Science and technology – development and beginnings

Science and technology – development and beginnings
It’s hard to figure out exactly what makes something a science but we can define it as a process of gaining knowledge. Science tries to ask questions that can be tested. So you can’t ask the question ‘‘Why does the universe exist?‘‘. The right question can be ‘‘When did the universe come into existence?‘‘ because you could design experiments to test the answers. This reveals another characteristic of science – it usually involves doing an experiment. In science your experiment has to be repeatable. One of the most popular conceptions of what makes science different is that it follows the sciencitific method. This method involves asking a question, performing an experiment and coming to conclusions.

Science and technology is as old as the mankind. The first inventions and discoveries were very simple. As the first important discovery in the development of the mankind we consider the discovery of fire. On the other hand the first important invention was the invention of wheel (about 4,000 B.C.). About the year 3,000 BC people started to live in towns, where science began to grow. Many important inventions like writing, reading, counting, astronomy, medicine and chemistry began to develop. Man’s effort to survive and to improve his way of life made him invent new and better tools, get deeper knowledge and control of the forces of nature. As man’s knowledge grew people found it useful to classify it. It was separated into various branches, such as physics – the study of natural forces, biology – the study of living beings, chemistry – the study of materials.