History of science and technology: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history which examines how humanity's understanding of science and technology has changed over the millennia, and how this understanding has allowed us to generate new technologies. This field of history also studies the cultural, economic, and political impacts of scientific innovation.

Modern mathematical science and physical engineering as it is understood today took form in the Scientific Revolution, but was built on the work of the Greek and Islamic civilizations, which in turn had learned from the civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India. In technology, during most of history up to that time, the most advanced part of the world was China.

Challenge to orthodoxy

A persistent theme in the history of science and technology has been the poor reception so often given to those who espouse ideas contrary to the prevailing orthodoxy. The story of Galileo has often been taken as a case in point: some natural philosophers and astronomers, especially those in areas closely influenced by religious orthodoxy, were reluctant to check their theories by looking through the newly-invented telescope as Galileo did. It is a poor example, however, because within a few years Galileo was one of the most honored scientists in Italy, and held in high regard by the Jesuit astronomers of the Collegium Romanum—who were using telescopes with enthusiasm.

After enough time, even the most unpopular idea can become a new scientific orthodoxy, if it can survive experimental test satisfactorily. A famous recent example would be the theory of plate tectonics, which is now basic to any study of large-scale effects in geology.

There is a controversy over whether we are more receptive to new scientific paradigms now than in Galileo's time. While some see Galileo's saga as an example of the arrogance of authority, others argue that rejection of new ideas today cannot be directly compared with examples such as Galileo. They claim that theories developed and tested by following the currently accepted principles of scientific investigation closely, as Galileo did, are generally accepted however surprising they may be, whereas ideas that make yet unproven and seemingly unjustified assumptions are termed pseudoscience.

The excess heat observed in the Fleischmann-Pons experiment, which they and some others have attributed to cold fusion, is a challenge to orthodoxy that is not yet fully resolved. The first report, which received extremely intense press coverage, caused many physicists to attempt to reproduce the experiment (a necessary process in science); these first attempts resulted in many complete failures, at least three widely reported claims of success that were later withdrawn, and no clear and reproducible successes. Since then, the experiment has been repeated by other scientists who have reported various degrees of success. Because of lack of clear confirmation, as well as on theoretical grounds and criticisms of experimental methods, claims of cold fusion have been rejected as pathological science or even pseudoscience by most mainstream scientists.

When the power of Greek civilization was eclipsed by the Roman Empire, many Greek doctors began to practice medicine for the Roman elite, but sadly the physical sciences were not so well supported. Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe entered the so-called Dark Ages, and almost all scientific research ground to a halt. The rise of Christianity saw the suppression and destruction of most classical Greek philosophy (along with Greek and Roman art, literature and religious iconography) as heretical and pagan. In the Middle East, however, many Greek natural philosophers were able to find support in the newly created Arab Caliphate (Empire), and the Islamic scholars built upon previous work in medicine, astronomy and mathematics while developing such new fields as alchemy (chemistry). For example, the scholar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi gave his name to what we now call an algorithm, and the word algebra is derived from al-jabr, the beginning of the name of one of his publications in which he developed a system of solving quadratic equations, thus beginning Al-gebra.

Researchers like Al-Batani 850-929 added to the art in astronomy and mathematics, Al-Razi contributed to chemistry. (See Damascus steel (wootz steel), and the Baghdad Battery -- Arab Alchemy inspired both Roger Bacon and Isaac Newton.)

Al-Batani improved the measurements of Hipparchus, preserved in the translation of the Greek Hè Megalè Syntaxis (the great treatise) translated as Almagest during the Islamic flowering of astronomy. About 900 Al-Batani improved the measurement of the precession of the earth's axis, thus continuing measurements which had been made a millennium earlier, in his own land (Babylonia and Chaldea, what is now Iraq) well before 130 BCE.

The Muslim version of the early scientific method had an explicit ethical requirement.

Al-Batani's contributions to astronomy may be independent of Aryabhata b.476- in what is now Patna, Bihar, India. Other contributions from India include the knowledge of wootz steel and the positional number system with zero.

On July 4th, 1054, Chinese astronomers noted the appearance of a guest star, the supernova now called the Crab Nebula, Messier's M1. Other contributions from China include paper, the magnetic compass, gunpowder and rocket technology.

This civilization did not have metals or the wheel; they possessed a system of writing and amazing fluency with flint-knapping including portraiture in flint. Their calendar utilized a base-20 number system with zero, and an understanding of astronomy sufficiently accurate to support an accurate calendar, 1000 years ahead of any in Europe, as of 650.

• Timeline of scientific experiments
• Timeline of scientific discoveries
• Timeline of technological discoveries
• Timelines of Science and Technology
• Biography of inventors, explorers, and scientists
• List of scientists, List of engineers and List of inventors
• List of years in science
• Technical societies, technical education
• Economic, political, and social history
• General relationships between technology and culture; philosophy of technology

• Historiography of Science and Technology
  • Kranzberg's laws of technology

• Historians of science and technology:
  • Johann Beckmann
  • I. Bernard Cohen
  • John L. Heilbron
  • Thomas P. Hughes
  • Daniel Kevles
  • Thomas Kuhn
  • Abraham Pais
  • George Sarton

• Journals and periodicals in the history of science and technology:
  • History of Technology
  • ICON
  • Technology and Culture
  • Transactions of the Newcomen Society

• Research institutes:
  • Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

• Future of science and technology (speculative)
  • Technological singularity
  • Technocapitalism

• Philosophy of science
  • Paul Feyerabend
  • Thomas Kuhn
  • Karl Popper
  • Naive Empiricism

See also: Timelines of Science and Technology

Science

General essays on scientific revolution and scientific enterprise

• Life Sciences
  • Biology
    • History of anatomy
    • History of brain imaging
    • Theory of evolution
      • Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species
    • Genetics
      • DNA
  • Paleontology
• Physical Science
  • Chemistry
    • Analytical chemistry
    • Biochemistry
    • Inorganic chemistry
    • Organic chemistry
    • Physical chemistry
  • History of physics
  • History of astronomy
  • Geology and Earth science
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Philosophy and Logic

Social science

• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Economics, business and industry
• Industrial organization and labor
• Geography
• Language and Linguistics
• Political science
• Psychology
• Sociology

Technology

• Agriculture
• Biotechnology
• Civil engineering
  • Architecture and building construction
  • Bridges, harbors, tunnels, dams
  • Surveying, instruments and maps, cartography, urban engineering, water supply and sewerage
• Energy conversion
• Family and consumer science
• Health science
• History of computers
• History of medicine
• Industrial Revolution
• Library and information science
• Materials and processing
• Military technology
• Transportation

Ancient technological objects

• the Antikythera mechanism
• the sling and catapult
• the sundial and diptych

• Derry, Thomas Kingston and Trevor I. Williams. A Short History of Technology : From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. New York : Dover Publications, 1993.
• Kranzberg, Melvin and Carroll W. Pursell, Jr. editors. Technology in Western civilization. New York, Oxford University Press, 1967.