Science, Technology and Society

1. Give three (3) other major scientific and technological developments in the world (or in the
Philippines) that created a large impact on your daily life. (2 pts. each)
 The Internet - Internet allows people to improve the quality of their life. It opens access
to the previously inaccessible things. Before, we have to go to different libraries and
borrow books, and wait for available resources especially free ones because not everyone
can afford to buy school books or other materials. But with the internet, it makes life
convenient for everyone, not only can it be used for education and easy learning, but
importantly for communication with our families all over the world.

 Mobile Phone – this is important in our life especially since a mobile phone provides
easy access to several features using the internet. It can capture important moments with
just a simple click and share those moments with others through the social media. This
pandemic, it showed its importance in our daily life as we have experienced lockdown
and quarantine in a year, we also have to distance ourselves to protect each other. The
mobile phone is used to communicate, to tell those who are important to us such as
family members, friends and more that they should take care of themselves, to eat more,
how much they mean to us and how much we love them. It can also be used for business
purposes, like I did because I have my own online shop where I sell clothes, and it helped
me and my family earn money. Several inventions were made to fit in the mobile phone
such as radio, camera, telephone, maps, clock and many more.

 Electricity – this is not just important, but needed in our daily life, because without
electricity, our appliances, gadgets and other technological device won’t work. Imagining
a life without electricity is impossible because we would not be able to carry out
everyday tasks like cooking, running a heater or air conditioning, doing a load of washing
and many more. Electricity makes an infinitely faster pace of life and work possible.

2. What Historical antecedents gave rise to the inventions you mentioned in the first question? (3
pts each)
 The Internet - The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s with
the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network.
Originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet switching
to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network. On October 29, 1969,
ARPAnet delivered its first message: a “node-to-node” communication from one
computer to another. The message—“LOGIN”—was short and simple, but it crashed the
fledgling ARPA network anyway: The Stanford computer only received the note’s first
two letters. ARPANET adopted TCP/IP on January 1, 1983, and from there researchers
began to assemble the “network of networks” that became the modern Internet. The
online world then took on a more recognizable form in 1990, when computer scientist
 Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. The web helped popularize the internet
among the public, and served as a crucial step in developing the vast trove of information
that most of us now access on a daily basis.

 Mobile Phones - The origins of mobile phone technology can be traced back to the
Second World War and the very first mobile phones were not really mobile phones at all.
They were two-way radios that allowed people like taxi drivers and the emergency
services to communicate. The military back then used radiotelephone links for
communication on the battlefield. Since the 1940s, hand-held radio transceivers were
available. In 1946 companies such as AT&T started to offer “Mobile Telephone Service.”
These services had a very limited coverage and were only available in urban areas. In
1956, the first automated mobile phone system for private vehicles launched in Sweden.
The device to install in the car used vacuum tube technology with rotary dial and
weighed 40Kg. Other significant developments in the 1970s enabled automatic cell
switching and signaling systems that allowed for devices to maintain a connection as they
moved from one cell to another, expanding the area that mobile telephone networks could
service. In 1973, Dr. Martin Cooper general manager at Motorola communications system
division made the first public mobile phone call on a device that weighed 1.1Kg. In 1989,
Motorola MicroTAC 9800X was the smallest mobile phone that money could buy. It was
also the first to introduce the “flip” design, where the mouthpiece folded over the keypad.
In 1994, the IBM Simon was the first phone with a touchscreen and applications which
operated with a stylus, and it was only available in the USA, for the price of $899. In
2000, the Nokia 3310 helped Nokia to dominate the mobile phone market for a long time.
It is famous for its durability and long-lasting battery. Several years later, different
models of mobile phones are made which can be touched, submerged in water and many
more features are available, it can also be connected to Wi-Fi for games, emails and other
social media apps.

 Electricity - The first documentation in the history of electricity dates all the way back to
500 B.C. when Thales of Miletus discovered static electricity by rubbing fur on amber.
But it wasn’t until two thousand years later, in the 1600s, that English physician and
physicist William Gilbert published the first theories about electricity in his book, De
Magnete. The next major text about electricity, Experiments and Notes about the
Mechanical Origin or Production of Electricity was published in 1675 by English chemist
and physicist Robert William Boyle. The exploration of electricity went up and in 1747,
Benjamin Franklin advanced the understanding of electricity and invented the lightning
rod. Fast forward to September 1882, when a house in Appleton, Wisconsin became the
first American home to be powered by hydroelectricity. In the late 1700's to early 1800's
several people discovered a new understanding of electricity that took our society into the
technological age. These inventors and scientist built their understanding from various
experiments that lead to major breakthroughs to the electronic age of today. In 1800,
Allesandro Volta (Italian), discovered the first practical method of generating electricity.
In 1819, Hans Christian Oersted, a Danish physicist, discovered a magnetic field is
 caused by electric current. In 1820, Andre Marie Ampere (French), established and
proved the relationship between electricity and magnetism. In 1821, Michael Faraday
(English physicist), developed an understanding of how electricity and magnetism may
create what is later called a motor. This amazing discovery formed the bedrock of today’s
electricity and how we generate it, through magnets and coils of copper wires in big
power plants. As the decades continued to roll by, most of the electricity generation was
done using fossil fuels, from coal to fuel oil. However, with these traditional methods of
electricity generation came an increase in carbon footprint and the emission of
greenhouse gases. The world began to focus on renewable energy such as wind power
and hydropower. New breakthroughs are happening every year and electricity is being
harnessed in ways few could have imagined.

3. How did the developments in science and technology shape human history? (5 pts.)
 From the birth of the earth up to the present day 2021 earth, all of it involves science and
technology. Science and technology did not just shape human history, but is a part of
human history itself. The inventions and discoveries, including the theory of the origin of
the universe, the theory of evolution, and the discovery of genes, have given humanity
many hints relating to human existence from civilized and cultural points of view. It had
an immeasurable influence on the formation of our understanding of the world, our view
of society, and our outlook on nature. Science is producing new knowledge and we shape
technology by using science to transform knowledge into useful tools for our
convenience and safety. The wide variety of technologies and science discoveries
produced by humanity has led to the building and development of the civilizations of
each age and some of the most basic kinds of technology have had the biggest impact
which started with the wheel that also allowed us to establish economies with other
places, carting our supplies and building materials that lets us create better shelters to
protect ourselves from the elements. Science and technology stimulated economic
growth, raised people’s standards of living, and encouraged cultural development and had
a tremendous impact on religion, thought, and many other human activities. The impact
of science and technology on modern society is broad and wide-ranging, influencing such
areas as politics, diplomacy, defense, medicine, transportation, agriculture, social capital
improvement, printing, housing, engineering, weapons, money, computers which are all
technology that have been major turning points in human history and many more. In the
present day, the developments in science and technology can be seen in how the COVID-
19 pandemic is being handled, how vaccines were made in a span of a year, how it affects
each human, how the equipment’s in hospitals help the patients breathe, analyze their
symptoms and treat them, how scientists can discover the different kinds of variants of
COVID and the history of the COVID-19 way before it even spread worldwide, there
was already a case or study which has encountered this virus. Science and technology
helps people to be aware of what is happening around us through the use of gadgets and
machines, it proposes a solution to each problem we have by researching, observing,
analyzing and developing. It made our lives easier as each period goes by with new
 inventions by great scientists, engineers and people who are driven by passion, interests
and fascination in innovating and expanding for efficiency, productivity, time, health,
safety and more. It must be faithfully passed on to future generations as what our
ancestors have done from generation to generation, as an irreplaceable asset of humanity,
driven by the trust and support of the public. The fruits of science and technology has
contributed so much which fill every corner of our lives and will do more in the future.

References:
 History of electricity and connection to magnetism. Retrieved from
https://msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/as/physics/4/asp4_3a.html
 A Brief History of Electricity (Jan. 8, 2019). Retrieved from https://iswitch.com.sg/a-
brief-history-of-electricity/
 The History of Electricity. Retrieved from https://mrelectric.com/blog/the-history-of-
electricity-history-of-electricity-timeline
 Docevski, B. (Oct 1, 2016). A brief history of mobile phones and their evolution over the
years. Retrieved from https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/01/priority-brief-
history-mobile-phones-evolution-years/
 History of mobile phones and the first mobile phone (Feb. 1, 2021). Retrieved from
https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/history-of-mobile-phones/#:~:text=Mobile
%20phones%20were%20invented%20as,the%20emergency%20services%20to
%20communicate.
 The Invention of the Internet (Oct. 28, 2019). Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/invention-of-the-internet
 Andrews, E. (Oct, 28, 2019). Who Invented the Internet? Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet#:~:text=The%20first
%20workable%20prototype%20of,communicate%20on%20a%20single%20network.
 Conclusion. Retrieved from
https://www.mext.go.jp/component/english/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/03/03/1302821_00
4.pdf
 How Science and Technology Shape History. Retrieved from
https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-science-and-technology-shape-
history.html#:~:text=Lesson%20Summary,-Science%20is%20the&text=Technology
%20has%20completely%20changed%20the%20way%20humans%20live%2C%20and
%20therefore,communicate%20around%20the%20world%20instantly.