Science and Technology

Perhaps one of the greatest inventions of our time is the Internet. No doubt, the net has had a big effect on almost every part of our lives. It has changed the way we do business, how we communicate and entertain and how we search for information. Many people send documents, buy things, book hotels, reserve tickets or transfer their money via the Internet. Chatting, joining discussion groups, reading articles, downloading music is very popular among the young people. Computers have also replaced people in some professions.

Science and technology help us with our everyday work and without it our lives would be more difficult. On the other hand science and technology can be misused, for example we drive cars daily but they pollute the air.

Scientists will continue to conduct research in medicine, and all other fields of science.

Inventions and Discoveries:

• In 1924 the Scottish inventor and engineer John Logie Baird developed a television.

• Telephone: This is an invention that made money. Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922) was the first in the race to patent a machine in 1876 that you could use to talk to someone on the other side of the world. Admittedly, it was initially from one room to another. The message was “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you”. A year later in 1877 he set up his company and demonstrated long distance calls.

• In 1894 Italian engineer Marconi developed the first radio while experimenting in his parents` attic.

• Alexander Calder, an American sculptor, invented the mobile phone in the early 20th century. His invention became famous worldwide.

• Isaac Newton: was an English physicist. He discovered gravitational force.

• Steam power: This era saw the development of steam engines to power factory machinery. Heating water in a boiler to make steam to power a vehicle was a major technological advance. James Watt (1736 – 1819) is recognised as the inventor of the steam engine in 1765. Water could be pumped out of mines and industrial processes speeded up. George Stephenson’s (1781 - 1848) Rocket was the first locomotive to pull heavy loads a long distance. This led to the rapid expansion of railways throughout Britain and the world. The combination of iron and steam paved the way for the great Victorian engineering projects of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 - 1859). He designed bridges, tunnels, viaducts and ships.

• Alfred Bernard Nobel, the Swedish chemist, invented a safer way of using nitro-glycerine in the production of dynamite.

• Dimitri Mendelev composed his periodic table of elements.

• Luis Pasteur, the French biologist, produced a vaccine against rabies. He also invented the process known as pasteurisation.

• Charles Darwin proposed the theory that all differences in animals were formed by natural processes over long periods of time.

• James Watson and Francis Crick clarified the basic structure of DNA.

• Photography: In 1826, after years of experiments, the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765 - 1833), using ‘bitumen of Judea’ spread on a pewter plate and an exposure of eight hours in bright sunlight, produced the first permanent picture. His technique was improved upon by his colleague Louis Daguerre (1787 - 1851) by using compounds of silver, the basis of modern photography.

• The Electric Light: After many refinements, Thomas Edison’s (1847 – 1931) electric light bulbs were the best and by 1879 they would last for hundreds of hours, much longer than any of their rivals. They were also cheap. To sell bulbs, energy was needed, so Edison’s Electric Illumination Company built their own power station in New York. After many decades he successfully persuaded the public to opt for clean, convenient electric light rather than gas lights.