Science and Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Science and Technology - Essay Example The division between science and technology has a long history, but there have been numerous instances when science has furthered the efforts of technology or vice versa and this has brought the two fields into closer contact. For most of history, there has been a sharp division between science and technology. Dan Berger (2000) points out that science is â€Å"the investigation of nature† while technology is â€Å"how we get things done.† As a result, there is no need for the two fields to co-exist. Throughout history, this has proven again and again to be the case. Berger illustrates how the Greeks tended to have a great deal of science, but not so much technology, primarily because the thinkers and the artisans were isolated from each other through a highly exclusive social system. At roughly the same period in time, the Egyptians had a high level of technological knowledge, but not a great deal of science because, while they had great ambitions and ideas, they tended to discourage any close questioning of their traditional belief systems. In his book Society and Technological Change, Rudi Volti addresses these concepts as well as he traces the relationship between science and technology t hrough the Roman era, the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. In spite of this, it has often been seen throughout history that science has helped to inform significant technological advancements at the same time that technological advancements have helped to further science. In the past, it has typically been the discoveries of science that were translated, eventually, into uses of technology. An example of this might be discovered in the ‘science’ of Leonardo da Vinci, who spent a great deal of time studying the mechanical processes at work that enable a bird to fly. Although he felt he understood the process, these discoveries