Science and Technology

Science and Technology

1. život kedysi a dnes
   b) pozoruhodné objavy a vynálezy vedy a techniky

In the pre-historic times, people’s lives were very simple – people hunted for food and made primitive tools from stones and simple clothes to protect them from the cold. The only tool which they had was the human hand.

People wanted to make their lives easier and more comfortable and so they invented some things. The first was a Wheel. Important discoveries and inventions came in 15th and 16th centuries – new continents /America, Asia, Africa/ were discovered and sciences such as astronomy, philosophy, medicine and biology were developed. At that time also the printing press /kníhtlač/ was invented in Germany by a man called Gutenberg.
Many important inventions came in the 18th and 19th century – it was the time of the Industrial Revolution /priemyselná revolúcia/:
- the steam engine - parný stroj => James Watt
- the electric light bulb – elektrická žiarovka => T. A. Edison
- the electric motor – elektrický motor => Michael Faraday 
- the 1st petrol driven car – prvé auto na benzín => G. Daimler, K. Benz
- the electricity – elektrická energia

Later, in the 20th century, these inventions came to existence: the airplan,  the computer, the mobile phone, the Internet, the TV, the credit cards..

Today we cannot imagine our lives without technology. We use it every day at home, at work, at school and in many other parts of our lives. They are very important to us. For example at home we use these inventions: electric appliances – elektrické spotrebiče - a fridge – chladnička, a washing machine – práčka, a computer /PC/, a TV, a telephone, a mobile phone, a microwave oven – mikrovlnka, a vacuum cleaner /a hoover/ - vysávač.. At work we can use: a telephone, a fax machine, a computer, a car..

The most significant inventions:

- penicillin (an antibiotic that kills bacteria) was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928,

- paper was invented in China in 105 AD, the first Chinese paper was made of silk, then hemp and the

bark of mulberry trees, today most paper is produced by the chemical treatment of wood pulp,

- telephone – it enables us to communicate with others both in everyday life and in business, it dates

back to 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell, physicist and inventor, developed his “speaking box “

- electric light bulb - T. A. Edison.

- television/ TV, where the programme can be transmitted by satellites, the news is spread as well by

radio, newspaper, and the World Wide Web /www/, the first television transmissions were made in

England in 1926 by the Scotsman John Logie Baird.

- electricity – we use it for lighting, heating, radio, TV, etc. It all started in about 600 BC, Greek

philosopher Tales has found something similar to electricity that we know nowadays (blackout – a lack of electricity).

- car – petrol-driven car, invented by two Germans, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz (1885).

The advantages and disadvantages that the science and technology brought: 

Advantages:
- it made our lives easier and more comfortable
- sometimes science can help to make a human life longer – for example new medicine /penicillin/ and medical technology => many people can be cured 
- science and technology help us to learn new information about our life, the life of animals, our world and the space – people can travel to space, search the oceans and the jungle because we have the technology for it – we can measure, weigh very precisely
- science and technology helps us to overcome the distance /prekonať vzdialenosť/ - for example the telephone – we can talk to and see people who are far away from us, even on the other side of the world
- it helps us to make transactions easier – we use credit cards, phone cards…
- it can help us to protect our environment – to find some alternative sources of energy – for example the wind power, the solar power… 

Disadvantages:

- the science has brought some ethical problems – for example the cloning of animals and people – some people think that it is right, some people think it is wrong
- science and technology can endanger people – we can be destroyed by the new inventions – ballistic missiles, laser and nuclear weapons, H-bomb 
- pollution of the environment – on the one hand the science can help us to protect it, on the other hand, we can destroy it by fertilizers, pesticides…
- we spend less time talking to our family and friends – we prefer sending messages, using mobiles and we communicate with computer, not with real people.