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An important topic is modern science in the making the modern world. Quite a number of issues need to be considered. Science has prevented and cured disease as well as revolutionized the world's economy and productive capacity, allowing large numbers of people to lead comfortable lives for the first time in history. This of course is obvious. Less obvious is the image of modern science. When I began teaching school, I was surprised to find that science was among the least popular subjects with American students. I was suprised at this because as a boy I found science fascinating. We are not entirely sure why this was, but suspect teaching methods were a factor. Another observation is the image of science among young people. Given the fact that scientists and inventors played a major role in building modern industrial states, you would think scientists would have very positive images. But this is often not the case. Here we suspect the popular media is a factor. To the extent that scientists appear in cartoons, movies, and television--the "mad" scientist is a very common character. Another factor is religion which sometimes see science as a threat.
Science has prevented and cured disease as well as revolutionized the world's economy and productive capacity, allowing large numbers of people to lead comfortable lives for the first time in history. This of course is obvious. The work of scientists like Jenner, Salk, Sabin, Hilleman, and others have cured many infectous diseases that would have cur countless lives short in childhood. Advances in biology, chemistry, physics, and their many sub-divisions have made modern life posiible.
Less obvious is the image of modern science. Another observation is the image of science among young people. Given the fact that scientists and inventors played a major role in building modern industrial states, you would think scientists would have very positive images. But this is often not the case. Here we suspect the popular media is a factor. To the extent that scientists appear in cartoons, movies, and television--the "mad" scientist is a very common character.
When I began teaching school, I was surprised to find that science was among the least popular subjects with American students. I was suprised at this because as a boy I found science fascinating. And science teachers can do fascinating demonstrations in their labs that teachers attempting to explain about the subjective tense can never hope for. We are not entirely sure why such a negative attitude toward science exists, but suspect teaching methods were a factor. Perhaps the difficulty of the subject or the need for precession was a factor. Here we are just not sure.
Another factor is religion which sometimes see science as a threat. This was clearly the case during the Renaisance when modern science first began to emerge from alchemy and philosophy. The Christian Church became very hostile to science. The trial of Galileo was a turning point in science and was a factor in southern Catholic Europe falling behinf northern Protestant Europe. But that we stress was the action of the Roman Church, not the impact of Christisnity itself. In fact Christianity was influenced by the classical tradituon of Greece and Rome. And this is expressed on the importance given to the individual. To the Greeks, mn was the measure of all things. And Christianity strsses the individual, perhaps Protestant Christisnity more than Catholic Christisnity, but the focus on the individual prevades Christianity. And this focus provided the cultureal environment from which modern science grew. Of course the relationship between science and religion is an uneasy one and Christian fundamentalists continue to reject modern science, especially evolution. They do not, howeve, reject the modetn world that science has made possible. Some religions are more hostile to science than others. Islam appears to persue the same path as fundamentalist Christians. The rejection of science by Islam in large measure explain the decline of Muslim countries after the fall if the Caliphate.
Another question is why most of the world's important scientific work takes place in a small number of countries. Curiously by far the major hotbed for technical advances until our modern era was China. But China never made the step to actual science and modernity and use their many technical discoveries to create science-based industrial socities. And modern science is today based primarily on work done in America, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and important contributions from several smaller European countries, primarily Scandinavia and the Lowlands. National wealth and population are both important factors, but not decisive ones. Virtually no science comes out of Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich states. Very limited science comes from modern China, the world'most populace state, but that we suspect is about to change. Nor have major scientific achievements come from Russia despite the massive resources the Soviet Union poured into science. In fact Russia today has a third-world economy based on the export of raw materials--primarily energy. Here ironically, socialism which triumphed a scientific approach to human development, appears to have been the major imediment to science. Other countries have been impeded by cultural factors. Christianity has both impeded and promoted science. Islam today appears to be impeding the development of science in Muslim countries. Scientific leadership has changed. England was once the leading scientific nation. It was suplanted by Germany at the turn-of-the 20th century, but German science has never recovered from its war on the Jews and two world wars. America since World War II has been the leading nation in science.
The Soviet Union opened a brand new front of the Cold War with the launching of Sputnik (Otober 4, 1957). The launching of Sputnik was not just a technical achievement with military implications, it also had ideological considerations. Often accounts of the Cold War focus on ideological differences between East and West. Technology played a critical role in the Cold War which is often overlooked. Marxists proclaimed Communism as a new, scientific approach to organizing human society. As a result, science assumed an important ideological status in the Cold war. Obviously if Marxism was the optimal organization of human society, the Soviet Union should be able to produce the best science. And Soviet propaganda trumpeted Sputnik as a symbol of the superiority of Soviet science. In the long run, superior Western technology played an important role in the West's victory. The West's superiority was, however, not apparent in the 1950s. Communism was at the time an ideology embraced by millions around the world. The Russian Revolution and spread of Communism to Eastern Europe and then China seemed to show that Communism was the wave of the future. Soviet technological achieveements like Sputnik was further evidence that Communism, central planning, and atheism were the wave of the future.
An interesting topic is why it was that science and industry were firt put together in the West during the industrial revolution. And it was that combination that has revolutionized word economies and production. There were considerable sciebtific advances made at other times and places that did not lead to major industrial advances. The ancients (Greece and Rome) made notable scientific advances. Anicient China was also a leader in many fields, in some cases centuries ahead of the west, but often did not fully utilize those advances. Why did such an advanced country become so backward in the 18th century. And Islamic society was technically and intelectually much more advanced than medieval Europe. Why then did the industril revolution tak e place in Europe and the Middle East become such a backward part of the world?
The most Visible demonsration of modern science anf technology was the world fairs that began in Victorian England and that subsequently were held throughout Europe and North America. The first was the famed Great Exibition held at London's Crystal Place. It was mastermined by Prince Albert. And it was such a success that it was followed by a series of such exhibitions. Prince Albert's exhibition put the technology of industrial Britain on display for all to see. Subsequent exhibitions became more and more innovative about how to make technology inderstandable to the average person. The Colombian Exposition in Chicago showcased electricity (1893). It was also the beginning of the American postcard industry. The Chicago World's Fair was held in the middle of the Great Depression (1933-34). The New York World's Fair show cased the World Of Tommorow with exhibits about what the world of the future would be like. Tragically it was held in the last fleeting months of peace before the outbreak of World War II (1939).
Science has unlocked untold riches and enabled the average individual to live affluent, comfortable lives that would have been unheard of a century ago. Science has also developed technologies that have resulted in killing on an epic scale. The military potential of sciencehave resulted in modern states promoting their scientific establishments. Scientists have been of varied minds about their work. Some like the scientists around Neils Bohr saw their field as pure and unsullied and sought to persue scientific truth which would not endanger mankind. [Segrč] In the end Bohr and his group were overrun by the NAZIs and he had to flee his beloved country. Others have persued their work in the interests of their country. Here the American Manhattan Project stands out, although some were worked out of a commitment to humanity more than American national power. The cost of modern research has meant that scientists today almost have to work for state-funded institutes or corporate entities. This has meant essentially a Faustian baragain. Wener Von Braun whose dreeam was space travel had to make balistic misskes for the NAZis which mean using slave labor in underground death traps. The nuclear weapons that the Manhattan Project scientists developed to save the world from Hitler and the NAZIs now have the potential to destroy mankind.
Segrč, Gino. Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics (Viking: 2007), 310p.
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