STAS PRELIM

• Science is a human cultural activity practiced by scientists, focusing on the natural world
• Technology is the practical application of knowledge, involving a complex system of knowledge, skills, methods, tools, and resources directed towards research, development, and production of new or improved products, processes, or services
• Society is an organized group of people associated as members of a community
• Types of research:

  • Fundamental/Basic Research: gaining new knowledge
  • Applied Research: practical application
  • Mission-Oriented Research: accomplishing a particular mission or technological objective
• Types of Technology:

  • Material technology: extraction, fabrication, processing, combination, and synthesis of materials
  • Equipment technology: design and fabrication of tools, instruments, devices, and machines
  • Energy technology: deals with the distribution of various forms of energy such as solar panels, wind turbines, and hydrothermal
  • Information technology: based on machines that collect, store, process, retrieve, transmit, and utilize data or information
  • Life technology: devices, medicines, procedures, and systems designed to preserve, repair, maintain, reproduce, and improve living systems
  • Management technology: planning, organization, coordination, and control of social activities
• Branches of Science:

  1. Geology

  2. Chemistry

  3. Physics

  4. Biology

  5. Astronomy
• Classification of technology based on a country’s level of technological sophistication:

  • First Wave Technology: Agricultural Age
  • Second Wave Technology: Industrial technologies developed since the industrial revolution until the end of World War II
  • Third-Wave Technology: Post-industrial or high technologies based on modern scientific knowledge
• Evolution of Societies:

  • Hunter and Gatherer Societies
  • Shifting and Farming Societies
  • Agricultural and Mining Societies
  • Manufacturing and Processing Societies
  • Synthesizing and Recycling Societies
• Significant Contributions of Ancient Civilizations:

  • Sumerian Civilization: Cuneiform, Ziggurats, Potter’s wheel, seed plow, sail boat, City of Uruk, Code of Ur-Nammu
  • Babylonian Civilization: Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Ishtar Gate, Code of Hammurabi, Babylonian Map of the World, astrology
  • Egyptian Civilization: Hieroglyphics, papyrus paper, embalming, pyramids, calendar systems, waterclock
  • Greek Civilization: Alarm clock, watermills, Greek philosophers' contributions, Archimedes' inventions, Ptolemy's Almagest
  • Roman Civilization: Gazettes, Roman numerals, Pantheon, Colosseum, Circus Maximus, Vitruvius' odometer
  • Arabic/Islamic Civilization: Arabic system of numbers, alchemy, glass lens, black powder, first gun
  • Chinese Civilization: Silk production, Great Wall of China, pharmacology, acupuncture
• Chinese contributions:

  • Constructed the Great Wall of China and the great palace of the first emperor
  • Advanced pharmacology with the discovery of healing drugs and herbs
  • Practices like apothecaries and acupuncture were used for treating illnesses or pain
  • Inventions such as the "earthquake weathercock" to detect earthquakes and the use of toilet paper dating back to the sixth century
  • Development of calligraphy, watercolor painting, block printing, and the first movable type printer made from pottery by Pi Sheng
  • Inventions like gunpowder, magnetic iron ore for compasses, coal as fuel, water wheel, wheelbarrow, and more
• Indus-Hindu Civilization in India:

  • Remarkable city layouts with water wells, bathrooms, and drains in nearly every house
  • Excellence in medicine and mathematics
  • Introduction of negative and positive quantities, square and cube roots, quadratic equations, mathematical implications of zero and infinity, and value of pi up to nine decimal places
  • Development of steps in sine functions, spherical geometry, and calculus
  • Notable inventions like the Iron pillar of Delhi and the Stupa as a commemorative monument
• Persian Civilization contributions:

  • Introduction of a uniform system of gold and silver coinage
  • Establishment of the first regular postal system
  • Development of a taxation system
  • Invention of the Qanat, a gently sloping underground channel for water supply and irrigation
  • Discovery of sulfuric acid by Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Jakarta al-Razi
• Technological advances during the Middle Ages:

  • Printing press developed by Johann Gutenberg
  • Gunpowder and cannons appeared around the 9th century
  • Inventions like water mills, windmills, mechanical clocks, horse harnesses, and horseshoes
  • Distillation and alcohol production
  • Establishment of universities and scholastics
  • Development of church architecture, medieval towns, iron-chain suspension bridges, and segmental arch structures
• Renaissance period:

  • Cultural movement marked by the rediscovery of ancient texts
  • Important inventions like the printing press for disseminating knowledge
  • Notable figures such as Paracelsus, Copernicus, and Vesalius
  • Advancements in astronomy, anatomy, and medical knowledge
• Modern Times advancements:

  • Inventions like pasteurization, petroleum refinery, telephone, calculator, and electricity
  • Developments in electronics, robotics, incandescent light bulbs, airplanes, computers, USB flash drives, cellphones, and the internet
  • Discoveries in veterinary medicine, penicillin, genomics, and biotechnology
• Genomics is an interdisciplinary field focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes, which are an organism's complete set of DNA, including all its genes
• Biotechnology is a broad area of science involving living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products for specific use
• A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions
• Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which is then used in steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant
• Satellites are artificial objects intentionally placed into orbit, used for purposes like military and civilian Earth observation, telecommunication, navigation, weather forecast, and space telescopes
• A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease
• Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of textual or symbolic messages without the physical exchange of an object bearing the message
• A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and physiological processes of the body in both health and disease
• Computed tomography (CT) scan makes use of computer processes to produce cross-sectional images of specific areas of a scanned object, allowing the user to see the object without cutting
• A Liquid-crystal display (LCD projector) is a type of video projector for displaying video, images, or computer data on a screen or other flat surface
• Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices and building personal area networks
• Wi-Fi is a technology for radio wireless local area networking of devices
• A printer is a peripheral device that makes a persistent human-readable representation of graphics or text on paper
• A camera is an optical instrument for recording or capturing images, which may be stored locally, transmitted to another location, or both
• Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors
• A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater, used in military, marine science, search-and-rescue, and tourism
• A stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an animal or human body
• A laptop or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer with a "clamshell" form factor, typically with a thin LCD or LED computer screen mounted on the inside of the upper lid and an alphanumeric keyboard on the inside of the lower lid
• A credit card is a payment card issued to users to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services
• A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid
• Light Amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (Laser) is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation
• The Scientific Revolution refers to the great intellectual achievements of science from the sixteenth to seventeenth century, marking a radical change in the assumptions, attitudes, and methods in scientific inquiry
• The Scientific Revolution developed as an offshoot of the Renaissance, with a new way of thinking about the natural world
• Before 1500, the Bible and Aristotle were the only authorities accepted as truth, supporting a geocentric model of the universe where the Earth is at the center
• The Industrial Revolution from 1750 to 1895 characterized by the substitution of machines for human skill and machine power for that of humans and animals marked the birth of the modern economy