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Defining Science, Medicine, and Technology

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What is Science?
Science is the collective human effort to better understand the history of the natural world and how it works, using the basis of observed physical evidence to derive this understanding. It is done through experimentation using simulation of natural processes under controlled environments.
An ecologist observing the territorial behaviors of bluebirds and a geologist examining the distribution of fossils in an outcrop are both examples of scientists making observations in order to find patterns in natural phenomena. They just do it outdoors and thus entertain the general public with their behavior. A primary aim of science is to collect facts.

What Is Medicine? The term medicine is used to refer to the science of healing, as well as any substance that is used to treat diseases and promote health. Today there is a variety of different health care professions that use medicine as a tool to improve and maintain health. The use of medicine and plants with medicinal properties has taken place since the prehistoric times when people believed that herbs and animal parts could help heal sick and injured people. Many countries around the world such as Egypt, India, Persia, and China have been developing traditional medical practices for hundreds of years. Since then the use of medicine has become greatly intertwined with most people’s lives and it is often used on a daily basis by many people in order to help with things such as lowering blood pressure or cholesterol.

What is Technology? Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes especially in industry, computer technologies and recycling technologies. Although there is certainly a relationship between science and technology, there is, except in certain high technology industries, very little technology that could be classified as applied science. Technology is marked by different purposes; different processes a different relationship to established knowledge and a particular relationship to specific contexts of activity. Change in the material environment is the explicit purpose of technology, and not, as is the case with science, the understanding of nature; accordingly its solutions are not right or wrong, verifiable or falsifiable, but more or less effective from different points of view.

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