DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.

Science has been defined in different ways by different people because it is so broad and has so many aspects. But all agree that science is basically knowledge of how the natural world works. This knowledge is acquired by experimentation and observation in the controlled environment of a laboratory. A scientist is therefore an individual engaged in the business of acquiring knowledge. In contrast, a technologist is involved in applying knowledge to provide practical tasks. A scientist can also be a technologist, and vice versa. Both are necessary in any society.
It is obvious that science and technology are two words joined together by the conjunction “and”. They are often used together because, as we have seen, they are closely related. In fact some treat science and technology as a singular word as I will do in this article. The popularity of the term science and technology derives from the fact that human civilization practically depends on it.
I subscribe to the view that if one is aware of the power of science and technology in promoting development, one is obligated to continue to implore the Nigerian government and the public to do what most of the advanced nations have done for centuries, and that is, to translate science into productive technologies and use the latter to fuel the development of their country. Nehru, the late prime minister of India could not have put it more succinctly when he said:
I do not see any way out of our vicious circle of poverty except by utilizing the new sources of power which science has put at our disposal.
Initially, nature was studied by trial and error using natural ingenuity and very simple instruments and methods. Even though unsophisticated techniques were used in the early experiments, the conclusions that were drawn from them are still valid today because science utilizes very stringent methods and demands that scientists’ observations must be repeatable by anyone in any corner of our planet. In other words, experimental observations made by scientists are universal phenomena and can be treated as basic facts.