STS
Lesson 1: Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society
Science -Latin scientia, knowledge, behavior of the universe through observation,
experimentation
John Heilbron -modern science is both discovery and invention
Technology -techne, art skill, cleverness of the hand, designed to address practical issues
Wolpert -provided an intriguing comparison between science and technology
Science, Technology, and Society (STS) -relatively new discipline that merges older, previously
separate areas like the history of science
Harvard University's Kennedy School (2018), STS as an academic discipline has its origins in
the interwar years and the beginning of the Cold War
John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values of the University of Notre Dame
1. Helix - a digital app store designed to read genomes.
2. BlessU-2 and Pepper - the first robot priest and monk.
3. Emotion-Sensing Facial Recognition - a software being developed to assess your reactions to
anything such as shopping and playing games.
4. Ransomware - a way of holding data hostage through hacking and requiring a ransom to be
paid.
5. Textalyzer - a device that analyzes whether a driver was using his or her phone during an
accident.
6. Social Credit System - a system of scoring citizens through their actions by placing them
under constant surveillance (which China plays to adopt).
7. Google Clips - a hands-free camera that lets the user capture every moment effortlessly.
8. Sentencing Software - a mysterious algorithm designed to aid courts in sentencing decisions.
9. Friendbot - an app that stores the deceased's digital footprint so one can still "chat" with
them.
10. Citizen App - an app that notifies users of ongoing crimes or major events in a specific area.
Lesson 2: Historical Antecedents of Science and Technology
Antecedent -characterized as something that precedes the emergence or existence of another
thing.
Ancient Period
Ancient Wheel -grew out of a mechanical device called the potter's wheel
Potter's Wheel -heavy flat disk made of hardened clay (invented by sumeriansshortly after 3500
BC
Paper -3000 BC, made out of plant CYPERUS PAPYRUS (lightweight, strong, durable, and
most importantly, portable)
Paperus -materials similar to thick paper
Shadoof -irrigate land (used for lifting water)
Antikythera mechanism -world's analog computer orrery (discovered in 1902 and retrieved from
the waters of Antikythera, Greece)
Antikythera mechanism is similar to a mantel clock.
Aeolipile -hero's engine, ancient precursor of the steam engine, steam-powered turbine that
spun when the water container at its center was heated
Middle Ages
Heavy Plough -clay soil, Professor Thomas Bernebeck Andersen of the University of Southern
Denmark "Suddenly, the fields with the heavy, fatty, and moist clay soils became those that
gave the greatest yields"
Gunpowder -850 AD, Chinese alchemists accidentally invented black powder or gunpowder
Huoyao -fire potion
Paper Money -17th century used in europe
Chinese -first known versions of money were traced back
Mechanical Clock -way for accurately keeping track of time
Spinning Wheel -machine used for transforming fiber into thread or yan and eventually woven
into cloth on a loom
White (1974) -the invention of the spinning wheel sped up the rate at which fiber could be spun
by a factor of 10 to 100 times
Modern Ages
Compound Microscope -inventor dutch spectacle maker named Zacharias Janssen (1950)
together with his father Hans Zacharias, began experimenting with lenses by putting together
several lenses on a tube
Telescope -invention could magnify objects 20 times, Galileo Galilei
Jacquard Loom -built by French weaver Joseph Marie Jacquard, simplifies textile
manufacturing, 1801
Engine-Powered Airplane -Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright (brothers), proved that aircraft could
fly without airfoil-shaped wings
Television -Scottish engineer John Logie Baird, televised objects in outline in 1924,
recognizable human faces in 1925, moving objects in 1926, and projected colored images in
1928
Inventions by Filipino Scientists
Electronic Jeepney (e-jeepney) -was introduced in Metro Manila and Bacolod City, innovative
answer to concerns regarding traditional jeepneys, which produced significant smoke and
contributed to air pollution, rendering them unsustainable and uneconomical, they are more
cost-effective because electricity is significantly less expensive than regular diesel
Erythromycin -Abelardo Aguilar, antibiotic from a strain of bacteria known as Streptomyces
erythreus
Medical Incubator -Fe del Mundo,first woman pediatrician to be admitted to the prestigious
Harvard University School of Medicine and founder of the first pediatrician hospital in our
country, incubator and jaundice-relieving device
Mole Remover -2000, Rolando Dela Cruz, easily remove moles and warts without surgical
procedure made use of extracts of cashew nuts (Annacardium occidentale)
Banana Ketchup -Filipino food technologist, Maria Orosa, backdrop of World War II when there
was a huge shortage of tomatoes. As a result, Orosa developed a variety of ketchup that made
use of mashed banana, sugar, vinegar, and spices, which were all readily available. Orosa's
banana ketchup isbrownish-yellow in natural color but is dyed red to resemble the color of the
most loved tomato ketchup.
Lesson 3: Intellectual Revolutions and Society
The Copernican Revolution refers to the 16th-century paradigm shift named after the Polish
mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus. Copernicus formulated the heliocentric
model of the universe. At the time, the belief was that the Earth was the center of the Solar
System based on the geocentric model of Ptolemy Copernicus introduced the heliocentric
model in a 40-page outline entitled [Link] formalized his model in the publication
of his treatise, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (The Revolution of Celestial Spheres) in
1543. In his model, Copernicus repositioned the Earth from the center of the Solar System and
introduced the idea that the Earth rotates on its axis. The model illustrated the Earth, along with
other heavenly bodies, to be rotating around the Sun.
Darwinian Revolution
The English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, Charles Darwin, is credited for stirring another
important intellectual revolution in the mid-19th century. His treatise on the science of evolution,
On the Origin of Species, was published in 1859 and began a revolution that brought humanity
to a new era of intellectual discovery.
The Darwinian Revolution benefitted from earlier intellectual revolutions especially those in the
16th and 17th centuries, such that it was guided by confidence in human reason's ability to
explain phenomena in the universe. For his part, Darwin gathered evidence pointing to what is
now known as natural selection, an evolutionary process by which organisms, including
humans, inherit, develop, and adapt traits that favor survival and reproduction. These traits are
manifested in offspring that are more fit and well-suited to the challenges of survival and
reproduction.
Freudian Revolution
Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud, is credited for stirring a 20th-century intellectual
revolution named after him, the Freudian Revolution. Psychoanalysis as a school of thought in
psychology is at the center of this revolution. Freud developed psychoanalysis – a scientific
method of understanding inner and unconscious conflicts embedded within one's personality,
springing from free associations, dreams, and fantasies of the individual. Psychoanalysis
immediately shot into controversy for it emphasized the existence of the unconscious where
feelings, thoughts, urges, emotions, and memories are contained outside of one's conscious
mind. Psychoanalytic concepts of psychosexual development, libido, and ego were met with
both support and resistance from many scholars. Freud suggested that humans are inherently
pleasure-seeking individuals. These notions were particularly caught in the crossfire of whether
Freud's psychoanalysis fit in the scientific study of the brain and mind.
Amidst controversy, Freud's psychoanalysis is widely credited for dominating psychotherapeutic
practice in the early 20th century. Psychodynamic therapies that treat a myriad of psychological
disorders remain largely informed by Freud's work on psychoanalysis.