Science and Technology

SCIENCE

The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge. Science seeks to understand the natural world.

Knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world.

WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY

Technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants. Most people, however, think of technology in terms of its artifacts: computers and software, aircraft, pesticides, water-treatment plants, birth-control pills, and microwave ovens, to name a few. But technology is more than these tangible products.

Technology includes the entire infrastructure necessary for the design, manufacture, operation, and repair of technological artifacts, from corporate headquarters and engineering schools to manufacturing plants and maintenance facilities. The knowledge and processes used to create and to operate technological artifacts -- engineering know-how, manufacturing expertise, and various technical skills -- are equally important part of technology.

Technology is a product of engineering and science, the study of the natural world. Science has two parts:

(1) a body of knowledge that has been accumulated over time and
(2) a process-scientific inquiry-that generates knowledge about the natural world.

Engineering, too, consists of a body of knowledge-in this case knowledge of the design and creation of human-made products-and a process for solving problems. Science aims to understand the "why" and "how" of nature, engineering seeks to shape the natural world to meet human needs and wants. Engineering, therefore, could be called "design under constraint," with science-the laws of nature-being one of a number of limiting factors engineers must take into account. Other constraints include cost, reliability, safety, environmental impact, ease of use, available human and material resources, manufacturability, government regulations, laws, and even politics. In short, technology necessarily involves science and engineering.

Throughout the twentieth century the uses of the term have increased to the point where it now encompasses a number of “classes” of technology:

1. Technology as Objects

Tools, machines, instruments, weapons, and appliances - the physical devices of technical performance

2. Technology as Knowledge

The know-how behind technological innovation

3. Technology as Activities

What people do - their skills, methods, procedures, and routines

4. Technology as a Process

Begins with a need and ends with a solution

5. Technology as a Socio-technical System

The manufacture and use of objects involving people and other objects in combination

THE NATURE OF TECHNOLOGY

The nature of technology has changed dramatically in the past hundred years. Indeed, the very ideas of technology as we now conceive it is relatively new.

For most of human history, technology was mainly the province of craftsmen who passed their know-how down from generation to generation, gradually improving designs, and adding new techniques and materials. By the beginning of the twentieth century, technology had become a large-scale enterprise that depended on large stores of knowledge and know-how, too much for any one person to master. Large organizations were now required for the development, manufacture, and operation of new technologies. Complex networks of interdependent technologies were developed, such as the suite of technologies for the automobile. These include gas and oil refineries, filling stations and repair shops, tire manufacturers, automobile assembly plants, the highway system, and many more. The government began to play a larger role in shaping technology through technological policies and regulations.

The meaning of the word "technology" evolved to reflect these changes. In the nineteenth century, technology referred simply to the practical arts used to create physical products, everything from wagon wheels and cotton cloth to telephones and steam engines. In the twentieth century, the meaning of the word was expanded to include everything involved in satisfying human material needs and wants, from factories and the organizations that operate them to scientific knowledge, engineering know-how, and technological products themselves.

As the nature of technology changed, it’s meaning became more vague, leaving room for misconceptions that sometimes led to questionable conclusions.

Technology has a number of distinct characteristics:

1. It is Related to Science

Although there is certainly a relationship between science and technology, there is, except in certain high technology industries, very little technology that could be classified as applied science. Technology is marked by different purposes, different processes a different relationship to established knowledge and a particular relationship to specific contexts of activity. Change in the material environment is the explicit purpose of technology, and not, as is the case with science, the understanding of nature; accordingly its solutions are not right or wrong, verifiable or falsifiable, but more or less effective from different points of view.

2. It Involves Design

At the centre of technology lies design. That “design is the very core of engineering” is affirmed by the requirement that all degree engineering courses should embody it. The design process in technology is a sequential process which begins with the perception of a need, continues with the formulation of a specification, the generation of ideas and a final solution, and ends with an evaluation of the solution.

3. It Involves Making

The motivating factor behind all technological activity is the desire to fulfill a need. For this reason all designs should be made or realized - whether that be through prototype, batch- or mass- production or some form of three-dimensional or computer model - if the need is to be truly fulfilled, the design is to be legitimately evaluated, and the design activity is to have been purposeful and worthwhile.

4. It is Multi-Dimensional

Not only may design and production involve co-operation between different specialisms (between, for example, designer, production engineer and materials scientist), but may involve “technologists” in performing a multitude of functions, such as working with others, operating within budgets, persuading decision makers, communicating to clients and working to deadlines.

5. It Is Concerned With Values

Technology is informed by values at every point. Value decisions may be called for not only in relation to the specific design criteria (i.e. aesthetic, ergonomic and economic judgments, suitability for purpose and ease of manufacture) but also in relation to the rightness or wrongness of a particular solution in ethical terms.

6. It is Socially Shaped/Shaping

Technological enterprises are determined neither by advances in knowledge nor simply by the identification of needs, but by social interests. Of the potential new technologies available at any one time only a few are developed and become widely implemented. In this way technology is shaped by society, by consumer choice. yet it could also be argued that technology shapes society - the technology of the motor car, for example, has shaped our environment and our whole way of life.
TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Science and technology are tightly coupled. A scientific understanding of the natural world is the basis for much of technological development today. The design of computer chips, for instance, depends on a detailed understanding of the electrical properties of silicon and other materials. The design of a drug to fight a specific disease is made possible by knowledge of how proteins and other biological molecules are structured and how they interact.

Conversely, technology is the basis for a good part of scientific research. The climate models meteorologists use to study global warming require supercomputers to run the simulations. And like most of us, scientists in all fields depend on the telephone, the Internet, and jet travel.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to separate the achievements of technology from those of science. When the Apollo 11 spacecraft put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, many people called it a victory of science. When a new type of material, such as lightweight, super strong composites, emerges on the market, newspapers often report it as a scientific advance. Genetic engineering of crops to resist insects is also usually attributed wholly to science. And although science is integral to all of these advances, they are also examples of technology, the application of unique skills, knowledge, and techniques, which is quite different from science.

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Technology is also closely associated with innovation, the transformation of ideas into new and useful products or processes. Innovation requires not only creative people and organizations, but also the availability of technology and science and engineering talent. Technology and innovation are synergistic. The development of gene-sequencing machines, for example, has made the decoding of the human genome possible, and that knowledge is fueling a revolution in diagnostic, therapeutic, and other biomedical innovations.

TECHNOLOGY AS KNOWLEDGE

There is a strong belief among technology educators that technology constitutes a type of formal knowledge that can be reduced to curricular elements. It is suggested that since technology has its own knowledge and structure, its study is similar to how one would organize the study of any other discipline in the school, such as algebra or physics. "Technology constitutes knowledge, and that all technologies are embodiments of some form of human knowledge"(Parayil -1991). "Technique" involves the practical skills of knowing and doing. The root logos have wider meaning, including argument, explanation, and principle, but its most relevant use is probably "to reason." Technology, thus, encompasses reasoned application. Technology, however, has always meant more than abstract study because of the emphasis on application, or doing, although the French use of the term "implies a high degree of intellectual sophistication applied to the arts and crafts"

The etymology of the term "technology" is instructive. It comes from the Greek technologia, which refers to the systematic treatment of an art (or craft). The root techne "combines the meanings of an art and a technique, involving both a knowledge of the relevant principles and an ability to achieve the appropriate results" (Wheelwright, 1966, p. 328). In other words, "technique" involves the practical skills of knowing and doing. The root logos has wider meaning, including argument, explanation, and principle, but its most relevant use is probably "to reason." Technology, thus, encompasses reasoned application. Technology, however, has always meant more than abstract study because of the emphasis on application, or doing, although the French use of the term "implies a high degree of intellectual sophistication applied to the arts and crafts" (Hall, 1978, p. 91). The French, in fact, are more precise in their definition and use two terms. "Technologie" is used to refer to the study of technical processes and objects, and the term "technique" refers to the individual technical means themselves, the actual application processes (Willoughby, 1990). The two concepts are mixed in the English use of "technology," and this leads to a failure to distinguish between its study and its application.

In the English language, the term "technology" acquired limited usage in the late 19th century as a way to refer to the application of science (knowledge) to the making and use of artifacts. In our century, formal knowledge is inextricably linked with the development of science and technology. More recent scholars generally emphasize the importance of knowledge in defining technology (Layton, 1974; MacDonald, 1983; McGinn,1978;1991; Vincenti, 1984). The recognition of the centrality of knowledge leads to conceiving technology as more than artifact, and as more than technique and process.

The defining characteristic of technological knowledge, however, is its relationship to activity. Although technological knowledge is considered to have its own abstract concepts, theories, and rules, as well as its own structure and dynamics of change, these are essentially applications to real situations. Technological knowledge arises from, and is embedded in, human activity, in contrast to scientific knowledge, for example, which is an expression of the physical world and its phenomena. As Landies (1980) observes, while the intellectual is at the heart of the technological process, the process itself consists of "the acquisition and application of a corpus of knowledge concerning technique, that is, ways of doing things" (p. 111). It is through activity that technological knowledge is defined; it is activity that establishes and orders the framework within which technological knowledge is generated and used.

TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

The nature of the relationships between technology and society is extremely complex and there is no way to fully explain it. However, there is no doubt that both elements feed off each other. The common saying is, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” This question is a good way of looking at technology’s role in society.

Social construction exemplifies innovation as a process of co-construction in our society and relates to how society and technology influence each other. “This discussion has made evident the interaction of culture and technology at all levels.

The earliest human societies used technology, in the form of tools and weapons to transform their natural environment. Civilizations are based on, among other things, the technologies of building and writing” (Murphy and Potts).

Technology’s influence on social change is indisputable. Language is a technology; almost everything we do or have after we’re born is thanks to technological advances at some point. Therefore, society as we know it is dependent on technology.

“To understand the origin of a particular kind of technological power, we must first learn about the actors. Who were they? What were the circumstances?” (Marx and Smith xiii). This quote references how the circumstances of society motivated the creation of new technology. For example, the Wright Brothers tried and failed many times to discover what it took to fly, but they were the ones motivated enough to enhance their society with technology. Technological breakthroughs do not always happen by accident. The need in society for a quicker way of transportation necessitated the advancement of air travel. The mastery of flight, in turn, necessitated social change in how we view time, space and changed how people can do business and live their lives.

In conclusion, technology and society are intertwined and cannot be separated from each other. Generally speaking, a new technology is taking birth out of social needs and also helping those people who are staying in that society.

ENGINEERING

The profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practices are applied with judgments to develop ways to utilize economically the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind. (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET, 2002)

It is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. It may encompass using insights to conceive, model and scale an appropriate solution to a problem or objective.