Here are some quick points that hopefully will help, and you will probably want to research them after reading this, so that they make more sense to you. But I’ll do my best at answering your questions off the top of my head:
-developments in electronics have changed technology tremendously. As we have learnt more about electricity and how to use it, we have developed light bulbs, circuits, heaters, kitchen appliances, toys, batteries, computers, even cars etc etc. Besides new inventions based on electronics, we have discovered different ways to produce our power, from gas, burning coal, solar power and wind power to nuclear processes. So, our technology has changed from scientific advancements – we can be more efficient in our power consumption, and we have learnt the impacts of our actions against the environment. This has caused us to look into other ways to create energy, which has enhanced our technology even further.
-applications of electronics are everywhere. Just about anything that requires electricity or a battery is an application of electronics.
-nuclear energy can be used in medicine, with sterilisation, curing cancer, with various scanning devices, such as CAT, PET and MRI scans. During these scans, a person is injected with a radioactive substance. Depending on the product of the scan, doctors can see where the radioactive element has gone to, which can indicate different things, for instance, broken bones absorb Technetium-99, but healthy bones do not. Nuclear energy in technology can be used as a power generator, as a weapon of mass destruction, it can be used to locate broken pipes underground, and how old something was when it died (this is called Carbon Dating).
-benefits and problems of biotech – this is very detailed. Advantages can include: higher yield in farming, more efficient use of resources, it increases our understanding of nature and it provides us with medical tools, it presents us with the opportunity to feed more people (eg. we can GM crops to live in harsh conditions where plants would not grow before), it may lower pesticide and herbicide usage, etc etc. Disadvantages are bio-pollution (if GM species breed with non-GM species), ethics involved, some GMF’s cause allergic reactions, potential health and environmental risks, each new GM has to be very carefully monitored, and a new form of crime can be created – biopiracy, and also fake labelling and mixing of GMF’s and non-GMF’s.
- ethics are also very complicated. Some for food and animal genes mixed include: is a plant still a plant if it has animal genes in it? What about vegetarians/vegans who may want to eat that food? Is it a violation of the organism’s rights to have their genes changed? Is it going against nature? What right do humans have to change nature. Also, if bio-pollution occurs, there could be a massive change in the biodiversity of an area, which could lead to its destruction. For cloning, ethics are also important. Is it humane to clone a person? Does the clone have rights? Are they are real person? If we put different genes in humans, are they still human? There are also religious debates involved. The list is very extensive.
-technology has helped increase the variety of materials with the discovery of unnatural, or synthetic elements and chemicals. Some of these are radioactive elements that do not exist for long, but many synthetic materials are used every day, for example, polymers, which are long chains of chemicals. Theses are found in plastics, such as polyester, polystyrene, nylon, rayon etc. Other synthetic materials are alloys, which includes stainless steel, which is resistant to rust, and so on. This is just one of the ways technology has helped increase the variety of materials in our world.
Sorry if I went on too long, I’m not sure how much information you wanted, and you have probably already found this all out by now, but this helped me study as well
Good luck in your exams, and I hope this helped!
~*frezbo*~
