environments, also called - Each ecosystem consists of various
ecosystems that living populations types of organisms. They are living
interact with one another and all that are together in a region connected by the
around. So, ecosystems draw on flow of energy and nutrients. The
biological diversity. ultimate source of energy for all types of
ecosystems is the sun.
TYPES OF BIODIVERSITY
The energy from the sun is converted into a
1. GENETIC DIVERSITY
chemical energy by plants through the process
- Genetic diversity pertains to the
of photosynthesis; this energy is used not only
variation of organisms based on their
by plants but by all organisms within the
genetic makeup. The genetic
ecosystem. Plants are eaten by the animals,
constitution of plants is different from the
which are also eaten by some other animals.
genetic designs of animals, protests,
Fungi and bacteria, on the other hand, obtain
bacteria, and fungi. Within each
their energy requirements from the decomposing
kingdom, genetic make-up is also
dead organisms. In turn, they release nutrients
different from one species to another.
back into the soil, which is another requirement
The genetic makeup or codes of
of the plant to live and to continuously
organisms give them specific
manufacture food through photosynthesis. The
characters. The genetic variability is
richness of the ecosystem defines the richness
formed because of the infinite number of
of the organisms living in it. The nonliving
possible combinations of genes within
components of an ecosystem, like temperature,
the DNA.
soil, water system, etc., determine what types of
2. SPECIES DIVERSITY
organisms can survive and thrive. Thus, there
- Species is the basic unit of organisms.
are more organisms in a rainforest where there
Species diversity refers to biodiversity at
are abundant food sources than in Tundra which
the most basic level. It implies variety
is largely composed of ice sheets.
and richness of different types of
organisms at the species level in a given STATUS OF PHILIPPINE BIODIVERSITY
area. It includes all the species on earth
 The Philippines is considered a mega
ranging from cyanobacteria, fungi,
diverse country because of its very rich
gymnosperms, angiosperms, different
variety of ecosystems, species, and
type of algae, bryophytes, to simple and
genetic makeup within species.
complex animals and all the accessible
 It is driven by being an archipelago,
species including all prokaryotes and
which produces assortments of
eukaryotes.
resources for the organisms.
 Many of the islands in the Philippines
3. ECOLOGICAL/ ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY
are believed to have a great number of
 endemic organisms both on land and in
water.
 In fact, 50% of the 52,177 species found
in the Philippines cannot be found in any
other parts of the world (Philippine
Biodiversity) Conservation Priorities: A
second iteration of the National
Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan,
2002).
 This makes the Philippines one of the
richest countries in terms of biodiversity
compared to any other country on the
planet.
 There are several geographic and
ecological characteristics that enable
the Philippines to be rich in biodiversity,
supporting 70-80% of the species on the
entire planet. Here are some of the
reasons for a well-distributed diversity of
species of wild fauna and flora in the
country:
1. The Philippines is found in the tropics.
Where the climate supports a high level
of organic productivity to provide the
resources needed by interdependent
organisms to survive.
2. The Philippines has a highly
heterogeneous and complex
topography. Philippine ecological
locations vary from mountain ranges to
coral reefs - and everything in between,
providing multitudes of plant and animal
species more than adequate space to
occupy.
3. The isolation created by separate
islands, as well as peaks of mountain
ranges, support gene-level and species-
level diversity.
4. Elevation has an influence on
biodiversity. Productivity stressors, such
as heat and atmospheric pressure,
decrease while the other more life-
supporting factors, such as humidity and
rainfall increase as elevation increases.
Therefore, in the Philippines' rugged
topography, one may find a generous
offering of biological diversity, especially
in the highlands.
 Despite being known for rich biodiversity,
the Philippines is also considered a
biodiversity hotspot. Being a biodiversity
hotspot implies the occurrence of threats
or an alarming rate of destruction of
these important resources. Based on the
report of the Foundation for the Philippine
Environment, a number of species from
different groups are being threatened
through the years.
 Some of the causes of this malady
include, but are not limited to, the
following:
1. Urbanization and industrialization. As a
country that is undergoing modernization,
forests and some other wild ecosystems
are being converted into industrialized
spots.
2. Overexploitation. The wild animals are in
demand to foreign consumers. This
motivates some people in the country to
catch these animals up to the point of
exploiting them.
3. Deforestation. As part of the
industrialization and urbanization in the
 country, a need to cut down trees
becomes a necessity. It also includes land
degradation
4. Climate change and Pollution. See
separate lesson for climate change and
pollution in this chapter.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT THAT
SUPPORTS BIODIVERSITY
 The innovation and creativity of the people
is used, together with technological
advances, in coming up with solutions for
preserving biodiversity on earth. It helps
meeting the end-goal of preventing
organisms from becoming endangered, or
even extinct.
1. BETTER MAPPING AND VISUALIZATION.
- Google Earth has been very instrumental
in locating organisms in inaccessible
regions of the earth. It has proven that it is
not just a map to get directions but it is also
a real tool that helps conserve and
preserve species and habitats. This
software is powerful in mapping and
visualizing threats to the survival of those
organisms.
2. REMOTE CONTROL PHOTOGRAPHY
AND VIDEO. - Getting up close and
recording the details and behavior of
wildlife in their natural habitat are essential
to learn about the needs and risks of
endangered species. This undertaking was
very hard to achieve with a blurred
exposure when remote control photography
and video was not yet developed. An
example of technology that has made
possible the viewing of wild animals in their
natural habitats is called Beetle Com. Will
Burrard-Lucas, a conservation
photographer, has produced a high-tech
solution in capturing images.
3. REMOTE MEASUREMENT TOOLS.- A
stereo-camera system was developed to
get up close, observe, and take precise
measurements among some species such
as sharks and crocodiles, for conservation
and research efforts. This is a high-tech
tool that gives measurements with great
accuracy without actually being in contact
with an animal at all.
4. CONSERVATION DRONES.- Drones are
very helpful for the military in warships.
They are also currently used for exposing
the top view of scenic spots for visual
entertainment. Recently, an ecologist and a
biologist have created a conservation drone
complete with cameras, sensors, and GPS
to map deforestation. Moreover, it was
used to count orangutans and some other
endangered species in Northern Sumatra.
This is now used as a tool in various
environmental researches.
5. GENE SEQUENCING. - Understanding the
nature of pathogens or cause of diseases
among animals is important for the right
treatment. Gene sequencing is used to
identify pathogens. Scientists are now
using high-tech gene-sequencing machines
to understand the biology of organisms. It is
likewise used to confirm the grouping of
organisms in a species level.
 CHAPTER 3: GENETICALLY MODIFIED 2. Herbicidal Resistance
ORGANISM
3. Fortification
Interesting GMO’s

1. Glow in the dark cat, mice, dogs, pigs, fish, 4. Growth Increase

etc.
2. Super mouse 5. Environmental Resistance
3. Sudden death mosquitoes
4. Featherless chicken 6. Flower Production
5. Web-spinning goats
6. Test tube babies 7. Cosmetic Preservation

Genetically Modified Organisms or widely

Claims of Companies Producing GMO’s
known as GMO – are organisms that have
been altered genetically through genetic
1. There is no known harm in
engineering.
consuming genetically modified foods
Genetic Engineering - Changes the
organism’s phenotypes by using technique that 2. GM foods are developed source of food
will alter genetic make up

Genetic Recombination - Is the exchange of
genetic material between different organisms
which leads to production of offspring with
combinations of traits that differ from those
found in either parent
3. GMOs are easily marketed because of their
improved qualities
4. GMOs usually have a lower price, higher
durability, and better nutritional value.

5. GM foods have passed risk assessments

Simple Mating – Animals and plants

Genetic Modification - can be done to a wide 6. GMOs are not likely to present risks
range of organisms from microorganisms like for human health
bacteria, to insects, fish, plants, mammals,
among others. Risk of genetic modifies organisms

GM CROPS – new attribute of food products

1. Possible ecological damage –
Purposes: implication for the flow of life in the
environment
1. Pest Resistance
2. Difficult damage control – difficult and
sometimes even impossible to eliminate
3. Adverse effects on the health of people
– possible creation of a new disease.
4. Unpredictable and unintended effects –
unidentified organisms that may cause
wide diseases burden
5. Ethical concerns – ethical issues
adulteration of the concept of natural
order.