LESSON 10

Science, Technology and Society in the 20th Century

Content Standard:
The learners demonstrate an understanding of the development of Science and
Technology in the 20th century

Learning Outcomes:
The students will be able to:
1. Describe the development of Science and technology in the 20th century;
2. Identify some of the notable development of science and technology in the 20th
century
3. Describe and recognize the significance of the different developments and inventions
in the 20th century.

Word Bank:
airplane, computers, optic fibers, internet, magnetic resonance imaging, gene therapy

DISCUSSION

There are heaps of developments of science and technology during this century and
it keeps on upgrading. The following are some of the remarkable invention that had major
impact on human being.

The Airplane
An airplane or aeroplane was invented by the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville. It
is a powered, fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine or
propeller. Their work leads them to make the first controlled, sustained, powered flights on
December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On Jan. 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg_
Tampa Airboat Line became the world's first scheduled passenger airline service, operating
between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida. It was a short-lived undertaking but it paved
the way for today's daily transcontinental flights.
The extensive uses of airplanes include recreation, transportation of goods and
people, military, and research. Commercial aviation is a massive industry involving the flying
of tens of thousands of passengers daily on airliners. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on
board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled.
Airplanes had a presence in all the major battles of World War Il. The first jet aircraft
was the German Heinkel He 178 in 1939. The first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, was
introduced in 1952. The Boeing 707, the first widely successful commercial jet, was in
commercial service for more than 50 years, from 1958 to at least 2013.
Computers
A computer is an electronic machine that accepts information, stores it, processes it
according to the instructions provided by a user and then returns the result. Today,
computers have become part of our everyday activities. While computers as we know them
today are relatively recent, the concepts and ideas behind computers have quite a bit of
history.
Charles Babbage referred to as 'the father of computers', conceived an analytical
engine in 1830 which could be programmed with punched cards to carry out calculations. It
was different from its predecessors because it was able to make decisions based on its own
computations, such as sequential control, branching and looping. Konrad Zuse built the very
first electronic computers in Germany in the period 1935 to 1941. The Z3 was the first
working, programmable and fully automatic digital computer. Zuse is often regarded as the
'inventor of the computer.'
The British built the Colossus and the Americans built the Electronic Numerical
Integrator Analyzer and Computer, or ENIAC between 1943 and 1945. Both Colossus and
ENIAC relied heavily on vacuum tubes, which can act as an electronic switch that can be
turned on or off much faster than mechanical switches. Computer systems using vacuum
tubes are considered the first generation of computers.
The first semiconductor transistor was invented in but only in 1941? was it into a solid-
states reliable transistor tor the use in computers. Similar to vacuum a transistor controls the
flow of electricity, but it was only few millimeters in size and generated little heat. Computer
systems using transistors ate considered the second generation of computers.
In 1954, IBM introduced the first mass-produced computer. By 1958 it became
possible to combine several components, including transistors. and the circuitry connecting
them on a single piece of silicon. This was the first integrated circuit. Computer systems
using integrated circuits are considered the third generation of computers. Integrated circuits
led to the computer processors we use today.
Computers became quickly more powerful. By 1970 it became possible to squeeze
all the integrated circuits that ate part of a single computer on a single chip called a
microprocessor. Computer systems using microprocessors are considered the fourth
generation of computers.
In the early 1970s computers were still mostly used by larger corporations,
government agencies and universities. The first device that could be called a personal
computer was introduced in 1975.

The following are some of the highlighted development of computer:

• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak introduce Apple Computers on April Fool's Day and
roll out the Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board in 1976.
• The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," was introduced. It uses
Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system. It has an Intel chip, two floppy disks and an
optional color monitor in 1981
• The first dot.com domain name was registered on March 15, years before the World
Wide Web would mark the formal beginning of Internet history in 1985.
 • Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-energy physics laboratory in
Geneva, develops HyperText Markup Language (HTML), giving rise to the World
Wide Web (WWW) in 1990.
• The Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics and music on PCs on
1993
• PCs became gaming machines as "Command & Conquer," "Alone in the Dark 2,"
"Theme Park," "Magic Carpet," "Descent" and "Little Big Adventure" were among the
games to hit the market in 1994.
• TThe term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language and users begin
connecting to the Internet without wires in 1999.
• Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which provides protected memory
architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking, among other benefits in 2001.
• Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the dominant Web
browser. Facebook, a social networking site, launches in 2004.
• YouTube, a video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-
based mobile phone operating system in 2005.
• Apple introduces the MacBook Pro, its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer,
as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo's Wii game console hits the market in 2006.
• The iPhone brings many computer functions to the smartphone in 2007.
• Google releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS in 2011.
• Facebook gains I billion users on October 4, 2012.
• The first reprogrammable quantum computer was created in 2016.
• The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a new a
Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers (2017)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive medical test that physicians use to
diagnose medical conditions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the body uses a
powerful magnetic field, radio waves or pulses and a computer to produce detailed pictures
of the inside of your body such as organs, soft tissues, bone and virtually all other internal
body structures. It may be used to help diagnose the presence of certain disease and
abnormalities or monitor treatment for a variety of conditions within the body.
Physicians use an MR examination to help diagnose or monitor treatment for
conditions such as: tumors of the chest, abdomen or pelvis; diseases of the liver, such as
cirrhosis, and abnormalities of the bile ducts and pancreas; inflammatory bowel disease
such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis; heart problems, such as congenital heart
disease, malformations of the blood vessels and inflammation ofthe vessels (vasculitis); a
fetus in the womb of a pregnant woman.

The Internet
The Internet was the work of dozens of pioneering scientists, programmers and
engineers who each developed new features and technologies that eventually merged to
become the "information superhighway" we know today.
It started in early 1900 when Nikola Tesla toyed with the idea of a "world wireless system".
Paul Otlet and Vannevar Bush conceived of mechanized, searchable storage systems of
books and media in the 1930s and 1940s. J.C.R. Licklider popularized the idea of an
"Intergalactic Network" of computers. These ground-breaking ideas landed him a position
as director of the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA), the government agency responsible for creating a time-sharing network of
computers known as ARPANET, the precursor to today's internet in 1960. Leonard Kleinrock
invented the packet switching, a method for effectively transmitting electronic data that
would later become one of the major building blocks of the Internet. ARPANET used packet
switching to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network. Robert Kahn and
Vinton Cerf in 1970, developed Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, or
TCP/IP, a communications model that set standards for how data could be transmitted
between multiple networks. In 1972, Ray Tomlinson introduced network email. ARPANET
adopted TCP/IP on January l, 1983, and from there researchers began to assemble the
"network Of networks" that became the modern Internet. Tim Berners-Lee invented the
World Wide Web in 1990. 'lhe web served as the most common means of accessing data
online in the form of websites and hyperlinks. The web helped popularize the Internet among
the public, and served crucial step in developing the vast trove of information that most Of
us now access on A daily basis.
During the 1980s, the National Science Foundation started to build a nationwide
computer network that included its own supercomputers, called NSFNET. ARPANET had
grown well beyond the needs of the Department of Defense, and so the NSF took control of
the “civilian nodes?” In 1990, ARPANET was officially decommissioned. Ultimately, the NSF
aimed to build a network that was independent of government funding. The NSF lifted all
restrictions on commercial use on its network in 1991 and in 1995, the Internet was officially
privatized. At the time, the Internet was 50,000 networks strong, spanned seven continents,
and reached into space.

Optical Fiber
In 1880 Alexander Graham Bell created a very early precursor to fiber-optic
communications, the world's first wireless telephone (Photophone). Bell considered it his
most important invention. The device allowed for the transmission of sound on a beam of
light. Due to its use of an atmospheric transmission medium, the Photophone would not
prove practical until advances in laser and optical fiber technologies permitted the secure
transport of light. The Photophone's first practical use came in military communication
systems many decades later.
In 1952, UK based physicist Narinder Singh Kapany invented the first actual fiber
optical cable based on John Tyndall's experiments three decades earlier, Jun-ichi
Nishizawa, a Japanese scientist proposed the use of optical fibers for communications in
1963. Optical fiber was successfully developed in 1970 by Corning Glass Works (Robert
Maurer, Donald Keck, Peter Schultz, and Frank Zimar), with attenuation low enough for
communication purposes and at the same time GaAs semiconductor lasers were developed
that were compact and therefore suitable for transmitting light through fiber optic cables for
long distances. By the early. 1990's as the Internet was becoming, popularized in the public
realm, fiber optic cables started to be laid around the world with a major push to wire the
world in order to provide communication infrastructure.
Fiber optic is preferred over electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or
immunity to electromagnetic interference are required. Due to much lower attenuation and
interference, optical fiber has large advantages over existing copper wire in long-distance,
high-demand applications.
Optical fiber is used by many telecommunications companies to transmit telephone
signals, Internet communication, and cable television signals. "Ihe prices of fiber-optic
communications have dropped considerably since 2000. Today, fiber is present in virtually
every nation on the Earth, forming the absolute strength of the modern communications
infrastructure.

Air Conditioning System

Primitive air-conditioning systems have existed since ancient times• Attempts to
control indoor temperatures began in ancient Rome, where wealthy citizens took advantage
of the remarkable aqueduct system to circulate cool water through the walls Of their homes.
The emperor Elagabalus in the third century, built a mountain of snow, imported from the
mountains via donkey trains and put it in the garden next to his villa to keep cool during the
summer, but this was so costly and inefficient. Such luxuries disappeared during the Dark
Ages, and large-scale air-conditioning efforts didn't resurface in the West.
In the intervening centuries, fans were the coolant of choice. Hand fans were used in
China as early as 3,000 years ago, and a second-century Chinese inventor has been
credited with building the first room-sized rotary fan. Architecture also played a major role
in pre_ modern temperature control. In traditional Middle Eastern construction, windows
faced away from the sun, and larger buildings featured "wind towers" designed to catch and
circulate the prevailing breezes.
In late 19th-century American engineers pick up where the Romans had left off. In
1881, a dying President James Garfield got a respite from Washington D.C.'s oppressive
summer swelter, thanks to an awkward device involving air blown through cotton sheets
doused in ice water.
Nikola Tesla's development of alternating current motors made possible the invention
of oscillating fans in the early 20th century using electricity. And in 1902, a 25-year-old
engineer from New York named Willis Carrier invented the first modern air-conditioning
system. The mechanical unit, which sent air through water-cooled coils, was not aimed at
human comfort, however; it was designed to control humidity in the printing plant where he
worked. In 1922, he followed up with the invention of the centrifugal chiller, which added a
central compressor to reduce the unit's size. For years afterward, people piled into
airconditioned movie theaters on hot summer days, giving rise to the summer blockbuster.
Carrier's innovation shaped 20th-century America. In the 1930s, air conditioning
spread to department stores, rail cars, and offices, sending workers' summer productivity
soaring. As late as 1965, just 10 percent of U.S. homes had it, according to the Carrier
Corporation. By 2007, cool air spread across the country. Many Americans are turning to
their air conditioners to combat the current heat wave. These artificial breezes are a
relatively novel innovation.
Gene Therapy
Gene therapy attempts to treat genetic diseases at the molecular level by correcting
what is wrong with defective genes. The first gene therapy was approved in the European
Union in 2012, after two decades of dashed expectations. This approval boosted the
investment in developing gene therapies.
The gene therapy is successful, if it could work by preventing a protein from doing
something that causes harm, restoring the normal function of a protein, giving proteins new
functions, or enhancing the existing functions of proteins.
Gene therapy relies on finding a dependable delivery system to carry the correct gene
to the affected cells. The gene must be delivered inside the target cells and work properly
without causing adverse effects. Delivering genes that will work correctly for the long term
is the greatest challenge Of gene therapy. Viruses are often used by researchers to deliver
the correct gene to cells. In gene therapy, the DNA for the desired gene is inserted into the
genetic material Of the virus and deliver its new genetic material which contains the desired
DNA. Fatty molecules known as liposomes may also be used as can micropipettes,
sometimes called "gene guns" to insert genes into cells physically.
ADA: The First Gene Trial. A four-year old girl became the first gene therapy patient
on September 14, 1990 at the NIH Clinical Center. She has adenosine deaminase (ADA)
deficiency, a genetic disease which leaves her defenseless against infections. White blood
cells were taken from her, and the normal genes for making adenosine deaminase were
inserted into them. The corrected cells were reinjected into her. Dr. W. French Anderson
helped develop this landmark clinical trial when he worked at the National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute.

3D Metal Printing
3D Metal Printing is one of the advances in the technology that provide instant metal
fabrication. This innovation enables the ability to create large, intricate metal structures on
demand and therefore could revolutionize manufacturing. It gives the manufacturers the
ability to make a single or small number of metal parts much more cheaply than using
existing mass-production techniques.

Artificial Embryos
Artificial Embryos are made from stem cells alone without using egg or sperm cells.
It is a breakthrough that will open new possibilities for understanding how life comes into
existence — but clearly also raises vital ethical and even philosophical problems.
Embryologists working at the University of Cambridge in the UK have grown realistic
looking mouse embryos using only stem cells. No egg. No sperm. Just cells plucked from
another embryo. The researchers placed the cells carefully in a three-dimensional scaffold
and watched, fascinated, as they started communicating and lining up into the distinctive
bullet shape of a mouse embryo several days old.
Synthetic human embryos would be a boon to scientists, letting them tease apart
events early in development. And since such embryos start with easily manipulated stem
cells, labs will be able to employ a full range of tools, such as gene editing, to investigate
them as they grow.

Cell-free Fetal DNA Testing

Pregnant women sometimes need to have cells of their fetus tested for chromosomal
defects such as Edwards Syndrome and Down Syndrome. These tests require an
acquisition of cells that are quite invasive for the unborn baby. The test brought risk of
miscarriage and increased stress for pregnant mothers. With medical advances, it is now
possible for doctors to test cell-free fetal DNA by using the mother's blood. This advance
has become more widely used and accepted internationally in the past year.

Cancer nanotherapy
Nano devices and technology are already in wide use, and as thg years pass, the
technology in pharmaceuticals and medicine will only continue to improve. One of which is
an emerging cancer treatment technology that implements nanomaterials in a more
aggressive method. For example, researchers at Israel's Bar-Ilan University have developed
nanobots to target and deliver drugs to defective cells, while leaving healthy ones unharmed.
The 25-35 nm devices are made from single strands of DNA folded into a desired
shape — for instance, a clamshell-shaped package that protects a drug while on route to
the desired site but opens up to release it upon arrival.
As the years pass, technology in pharmaceuticals and medicine will continue to
improve. People are living longer and fewer diseases are deemed incurable. Jobs in the
pharmaceutical industry are in higher demand now than ever.
 DO YOU KNOW?

MRI. Adapted from Radiologylnfo.org.

Magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive medical test that physicians use

to diagnose medical conditions. MR imaging of the body is performed to evaluate: organs
of the chest and abdomen—including the heart, liver, biliary tract, kidneys, spleen, bowel,
pancreas, and adrenal glands; pelvic organs including the bladder and the reproductive
organs such as the uterus and ovaries in females and the prostate gland in males, blood
vessels and lymph nodes.

Culver, Anderson, and Blaese with gene therapy patients.

Courtesy of Dr Kenneth Culver, Novarti Pharmaceuticals Corporation

The laboratories of Drs. W. French Anderson and Michael Blaese in the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute worked together to show
that cells from patients with ADA deficiency can be corrected in tissue culture. They used a
retrovirus to carry the correct human ADA gene to the cells of a four-year old girl and a nine-
year old girl with ADA deficiency. Each girl was given repeated treatments over a period of
two years. The nine-year old girl drew several pictures of her treatment - here she is
receiving an infusion of her own corrected cells. The two original ADA patients attend school
and are leading normal lives.