Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:45-7:50 PM, UW1-051

How did the major inventions and innovations in human history arise? Why did they appear where they did and when? How did they affect the societies that gave rise to them and to those to which they were later diffused? What is the difference between science and technology, and how are they related? What exactly is "technological innovation," and why should we care about it? How do social scientists theorize about the history of science and technology? Is there a pattern that can help us make sense of it, manage it, and predict it?

This course explores the nature of science and technological creativity and its global evolution from antiquity to the present. Topics include the causes and consequences of technological innovation, technological achievements of Western and non-Western cultures, medieval technology and the rise of science, the industrial revolution, and development and impacts of modern industrial science and technology. Particular attention will be given to the connections between technologies across time and space, as well as the effects of new scientific and technological knowledge on human perceptions of nature and the human condition, culture, art, politics, business, and social conditions. Along the way, students will gain a basic understanding of scientific and technological innovations that not only revolutionized science and technology but also catalyzed dramatic and widespread social, political, and economic transformations. These include Greek natural philosophy, Islamic science, the classical physics of Galileo and Newton that overturned the medieval Christian worldview, the fusion of science and industrial technology in chemistry and electrical engineering in the 19th century, Darwinian evolution, Einstein's theories of relativity in the 20th century, and the rise of biotechnology and environmental sciences in our own time.

Students should enroll in the course in Blackboard. Click here for instructions on creating a Blackboard account.