"Science, Technology and Innovation in the New Economy"

Scientific advances and technological change are important drivers of
recent economic performance. The ability to create, distribute and
exploit knowledge has become a major source of competitive advantage, wealth creation and improvements in the quality of life. Some of
the main features of this transformation are the growing impact of
information and communications technologies (ICT) on the economy and on society; the rapid application of recent scientific advances
in new products and processes; a high rate of innovation across OECD
countries; a shift to more knowledge-intensive industries and services; and rising skill requirements.
These changes imply that science, technology and innovation are now
key to improving economic performance and social well-being. However, if governments want to obtain the benefits from this transformation they will have to put the right policies in place. Limits on public
spending, increased competition and globalisation, changes in the
drivers of the innovation process, and a better understanding of the
role played by science and technology in economic performance and
societal change, have led governments to sharpen their policy tools.
Increasingly, government must become a facilitator, enabling business
and consumers to adapt to the demands and opportunities of the new
economy. But there are other areas, such as investment in fundamental research and ensuring stakeholders’ involvement in policy design
and implementation, where an active role of government is indispensable.
This Policy Brief explores the role of science, technology and innovation in the new economy and discusses the role of government in fostering scientific and technological progress for economic growth and
greater social well-being.

“The Scientific Revolution as the prelude of Industrial Revolution”

The Scientific Revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences led to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed starting in Ancient Greece and continuing through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science. According to most accounts, the scientific revolution began in Europe towards the end of the Renaissance era and continued through the late 18th century, the latter period known as The Enlightenment. It was sparked by the publication (1543) of two works that changed the course of science: Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) and Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human body).
Scientific Revolution
The scientific revolution marked a steady advance in scale and performance of technology, with little revolutionary innovations that characterized the centuries before and after. In terms of technology, the Scientific Revolution was merely a prelude to the Industrial Revolution.
The cause of this is that there was a shortage of resources that used to be sufficient in the middle ages. Therefore technology was concentrated on the search for new resources and new techniques.
There were few new breakthroughs, only improvements in the existing techniques.
Da Vinci, the epitome of the age had many inventions, ranging from a spring powered car to a primitive military tank, most of which did not make it past the design stage
Mining and metal-working boomed, leading to the creation of cast-iron.
The Blast-Furnace and Cast Iron:
In this period, the transformation in  iron  metallurgy that had  been  maturing  in Europe  since  the  fourteenth  century first  began  to  have  a decisive  effect.
Cast iron is made from pig iron, which in turn is from raw iron in the ore.
Cast iron was mostly used in weapons such as cannons.
Although cast iron was used in China centuries before, the development of cast iron in the West was wholly independent.
Blast furnaces were created to generate enough heat to create cast iron.
The use of coal became widespread, as the use of iron smelting depleted the sources of firewood.
The Scientific Revolution
a period of major scientific change
change in ideas in science in this crucial period was far greater than in politics and religion.
intellectual assumptions inherited from the previous period was overthrown and a radically new system took its place.
a new quantitative, atomic, infinitely extended and secular world-picture took place of the old qualitative, continuous, limited and religious world-picture.
change in the orientation of knowledge from being a means of reconciliation of man with the world as it is, was and will be to one of controlling nature through the knowledge of its eternal laws.
the new bourgeois class found their on new social system and evolved their own new system of ideas.
Major phases in the transformation of Science:
Scientific Revolution
1. First phase
includes the Renaissance, the great navigations and the Reformation as well as the wars which ended political freedom in Italy.
transition from feudalism to capitalism
Italian cities became politically as well as economically independent and were able to build up the brilliant artistic and intellectual civilization of the Renaissance
assertion of independence of religion on a national basis
restoration of monarchy marked an end to the temporal powers of emperor and pope.
shifts of trade routes
a period of economic expansion
a conscious movement and a revolutionary movement Catholic church itself was forced to reform

Pleasure, Art and Money
medieval forms of economy, of building, of art and thought were to canish forever and to be replaced by a new culture, capitalist in its economy, classical in its art and literature, scientific in its approach to nature.
Rapid growth of secular arts, of painting, poetry and music.
money had become much more important than it had ever before
the intellectual task of the Renaissance was essentially the rediscovery and mastery of the world of art and nature.
fading away of the scientific effort of the Middle Ages because no practical use could be found for it.
marked the first breakaway from the economy, the politics and the ideas of the feudal Middle Ages.
2. Second phase
results of the opening up of America and the East to European trade and piracy began to be felt in a price crisis which shook Europe’s economy.
age of inconclusive wars of religion in France and Germany establishment of the Dutch bourgeois Republic and the British bourgeois Commonwealth
counter reformation, with the Baroque style as its visible expression
the wars of religion that raged France and Germany and the establishment of the States General of Holland and the Commonwealth of England.
political triumph of the new bourgeoisie
3. Third phase
Great Instauration or Reconstruction
political compromise
bourgeoisie held the threads of power
rapid commercial and industrial development
establishment of stable governments made rapid growth possible

"The War that Change the World" Science and Technology in World War II

World War II transformed the relationship between war and the military on the one hand and science and technology on the other. What had been a fitful and uncomfortable relationship before the war became continuous and consistent thereafter. Important ties existed before 1941, but they were nothing like the intimate conjunction of these two fields in the last half of the twentieth century.

 For all the role of science, mathematics, and new inventions in earlier wars, no war had as profound an effect on the technologies of our current lives than World War II (1939-45). And no war was as profoundly affected by science, math, and technology than WWII.

SEEING THROUGH THE CLOUDS AND BEYOND

The entire technology of radar, which is the ability to use radio waves to detect objects at a distance, was barely invented at the start of the war but became highly developed in just a few years at sites like the “Radiation Laboratory” at MIT. By allowing people to “see” remotely, at very long distances, radar made the idea of “surprise attack” virtually obsolete and vastly enlarged the arena of modern warfare (today’s radars can see potential attackers from thousands of miles away). Radar allowed nations to track incoming air attacks, guided bombers to their targets, and directed anti-aircraft guns toward airplanes flying high above. Researchers not only constructed the radars, but also devised countermeasures: during their bombing raids, Allied bombers dropped thousands of tiny strips of tinfoil, code-named “window” and “chaff” to jam enemy radar.

A REAL SHOT IN THE ARM

World War II also saw advances in medical technology. Penicillin was not invented during the war, but it was first mass produced during the war, the key to making it available to millions of people (during World War II it was mostly used to treat the venereal diseases gonorrhea and syphilis, which had been the scourge of armies for thousands of years).  A soldier is doused  with DDT during WWIIWhile penicillin itself is still used today, it was also the precursor to the antibiotics that we take today to keep simple infections from becoming life-threatening illnesses. Medicines against tropical diseases like malaria also became critical for the United States to fight in tropical climates like the South Pacific. Pesticides like DDT played a critical role in killing mosquitoes (although the environmental impacts of DDT would last a long time; a famous book about DDT, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), would help found the modern environmental movement). The science and technology of blood transfusions were also perfected during World War II, as was aviation medicine, which allowed people (including us) to fly safely at high altitudes for long periods. Studies of night vision, supplemental oxygen, even crash helmets and safety belts emerged from aviation medicine.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

The science of nutrition expanded greatly during WWII. In the United States, scientists worked to identify which vitamins and minerals were most essential to a healthy body and in what amounts. Studies were conducted to determine how many calories were burned doing various activities. Proper food preparation, storage and handling, and preservation became a top priority for the military. Soldiers’ rations were carefully formulated to supply the maximum amount of nutrition and energy, while providing for variety and taste. Meeting these challenges meant working first in the laboratory before working in the kitchen. The development of the D-ration provides a great example. The “D” ration was a high-calorie emergency ration that came in the form of a fortified chocolate bar. A three-portion package of these bars would provide a soldier with 1,800 calories of energy. Once the military settled on a chocolate bar for their emergency ration, scientists set about creating it, with the following requirements: it had to weigh 4 ounces, it had to be high in calories, it had to be able to withstand high temperatures, and it had to taste “a little better than a boiled potato.” This last requirement was imposed to keep soldiers from snacking on their emergency rations in non-emergency situations. By the end of the war, millions of these rations had been produced in the United States and delivered around the world, along with billions of other rations for the military.

NEW IDEAS FOR A NEW AGE OF WARFARE

Again, as in earlier eras, perhaps the most profound impacts of World War II were as much great ideas as they were pieces of hardware. Before the war, scientists were professors who ran small laboratories with students, with small amounts of money. Before the war scientists were looking into fundamental principles of the natural world, without much regard for practical applications, and they rarely attracted the attention of national governments. During World War II, science became mobilized on a grand scale; many of these professors and their students dropped everything to work on war-related challenges and initiative. The massive “research and development” (R&D) laboratory emerged in its modern form. The paradigm of these efforts was the “Manhattan Project” which put thousands of physicists together with Army-scaled logistics and designed, built, and manufactured the first atomic bombs. Other laboratories included the so-called “Radiation Laboratory” at MIT which developed radar. Numerous other laboratories focused on everything from electronics to medical research to psychological testing. By the end of the war, the atomic bomb made it clear that science had, in the words of one scientist, “lost its innocence” – that is it was now a critical tool of military power, and was given government money for research at many thousands of times the pre-war levels. Scientists became advisors