History of Science and Technology

The interchangeable use of the words science and technology has often concealed their meanings to many people. The term science is used to refer to acquiring of knowledge by use of methods that are scientific on the current knowledge that is already known. There is the creation of theories and collection of data which together with analysis methods and conventions may come up with a solution or not. The objective of technology is the development of products that come up with solutions to problems thereby improving the lives of the people. Technology is the use of science and its methods to come up with a solution and actualize it. Technology is a concept that is very broad and deals with the knowledge and use of tools and equipment and the way people control and adapt to them. The following research paper is going to analyze and discuss the way science was used as both a practical tool and ideology for the people seeking power over the last 400years in the central political conflicts in Europe.

Relationship between Science and Technology

The relationship between the two fields has become stable due to the nature of the current society. Neither of the two holds an advantage over the other since they depend on each other to benefit mutually from the development of the other. The advancement of technological products and practices depends on the knowledge and methodologies that are used in science. Use of scientific tools explains the success and the otherwise failure of technological inventions. However, they provide justification for the failure or success of the technological devices partially because the knowledge needed to come up with them sometimes supersedes the understanding of the normal world. On the other way, the technological knowledge and practices have enabled science, in general, to gain a better understanding of that particular area of expertise and improve or provide alternative methods that are better. Technological outcomes have also come a long way in providing the mechanisms and ways for science to obtain a better view of some areas in the world which would otherwise be hard to define those particular areas. For example, the observation capabilities of humans to objects that are far away or too small to see with naked eyes have been made possible by the development of technological equipment such as the microscope and telescope. This has made science explain a variety of phenomena in the world that would otherwise be a mystery without the technological advancements.

Science over the years had a significant impact in the society such as the development of infrastructure. Infrastructure has enabled expansion of industries and development of economies which have led to the emergence of new communities and nations. The general impact of science in the world started to take shape and become recognized in the 18th century just after the industrial revolution. Some of the sectors that were paramount in the development of economies in many countries were communication, energy, information, health and innovation. Through the information and knowledge gained in the sciences enabled people in the society to come up with ways to handle their problems. In the 19th and 20th century both field’s science and technology became associated closely due to the emerging scientific breakthroughs. In the 19th century technology in the industry was not dominant because of the concerns and hesitation of many industrialists in the then what was new information and spirit of entrepreneurship. The science had gone one step ahead in the research of improvements in the industry and technology in the 19th and early 20th century. The idea of coming up with factories and labor for the development of merchandise was there but the actualization of these ideas such as designing the facility and meeting the human labor where operating machines were not applicable proved to be a challenge. These problems were difficult to handle and were not achieved until the middle of the 20th century which is reflected in some of the early industry texts that are influential which were written by some of the scientists who were addressing factory production’s organization.

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Some of the sciences that were at the forefront of transformation in the 19th and 20th century include the science of color and light, photography and fuel and energy, gas-turbine engine, electricity and petroleum. There have been much technological and scientific advancement in the 20th century as compared to the previous time which was improvements on the previous achievements. In painting, for example, a painter known as Seurat came up with a technique which was known as Pointillism whose purpose was to analyze and investigate how adjacent colors mixes when taken in by the naked eye. The invention of photography was also done in the 19th century where scientific methods were combined and used together with art to come up with an amazing technological outcome. Many painters had over many years and correctly the previous century carried the responsibility of establishing images of their culture and itself together with the environment around them. One of the challenges that they had to endure was the oxidization and fixation of images on a metal plate or a light sensitive paper. This goes to show how indeed technology and science came close in the 19th and 20th century and gave birth to several inventions which have been significant in the evolution of the world.

In the 20th century specifically, there were political and economic changes that were profound related the capacity of science and technology and its leadership. This aspect gave birth to some of the powerful nations in the world like the United States of America which was a super state. This came to happen due to their natural resources which were tremendous and were exploited to ensure maximum productivity through widespread industrialization in the whole country. Scientific research and technological leadership were assimilated from Europe, but it was the USA that had the capacity and the social resources that could ensure the fantastic ideas and inventions could be transformed to success on a commercial level. Some of the sciences that were at the forefront of transformation included fuel and power. One of the most significant inventions that came in the 20th century was the internal-combustion engine. The expansion of the transport industries which established aircraft and motor vehicles was aided with this engine which kept on meeting the needs of this machinery. One Sir Frank Whittle used scientific methods to combine the gas turbine engine with jet propulsion techniques and came up with the jet engine powerful enough to run airplanes. Another science that was crucial in development was petroleum. Petroleum became necessary in the running of the gas turbines and was a raw material of high economic value. Scientific methods were used in the mining and refining of this raw material, and these processes underwent extensive technological development to come up with the best quality to run these engines.

In conclusion, science, and technology although different have had a significant part in the elaboration of the industry and economies due to the brilliant inventions that scientists have come up with. For a problem to be solved in the industry there has to be the scientific methodologies and concepts that are to be used to come up with solutions and the technological knowledge to actualize the solution. This is how the two fields relate, and various examples have pointed out how science and technology affect each other such the development of microscopes and use of science in the development of engines. The relationship between science and technology has grown close in the 19th and 20th century due to the development of similar needs in many industries and thus the search for a standard solution. Some of the sciences that have been at the forefront of transformation are petroleum and engines which went a long away in ensuring maximum productivity in many economies.