Science and technology in modern society
About 200 years ago the pace of technological change in western society began to quicken. Wind, water, and animal power, with their limitations of place and capacity, were supplemented and then replaced by the steam engine, which went on to power the factories of the industrial revolution. The railroad made it possible to move things and people quickly over great distances. The telegraph and, later, the telephone carried communications across the countryside. Electric lighting supplanted the dim glow of candles, kerosene, and gas lights.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the notion of progress was closely linked with technological development, and that linkage intensified in the following decades. The automobile and the airplane changed not only travel but the nature of our cities and towns. Radio and then television brought more of the outside world into everyone’s homes. Knowledge about the causes of diseases brought new treatments and preventive measures. Computers appeared, and soon the transistor made them smaller, more powerful, more accessible, and cheaper.
Today, the system by which research and development leads to new products is fundamentally different from what it was in the nineteenth century. Organized research and development, which are increasingly international in character, have greatly increased the production of new knowledge. Deeper understanding of living organisms is leading toward cures of diseases once thought Конецформыuntreatable. Basic insights in materials science enable the development of structures that are lighter, stronger, and more durable than anything available before. The computer and novel modes of communication, such as optical fibers, bring new, interactive modes of work and more capable machinery. These new devices and new ways of working, in turn, speed the growth and dissemination of new knowledge.
The accumulation of scientific knowledge and new technologies has transformed human life. Technologies have helped provide many people with standards of warmth, cleanliness, nutrition, medical care, transportation, and entertainment far beyond those of even the wealthy two centuries ago. They have also presented us with difficult questions about how to use science and technology most effectively to meet human needs. The computer and novel modes of communication, such as optical fibers, bring new, interactive modes of work and more capable machinery. These new devices and new ways of working, in turn, speed the growth and dissemination of new knowledge.
The rapid rate of material progress can continue, but it is not inevitable. The extent to which the products of science and technology are useful depends on the needs of society. Each of the four areas - industrial performance, health care, national security, and environmental protection - uses these products in different ways. Progress is more likely if we understand these differences. Only then, we can effectively translate scientific and technical understanding into the techniques, tools, and insights that improve the quality of our lives.
Industries differ in the manner and extent to which they use the results of research. Some, such as the semiconductor industry, the biotechnology industry, and parts of the chemical industry, were created and shaped almost entirely by ideas that grew out of science. Semiconductors were in this stage right after the invention of the transistor; more recently, biotechnology went through Конецформы
this stage after the development of recombinant DNA techniques. High-temperature superconductivity is a scientific discovery that shows promise of leading to new industries and is in this stage today.
As science-based industries continue to develop, they remain closely dependent on continuous inputs of new science, often produced by university researchers. These industries depend as well on the technological development of these ideas in order to grow and to widen their range of products. At an early stage, these industries tend to be small, to move at a fast technical and competitive pace, and to have enormous potential. Biotechnology is now in this stage.
In a more mature stage, a science-based industry may still be growing quickly, but it depends on the progress of academic scientists. The semiconductor industry, for example, moves at a fast technical pace and requires increasingly detailed knowledge of its materials and, as the individual transistors buried in its chips become ever smaller, even of new quantum phenomena. However, its scientific needs are met almost entirely by the work of semiconductor scientists and engineers working in the plants and laboratories of the semiconductor companies. Indeed, industry scientists are often the only ones with the detailed knowledge needed to make incremental improvements in the technologies.
Another example of an industry at a mature stage is the aircraft industry, where thousands of scientists and engineers are required to deal with the enormous complexities of new plane design. Investments in manufacturing tools and plants are often measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. Only major companies can act on this scale, and only they have the technological knowledge and experience needed to design these complex products.
The most mature industries - for example, the automobile or construction industries - move at a slower technological pace and require fewer inputs from current science, whether generated by their own laboratories or by university research. Many of these were not based on science even at their birth. They do, however, require the highest levels of technological and production know-how.
Environmental degradation continues to accompany many aspects of economic growth. Emissions and effluents of contaminated materials continue, waste disposal plagues urban areas, forests continue to be devastated, and biodiversity losses are growing. At the same time, science and technology have exposed new issues of great complexity and uncertain consequences, such as global warming, acid precipitation, the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer, and the contamination of water supplies.
By the middle of the twenty-first century, the human population is projected to double to around 11 billion people, and, to meet their basic needs, the global economy will need to be several times larger than it is now. Many industrial and agricultural practices and products used today in energy and food production, transportation, and manufacturing will need to be restructured to prevent pollution if sustainable economic growth is to be achieved. In some situations, existing technologies can be made cleaner and more efficient; in others, entirely new technologies, including energy technologies, will be needed.
Almost all fields of science and technology can contribute to the reduction of environmental degradation. Biotechnology, materials science and engineering, and information technologies can enable the efficient use of raw materials and prevent pollution at the source. Reducing and preventing pollution is an important goal of the new field of industrial ecology, which, by examining industrial processes, strives to maintain sustainable technological growth.
Task 18