Republic of the Philippines

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

College of Science
Department of Biology

Science,
Technology and
Society
(GEED 10083)

Enrykie B. Fortajada, MSc.

Instructor
 HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN
WHICH SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
CHANGED THE COURSE OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Enrykie B. Fortajada
Department of Biology, College of Science
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
 Objectives

➢ After completing this lecture, you should be able to:

1. discuss the interaction between science and technology in the
society throughout history;
2. discuss how scientific and technological developments affect the
society and the environment; and
3. identify the paradigm shifts in history.
 IN THE WORLD:
ANCIENT, MIDDLE, AND MODERN AGES
 The First Inklings of Science
(from Ancient Times to 600 B.C.)
◦ Egyptians
- Egyptian medicine was trial and error.
- Egyptian doctors learned that if you covered
an open wound with moldy bread, the wound
would heal quickly and cleanly.
- Egyptian doctors would feed the patient seeds
from a flowering plant called the poppy.
- As early as 3,000 BC, Egyptians took thin slices
of the stem of the papyrus plant, laid them
crosswise on top of each other, moistened
them, and then pressed and dried them. The
result was a form of paper called papyrus.
 The First Inklings of Science
(from Ancient Times to 600 B.C.)
Other cultures:
◦ Mesopotamians were making pottery using the first known potter’s wheel. Horse
drawn chariots were being used.
◦ Chinese in 1,000 BC were using compasses to aid themselves in their travels.
 True Science Begins to Emerge
(600 B.C. to 500 A.D.)
Greeks were the first true scientists.
◦ Thales studied the heavens and tried to develop a unifying
theme that would explain the movement of the heavenly
bodies (the planets and stars). He correctly predicted the
“short-term disappearance of the sun”.
◦ Anaximander was the first scientist who tried to explain the
origin of the human race without reference to a creator.
◦ Anaximenes believed all things were constructed of air.
When air is thinned out, he thought, it grows warm and
becomes fire. When air is thickened, he thought, it
condenses into liquid and solid matter.
 True Science Begins to Emerge
(600 B.C. to 500 A.D.)
◦ Leucippus built on the concepts of Anaximenes
and proposed that all matter is composed of little
units called “atoms.” As a result, he was known as
the father of atomic theory.
◦ Democritus believed that all even though a piece
of wood appears solid is made-up of little individual
particles that he and his teacher called atoms.
Democritus primarily remembered today for his
formulation of an atomic theory of the universe.
 True Science Begins to Emerge
(600 B.C. to 500 A.D.)
Other Three Notable Greek Scientists
1. Aristotle
- Aristotle is often called the father of the life sciences.
- He was the first to make a large-scale attempt at the
classification of animals and plants.
- However, he wrongly believed that certain living organisms
spontaneously formed from non-living substances.
2. Archimedes
- Archimedes was really one of the first scientists to demonstrate
how closely mathematics and science are linked.
- He was the first person to explain the principle of buoyancy.
 True Science Begins to Emerge
(600 B.C. to 500 A.D.)

3. Ptolemy
- He was one of the first to attempt a
complete description of the planets and
stars.
- He assumed that the earth was at the
center of the universe, and that the
planets and stars orbited about the earth
in a series of circles. This is referred to as
geocentric system (Ptolemaic system).
 The Progress of Science Stalls for a While
(500 A.D. to 1000 A.D.)
◦ Roman Empire
◦ Rome had a distinct dislike of science but they
concentrated on inventions.
◦ Alchemists mostly wanted to find a means by which
lead (or some other inexpensive substance) could be
transformed into gold (or some other precious
substance).
◦ Many historians refer to this period as the Dark Ages.
◦ Scientific progress depends not only on scientists, but it
also depends on government and culture.
 The Progress of Science Stalls for a While
(500 A.D. to 1000 A.D.)
◦ Both Arabs and Chinese during this time period were involved in
making careful studies of the heavens.
◦ For example, Chinese records from 1054 A.D. include detailed
observations of a phenomenon that Chinese scientists called a
“guest star” in the heavens. Chinese had seen a supernova,
which is essentially the explosion of a star.
◦ Robert Grosseteste
- He was a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church in the early
1200s A.D., and he was deeply committed to the idea that the
secrets of the natural world could be learned by discovering
the laws that God had set in motion.
- Grosseteste is often called the father of the scientific method.
 The Renaissance: The “Golden Age” of
Science (1500 A.D. to 1660 A.D.)

◦ Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543)

- His ideas were an example of thought experiment
- Published a book entitled On the Revolutions of
Heavenly Spheres in 1543 which said to be the
start of scientific revolution.
- Disagree on Ptolemy’s view of the universe.
- He believed that the sun at the center of
everything and assumed that the planets traveled
around the sun. This is referred to as heliocentric
system (Copernican system).
 The Renaissance: The “Golden Age” of
Science (1500 A.D. to 1660 A.D.)
◦ Andreas Vesalius (1514 – 1564)
- In 1543, published a book entitled On the fabric of the human
body in seven books that contained incredibly detailed and
amazingly accurate illustrations of the organs, muscles, and
skeleton of the human body.
- He made a major advance in human anatomy by debunking
the work of Galen.
◦ Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662)
- He demonstrated that the air we breathe exerts pressure on
everything, an effect we call atmospheric pressure today.
- He demonstrated a law that we now call “Pascal’s Law”.
 The Era of Newton
(1660 A.D. to 1735 A.D.)

◦ Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726/1727)

- Newton wrote most of his revolutionary scientific
work in the book Principia
• 1st volume: He laid down three laws of motion.
• 2nd volume: He added many details to the
understanding of the motion of fluids.
• 3rd volume: He laid down his universal law of
gravitation and developed detailed
mathematical equations that describe gravity.
 The Era of Newton
(1660 A.D. to 1735 A.D.)

◦ Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691)

- Robert Boyle, the founder of modern chemistry,
did many experiments with gases, formulating
laws that are still used today in chemistry.
◦ Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 – 1723)
- Leeuwenhoek revolutionized the study of life by
building his own microscope. His microscope
allowed him to see a world that had been invisible
up to this point, which enabled him to discover
many tiny (microscopic) life forms.
 The “Enlightenment” and the Industrial Revolution
(1735 A.D. to 1820 A.D.)

➢ Science began relying on experiments and data.

➢ Increased scientific knowledge, led to the
invention of many devices that turned hours of
manual labor into just a few minutes of work.
◦ Carolus Linnaeus(1707 – 1778)
- In 1735, Linnaeus published a book in which he tried
to classify all living creatures that had been studied.
- He formalized binomial nomenclature, the modern
system of naming organisms.
- He is known as the “father of modern taxonomy”.
 The “Enlightenment” and the Industrial Revolution
(1735 A.D. to 1820 A.D.)

◦ Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743 – 1794)

- Lavoisier was the first to analyze chemical reactions in a
systematic way, and he was the first to realize that
matter cannot be created or destroyed – it can only
change forms (known as the Law of Mass Conservation).
- He was also the first to properly explain combustion,
which is the process of burning.
◦ John Dalton (1766 – 1844)
- His important work was his atomic theory. Building on the
works of Democritus and others, Dalton proposed a
detailed theory about atoms.
- He is considered the founder of modern atomic theory.
 The Rest of the Nineteenth Century
(1820 A.D. to 1900 A.D.)
➢ Popular support of people for science had started.
◦ Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895)
- Louis Pasteur was able to finally destroy the idea of
spontaneous generation once and for all.
- He developed a process called pasteurization.
◦ Gregor Mendel (1822 – 1884)
- Mendel developed three principles of inheritance that
described the transmission of genetic traits, before
anyone knew genes existed.
- He is now called the "Father of Genetics”.
 The Rest of the Nineteenth Century
(1820 A.D. to 1900 A.D.)
◦ Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) main discoveries include
the principles underlying electromagnetic induction,
diamagnetism and electrolysis.
◦ James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879), the founder of
modern physics, notable achievement was to formulate
the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation,
bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism,
and light as different manifestations of the same
phenomenon.
◦ James Joule (1818 – 1889) determined that, like matter,
energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only
change forms. This is now known as the First Law of
Thermodynamics.
 Modern Science
(1900 A.D. to the Present)
◦ Max Planck (1858 – 1947)
- Planck proposed an idea: much like matter exists in
tiny packets called atoms, energy exists in tiny
packets, which he called quanta.
- He produced a lot of evidence on new way of looking
at energy and matter called quantum mechanics.
◦ Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
- In 1905, Einstein proposed an explanation of the
photoelectric effect using a concept first put forward
by Max Planck that light waves consist of packets of
energy known as photons or quanta.
 Modern Science
(1900 A.D. to the Present)
◦ Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962)
- Bohr came up with a revolutionary theory on atomic
structures and radiation emission.
- Using the Bohr Model, many of the mysteries of the
atom were revealed
- Quantum mechanics became the new guiding
principle in science
➢ It is important to note that quantum mechanics
does not really contradict Newton’s laws. However,
as the size of the object decreases, there are
differences between the laws of quantum
mechanics and Newton’s laws.
 Activity #3
Historical antecedents
in which social
considerations
changed the course of
science and
technology (world)

Instructions: Complete a
table like the one on the
left by writing examples for
each part of the timeline.
(30 points). Use the ff
format: 1-inch margins,
Arial font and 11 font size,
1 spacing, and save it in
pdf form when you submit.