SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS BOON OR

BANE

Sunday, August 24, 2008

SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS BOON OR BANE science offers knowledge

based on experiment and observation, but technology is the total sum of the application
of knowledge. This has made life easy and comfortable for the user. A country said to be
a developed country when it has many technical advancements. A small country like
japan has succeeded to acquire this prestige because of its advancements and applications
of technology at a high level. DEVELOPEMENT OF SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGY
This century is the age of Science. We cannot imagine our life without science. It has
become a part and parcel of life. It is a symbol of progress.
We are enjoying the comfort of science in all the fields. INVENTION OF
ELECTRICITY: Electricity is another important scientific invention. The comforts of life
like electric lamps, fridges, washing machines, Air conditioners are the gifts of electricity.
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE: The development in the
agricultural front, which is the backbone of our country, is really encouraging. New
improved techniques have helped to increase crop yield, methods like drip irrigation,
invention of hybrid varieties of seed have gone a long way to help agriculturists.

Production of disease resistant seeds leads to high yield and it paved way for the
green revolution also. But using of pesticides affects the soil and reduces the nitrogen
content and it leads to land pollution. DEVELOPMENT IN MEDICINE: Development in
medicine is marvelous. Without shedding a drop of blood, doctors are able to do
surgeries. The latest devices helps to diagnose diseases at an early stage itself, thus
bringing the death rate down. X-rays and laser were also used in the medical field.
Almost all kinds of diseases are entirely cured by modern medicines and drugs. Plastic
surgery plays important role in the field of Surgery. Organ transplantation has become
reality. Test tube babies become very common.
 COMPUTER AND ITS ADVANTAGES: Computer is an electronic device that
can store information. It can also manipulate and transmit data. It can process and retrieve
data very fast. Super computer is helpful for weather forecasting. Telephone booths,
hotels, railway stations, banks uses computer. Communication satellites are watched with
computers; also they assist scientists in Atomic power stations. Computer is a boon to
engineers. Computers help them to design structures eg: bridges, vehicles etc computer
find applications in Computer Aided Designing (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacture
(CAM), and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE).

INVENTION OF INTERNET: People exchange valuable information through

internet. One can reach any website and learn anything. Children could consult internet
and can clarify their doubts. Communications are developed in leaps and bounds. With
the help of button the common man can interact and chat with dear and near ones. Video
conferences and web cameras have made easier for executives to travel to have face-to-
face interactions. It is a network through which we can connect with entire world and can
collect information about any topics. BAD EFFECTS OF SCIENTIFIC
DEVELOPMENT on one side we are enjoying prosperity and comfort, but on the other
side there are also many problems....
POLLUTION: Pollution is the greatest enemy to the mankind today.
Human life has become miserable due to all kinds of pollutions. Strangely man
himself is responsible for the problem of pollution faced by him. Air pollution: It is due
to industrial and automobile exhaust, mostly due to the smokes from factories and
vehicles... They contain CO2 and SO2 and other oxides of Nitrogen. They cause
breathing problem even cancer. Proper awareness must be made among people. Non
governmental Organizations must also should take part for making awareness among
people.
WATER POLLUTION: Water is a elixir of life. letting of domestic sewage,
industrial wastes into drinking water pollutes water. Oil leaks in ocean affect marine
life.They endanger many marine species .The latest is the leakage of cyanide from a gold
mining company into the blue Danube .More than 80% of the marine species died.The
river has turned grey color ..
 LAND POLLUTION: It is due to usage of pesticides, and un decomposable
plastics and other synthetic fibers.. Government should ban the use of plastic covers.
People should reduce the usage of plastic bags in their day today life. DEPLETION OF
OZONE LAYER: The protective ozone layer is affected there by exposing us to harmful
radioactive rays. This hole in the ozone layer is due to the CFC- Chloro Fluro carbon.
This CFC is evolved from the AC and fridge used by man kind. GREEN HOUSE
EFFECT: Due to this effect the temperature of earth increases and also mountains like
Himalayas starts melting, there by increasing the level of water.
They also affect the species that live in Himalayas also... ATOM BOMBS AND
HYDROGEN BOMBS: Science had also destroyed mankind. Modern scientific weapons
like Atom bombs and Hydrogen Bombs can wipe out human race. Hiroshima, Nagasaki
and Vietnam stands as examples of destruction due to scientific inventions. Everybody
witnessed the power of technology in the recent Iraq war - a combination of satellite
imagery and precision guided missles...
Terrorists also take a major part to destroy human races. SCIENTIFIC
TECHNOLOGY GOOD SERVANT BUT A BAD MASTER EVERY COIN HAS TWO
SIDES, Likewise scientific technologies has both advantages as well as disadvantages.
All evil effects should be eradicated. Everybody should have a mind to view
developments in right directions. It should not be used to produce any negative aspect. If
everybody uses technology with a positive attribute, then our beautiful world will be a
"heaven" to live.
THUS SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS IS A "GOOD SERVANT" IF IT IS
USED PROPERLY AND A "BAD MASTER" IF IT IS NOT CONTROLLED....
 Technology Boon or Bane

First let it be clearly understood that Technology is not and cannot be a bane.
It never was a bane. It is only a boon. Can anyone imagine life in the twenty first
century?
Without science and technology. I write science and technology because technology is
born, evolves flows, grows and spreads because of science. The great discoveries or
inventions of science have been epoch making and many of these have led to
technological marvels. The development and making of the Steam Engine brought about
the Industrial Revolution. That was the beginning of mankind having more than what
Nature gave us. May be the invention of the wheel can be credited with the first
technological breakthrough. It did add a lot to the speed and comfort of man. But the
steam engine was not only for transport, it brought in its wake a host of other advances
which gave man many new things.

The invention of the electronic valve, later the same as solid state components
and the modern chip have been the harbingers of new age. In social awakening the
thoughts of Karl Marx gave birth to a new order and brought about communism. In
science the making of the electronic tools brought about a whole new world of
entertainment, communication, information and much more. The scientific discovery of
radioactivity and nuclear energy gave us new tools and means to greater comfort and
other benefits. It is a different matter that scientific advancement is also sometimes put to
destructive ends. But that does not, by any means, detract from the boons that science
bestows on us through technology.

Understanding Matter

Darwin’s theory of Evolution gave us the understanding of the beginning of man

on this earth. I will not write about Evolution. Life, the human body and for that matter
other living beings, are naturally so grand and mysterious that we have not fully
understood the physiology and the functioning of the human body despite having
decoded DNA and making very great progress in biological sciences even to create life in
the laboratory. We can clone species and learn a great deal about their system. We have
started learning to treat deadly diseases like cancer. More importantly, learning about the
nature and the structure of matter, learning which is embodied in the Periodic Table, led
to great advances.

The knowledge of isotopes, the discovery of radioactivity, the discovery of

fission, have all led to technological advances and added to our comforts. Space science
may not, on the face of it, look as if it has given us much. But besides the direct benefits
in understanding the Universe, there have been several spin offs which have led to new
very useful materials and techniques. Nuclear and Space Science and technology have
given us many new implements, gadgets, special new materials and technical marvels
like robots. The scientific discovery is such a fascinating field of study that one can go on
and on. The discoveries of X-rays, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, and Medical Scanners
have revolutionized medical diagnosis. The discovery of Fission added a new source of
energy to the rapidly depleting fossil fuels. In this review I want to touch upon two
relatively recent contributions of science which have been technologically exploited to
our benefit. These are the discovery of Radioactivity and Fission, both somewhat related.

Radioactivity

Radioactivity is the spontaneous emission of certain radiations by some elements of

matter. The radiations emitted are: gamma rays, beta rays, alpha rays. Gamma rays are
very penetrating and radioisotopes emitting these radiations are used for industrial
radiography, and also for treatment of cancer. An isotope of Iridium or of cobalt or
cesium is used in industrial radiography. The same radioisotopes are also used in
medicine. Iridium wires or cesium capsules are implanted in cavities to treat cancer.
Similarly cobalt installed in machines is employed for treatment of deep seated cancers
like lung, breast and so on. Very briefly, the cancer cells are more sensitive to the gamma
radiations than the normal cells and are more easily killed.
 Normal cells are also killed but much less and can recover. Lot of detailed
understanding and technique is involved in the treatment. Naturally occurring radioactive
isotopes are not suitable. The above mentioned ones and several others are produced
artificially in reactors and accelerators. Radioisotopes are also put in many gadgets which
find numerous applications.

Nuclear Energy

The discovery of fission led to the creation of nuclear reactors and generation of
energy. Fission is a process in which a relatively less abundant isotope of the heavy metal
uranium, when bombarded with the neutral particle neutron is broken into three smaller
elements and in the process energy is released following Einstein’s equation of mass
energy equivalence. The amount of energy released is huge and is used to convert water
into steam and run turbines to produce electricity as in a conventional coal fired thermal
power plant. Nuclear reactors have been built which produce enough energy to be able to
generate upwards of 1000 MW of electricity in a single power plants reactor. Many
countries of the world are having Nuclear Power Plants. France produces the most
amount of electricity through nuclear means for its consumption. Russia and the United
States also have several Plants to produce significant amounts of Nuclear Power.

Now the process of fission in the reactor also produces other elements which are
radioactive. Trouble for nuclear energy comes from these. They have to be contained.
Therefore, all the precautions and complications of nuclear power stem from the
radioactive products in the process of fission. Lot of technology and science goes in the
designing and construction of nuclear reactors. The isotope of uranium fashioning and
giving energy gets depleted in the fuel of the reactor, it has to be replaced by fresh fuel.
The depleted fuel or the spent fuel, as it is termed, has to be stored for cooling for
considerable length of time and then must be disposed off safely. Many of the
radioisotopes used in industry and medicine and research are produced in these reactors.
Thousands of units of radioactivity are required and that can be made only over
prolonged periods in reactors.
Final Word

The boon of science and technology becomes a bane when the same is deployed
for destructive purposes. Both radioactive isotopes and nuclear energy are capable of
sinister uses. Radiations from the radioactive isotopes are very dangerous. Large amounts
of these can be fatal and also induce cancer. Similarly fission has been used to produce
nuclear bombs of enormous destructive power. The energy, which in a reactor is released
slowly and utilized, is created in a bomb in a matter of split second and released. The
result is intense heat and intense radiation. But this bane is not the fault of technology but
our failing.