Introduction Prepared by: Jobelle R.

Tapia, LPT
Objectives
• Define science and technology
• Explain the value and nature of science; and,
• Recognize the importance of “Science, Technology, and Society” as a
general education course.
What is Science?
• It is messy task!
• It is not just “systematized and organized body of knowledge”!
• It is a method
What is science?
• Old theory: Spontaneous generation
• Francisco Redi (1668)
• Louis Pasteur (1864)
What is science?
• There isn’t one method in doing science. Not just experimentation!
• Computer modeling and simulation= experimental physicist
• Geologists rarely conduct experiment
• “The scientific process is not linear, it is messy and complex and involves
changing ideas, revision, creativity, and collaboration.”
What is science?
• Science as a community enterprise characterized with integrity.
- Inspiration, Motivation, division of labor, cumulative knowledge
base, scrutiny
What separates Science from
Pseudoscience?
• Clearly defined terminology
• Reproducibility
• Predictability
• Testability
Products of science
• Scientific knowledge
• Facts, Models, Theories, and Laws
Technology
• Application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life
• Products: physical artifacts and process
• Contributions of Science to Technology:
- Science as direct source of technological ideas
- Science as source of engineering design tools and techniques
- Instrumentation, laboratory techniques, and analytical methods
• Contribution of technology and science:
- Technology as a source of new scientific challenges
- Instrumentation and measurement techniques
Why STAS?
• The Manhattan Project- a research and development undertaking during
World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons.
• First formed in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• The U.S. government started funding research by Enrico Fermi and Leo
Szilard at Columbia University
• Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller- nuclear fission
• Trinity Test (July 26, 1945)