LESSON 1

Science, Technology and Its Significance

to Society in Contemporary World

Content Standard:
The learners demonstrate an understanding of the meaning of science, technology
and its significance.

Learning Outcomes:
The students will be able to:
1. State the meaning of Science and Technology;
2. Describe some notable developments of science and technology and its significance
to the society;
3. Describe some disadvantages of science and technology.

Word Bank:
Science, Technology, wheel, compass, printing press, combustion engine, telephone,
Penicillin

DISCUSSION

A. The Meaning of Science and Technology

➢ Science, technology and society (STS), referred to and technology studies, is the
study of how social, political, and research and technological innovation, and how
scholars are interested in a variety of problems including the relationships between
scientific and technological innovations and society, and the directions and risks of
science and technology. The field of STS is related to history and philosophy of
science although with a much broader emphasis on social aspects of science and
technology.
➢ Science, technology and society refers to the interaction between science and
technology and social, cultural, political and economic context which shape and are
shaped by them; specific examples throughout human history of' scientific and
technological developments.

B. Meaning of Science
• Science is a systematized body of knowledge
• Science is an organized and dynamic inquiry (following scientific method)
• Science is knowledge gained through observation and experimentation Science is
a human activity; scientist
• Science is a social enterprise: people, knowledge, skills, facilities, apparatuses and
technologies
 • Science leads to formation of concepts. methods, principles, law and procedures
which seek to describe and explain nature and its phenomena

C. Meaning of Technology
• Technology as material products; results of scientific inquiry; hardware produced by
a scientist
• Technology as the application of knowledge in solving scientific and practical
problems that will help humans to survive and improve his life, Technology as
human cultural activities or endeavors
• Technology as a social enterprise — Technology is a complex system of knowledge,
skills, people, methods, tools, materials and resources applied and allocated to the
development, operation and production of a new or improved product, process or
services.
• Technology as modern technology based on the advances of science since the end
of WWII to the present.

D. Some of the notable human successes in the field of science and technology
Humans are ingenious species. Humans (Homo sapiens) have dreamed up and
created some amazing and far-out things. From the moment someone bashed a rock on
the ground to make the first sharp-edged tool, to the debut of the wheel to the development
of Mars rovers and the Internet, several key advancements stand out as particularly
revolutionary. Here are some of most important inventions of all time, along with the science
behind the invention and how they came about.

The wheel — the concept of inventing the wheel came during 3500 B.C. Humans were
severely limited in how much stuff they could transport over land, and how far. The idea
came to connect a non-moving platform to a rolling cylinder. People then invented the wheel
and axle which is the concept of making wheels. The holes at the center of the wheels and
the ends of the fixed axles had to be nearly perfectly round and smooth for the wheels to
work. Wheeled carts facilitated agriculture and commerce by enabling the transportation of
goods to and from markets, as well as easing the burden of people traveling great distances.

The compass – Before, mariners navigate with the star, but that method didn't work during
the day or on cloudy nights. The Chinese invented the first compass sometime between the
9th and 11th century; it was made of lodestone, a naturally-magnetized iron ore, the
attractive properties of which they had been studying for centuries. Soon after, the
technology passed on to the Europeans and Arabs through nautical contact. The compass
enabled mariners to navigate safely far from land, increasing sea trade and contributing to
the Age of Discovery.

A model of an ancient Chinese compass from the Han Dynasty; it is a

south-indicating ladle, or sinan, made of polished lode- stone.

The printing press — It was Johannes Gutenberg, a German who invented the printing
press around 1440. Though others before him—including inventors in China and Korea—
have developed the movable type made from metal, Gutenberg was the first to have created
a mechanized process that transferred the ink (which he made from linseed oil and soot)
from the movable type to paper. Printing presses exponentially increased the speed with
which book copies could be made, and thus led to the rapid and widespread dissemination
of knowledge for the first time in history.

The internal combustion engine — In these engines, the combustion Of fuel releases a
high-temperature gas, which, as it expands, applies force to a piston, moving it. Ihus,
combustion engines convert chemical energy into mechanical work. Decades of
engineering by many scientists went into designing the internal combustion engine, which
took its (essentially) modern form in the latter half of the 19th century. The engine steered
in the Industrial Age Which enabled the invention of a huge variety of machines, including
modern cars and aircraft.

The telephone — Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be awarded a patent for the
electric telephone in 1876. Though several inventors did pioneering work on electronic voice
transmission, the invention quickly took off, and revolutionized global business and
communication.

Penicillin — In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming notised a bacteria-filled Petri
dish in his laboratory, the sample had become contaminated with a mold, and everywhere
the mold was, the bacteria was dead. That antibiotic mold turned out to be the fungus
Penicillium, and over the next two decades, chemists •purified it and developed the drug
Penicillin, which fights a huge number of bacterial infections in humans without harming the
humans themselves. Penicillin was being mass produced and advertised by 1944.

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks used by billions of
people worldwide. It is impossible to credit the invention of the Internet to a single person,
as countless people helped develop it. In the 1960s, a team of computer scientists working
for the U.S. Defense Department's ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) built a
communications network to connect the computers in the agency, called ARPANET. It used
a method of data transmission called "packet switching". ARPANET was the predecessor
of the Internet that eventually emerged to become the "information superhighway?

Eco-Friendly Technologies/Advantages: These are sustainable technologies. This

technology utilizes resources from the environment without causing negative effects to it.
Some of these are:
• Solar Energy — use of solar panels to provide electricity
• Geothermal energy
• Wind power — wind mills as source of energy

E. Disadvantages and Ethical dilemmas of Science and Technology

1. Threats to human survival — the invention of nuclear weapons in 1945, like the
nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that caused deaths of many people.
This was a product of chemical and biological warfare (bio-warfare); toxic wastes
produced by manufacturing companies that threaten human survival and stability of
the environment.
2. Ethical dilemmas — exploitation of advanced scientific knowledge and technological
devices and systems gave rise to situations in which advances seem to have turned
against their beneficiaries, creating ethical dilemmas. The negative effects of
technology are numerous. In our march to progress we have degraded the natural
world. Forests are chopped down, topsoil is washed away, rivers are polluted and
our waste is dumped in the oceans.
3. Disparities in Human well being — there are advanced countries enjoying science
and technology-based successes and hold high esteem in contemporary society
(Economic strength), versus millions of people in less developed countries who have
not partaken in these benefits.
4. Social and cultural conflicts — Military power is vital for national security of many
governments; Superior and highly technical weapons dictated the outcomes of some
recent wars.
5. Innovating technologies can have negative consequences for certain sectors or
constituencies:
➢ include pollution associated with production processes,
➢ increased unemployment from labor-saving new technologies,
➢ conversion of agricultural land into urban areas,
➢ effect on humans psychologically and emotionally — the usage and addiction of
new gadgets
➢ effect of overused technologies in medical industry that can cause fatal births
and diseases.
➢ global warming
 DO YOU KNOW?

In the Philippines, people turn to science and technology for warning advice and
assistance during calamities and disaster: We have some government agencies
responsible for giving us advice and information. These are the Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), Department of Science and Technology
(DOST) and Philippines Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administrati6n
(PAGASA).
We have built windmills and transit trains that provide us means of source of energy
and transport.