The World of Science and Technology by D.Vanifatieva, 8A

Science can be defined as the development and systematization of people’s knowledge about the physical universe. The word “science” also means a branch of such knowledge. Some of the branches are: mathematics, geology, botany; people study engineering, physics, astronomy etc. Basic knowledge of science is essential for everyone. It helps people find their way in the changing world.

Science is a source of progress. It develops the world we live in. Our century is an epoch of great discoveries in science and engineering. It is the epoch of scientific and technological revolution, when new ideas are being born and new discoveries, inventions are being made at an ever increasing rate. Today science has become the most important factor in the development of the national economy in the whole world. Scientific progress serves the interests of society, helps to increase the well-being of people and develops public education. 

Many centuries ago people even couldn`t imagine that we would be able to exchange information using the telephone, fax, the Internet, they didn’t have any idea of other planets beside Earth and that Man would be able to fly there. One invention paves the way to another. When Edison gave the world the electric light, his invention led to the immense use of electricity in the 20th century. The 20th century gave us the automobile, the airplane, the helicopter, the cinema, the computer and the nuclear reactor. Two world wars helped to develop the chemical industry to the level that allowed to produce synthetics and other scientific marvels.

Some people believe that inventions occur as the need arises. From this point of view, someone else might have invented the telephone. As it happened, it was Alexander Graham Bell. In the course of his efforts to perfect a multiple telegraph, Bell had invented a little machine, that he had used in teaching the deaf. This little machine that he called the phonautograph, gave him a key to the invention of the telephone. When Bell showed his first model of the telephone, it was still a rather simple instrument. However, Bell’s invention was immediately called the greatest of the time.
Now, computer technology plays the most important role in the progress of science. The ability of computers to solve many mathematical problems more effectively than man does has given rise to new trends in mathematics, it also has created high technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology available. Computer science is a new field of study and research. 

Computers are also used to create the effect of a world which seems almost completely real to the people in it, Virtual reality. In today’s virtual worlds people can do a lot of things: doctors practise operations on different parts of human body, students learn some geography and history by “walking” into the places they are interested in, tourists take far-away trips to other countries etc.
 At the same time, a lot of VR programmes are exercises in killing rather than in thinking. The questions that remains open is how virtual trips effect our minds, judgement and relationships. Critics of virtual reality say that this sort of technology without careful regulation will be nothing more than a high-tech instrument for spreading violence, pornography and advertising. Some psychologists warn that for the young and mentally ill virtual trips could be very dangerous because after such trips they mix up the real world with virtual one. 

To sum it up, there are a lot of urgent problems scientific minds are working at, for example, finding and using alternative sources of energy; creating highly effective systems of communication; climatic change; serious diseases like cancer, AIDs, heart and vessel problems, drug addiction. But science may be turned both for peace and military purpose. It can take good forms and evil forms. With the help of scientific inventions politicians make weapons of mass destruction. So, what is the final word on science and technology? It can be a curse or a blessing. In the end it will be what we make it.