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What is the Science?
Science is a powerful way
of knowing that has transform
The History of Modern Science:
Yet,
for most people 'science' means a number of abstract subject such as physics,
chemistry, biology and mechanics, to quote a few, which have to be learnt as
part of 'education', yet which seem to have little bearing on everyday living.
How wrong this is. Our way of life is completely dependent on science and its
fruits surround us on all sides.
The
Revival first taught man to realize the value of scientific progress, but it
was not until the 18th century that the Industrial Revolution in the West
really showed the impact science could have on living through developments in
land-tillage, commercial production, transportation, and the beginning of the
supply of mass-produced consumer goods. Until about 1920, progress was steady
but in the last 50 years, the process of applying of science to the needs of
living has accelerated extremely. This has been proportionate to the rate of
scientific discovery itself.
The twentieth century is
the age of science. Modern science has achieved wonders. It has brought about
far reaching changes in every walk of life. Great indeed are the blessings of
science. It has increased human comforts. As someone has truly said, science
has given eyes to blind, ears to deaf, and limbs to the cripple. It has also
provided us with wings that nature has not given us. It uses are so many that
it should be made a compulsory subject of study for all examinations. Let us
here consider, in brief, various blessings that science has bestowed upon the
modern man.
Science in everyday life:
Science has invented
various means of swift communication that are very useful for us in our
everyday life. Time and distance have been conquered and traveling has become a
pleasure. Railways have made used for travel and transport. Man can now fly
like birds. He can now circle the world in no time. The globe has thus shrunk
and the entire world has become like a small family. Sea-voyages have now
become perfectly safe and have lost all their terrors. In the modern
steam-ship, we can travel with perfect ease and safety. The world has now
become one long bazaar and man goes about buying and selling with perfect ease.
Science has invented a
number of machines which are very useful for human being in his very day life.
Everything that the modern man/human-being uses from morning till night has
been manufactured by one machine or the other. Machines lift weights from him,
plough his fields, cook his food and also serve it for him. Computers have made
calculations easy and swift beyond imagination. The invention of such machines,
as save human time and drudgery, is a great blessing for mankind.
Science gives us safe
food, free from harmful bacteria, in clean containers or hygienic tins. It also
teaches us to eat properly, indicating a diet balanced in protein and
carbohydrate and containing vitamins. The results are freedom from disease and
prolonged life. In pre-scientific days, food was monotonous and sometimes
dangerous; today it is safe and varied. It is varied because through improved
sea, land and air transport food can now be freely imported and exported. The
greatest blessings of science are its inventions in the field of medicine and
surgery. Human pain and sufferings has been conquered and the expectancy of
life has gone higher. Science has invented a number of wonderful drugs as
Penicillin, Streptomycin, cortisone, etc. that are very useful in everyday
life. X-Ray and body scanning machine are the window through which we can get a
peep into the inside of our body. There are machines which give us a peep into
the entire human body and detect diseases. Major operations can now be
performed and broken limbs set right without the patient feeling any pain.
Different parts of the body can now be replaced by artificial ones. It is
expected that atomic energy, when used for peaceful purpose on a large scale,
would transform human life.
Science has added to human comforts inn various ways. Home,
school and office all bear witness to the progress and application of science.
Nowadays, most homes possess electric lighting and cooking, but many also have
washing machines, vacuum cleaners and kitchen appliances, all designed to
increase comfort and cleanliness and reduce drudgery. With electricity man can
turn night into day and carry on his work with perfect ease. In the summer, he
enjoys cool breeze by the use of electric fans and air-conditions, and hundred
and one other features for good living. The books and papers are at school, and
again everything from the piece of chalk to the closed-circuit television of
instruction is the direct or indirect results of scientific progress. Learning
is therefore easier. And clerical work is made far more speedy and efficient by
the office typewriter, quite apart from the hundreds of different machines
which relieve the manual worker of so much slow and monotonous toil in the
factories. Science has also improved clothing and made it more appropriate for
climatic and working conditions. Man-made fibers and versatile spinning
machines today enable us to dress in clothes both comfortable and smart without
being expensive.
In
the old days, the idea of travel or taking a holiday was the monopoly of the
privileged few. Today, science has given us the steamer, the aircraft and the
motor-car. New horizons are opened to us and the increase of wealth brought
about by science has given us the means to enjoy the new leisure we have been
given. But to enjoy life at all, we must be healthy and it is perhaps in the
sphere of medicine that some of the greatest advances have been made. Today,
because of the use of antibiotic and isotopes, many diseases are speedily cured
and man has become, on the whole, a healthier being, set free from pain and
illness.
Hence, Science is a
great blessing for mankind. It has been completely beneficial to ordinary
living when properly applied. It utility in everyday life is unlimited. But the
inventions of science are being misused in various ways. When misused, it is
equally harmful. Land can be poisoned by chemicals, workers can suffer
industrial disease, war can mobilize science to man's own destruction. Instead
of using the aero-planes for travel, we use them to drop bombs. In this way,
this blessing has turned into a curse, and it is feared that one day science
will destroy humanity. Science should be a compulsory subject of study so that
man may understand its true nature, and put it to right use. If our country is
to progress, more scientists are urgently needed. Therefore, science should be
taught to all.
Impact of Science on daily life:
Science has been a boon
and a bane to our daily lives just as, the two sides of a coin. Just as two
sides of a coin cannot be separated, the advantages and disadvantages of
Science also cannot be separated, for, the effects of Science, on our daily
lives have been both good and bad, and cannot be looked at separately.
It is Science and its
knowledge that has given us the gifts for our comforts and luxuries, and these
gifts are uncountable. They have made life a very interesting and comfortable
journey. Starting from the home, Science has made the chores of a housewife
very easy, fast and neat. We have the gas stoves, the Frigidaire, the vacuum
cleaner, the washing machine and the air conditioner.
There are several other
smaller gadgets which also contribute to making work easier and faster, the mixer,
the grinder, the juicer and many other smaller electrical appliances make for
convenient and fast work by the housewife.
Using all these gadgets
in the kitchen makes the daily chores of the housewife very easy, fast and
neat. After all the housework finished faster, she can now indulge in other
assignments outside the home and keep herself occupied according to her tastes
and capacities. Thus now the housewife, once totally occupied with the never
ending house work can apply her time and energy to other pursuits of her
choice, which is turn, may give her more satisfaction and inner happiness.
So much for the gifts of
science for the housewife now once out of the home, the magic of fast transport
is at our beck and call. There are scooters, three wheelers, cars, taxies, and
buses to take us to any destination that we may be heading to. With so many
fast moving vehicles available to us, we become more mobile.
This helps us to do our
work at far off places fast and also helps us in becoming friendly with the
outside world. These movements out of the home teach us, at least the women to
be more independent and teach us to do many odd jobs which we were earlier not
able to do due to the constraints of movement.
So much for a fast
movement, let us now consider the position of the network of communications.
For this, Science has provided for us, a large spectrum of communication. We
have the media in print and on the screen.
In print, we have the newspapers, magazines of all
sorts, and on the screen we have the small screen on the television and the big
screen of the cinema. All these media give us the news of all that is happening
around the world, while we are seated in our drawing rooms.
On the telephone, another medium of communication we
can speak to friends and relatives, make programs finalize deals and a lot
more, all this also sitting at home, or inside the office. Oh! What a fast
moving and sure network of communication this Science has gifted to us. To add
to all this, now, the computer has come, a wonder of wonders of the scientific
age the entry of the computer in the homes and offices has made work still
easier and faster.
With so much of science
and scientific knowledge the impact of all this on our daily lives has been
tremendous. Routine works have become easier and faster and so, we can make
ourselves available for more and more of other works away and different from
the routine.
The world has become
smaller and a single family in which we can at any time, talk to anybody
anywhere in the world; send messages to anyone anywhere in the world. Thus,
Science has completely revolutionized man's life and life style. It has given
man more exposure to knowledge which he gets at his doorstep.
With all these gifts of
Science there is the other side of the coin. The other side is of course not
very encouraging. For, if it were not for Science and scientific knowledge, we
would not have had dreadful things like the atom bomb, sophisticated weapons
all that are the media of wholesale destruction. If all these things are
allowed to develop like the blessings of Science, there may come one day when
there will be no human being to enjoy the fruits of science.
This side of the coin of
science brings awe into the minds of millions of innocent people who live in
the fear of annihilation at any time. Just like speed is there in good works,
speed will be there also in its different media of destruction also.
Thus, Science has given
us a lot, but since it has a lot of capacity of taking the very essence of life
from us, it is not to be considered as a very wholesome gift to mankind. Though
science has revolutionized man's life, it has given man the fear of destruction
also as never before.
The impact
of Science on Environment:
All of our lives we have
known that oxygen and air are the most precious resources to human beings.
Human beings can survive for weeks or even months without food and for days
without water. However a few minutes without air threaten our whole life. Today
in the year 2015 air pollution is all around us and it continues to disturb the
balance of nature and keeps on destroying the ecology of the world. We have
endured many changes and adaptations. His problem began during the Industrial
Revolution where changed agricultural and industrial practices created new
chemical compositions (oil, coal, gas, carbon dioxide) and added gases that
absorbed infrared radiation and were released into the atmosphere. As a result,
the earth's atmosphere kept on changing and the temperature of the planet kept
on rising and now the global warming factor has no solution. Because of that
the greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) increased,
resulting in the depletion of the ozone layer.
Due to these changes we can see
significant regional variations around the earth. The sea level increased
because of glacial melting. As a consequence many countries suffered flooding.
The tropical regions lost their vegetation and this caused deforestation in the
planet. The animals began to become extinct. In some places it didn't rain and
the crops didn't grow. The hurricanes increased in intensity as a consequence
of changes in climate. The water cycle that plays an important role in this
natural process also was contaminated. It affected the vital cycle in the
planet, changing the ecology of the earth.
The chemical composition
and pollution in the atmosphere are destroying all life on the surface of the
earth and the climate has changed. The people suffer odd illnesses and new
epidemics have appeared. Skin cancer has increased due to the depletion of the
ozone layer. The children are being born deformed because of radiation and more
children die from severe diarrhea caused by dirty water. The ground doesn't
give food, and the species of the sea and animals are dead due to acid rain.
The natural resources are ending and people are beginning to die.
Disadvantages of
Science & Technology:
Since the 18th century science has entered into the modern age of its
development. Science, which is based upon the knowledge of five senses, has stunned the world with great amazement.
Particularly the last half of the previous century and the beginning of the
present century have contributed much more regarding developments in the field
of science and technology. It
is also an accepted fact that science has very much revolutionized the
world. It has made everything very easy and accessible. No doubt science has brought astonishing changes in the
field of health, defense, education entertainment, communication and social
life. The conclusion can be drawn as the present world has been changed into a
global village via communication advancement. No one gets bore by having the
cheapest and easiest means of entertainment. This he enjoys only through science,
similarly almost any new disease can be cured easily before spreading in the
other places.
It is also an unveiled
fact that news in one part of the world gets stale in the other part of the
world just within minutes only due to advancement in communication, a success
of science in this world. The air journey, the
voyage in the ocean and the journey on road have been made comfortable,
facilitated and quickened by the inventions of airplanes,
bullet trains; air conditioned buses and coaches and ships containing
restaurants and hotels. In a nutshell, the list of
the benefits from
science is unlimited due to
greater number of inventions in every field. Though, its usefulness and
benefits can't be ignored, science has also brought in some harm through
its inventions. Science
definitely has disadvantages.
Human being seems very exhausted, bored and a bit confused due to its harms.
For starters, consider the example of very big and destructive weaponry,
advancement in the field of weapons. It is science which has introduced atomic bombs,
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM,) air
jets, B-52 bombers, pistols, guns and the list is long.
it would not be overstatement to say
that the whole world can be destroyed just within few minutes by atomic bombs.
It has already been witnessed that detonation of such bombs anywhere can
destroy everything that comes under its influence and in many cases such areas
becomes barren for years if not centuries, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are classical
examples of such destruction. Similarly, science has made man very lazy in his temper
and practice. His attitude has been changed in a different way. The goal of technology was to help man in achieving his goals
easily, but due the abusive nature of human beings, technologies bring more
harm than good. But this does not mean that technology is merely responsible
for all the harm, human beings play a crucial role in the abuse of technology.
Technology by itself does not do harm, it is the user who misuses technology
and causes harm to the society.
In other words, man's efficiency and
output in performing many daily works has been reduced. What happens is that
when he is deprived of such facilities due to poorness or other inappropriate
circumstances, he feels great stresses and also realizes his inabilities, thus
making him extremely dependent on technology? Similarly, problem of pollution
can be attributed to science. Due
to vast modernization and industrialization, pollution has been divided into
dozens of kinds such as air, noise, water etc. There seems to be no solution
for controlling the pollution problem? The natural fertility power of earth has
been disturbed due to toxic and poisonous fertilizers manufactured by science.
Pollution has been detected as the main reason for disturbing the ozone layer,
which is serves as the basic protective layer from ultraviolet and dangerous
sun rays. The poisonous and the dangerous flux of gases and dust form
uncontrolled vehicles and factories are badly affecting human's health on the
one hand and the general atmosphere on the other.
Another important ethical point to be
pointed out is the spread of vulgarity and obscenity. Vulgarity in the whole
world is a slap on the face of the champions of morality. The recent inventions
in the field of electronic media have made it simple for porn industry to
flourish easily and that too at a very cheap cost. DVDs, CDs, Internet etc.
are the cheapest sources available at the doorsteps to all people. As a result
societies have become morally corrupt and the day-to-day immoral happenings and
the vulgar nakedness have led to vanishing of modesty and morality. In such
confusion, religion has got great setback particularly Islam. The fact is no
religion promotes vulgarity, but as porn industry is a major economy
contributor in some countries, laws are
made to protect them. This in turn makes vulgarity legal and any objections are
considered as illegal.
Such abuse of
scientific inventions has confused people from all walks of life. It has
aroused in him a great difference and negative dynamism regarding his religion,
tradition and culture. His theory and practice both have got contradiction and
antagonism. Besides this, the basic concepts and Islamic teachings of
economics, politics, justice, and morality are very much disturbed, not just
Islam but every religion is affected. Science has put in danger the basic world's
requirement such as morality, peace brotherhood, justice and humanism.
Similarly, science claims rather proudly that it has
reduced and minimized the stresses of manpower. One person can ensure a manual work,
which was considered to be fulfilled by dozens of people, i.e., by using
machinery. But it has increased unemployment by affecting the third world
countries in particular. The unemployment has become directly proportional to
the population only by dint of science.
The main requirement is harmonization, love and
peace. They are considered to be beyond the five senses of knowledge but these prerequisites
have been very badly disturbed by science. It has played no such contributing
role in ensuring such characteristics in the society. It has not been
successful in lifting the thick veil of ignorance from the third world
societies up to the expectation. Moreover, it is natural that human beings feel
afraid of brutality, class difference in society, injustice, extravagances,
immortality, hatred, materialism, adulteration and so on.
But with great sorrow these bad things
have been motivated and branched out by science whether directly or indirectly. The
fruits of science have been unjustly distributed i.e.,
poor has been very ruthlessly deprived of such conveniences. A poor man still
lives in a rusted area where drainage system is the worst, where he eats
adulterated and stale food. He is still busy plugging by the old traditional
tools, where his wife washes his clothes by her hands and she wears it without
being ironed, where he has mud house, where he is crying for cheap medicine and
in a nutshell he lives in a dilapidated condition. Science has given comfort but it's being
enjoyed only by few people and the rest are being deprived. Briefly, a
conclusion seems difficult because of the complexity and confusion both in the
society and the topic itself. #
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his initiative piggybacked onto earlier efforts from various international players to commit countries to saving and Forest creation;
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