SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND ITS ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

         According to Wikipedia, Science came from the Latin word "scientia" which means knowledge; an organized or systematic body of knowledge. It has two Branches:

    A.  Physical Science:

             (1) Physics

             (2) Anatomy

             (3) Chemistry

             (4) Earth science

    B.  Biological Science:

              (1) Botany

              (2) Zoology

           

           As what I have read from a website, the word "science" probably brings to mind many different pictures: a fat textbook, white lab coats and microscopes, an astronomer peering through a telescope, a naturalist in the rainforest, Einstein's equations scribbled on a chalkboard, the launch of the space shuttle, bubbling beakers. All of those images reflect some aspect of science, but none of them provides a full picture because science has so many facets:

• Science is both a body of knowledge and a process. In school, science may sometimes seem like a collection of isolated and static facts listed in a textbook, but that's only a small part of the story. Just as importantly, science is also a process of discovery that allows us to link isolated facts into coherent and comprehensive understandings of the natural world.
• Science is exciting. Science is a way of discovering what's in the universe and how those things work today, how they worked in the past, and how they are likely to work in the future. Scientists are motivated by the thrill of seeing or figuring out something that no one has before.
• Science is useful. The knowledge generated by science is powerful and reliable. It can be used to develop new technologies, treat diseases, and deal with many other sorts of problems.
• Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining and expanding our knowledge of the universe, and as it does, it leads to new questions for future investigation. Science will never be "finished."
• Science is a global human endeavor. People all over the world participate in the process of science.

       (http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/whatisscience_01)

Actually and indeed science has been part of our lives. It helps us attain more knowledge and skills in many ways such that it develops our minds and free us in ignorance on things which blurs our minds. It produces valuable replica of reality. It has many advantages such as making our works easier and faster in a way that in just one click, we can get informations, do some researching especially to the students like me for doing assignments, projects and etc. but there are also lots of disadvantages that science gives us.

                                                                   

Technology as what I have learned came from the Greek word “technologia”: techne which means art, skill or craft and logia means the study of. Technology answers many things that deeply develop the quality of our lives.

It is a science applied in practical situations. For example, scientists Thomas Alva Edison observed that a thin wire glows when an electric current passes through it. He used this scientific observation to develop the light bulb. (M. Gutierrez, 1999)

Science and Technology constantly progresses the quality of our lives but it has also arises many problems and as we see now, we can manufacture materials in just minutes with numerous productions at a time but these machineries devour a lot of energy. And so, we need more fuel, and it will then leave a lot of waste and pollution to our environment. It is the most destructive outlay for our today’s technology example are aircondioners and refrigerators because it releases Chlorofluorocarbons that produces methane and ethane which causes ozone depletion and automobiles with fuels containing beryllium in it which has been proven to cause cancer. We all know that computers and some other hi-tech gadgets are really helpful in making our works easier and more rapid but there are still disadvantages of it in a way that if it would fail or would not function anymore, we would be too dependant on it. It can also affect our health specially our eyes because of the radiation from it. Gadgets such as Mp3, Ipod, Ipads and PSP is really a bad influence specially to the youth because nowadays children are not spending time exercising they only spend there time playing video games and other games that can trigger a child to become obese and it is not very healthy. Technology has showed the way to the inventions of many weapons which lead to the deaths of almost a billion people over our history, an example for that is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

A car busting off smoke

 

An air conditioner

A child spending his time in watching television rather than playing outdoor games.

A kid addicted to a video game.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing in Japan

In communicating, cellular phones have been very useful and we are now forgetting the use of the mails (handwritten letter) which are more sincere and valuable than texting messages with no sense at all and we are already forgetting the mail mans who takes and carries our letters. That is the reason why lots of people lost their jobs because man power is replaced by machines which were invented to the progressing globalization. In that case maybe the words of Dr. Jose Rizal will be useless because the youth will not anymore be the hope of the country but simply the machines.

But we are still the only one who can control these unending and destructive products of science and technology.  Even though it keeps on improving, we still have the power to do great things that can help reduce the increasing destruction  of our planet. If we could only help each other by just giving a single time to make a pause, stop or just minimize using these technologies. Do they really give us the proper advantages or are we just paying a price for it? Just think about it.