Miracles of Science

Science not only provides knowledge about nature, it also provides means for controlling nature. So, besides general ideas, science also affects practical affairs and every day of life. Perhaps the most obvious example concerns transport. Up to the end of the eighteen century, transport on land differed very little from what it had been in Roman times. A Roman officer in second century Britain could get from London to New York just about as quickly as an eighteen century gentlemen. Owing to the compass and improved design of ships, sea transport-has improved a little, but not very much.

                Then came the invention of the steam engine and the improvement, which was dependent on the scientific knowledge of the time. Steam-ships and railways with steam engines completely change the business of travel and of the carriage of goods. The internal combustion system again based on the power of heat and how it is generated by gas explosions made possible first the motor-car and the diesel engine and then the aeroplane. Now aeroplanes fly at five-hundred miles an hour or more by means of rocket of rocket-propulsions in the thin layers of the atmosphere. It is interesting to note down the highest speeds possible for land, sea and air travel every ten years from 1820 to the present day.

                Similarly, with communications. Not only did the steam engine and then the aeroplane, speed up the spending of the letters and newspapers, but the discoveries about the electricity made possible first the telegraph, then the telephone, then wireless and today television, computer and so on. As a result of science, the possibilities of tying the world together by quick transmissions of facts and ideas have completely changed in less than a century.

                Or again think of the lighting of houses and streets, candles--oil--lamps--gas---arc lights--- electric filament lamps-- and now vapour discharge lighting. Or sanitation--- all it means to have pure water in every home. Or the differences between a surgical operation today. Not only has science provided all kinds of new substances and machines and sources of power, but in so doing it has changed our everyday life.