Putting Science to Work

Abstract

Although it is incontrovertible that there is an intimate relation between theoretical science and technological progress, the relation is persistently misrepresented. What is especially poorly understood is how indirect is the application in technology and engineering of scientific laws. This is not to diminish the importance of the service performed by theoretical science for technology, but to locate it correctly. It allows us also to identify the sense in which technology is an application of science, and to explain how it partakes fully in its rationality.