Chapter 1

Historical Antecedents in Which Social Considerations Changed  

the Course of Science and Technology 

Introduction 

This section presents an overview of how science and technology evolved from   ancient
times to the present. It shows how man was able to develop crude technological   tools
and eventually improve them through time to make his way of living more convenient 
and the society more progressive. 

Intended Learning Outcomes: 

1. Discuss the interactions between science and technology and society throughout 
history 

2. Discuss how scientific and technological developments affect society and the 
environment 

3. Identify the paradigm shifts in history 

A. General Concepts 

What is Science, Technology and Society? 

Science and Technology and Society is an interdisciplinary course designed to 

examine the ways that science and technology shape, and are shaped by, our society,  
politics, and culture. It explores the conditions under which production, distribution and  
utilization of scientific knowledge and technological systems occur; and the effects of 
these processes upon the entire society. History and philosophy of science and 
technology, sociology and anthropology are greatly interconnected to the discussion of 
STS because these are the very factors that molded the development of science and 
technology as we know it today.  

Science is an evolving body of knowledge that is based on theoretical expositions   and

experimental and empirical activities that generates universal truths. Technology, on  
the other hand is the application of science and creation of systems, processes and 
objects designed to help humans in their daily activities. The development of science
and  technology has brought immense progress in society and men. Scientific
knowledge and  technology influences individuals and society. Better understanding of
science and  technology is essential to know the unique attributes of each enterprise,
then addressing 

their implications for society. 

Society is the sum total of our interactions as humans, including the interactions  that
we engage in to understand the nature of things and to create things. It is also defined 
as a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group 
sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political 
authority and dominant cultural expectations (Science Daily). 

Science, technology and society is important to the public because it helps address 
issues and problems that are of concern to the general population. Scientific and  
technological principles have been and continue to be applied to solve problems that 
people experience in their day-to-day aspects of living. But scientific findings must be  
applied at the right scales. The impact of technological breakthroughs on people,
society  and the environment must be critically assessed to preserve its value.  

 Figure 1 The Interrelationship of science, technology and society 

 Source: Ihueze et al., 2015. researchgate.net 

A lot of our problems in modern society involve not only technology but also human  
values, social organization, environmental concerns, economic resources, political 
decisions, and a myriad of other factors. These things sits at the interface between the 
three fields and can also be solved (if they can be solved at all) by the application of 
scientific knowledge, technical expertise, social understanding, and humane
compassion. 

In the past, science is learned as an independent study from other fields. It focuses  on
the scientific methods, natural processes and understanding nature. But in the current 
global scenario, science is studied holistically, often in an interdisciplinary method, 
emphasizing systems rather than processes, synthesis more than analysis and
predicting  nature’s behavior in order to have useful application in solving contemporary
problems. 

The scientific data that have built up a considerable base of knowledge led to a vast 
portfolio of useful technologies, especially in the 21st century, to solve many of the 
problems now facing humankind (UNESCO, 1999).  

To solve our contemporary problems, science needs to become more  multidisciplinary

and its practitioners should continue to promote cooperation and  integration between
the social and natural sciences. A holistic approach also demands  that science draw on
the contributions of the humanities (such as history and philosophy),  local knowledge
systems, aboriginal wisdom, and the wide variety of cultural values. 

The influence of science and technology on people’s lives is expanding. While   recent
benefits to humanity are unparalleled in the history of the human species, in some  
instances the impact has been harmful or the long-term effects give causes for serious  
concerns. A considerable measure of public mistrust of science and fear of technology  
exists today. In part, this stems from the belief by some individuals and communities
that  they will be the ones to suffer the indirect negative consequences of technical
innovations  introduced to benefit only a privileged minority. The power of science to
bring about  change places a duty on scientists to proceed with great caution both in
what they do and  what they say. Scientists should reflect on the social consequences
of the technological  applications or dissemination of partial information of their work
and explain to the public  and policy makers alike the degree of scientific uncertainty or
incompleteness in their  findings. At the same time, though, they should not hesitate to
fully exploit the predictive  power of science, duly qualified, to help people cope with
environmental change,  especially in cases of direct threats like natural disasters or
water shortages. 

The Role of Science and Technology 

1. alter the way people live, connect, communicate and transact, with profound  effects
on economic development; 

2. key drivers to development, because technological and scientific revolutions 

underpin economic advances, improvements in health systems, education and 
infrastructure; 

3. The technological revolutions of the 21st century are emerging from entirely new 
sectors, based on micro-processors, tele-communications, bio-technology and  nano-
technology. Products are transforming business practices across the  economy, as well
as the lives of all who have access to their effects. The most  remarkable breakthroughs
will come from the interaction of insights and  applications arising when these
technologies converge. 

4. have the power to better the lives of poor people in developing countries  5.
differentiators between countries that are able to tackle poverty effectively by  growing
and developing their economies, and those that are not.  

6. engine of growth  

7. interventions for cognitive enhancement, proton cancer therapy and genetic 

engineering

C. Historical Development of Science and Technology in the Philippines 

The current state of science and technology in the country can be traced back to its 
historical development and the latent events that helped shape it since the pre-colonial 
period to contemporary time. What we have or lack today in terms of science and 
technology is very much an effect of the government policies that had been enacted by 
past public officials in trying to develop a technological society that is responsive to the 
needs of time. 

Pre-Spanish Era. 

There is not much written about the Philippines during pre-colonial time but analysis 
from archeological artifacts revealed that the first inhabitants in the archipelago who 
settled in Palawan and Batangas around 40 000 years ago have made simple tools or  
weapons of stone which eventually developed techniques for sawing, drilling and 
polishing hard stones. This very primitive technology was brought by primal needs of 
survival by hunting wild animals and gathering fruits and vegetables in the forest. They  
learned that by polishing hard stones, they can develop sharp objects that are useful in 
their day to day activities. From this early, we can see that technology was developed  
because of a great necessity.  

Still on its primitive state, the first inhabitants in the country are learning what can   be
harnessed from the environment. They have come to understand that when clay is 
mixed with 2 water and then shaped into something before sun drying, it hardens to an 
object that can also be useful to them. And because clay is moldable, it can be shaped 
into various objects.  

As the early Filipinos flourished, they have learned how to extract, smelt and refine  
metals like copper, gold, bronze and iron from nature and consequently fashion them
into  tools and implements. At this point, the inhabitants of the country are showing a
deeper  understanding of their nature because they were able to obtain valuable
resources from  nature.  

As the inhabitants shifted from wandering from one place to another and learned to 
settle in areas near the water source, they also learned how to weave cotton, engaged 
themselves in agriculture and are knowledgeable on building boats for coastal trade.  

From the above mentioned facts, it can be concluded that primitive Filipinos are  
practicing science and technology in their everyday lives. The ancient crafts of stone 
carving, pottery and smelting of metals involves a lot of science, which is understanding 
the nature of matter involved. The ingenuity of the Ifugaos in building the Banaue Rice 

Terraces The smelting of metals exhibited the primitive Filipino’s knowledge on the 
composition of alloy and the optimum temperature that will produce the metal with  
acceptable tensile strength. All in all, the primitive Filipinos were living in perfect
harmony  with nature and they obtain from it what is just needed in their everyday life
through a very  simple science of understanding how mother nature operates

Spanish Colonial Era. 

As claimed by Caoili (1983), the beginnings of modern science and technology in  the
country can be traced back to the Spanish regime because they established schools, 
hospitals and started scientific research that had important consequences in the 
development of the country. These schools, which are mostly run by Spanish friars, 
formed the first Filipino professionals. The The 3 highest institution of learning during
this  time was the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas. 

But the very strict hold of the church among citizens and its intervention and   meddling
to the government propelled by fear of intellectual awakening among Filipinos  have
greatly hindered the progress of these professionals to further enhance their 
knowledge, conduct scientific investigations and contribute to the advancement of 
society. But a few of persistent Filipino scientists succeeded by educating themselves 
abroad. One notable example of course is our national hero, the great Dr. Jose P.
Rizal.  Dr. Jose Rizal is the epitome of the Renaissance man in the Philippine context.
He is a  scientist, a doctor, an engineer (he designed and built a water system in
Dapitan), a  journalist, a novelist, an urban planner and a hero. Being a doctor and
scientist, he had  extensive knowledge on medicine and was able to operate his
mother’s blinding eye.  When he was deported in Dapitan, his knowledge on science
and engineering was  translated into technology by creating a water system that
improved the sanitation of  households in the area. Dr. Jose  

Dr. Jose Rizal was a brilliant man and his life stood out among his contemporaries.   But
it cannot be said that there is no contribution to science and technology among the  
Filipino men and women during the Spanish era. The charity hospitals became the 
breeding ground for scientific researches on pharmacy and medicine, with great focus
on  problems of infectious diseases, their causes and possible remedies. And in 1887,
the  Laboratorio Municipal de Ciudad de Manila was created and whose functions were
to  conduct biochemical analyses for public health and to undertake specimen
examinations  for clinical and medico-legal cases. Its publication, probably the first
scientific journal in  the country was titled Cronica de Ciencias Medicas de Filipinas
showed the studies  undertaken during that time. 
As the colonization of the Spaniards lengthened, they began to exploit the natural 
resources of the country through agriculture, mining of metals and minerals and 
establishing various kinds of industries to further promote economic growth. As such, 
scientific research on these fields were encouraged by the government. By the
nineteenth  century, Manila has become a cosmopolitan center and modern amenities
were  introduced to the city. However, little is known about the accomplishments of
scientific  bodies commissioned by the Spanish government during this time. Because
of limited  scientific research and its consequent translation to technology during the
Spanish  regime, none of the industries prosper. The Philippines had evolved into a
primary  agricultural exporting economy, and this is not because of the researches
undertaken on 

this field, but was largely because of the influx of foreign capital and technology which  
brought modernization of some sectors, notably sugar and hemp production.  

American Period 

If the development in science and technology was very slow during the Spanish 
regime, the Philippines saw a rapid growth during the American occupation and was 
made possible by the government’s extensive public education system from elementary 
to tertiary schools. The establishment of various public tertiary schools like the
Philippine  Normal School and University of the Philippines provided the needs for
professionally  trained Filipinos in building the government’s organization and programs.
The growth and  application of science were still concentrated on the health sector in
the form of  biochemical analyses in hospitals. The government supported basic and
applied research  in the medical, agricultural and related sciences. The University of the
Philippines Los  Baños opened the College of Agriculture in 1909 while the University of
the Philippines – Diliman opened the Colleges of Arts, Engineering and Veterinary
Medicine in 1910. The  College of Medicine was opened four years later. 

During this time, there were already quite a number of qualified Filipino physicians  who
held teaching positions in the College of Medicine, whereas most of the early 
instructors and professors in other colleges such as in the sciences and engineering
were  Americans and foreigners. Capacity building programs that include sending
qualified  Filipinos abroad for advanced training were conducted to eventually fill up the
teaching  positions in Philippine universities. Moreover, the American colonial
government sent  Filipino youths to be educated as teachers, engineers, physicians and
lawyers in  American colleges to further capacitate the Filipinos in various fields.  

However, there was difficulty in recruiting students for science and technology  courses
like veterinary medicine, engineering, agriculture, applied sciences and  industrial-
vocational courses. The enrollment in these courses were dismal that the  government
had to offer scholarships to attract students. The unpopularity of these  courses
stemmed from the Filipinos’ disdain toward manual work that developed from the  400
years under Spanish colonization. The Filipinos then prefer prestigious professions  at
that time like priesthood, law and medicine.  

The government provided more support for the development of science and created  the
Bureau of Government Laboratories in and was later changed to Bureau of Science.   It
was composed of a biological laboratory, chemical laboratory, serum laboratory for the 
production of virus vaccine, serums and prophylactics, and a library. The bureau was 
initially managed by American senior scientists but as more Filipinos were trained and 
acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, they eventually took over their positions.
The  Bureau of Science served as the primary training ground for Filipino scientists and
paved  the way for pioneering scientific research, most especially on the study of
various tropical 

diseases that were prevalent during those times like leprosy, tuberculosis, cholera, 
dengue fever, malaria and beri-beri. Another great contribution of the Bureau of
Science  to the development of science and technology in the country was the
publication of the

Philippine Journal of Science. This scientific journal published researches done in local 
laboratories and reported global scientific developments that had relevance to the 
Philippine society. The Bureau of Science became the primary research center of the  
Philippines until World War II. Lastly, on December 8, 1933, the National Research  
Council of the Philippines was established.  
Commonwealth Period 

When the Americans granted independence and the Commonwealth government  was
established, the Filipinos were busy in working towards economic reliance but 
acknowledge the importance and vital role of science and technology for the economic 
development of the country by declaring that “The State shall promote scientific
research  and invention…” The short-lived Commonwealth Government was succeeded
by the  Japanese occupation when the Pacific war broke out in 1941. The prevailing
situations  during the time of Commonwealth period to the Japanese regime had made 
developments in science and technology practically impossible. This is also true when 
World War II ended and left Manila, the country’s capital, in ruins. The government had 
to rebuild again and normalize the operations in the whole country. 

Science and Technology since Independence 

In 1946 the Bureau of Science was replaced by the Institute of Science and was  placed
under the Office of the President of the Philippines. However, the agency faced  lack of
financial support from the government and experienced planning and coordination 
problems. In a report by the US Economic Survey to the Philippines in 1950, there is a  
lack of basic information which were necessities to the country's industries, lack of
support  of experimental work and minimal budget for scientific research and low
salaries of  scientists employed by the government. In 1958, during the regime of
President Carlos  P. Garcia, the Philippine Congress passed the Science Act of 1958
which established the  National Science Development Board (NSDB).  

The Philippine government focused on science and technology institutional  capacity-

building which were undertaken by establishing infrastructure-support facilities  such as
new research agencies and development trainings. However good these projects  were,
it produced insignificant effects because of lack of coordination and planning, 
specifically technology planning, between concerned agencies which hindered them
from  performing their assigned functions effectively. This was aptly illustrated in the
unplanned  activities of the researchers within the agencies. Most areas of research
were naively left  to the discretion of the researchers under the assumption that they
were working for the  interests of the country. They were instructed to look for
technologies and scientific  studies with good commercialization potential. Without clear
research policy guidelines,  researches were done for their own sake, leaving to chance
the commercialization of the  results

Likewise, during this time, rebuilding the country involved establishing more state 
funded manual and trading schools which would eventually become the current state 
universities and colleges. The trade schools produced craftsmen, tradesmen and 
technicians that helped in shaping a more technological Philippines while still being an  
agricultural based nation. Eventually, when these trade schools were elevated to
college  and university status, they produced much of the country’s professionals,
although there  was a great disparity on the low proportion of those in agriculture,
medical and natural  sciences with those from teacher training and commerce/business
administration courses  which had higher number of graduates. The increase in the
number of graduates led to  the rise of professional organizations of scientists and
engineers. These organizations  were formed to promote professional interests and
create and monitor the standards of  practice.  

As summarized by Caoili, “There has been little innovation in the education and  training
of scientists and engineers since independence in 1946. This is in part due to the 
conservative nature of self-regulation by the professional associations. Because of 
specialized training, vertical organizations by disciplines and lack of liaison between 
professions, professional associations have been unable to perceive the dynamic 
relationship between science, technology and society and the relevance of their  training
to Philippine conditions. 

Science and Technology in the 1960s to 1990s 

During these years, the government gave greater importance to science and 
technology. The government declared in Section 9(1) of the 1973 Philippine
Constitution  that the “advancement of science and technology shall have priority in the
national  development.”  

On April 6, 1968, Pres. Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed the 35-hectare land in Bicutan, 
Taguig as the site of the Philippine Science Community. Then in 1969, the government 
provided funds to private universities to encourage them to conduct research and
create  courses in science and technology. The government also conducted seminars
for public  and private high school and college science teachers, training programs and
scholarships  for graduate and undergraduate science scholars, and workshops on
fisheries and  oceanography. 

In the 1970s, focus on science and technology was given to applied research and  the
main objective was to generate products and processes that were supposed to have   a
greater beneficial impact to the society. Relative to this, several research institutes
were  established under the National Science Development Board (NSDB) which
includes the  Philippine Coconut Research Institute and Philippine Textile Research
Institute.  Moreover, the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, another agency under
NSDB,  explored the uses of atomic energy for economic development. To prepare the
pool of  scientists who will work on Philippine Atomic Commission, Pres. Marcos
assisted 107

institutions in undertaking nuclear energy work by sending scientists abroad to study 

nuclear science and technology, and providing basic training to 482 scientists, doctors, 
engineers and technicians. Then in 1972, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 4, the 
National Grains Authority was created and it was tasked to improve the rice and corn 
industry and thereby help in the economic development of the country. This was
followed  by the creation of Philippine Council for Agricultural Research to support the
progressive  development of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in the country. The
Marcos 

administration also established the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and 

Astronomical Service Administration (PAGASA) under the Department of National 
Defense to provide environmental protection and to utilize scientific knowledge to
ensure  the safety of the people through Presidential Decree No. 78, s. 1972. On the
following  year, the Philippine National Oil Company was created by virtue of
Presidential Decree  No. 334, s. 1973, to promote industrial and economic development
through effective and  efficient use of energy sources. To strengthen the scientific
culture in the country, the  National Academy of Science and Technology was
established under Presidential Decree  No. 1003-A, s. 1976. The National Academy of
Science and Technology was composed  of scientists with “innovative achievement in
the basic and applied sciences” who will  serve as the reservoir of scientific and
technological expertise for the country. 

In the 1980s, science and technology was still focused on applied research. In 1982, 
NSDB was further reorganized into a National Science and Technology Authority
(NSTA) composed of four research and development Councils; Philippine Council for
Agriculture  and Resources Research and Development (PCARRD); Philippine Council
for Industry  and Energy Research Development (PCIERD); Philippine Council for
Health Research  and Development (PCHRD) and the National Research Council of the
Philippines  (NRCP). NSTA has also eight research and development institutes and
support agencies  under it. These are actually the former organic and attached agencies
of NSDB which  have themselves been reorganized. 

The expanding number of science agencies has given rise to a demand for high  calibre
scientists and engineers to undertake research and staff universities and colleges. 
Hence, measures have also been taken towards the improvement of the country’s 
science and manpower. In March 1983, Executive Order No. 889 was issued by the 
President which provided for the establishment of a national network of centers of 
excellence in basic sciences. As a consequence, six new institutes were created: The 
National Institutes of Physics, Geological Sciences, Natural Sciences Research, 
Chemistry, Biology and Mathematical Sciences. Related to this efforts was the 
establishment of a Scientific Career System in the Civil Service by Presidential Decree 
No. 901 on 19 July 1983. This is designed to attract more qualified scientists to work in 
government and encourage young people to pursue science degrees and careers. 

In 1986, under the Aquino administration, the National Science and Technology 
Authority was replaced by the Department of Science and Technology, giving science 
and technology a representation in the cabinet. Under the Medium Term Philippine  
Development Plan for the years 1987-1992, science and technology's role in economic 
recovery and sustained economic growth was highlighted. In this period, science and 
technology was one of the top three priorities of the government towards economic  
recovery. 

With the agency's elevation to full cabinet stature by virtue of Executive Order 128 
signed on 30 January 1987, the functions and responsibilities of DOST expanded 
correspondingly to include the following: (1) Pursue the declared state policy of
supporting  local scientific and technological effort; (2) Develop local capability to
achieve  technological self-reliance; (3) Encourage greater private sector participation in
research  and development. moreover, funding for the science and technology sector
was tripled  from 464 million in 1986 to 1.7 billion in 1992. 

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is the premiere science and 
technology body in the country charged with the twin mandate of providing central 
direction, leadership and coordination of all scientific and technological activities, and of 
formulating policies, programs and projects to support national development. The
Science  and Technology Master Plan was formulated which aimed at the
modernization of the  production sector, upgrading research activities, and development
of infrastructure for  science and technological purposes. A Research and Development
Plan was also  formulated to examine and determine which areas of research needed
attention and must  be given priority. The criteria for identifying the program to be
pursued were, development  of local materials, probability of success, potential of
product in the export market, and  the its strategic nature. The grants for the research
and development programs was  included in the Omnibus Investment Law. 

During President Fidel Ramos’s term, there was a significant increase in personnel 
specializing in the science and technology field. In 1998, there was an estimated 3,000 
competent scientists and engineers in the Philippines. Adding to the increase of
scientists  would be the result of the two newly built Philippine Science High Schools in
Visayas and  Mindanao which promotes further development of young kids through
advance S&T  curriculum. The government provided 3,500 scholarships for students
who were taking  up professions related to S&T. Priority for S&T personnel increased
when Magna Carta  for Science and Technology Personnel (Republic Act No. 8439)
was established. The  award was published in order to give incentives and rewards for
people who have been  influential in the field of S&T.  

Still under the Ramos administration, DOST established the “Science and  Technology
Agenda for National Development (STAND)”, a program that was significant  to the field
of S&T. It identified seven export products, 11 domestic needs, three other  supporting
industries, and the coconut industry as priority investment areas. The seven  identified
export products were computer software; fashion accessories; gifts, toys, and 
houseware; marine products; metal fabrications; furniture; and dried fruits. The
domestic  needs identified were food, housing, health, clothing, transportation,
communication,  disaster mitigation, defense, environment, manpower development,
and energy. Three  additional support industries were included in the list of priority
sectors, namely,  packaging, chemicals, and metals because of their linkages with the
above sectors. 

In the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, numerous laws and projects were 

implemented which concerns both the environment and science to push technology as
a  tool to increase the country’s economic level. This is to help increase the productivity
from  Science, Technology and Innovations (STI) and help benefit the poor people.
Moreover,  the term “Filipinnovation” was the coined term used in helping the
Philippines to be an  innovation hub in Asia. 

The STI was developed further by strengthening the schools and education system 
such as the Philippine Science High School (PSHS), which focuses in science, 
technology and mathematics in their curriculum. This helps schools produce get more 
involve in this sector. Private sectors were also encouraged to participate in developing 
the schools through organizing events and sponsorships. Future Filipino scientists and 
innovators can be produced through this system. 

Recently, the Philippines ranked 73rd out of 128 economies in terms of Science and 
Technology and Innovation (STI) index, citing the country’s strength in research and 
commercialization of STI ideas (DOST, 2018). However, a study by the Philippine
Institute  for Development Studies highlighted the weak ties between innovation-driven
firms and  the government, and it also identified the country’s low expenditure in
research and  development (R&D). This is the reason the government is now extending
all its efforts to  reach out with the private sector, explaining that STI plays an important
role in economic  and social progress and is a key driver for a long-term growth of an
economy. Technology  adoption allows a country’s firms and citizens to benefit from
innovations created in other  countries, and allows it to catch up and even leap-frog
obsolete technologies. Technology  adoption, the official said, allows a country’s firms
and citizens to benefit from innovations  created in other countries, and allows it to catch
up and even leap-frog obsolete  technologies. 

Hopes in Philippine Science and Technology 

Despite the many inadequacies, from funding to human capital, there are some  science
and technology-intensive research and capacity-building projects which resulted  in
products which are currently being used successfully and benefits the society. 

One of these is the micro-satellite. In April 2016, the country launched into space  its
first micro-satellite called Diwata-1. It was designed, developed and assembled by
Filipino researchers and engineers under the guidance of Japanese experts. The
Diwata  (deity in English) satellite provides real-time, high-resolution and multi-color
infrared  images for various applications, including meteorological imaging, crop and
ocean  productivity measurement and high-resolution imaging of natural and man-made
features. It enables a more precise estimate of the country’s agricultural production,
provides images of watersheds and floodplains for a better understanding of water
available for irrigation, power and domestic consumption. The satellite also provides
accurate information on any disturbance and degradation of forest and upland areas.

25 

The country also has the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH),
which uses the Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology. Project NOAH was
initiated  in June 2012 to help manage risks associated with natural hazards and
disasters. The  project developed hydromet sensors and high-resolution geo-hazard
maps, which were  generated by light detection and ranging technology for flood
modeling. Noah helps the  government in providing timely warning with a lead time of at
least six hours in the wake  of impending floods. The country is now training the
Cambodians on this technology, as  part of the partnerships among ASEAN countries,
just like in the case of Japan which  assisted the country’s scientists and engineers in
building its first micro-satellite. 

Another hope lies in the so-called Intelligent Operation Center Platform. Established
through a collaboration between the local government of Davao City and IBM
Philippines Inc., the center resulted in the creation of a dashboard that allows
authorized  government agencies, such as police, fire and anti-terrorism task force, to
use analytics  software for monitoring events and operations in real time. 

Current Initiatives in Science and Technology in the Country 

DOST, in cooperation with HEIs and research institutions, established advanced

facilities that seek to spur R&D activities and provide MSMEs access to testing services
needed to increase their productivity and competitive advantage. 

One is the Advanced Device and Materials Testing Laboratories. The center  houses
advanced equipment for failure analysis and materials characterization to address
advanced analytical needs for quality control, materials identification and R&D. Closely
related to this facility is the Electronics Products Development Center, used to design,
develop and test hardware and software for electronic products. 

There are also high-performance computing facilities that perform tests and run
computationally intensive applications for numerical weather prediction, climate
modeling, as well as analytics and data modeling and archiving. 

The Philippines could also boast of its Genome Center, a core facility that  combines
basic and applied research for the development of health diagnostics,  therapeutics,
DNA forensics and preventive products, and improved crop varieties. 

The country also has drug-discovery facilities, which address the requirements for
producing high-quality and globally acceptable drug candidates. She said the
Philippines  also has nanotechnology centers, which provide technical services and
enabling  environment for interdisciplinary and collaborative R&D in various
nanotechnology  applications. 

There are also radiation processing facilities that are used to degrade, graft, or
crosslink polymers, monomers, or chemical compounds for industrial, agricultural,
environmental and medical applications. The Philippines could also boast of its Die and 

Mold Solutions Center, which enhances the competitiveness of the local tool and die
sector through the localization of currently imported dies and molds. 

These are reflections that we are advancing, albeit slowly, to a culture that  embraces
STI as a sure path to growth. 

D. Paradigm Shift 

What is a paradigm? 

A scientific paradigm is a framework containing all the commonly accepted views  about
a subject, conventions about what direction research should take and how it should   be
performed. 

The philosopher Thomas Kuhn suggested that a paradigm includes “the practices that
define a scientific discipline at a certain point in time." Paradigms contain all the  
distinct, established patterns, theories, common methods and standards that allow us
to  recognize an experimental result as belonging to a field or not. 

Science proceeds by accumulating support for hypotheses which in time become 

models and theories. But those models and theories themselves exist within a larger 
theoretical framework. The vocabulary and concepts in Newton’s three laws or the
central  dogma in biology are examples of scientific “open resources" that scientists
have adopted  and which now form part of the scientific paradigm. 
Paradigms are historically and culturally bound. For example, a modern Chinese 
medical researcher with a background in eastern medicine, will operate within a
different  paradigm than a western doctor from the 1800s. 

A paradigm dictates: 

what is observed and measured 

the questions we ask about those observations 

how the questions are formulated 

how the results are interpreted 

how research is carried out 

what equipment is appropriate 

Many students who opt to study science do so with the belief that they are  undertaking
the most rational path to learning about objective reality. But science, much  like any
other discipline, is subject to ideological idiosyncrasies, preconceptions and  hidden
assumptions. 

In fact, Kuhn strongly suggested that research in a deeply entrenched paradigm 

invariably ends up reinforcing that paradigm, since anything that contradicts it is
ignored  or else pressed through the preset methods until it conforms to already
established  dogma. 

The body of pre-existing evidence in a field conditions and shapes the collection  and
interpretation of all subsequent evidence. The certainty that the current paradigm is 
reality itself is precisely what makes it so difficult to accept alternatives.

28 

What is a Paradigm Shift? 

"The successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual 
developmental pattern of mature science" - Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions. 

 Figure 1 Paradigm shift. Source: https://thesaurus.plus/ 

The shift from one paradigm to another occurs when enough anomalies to the   current
paradigm build up, causing scientists to question the foundational principles upon 
which their worldview rests. During “normal science,” when the current paradigm is in  
place, these anomalies are discounted as acceptable levels of error. However, during 
“revolutionary science” or a paradigm shift, these anomalies become the center of 
attention as scientists attempt to construct a new world view that incorporates and  
explains them. This period of intense focus on explaining anomalies and developing a 
new paradigm is considered “revolutionary science,” and it is sparked by a “crisis” 
where the old paradigm fails explain key anomalies or outliers. Once a new paradigm is 
developed, however, there is a return to “normal science” under the new worldview. 

 Figure 2 Paradigm Shift 

 Source: https://edtosavetheworld.com

An Example of a Paradigm Shift 

Many physicists in the 19th century were convinced that the Newtonian paradigm  that
had reigned for 200 years was the pinnacle of discovery and that scientific progress 
was more or less a question of refinement. When Einstein published his theories on 
General Relativity, it was not just another idea that could fit comfortably into the existing 
paradigm. Instead, Newtonian Physics itself was relegated to being a special subclass
of  the greater paradigm ushered in by General Relativity. Newton’s three laws are still  
faithfully taught in schools, however we now operate within a paradigm that puts those  
laws into a much broader context. 
Interestingly, Kuhn’s theory itself was something of a game changer at the time,  since
scientists were not accustomed to thinking of what they were doing in such 
metaphysical terms. Kuhn’s theories are today understood to be part of a greater  
paradigm shift in the social sciences, and have also been modified since their original 
publication. 

Kuhn later conceded that the process of scientific advancement might be more  gradual.
For example, Relativity did not completely prove Newton wrong, but merely  reframed
his theory. Even the Copernican revolution was a little more gradual in replacing 
Ptolemy's beliefs. 

The concept of paradigm is closely related to the Platonic and Aristotelian views  of
knowledge. Aristotle believed that knowledge could only be based upon what is already 
known, the basis of the scientific method. Plato believed that knowledge should be
judged  by what something could become, the end result, or final purpose. Plato's
philosophy is  more like the intuitive leaps that cause scientific revolution; Aristotle's the
patient  gathering of data. 

Chapter 2 

Intellectual Revolutions that Defined Society 

Introduction 

This section provides students with background on the different intellectuals who  made
great contributions to science that propelled scientific and technological revolutions. 
Emphasis is given on how these intellectual revolutions shape and transform society.  

Intended Learning Outcomes: 

1. Articulate ways by which society is transformed by science and technology.  

What is an Intellectual Revolution? 

An intellectual revolution is a period where paradigm shifts occurred and where 

scientific beliefs that have been widely embraced and accepted by the people were 
challenged and opposed. Historically, this intellectual revolution can be summed up as  
the “replacement of Aristotelian ethics and Christian morality by a new type of decision  
making which may be termed instrumental reasoning or cost-benefit analysis” (Wootton 
as cited by McCarthy, 2019).  

The Birth of Modern Science 

Western science, like so many other aspects of Western Civilization, was born with  the
ancient Greeks. They were the first to explain the world in terms of natural laws rather  
than myths about gods and heroes. They also passed on the idea of the value of math  
and experiment in science, although they usually thought only in terms of one to the 
exclusion of the other.  

The most influential figure in Western science until the 1600's, was the  philosopher,
Aristotle, who created a body of scientific theory that towered like a colossus   over
Western Civilization for some 2000 years. Given the limitations under which the  Greeks
were working compared to now, Aristotle's theories made sense when taken in a  logical
order. 

However, there were several factors that worked both to overthrow Aristotle's  theories
and to preserve it. First of all, Aristotle's theories relied very little on experiment,   which
left them vulnerable to anyone who chose to perform such experiments. But  attacking
one part of Aristotle's system involved attacking the whole thing, which made it  a
daunting task for even the greatest thinkers of the day. Secondly, the Church had  
grafted Aristotle's theories onto its theology, thus making any attack on Aristotle an
attack  on the tradition and the Church itself.

Finally, there were the Renaissance scholars who were uncovering other Greek 
authors who contradicted Aristotle. This was unsettling, since these scholars had a 
reverence for all ancient knowledge as being nearly infallible. However, finding 
contradicting authorities forced the Renaissance scholars to try to figure out which ones 
were right. When their findings showed that neither theory was right, they had to think
for  themselves and find a new theory that worked. This encouraged skepticism,
freethinking,  and experimentation, all of which are essential parts of modern science. 
Pattern of development 

The combination of these factors generated a cycle that undermined Aristotle, but  also
slowed down the creation of a new set of theories. New observations would be made
that seemed to contradict Aristotle's theories. This would lead to new explanations, but
always framed in the context of the old beliefs, thus patching up the Aristotelian system.
However, more observations would take place, leading to more patching of the old
system, and so on. The first person who started this slow process of dismantling
Aristotle's cosmology was Copernicus. His findings would reinforce the process of
finding  new explanations, which would lead to the work of Kepler and Galileo. The work
of these  three men would lead to many new questions and theories about the universe
until Isaac  Newton would take the new data and synthesize it into a new set of theories
that more  accurately explained the universe. 

A. Copernican Revolution 

Nicolas Copernicus was a Polish scholar working at the University of Padua in  northern
Italy. The problem he wrestled with was the paths of planetary orbits.  Through the
centuries close observations had shown that the heavens do not always  appear to
move in perfect, uninterrupted circles. Rather, they sometimes seem to  move
backwards in what are known as retrogradations. In order to account for these
irregularities, astronomers did not do away with Aristotle's theory of perfectly circular
orbits around the earth. Instead, they expanded upon it, adding smaller circular orbits
(epicycles) that spun off the main orbits. These more or less accounted for the
retrogradations seen in orbits. Each time a new irregularity was observed, a new
epicycle was added. By the 1500's, the model of the universe had some 80 epicycles
attached to ten crystalline spheres (one for the moon, sun, each of the five known
planets, the totality of the stars, a sphere to move the other spheres, and heaven).  The
second century Greek astronomer, Ptolemy was the main authority who put order  to
and passed this cumbersome system of epicycles to posterity. 

Copernicus' solution was basically geometric. By placing the sun at the center  of the
universe and having the earth orbit it, he reduced the unwieldy number of  epicycles
from 80 to 34. His book, Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Worlds,  published
in 1543, laid the foundations for a revolution in how Europeans would view  the world
and its place in the universe. However, Copernicus' intention was not to  create a
radically new theory, but to get back to even older ideas by such Greeks as 

Plato and Pythagoras who believed in a heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Once
again, ancient authorities were set against one another, leaving it for others to  develop
their own theories. 

It took some 150 years after Copernicus' death in 1543 to achieve a new model  of the
universe that worked. The first step was compiling more data that tarnished the
perfection of the Ptolemaic universe and forced men to re-evaluate their beliefs. 

Johannes Kepler 

At this time, Tycho Brahe, using only the naked eye, tracked the entire orbits  of various
stars and planets. Previously, astronomers would only track part of an orbit  at a time
and assume that orbit was in a perfect circle. Brahe kept extensive records  of his
observations, but did not really know what to do with them. That task was left  to his
successor, Johannes Kepler. 

Kepler was a brilliant mathematician who had a mystical vision of the  mathematical
perfection of the universe that owed a great deal to the ancient Greek  mathematician
Pythagoras. Despite these preoccupations, Kepler was open minded  enough to realize
that Brahe's data showed the planetary orbits were not circular.  Finally, his calculations
showed that those orbits were elliptical. 

Galileo 

As important as Kepler's conclusions was his method of arriving at it. He was  the first to
successfully use math to define the workings of the cosmos. Although such  a
conclusion as elliptical orbits inevitably met with fierce opposition, the combination  of
Brahe's observations and Kepler's math helped break the perfection of the  Aristotelian
universe. However, it was the work of an Italian astronomer, Galileo  Galilei (1564-
1642), armed with a new invention, the telescope, which would further  shatter the old
theory and lead the way to a new one. 
Using his telescope, Galileo saw the sun's perfection marred by sunspots and  the
moon's perfection marred by craters. He also saw four moons orbiting Jupiter. In  his
book, The Starry Messenger (1611), he reported these disturbing findings and  spread
the news across Europe. Most people could not understand Kepler's math,  but anyone
could look through a telescope and see for himself the moon's craters  and Jupiter's
moons. 

The Church tried to preserve the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic view of the  universe by
clamping down on Galileo and his book and made him promise not  to preach his views.
However, in 1632, Galileo published his next book, Dialogue on  the Great World
Systems, which technically did not preach the Copernican theory (which  Galileo
believed in), but was only a dialogue presenting both views "equally". Galileo  got his
point across by having the advocate of the Church and Aristotelian view 

named Simplicius (Simpleton). He was quickly faced with the Inquisition and the  threat
of torture. Being an old man of 70, he recanted his views. However, it was too  late.
Word was out, and the heliocentric heresy was gaining new followers daily. 

Galileo's work was the first comprehensive attack on the Aristotelian/Ptolemaic  cosmic
model. He treated celestial objects as being subject to the same laws as  terrestrial
objects. However, Galileo was still enthralled with perfect circular motion  and, as a
result, did not come up with the synthesis of all these new bits of information  into a new
comprehensive model of the universe. This was left to the last, and  probably greatest,
giant of the age, Isaac Newton. 

Isaac Newton 

The story of Newton being hit on the head by an apple may very well be true.  However,
the significance of this popular tale is usually lost. People had seen apples  fall out of
trees for thousands of years, but Newton realized, in a way no one else had  realized,
that the same force pulling the apples to earth was keeping the moon in its  orbit. In
order to prove this mathematically, Newton had to invent a whole new branch  of math,
calculus, for figuring out rates of motion and change. The genius of Newton  in physics,
as well as William Harvey in medicine and Mendeleev in chemistry, was  not so much in
his new discoveries, as in his ability to take the isolated bits and pieces  of the puzzle
collected by his predecessors and fit them together. In retrospect, his  synthesis seems
so simple, but it took tremendous imagination and creativity to break  the bonds of the
old way of thinking and see a radically different picture. 

The implications of Newton's theory of gravity can easily escape us, since we  now take
it for granted that physical laws apply the same throughout the universe. To  the
mentality of the 1600’s, which saw a clear distinction between the laws governing  the
terrestrial and celestial elements, it was a staggering revelation. His three laws of
motion were simple, could be applied everywhere, and could be used with calculus  to
solve any problems of motion that came up. 

The universe that emerged was radically different from that of Aristotle. Thanks  to
Newton, it was within our grasp to understand, predict, and increasingly manipulate  the
laws of the universe in ways no one had been able to do before. Newton's work  also
completed the fusion of math promoted by Renaissance humanists, Aristotelian  logic
pushed by medieval university professors, and experiment to test a hypothesis
pioneered by such men as Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo into what we call the
scientific method. This fusion had gradually been taking place since the Renaissance,
but the invention of calculus made math a much more dynamic tool in predicting and
manipulating the laws of nature. 

The printing of Newton's book, Principia Mathematica, in 1687 is often seen as  the start
of the Enlightenment (1687-1789). It was a significant turning point in history,  for,
armed with the tools of Newton's laws and calculus, scientists had an 

unprecedented faith in their ability to understand, predict, and manipulate the laws of
nature for their own purposes. This sense of power popularized science for other
intellectuals and rulers in Europe, turning it into virtual religion for some in the
Enlightenment. Even the geometrically trimmed shrubbery of Versailles offers
testimony to that faith in our power over nature. Not until this century has that faith
been seriously undermined or put into a more realistic perspective. 
B. The Darwinian Revolution 

The publication in 1859 of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin ushered  in a new
era in the intellectual history of humanity. Darwin is deservedly given credit  for the
theory of biological evolution: he accumulated evidence demonstrating that  organisms
evolve and discovered the process, natural selection, by which they  evolve. But the
importance of Darwin's achievement is that it completed  the Copernican revolution
initiated three centuries earlier, and thereby radically  changed our conception of the
universe and the place of humanity in it. 

The discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton in the sixteenth  and
seventeenth centuries, had gradually ushered in the notion that the workings of  the
universe could be explained by human reason. It was shown that the earth is not  the
center of the universe, but a small planet rotating around an average star; that the 
universe is immense in space and in time; and that the motions of the planets around 
the sun can be explained by the same simple laws that account for the motion of 
physical objects on our planet. These and other discoveries greatly expanded human  
knowledge, but the intellectual revolution these scientists brought about was more  
fundamental: a commitment to the postulate that the universe obeys immanent laws 
that account for natural phenomena. The workings of the universe were brought into 
the realm of science: explanation through natural laws. Physical phenomena could  be
accounted for whenever the causes were adequately known. 

Darwin completed the Copernican revolution by drawing out for biology the  notion of
nature as a lawful system of matter in motion. The adaptations and diversity  of
organisms, the origin of novel and highly organized forms, even the origin of   humanity
itself could now be explained by an orderly process of change governed by  natural
laws. 

The origin of organisms and their marvelous adaptations were, however, either  left
unexplained or attributed to the design of an omniscient Creator. God had created   the
birds and bees, the fish and corals, the trees in the forest, and best of all, man.   God
had given us eyes so that we might see, and He had provided fish with gills to   breathe
in water. Philosophers and theologians argued that the functional design of  organisms
manifests the existence of an all-wise Creator. Wherever there is design,  there is a
designer; the existence of a watch evinces the existence of a watchmaker.

The English theologian William Paley in his Natural Theology (1802)  elaborated the
argument-from-design as forceful demonstration of the existence of  the Creator. The
functional design of the human eye, argued Paley, provided  conclusive evidence of an
all-wise Creator. It would be absurd to suppose, he wrote,  that the human eye by mere
chance "should have consisted, first, of a series of  transparent lenses ... secondly of a
black cloth or canvas spread out behind these  lenses so as to receive the image
formed by pencils of light transmitted through them,  and placed at the precise
geometrical distance at which, and at which alone, a distinct  image could be formed ...
thirdly of a large nerve communicating between this  membrane and the brain." The
Bridgewater Treatises, published between 1833 and  1840, were written by eminent
scientists and philosophers to set forth "the Power,  Wisdom, and Goodness of God as
manifested in the Creation." The structure and  mechanisms of man's hand were, for
example, cited as incontrovertible evidence that  the hand had been designed by the
same omniscient Power that had created the  world. 

The advances of physical science had thus driven humanity's conception of  the
universe to a split-personality state of affairs, which persisted well into the mid
nineteenth century. Scientific explanations, derived from natural laws, dominated the  
world of nonliving matter, on the earth as well as in the heavens. Supernatural 
explanations, depending on the unfathomable deeds of the Creator, accounted for  the
origin and configuration of living creatures—the most diversified, complex, and 
interesting realities of the world. It was Darwin's genius to resolve this conceptual 
schizophrenia (Ayala, no date). 

C. Freudian Revolution 

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856, before the advent of telephones, radios, 
automobiles, airplanes, and a host of other material and cultural changes that had  
taken place by the time of his death in 1939. Freud saw the entirety of the first  World
War–a war that destroyed the empire whose capital city was his home for  more than
seventy years–and the beginning of the next. He began his career as  an ambitious but
isolated neurologist; by the end of it, he described himself, not  inaccurately, as
someone who had had as great an impact on humanity's  conception of itself as had
Copernicus and Darwin. 

Freud's most obvious impact was to change the way society thought about  and dealt
with mental illness. Before psychoanalysis, which Freud invented, mental  illness was
almost universally considered 'organic'; that is, it was thought to come  from some kind
of deterioration or disease of the brain. Research on treating  mental illness was
primarily concerned–at least theoretically–with discovering  exactly which kinds of
changes in the brain led to insanity. Many diseases did not  manifest obvious signs of
physical difference between healthy and diseased 

brains, but it was assumed that this was simply because the techniques for finding  the
differences were not yet sufficient. 

The conviction that physical diseases of the brain caused mental illness  meant that
psychological causes–the kinds that Freud would insist on studying– were ignored. It
also meant that people drew a sharp dividing line between the  "insane" and the "sane."
Insane people were those with physical diseases of the  brain. Sane people were those
without diseased brains. 

Freud changed all of this. Despite his background in physicalism (learned  during his
stay in Ernst Brücke's laboratory), his theories explicitly rejected the  purely organic
explanations of his predecessors. One of Freud's biggest influences  during his early
days as a neurologist was Jean-Martin Charcot, the famous French  psychiatrist.
Charcot claimed that hysteria had primarily organic causes, and that  it had a regular,
comprehensible pattern of symptoms. Freud agreed with Charcot  on the latter point,
but he disagreed entirely on the former. In essence, Freud  claimed that neurotic people
had working hardware, but faulty software. Earlier  psychiatrists like Charcot, in
contrast, had claimed that the problems were entirely  in the hardware. As
psychoanalysis became increasingly popular, psychology and  psychiatry turned away
from the search for organic causes and toward the search  for inner psychic conflicts
and early childhood traumas. As a consequence, the line  between sane and insane
was blurred: everyone, according to Freud, had an  Oedipal crisis, and everyone could
potentially become mentally ill. 

Psychoanalysis has had an enormous impact on the practice of psychiatry,  particularly

within the United States, but today it is regarded by most sources– medical, academic,
governmental, and others–as almost entirely incorrect in its  conception of the mind.
This judgment is based on the crucial test of  psychoanalysis: whether or not it really
helps patients with behavioral or  psychological problems. The consensus is that is does
not. Psychoanalysis in its  many varieties appears to have little or no efficacy in treating
mental illness. In  contrast, psychopharmacology and cognitive- behavioral therapies
(therapies that  simply try to change what the patient thinks and does rather than
analyzing the  causes of the behavior), while far from perfect, do appear to help. 

If this is true–and we have a great deal of evidence that it is–why is Freud  still so
important? Why do we generally speak of him as a great figure in Western   thought,
instead of as a strange and misguided figure of turn-of-the- century  Europe? 

There are at least two reasons. The first is purely practical: psychoanalysis  has
enormous historical significance. Mental illness affects an large proportion of  the
population, either directly or indirectly, so any curative scheme as widely  accepted as
was Freud's is important to our history in general. The second, more  important, reason
is that Freud gave people a new way of thinking about why they  acted the way they did.
He created a whole new way of interpreting behaviors: one 

could now claim that a person had motives, desires, and beliefs–all buried in the 
unconscious–which they knew nothing about but which nonetheless directly  controlled
and motivated their conscious thought and behavior. This hypothesis,  derived from but
independent of Freud's psychiatric work, was the truly radical part  of his system of
thought. 

D. Scientific Revolution in Mesoamerica 

Meso-America is the region from Mexico to Guatemala, Belize and parts of  Honduras
and El Salvador. There were no major ancient civilization that developed  in North
America. The Mesoamerican civilization were isolated from the  accumulated scientific
knowledge of Africa, Asia and Europe. They were  confronted with much harder
conditions than the ancient civilizations of the Indus  valley, Mesopotamia, and Egypt
which developed in parallel with each other and  established contacts between each
other at a very early stage. This exchange of  knowledge between these ancient
civilizations was critical in the development of  their scientific knowledge. Because of
this isolation, Mesoamerican civilization  developed on their own and became much
more self-reliant.  

The most advanced Mesoamerican civilization was the Maya civilization that  was well
on its way to develop true science. They knew how to make paper and  had pictorial
script called Maya hieroglyphs that allowed them to record all  knowledge on long strips
of paper folded harmonica-style into books. One of the  three books recovered called
The Dresden Codex contains predictions of solar  eclipses for centuries and a table of
predicted positions of Venus. Unlike the  European scientists who used astronomical
instruments like telescopes, the Maya  made predictions by aligning stars with two
objects that were separated by a large  distance, a technique that achieved great
accuracy of angular measurement. As a  result, the Maya developed the most accurate
calendar ever designed. 

The Aztec followed the same road. They kept their own script and languages  but
assimilated all they could learn from Maya society. Their manuscripts describe  how the
Maya performed their astronomical observations.  

Several outstanding achievements can be reported in the area of technology  and

invention. The manufacture of rubber was one of the earliest inventions,  documented
by the use of a rubber ball in the ball game tlachtli, a game played by   Meso-American
civilizations from earliest times. In architecture the Maya were the  first to use pitched
ceilings in their buildings after the invention of the corbelled  vault. Aztec city builders
also understood the need for public sanitation; public  latrines were found along all
highways, and to prevent pollution of Lake Texcoco  canoes transported the sewage
from Tenochtitlán to the mainland every morning.  (von Hagen, 1957) 
American people were gifted horticulturalists and cultivated crop plants from  the earliest
times. Among the plants that originated in Meso-America are corn 

(maize), papaya, avocado and cocoa. Maize is the only cultivated plant that was 
developed so early in human history that its wild ancestor is no longer known. It   can,
however, still be crossed with two other plants found only on the Yucatan  Peninsula. 

Finally, several sculptures found at Meso-American sites in 1975, 1979 and  1983 and
dating back to 2000 - 1500 BC have clear magnetic properties. In some  of these
sculptures the north and south poles are in most conspicuous positions,  for example at
the snout and at the back of the head of a frog or turtle. Another  magnetic object found
in 1966 was shaped as if it was to be used to indicate  direction. These finds strongly
suggest that the early Meso-American civilizations  knew about and used magnetism.
(Malmström, 1976, 1979) 

E. Asian Scientific Revolution 

Aside from China, there were other Asian countries that contributed to the  development
of science and technology in the world, although it varied depending on country and
time, specially in the present times. Currently, Japan is probably  the most notable
country in Asia in terms of scientific and technological  achievement, particularly in
terms of its electronics and automobile products. Other  countries are also notable in
other scientific fields such as chemical and physical  achievements.  

The general conception is that many of the cutting-edge technological  developments,

and to a lesser extent scientific advancements, emanate from Asia.  For instance,
Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China together produce a  staggering 90% of the
world’s digital gadgets. Aside from the region’s hardware  dominance, nations across
Asia are becoming increasingly important to the global  supply of digital content and
services, something which will only increase as the  continent develops over the coming
decades.  

South Korea’s cultural popularity around the world has caused a number of  startup’s to
emerge working within the digital and technology sectors, including  website viki.com.  
Taiwan is following a similar path to Japan meanwhile, moving away from  hardware
production, instead turning to software and content development. Together, the points
raised throughout this article proves Asia is truly a  crucible of innovative technological
development; a continent that will play an  incredibly important role in the evolution of
our digital age. 

F. Scientific Revolution in Middle East 

During the 3,000 years of urbanized life in Mesopotamia and Egypt tremendous  strides
were made in various branches of science and technology. The greatest  advances
were made in Mesopotamia—very possibly because of its constant shift of  population
and openness to foreign influence, in contrast to the relative isolation of   Egypt and the
consequent stability of its population. The Egyptians excelled in such 

applied sciences as medicine, engineering, and surveying; in Mesopotamia greater 

progress was made in astronomy and mathematics. The development of astronomy 
seems to have been greatly accelerated by that of astrology, which took the lead 
among the quasi-sciences involved in divination. The Egyptians remained far behind 
the Babylonians in developing astronomy, while Babylonian medicine, because of its 
chiefly magical character, was less advanced than that of Egypt. In engineering and 
architecture Egyptians took an early lead, owing largely to the stress they laid on the 
construction of such elaborate monuments as vast pyramids and temples of granite  
and sandstone. On the other hand, the Babylonians led in the development of such 
practical arts as irrigation (Albright, 2014). 

Both sciences and pseudosciences spread from Egypt and Mesopotamia  to Phoenicia
and Anatolia. The Phoenicians in particular transmitted much of this  knowledge to the
various lands of the Mediterranean, especially to the Greeks. The  direction taken by
these influences can be followed from Egypt to Syria, Phoenicia,  and Cyprus, thanks to
a combination of excavated art forms that prove the direction  of movement, as well as
to Greek tradition, which lays great stress on what the early  Greek philosophers
learned from Egypt. Mesopotamian influence can be traced  especially through the
partial borrowing of Babylonian science and divination by the  Hittites and later by the
transmission of information through Phoenicia. The Egyptians  and Mesopotamians
wrote no theoretical treatises; information had to be transmitted  piecemeal through
personal contacts. 

Of all the accomplishments of the ancient Middle East, the invention of the   alphabet is
probably the greatest. While pre-alphabetic systems of writing in the Old  World became
steadily more phonetic, they were still exceedingly cumbersome, and  the syllabic
systems that gradually replaced them remained complex and difficult. In  the early
Hyksos period (17th century BC) the Northwestern Semites living in Egypt  adapted
hieroglyphic characters—in at least two slightly differing forms of letters—to  their own
purposes. Thus was developed the earliest known purely consonantal  alphabet,
imitated in northern Syria, with the addition of two letters to designate  vowels used with
the glottal catch. 

This alphabet spread rapidly and was in quite common use among the  Northwestern
Semites (Canaanites, Hebrews, Aramaeans, and especially the  Phoenicians) soon
after its invention. By the 9th century BC the Phoenicians were  using it in the western
Mediterranean, and the Greeks and Phrygians adopted it in  the 8th. The alphabet
contributed vastly to the Greek cultural and literary revolution  in the immediately
following period. From the Greeks it was transmitted to other  Western peoples. Since
language must always remain the chief mode of  communication for people, its union
with hearing and vision in a uniquely simple  phonetic structure has probably
revolutionized civilization more than any other  invention in history.

40 

G. Scientific Revolution in Africa 

The history of the sciences in Africa is rich and diverse. The applied sciences of 
agronomy, metallurgy, engineering and textile production, as well as medicine, 
dominated the field of activity across Africa. So advanced was the culture of farming 
within West Africa, that ‘New World‘ agricultural growth was spawned by the use of 
captives from these African societies that had already made enormous strides in the  
field of agronomy. In her work Black Rice, Judith Carnoy demonstrates the legacy of 
enslaved Africans to the Americas in the sphere of rice cultivation. We know also that  a
variety of African plants were adopted in Asia, including coffee, the oil palm, fonio  or
acha (digitaria exilis), African rice (oryza glabberima), and sorghum (sorghum  bicolor).
Plants, whether in terms of legumes, grain, vegetables, tubers, or, wild or  cultivated
fruits, also had medicinal implications for Africans and were used as  anesthetics or pain
killers, analgesics for the control of fever, antidotes to counter  poisons, and anthelmints
aimed at deworming. They were used also in  cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal, and
dermatological contexts. Some of these such  as hoodia gordonii and combrettum
caffrum are being integrated within contemporary  pharmaceutical systems (Emeagwali,
n.d.). 

Africa’s areas of scientific investigation include the fields of astronomy, physics,  and
mathematics. Laird Scranton, making use of the extensive collections of Marcel 
Griaule, has deepened our understanding of Malian cosmological myths and their 
perceptions of the structure of matter and the physical world. Dogon knowledge 
systems have also been explored in terms of their perceptions on astronomy. Dogon 
propositions about Sirius B have been discussed by Charles Finch in The Star of  Deep
Beginnings. The solar calendar that we use today evolved from the Egyptian  calendar
of twelve months, calibrated according to the day on which the star Sirius  rose on the
horizon with the Sun. Scranton suggests major interconnections between  the thought of
the ancient Egyptians and that of the Malians of West Africa. 

In the field of Mathematics, Nubian builders calculated the volumes of masonry  and
building materials, as well as the slopes of pyramids, for construction purposes.  Bianchi
points to a Nubian engraving at Meroe, in ancient Sudan, dated to the first  century
B.C.E., which reflects “a sophisticated understanding of mathematics.”  Included in the
engraving were several lines, inclined at a 72-degree angle, running  diagonally from
the base of a pyramid. Bianchi suggests that the Nubian King  Amanikhabale of the first
century BCE was the owner of that pyramid. Interestingly,  the Nubians of Meroe, who
constructed more pyramids than the Egyptians, built  steep, flat-topped pyramids. 

In the field of medicine, common patterns and trends emerged across the  continent.
These included scientifically proven methods, as well as techniques and  strategies
which were culturally specific and psychologically significant. Among the  common
principles and procedures were hydrotherapy, heat therapy, spinal  manipulation,
quarantine, bone-setting and surgery. Incantations and other  psychotherapeutic
devices sometimes accompanied other techniques. The knowledge of specific medicinal
plants was quite extensive in some kingdoms,  empires, and city states such as Aksum,
and Borgu (in Hausaland). The latter  continues to be well known for orthopedics (bone-
setting), as is the case of Funtua in  Northern Nigeria. Many traditional techniques are
still utilized in some areas. Others  have undergone change over time, have been
revived in more recent periods, or have  fallen into oblivion. 

Various types of metal products have been used over time by Africans, ranging  from
gold, tin, silver, bronze, brass, and iron/steel. The Sudanic empires of West  Africa
emerged in the context of various commercial routes and activities involving  the gold
trade. In the North and East, Ethiopia and Sudan were the major suppliers  of gold, with
Egypt a major importer. In Southern Africa, the kingdom of Monomotapa 
(Munhumutapa) reigned supreme as a major gold producer. In the various spheres  of
metal production, specific techniques and scientific principles included: excavation  and
ore identification; separation of ore from non-ore bearing rock; smelting by the  use of
bellows and heated furnaces; and smithing and further refinement. 

The use of multishaft and open-shaft systems facilitated circulation of air in  intense
heating processes, while the bellows principle produced strong currents of air  in a
chamber expanded to draw in or expel air through a valve. The various metal  products
served a wide range of purposes, including: armor (as in some northern  Nigerian city-
states), jewelry (of gold, silver, iron, copper and brass), cooking utensils,  cloth dyeing,
sculpture, and agricultural tools. The technical know-how and expertise  of blacksmiths
helped to enhance their status, although they were also often  associated with
supernatural and psychic powers, as well. 

In various parts of ancient, medieval, and contemporary Africa, building  constructions

of various dimensions, shapes, and types emerged, reflecting various  concepts,
techniques, raw material preferences, and decorative principles. Builders  integrated the
concepts of the arch, the dome, and columns and aisles in their  constructions. The
underground vaults and passages, as well as the rock-hewn  churches, of Axum are
matched in Nubia and Egypt with pyramids of various  dimensions. In the Sahelian
region, adobe, or dried clay, was preferred in the context  of moulded contours, at times
integrated with overall moulded sculpture. Permanent  scaffolding made of protruding
planks characterized the Malian region. The principle  of evaporative cooling was
integrated into building design. Mats were used as part of  the decor and also to be
saturated repeatedly in order to cool the room. 

Derelict ruins from walled cities—such as Kano, Zazzau, and other city-states of 
Hausaland in the central Sudanic region of West Africa—complement structures such 
as the rock-hewn and moulded churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia or the Zimbabwe 
enclosures. The structures of ancient Nubia, as well as those of Egypt, are parallel  
structures in the northeast. 

H. Information Revolution 

Information revolution is a period of change that describes current  economic, social and
technological trends beyond the Industrial Revolution. The  information revolution was
fueled by advances in semiconductor technology,  particularly the metal-oxide-
semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and  the integrated circuit (IC) chip,
leading to the Information Age in the early 21st 

century (Lukasiak, 2010; Orton, 2009). 

Information revolution might prove as significant to the lives of people.  Computer

technology is at the root of this change, and continuing advancements  in that
technology seem to ensure that this revolution would touch the lives of  people.
Computers are unique machines; they help to extend the brain power.  Computerized
robots have been replacing blue-collar workers; they might soon be  replacing white
collar workers as well. Computers are merely devices that follow  sets of instructions
called computer programs, or software, that have been written  by people called
computer programmers. Computers offer many benefits, but there  are also many
dangers. They could help others invade one's privacy or wage war.  They might turn
one into button pusher and cause massive unemployment. User friendly systems can
be easily used by untrained people. The key development  that made personal
computers possible was the invention of the microprocessor  chip at Intel in 1971. 

The information revolution led us to the age of the internet, where  optical
communication networks play a key role in delivering massive amounts of  data. The
world has experienced phenomenal network growth during the last  decade, and further
growth is imminent. The internet will continue to expand due  to user population growth
and internet penetration: previously  inaccessible geographical regions in Africa and
Asia will come online. Network  growth will only be accelerated by improvements in
integrated  circuits. Transistor size has been halved every two years since the middle of
the  last century. The new internet-based global economy requires a worldwide network 
with high capacity and availability, which is currently limited  by submarine optical
communication cables. 

New ideas keep coming from the information transport community. Since  the first
edition of Undersea Fiber Communication Systems in 2002, the optical  fiber
communication industry moved into the “coherent” era. We transport an order  of
magnitude more bits than just five years ago. We encode information into phase,  
polarization, and amplitude of electromagnetic waves. Michael Faraday would be 
proud, knowing that we send over 10,000,000,000,000 bits every second across  the
Atlantic Ocean in a single strand of fiber. We would leave in awe Sir William  Thomson
(known as Lord Kelvin), who was the scientific leader of an 1858  endeavor that built the
first submarine cable with a transmission speed of one word  per minute. Sir Thomson
and Cyrus Field, an American businessman  and telecommunications pioneer, would be
surprised to find out how many tools 

43 

developed during their first transatlantic expedition are still in use today. At first  glance,
the modern cable looks similar to the 1858 cable, which was copper based  with a gutta-
percha (trans-poly isoprene) isolator. In modern day cables, gutta percha has been
replaced with polyethylene. We still use copper to power  submarine repeaters, and
have added optical fibers during the last decade of the  last century.  
The uniqueness of this engineering marvel is a combination of information  science,
nonlinear optics, electrical engineering, material science, engineering  practices, project
management, marine expertise, and high reliability standard.  Undersea fiber
communication systems will continue to serve society. 

Impact of Information Revolution 

The truly revolutionary impact of the Information Revolution is just beginning   to be felt.
But it is not "information" that fuels this impact. It is not "artificial  intelligence." It is not
the effect of computers and data processing on decision making, policymaking, or
strategy. It is something that practically no one foresaw  or, indeed, even talked about
ten or fifteen years ago: e-commerce—that is, the  explosive emergence of the Internet
as a major, perhaps eventually the major,  worldwide distribution channel for goods, for
services, and, surprisingly, for  managerial and professional jobs. This is profoundly
changing economies,  markets, and industry structures; products and services and their
flow; consumer  segmentation, consumer values, and consumer behavior; jobs and
labor markets.  But the impact may be even greater on societies and politics and, above
all, on the  way we see the world and ourselves in it. 

At the same time, new and unexpected industries will no doubt emerge, and   fast. One
is already here: biotechnology. And another: fish farming. Within the next  fifty years fish
farming may change us from hunters and gatherers on the seas into  "marine
pastoralists"—just as a similar innovation some 10,000 years ago changed  our
ancestors from hunters and gatherers on the land into agriculturists and  pastoralists. 

It is likely that other new technologies will appear suddenly, leading to major  new
industries. What they may be is impossible even to guess at. But it is highly  probable—
indeed, nearly certain—that they will emerge, and fairly soon. And it is  nearly certain
that few of them—and few industries based on them—will come out  of computer and
information technology. Like biotechnology and fish farming, each  will emerge from its
own unique and unexpected technology. 

Of course, these are only predictions. But they are made on the assumption  that the
Information Revolution will evolve as several earlier technology-based  "revolutions"
have evolved over the past 500 years, since Gutenberg's printing  revolution, around
1455. In particular, the assumption is that the Information 

Revolution will be like the Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early  
nineteenth centuries. And that is indeed exactly how the Information Revolution  has
been during its first fifty years.

44 

Activity: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants 

Motivation: 

Please refer to the following quote in answering the given questions below. 

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Sir
Isaac Newton 

Pre-Activity Discussion 

Scientists today build on the knowledge and discoveries made by others. It might  be
that they continue and grow the work of the scientists who have mentored and 
supervised them or that they build on prior discoveries – both recent and historical. 

Tying in stories of science in history and scientific breakthroughs can offer  engaging
opportunities for further exploration and learning. For example, the periodic  table that
we know today was actually a result of numerous experiments and discoveries  that
spanned for centuries starting from 1669 when the first scientific discovery of an 
element was made by Hennig Brand. Over the next 200 years, a great deal of
knowledge  about elements and compounds was gained. By the middle of the 19th
century, about 60  elements had been discovered. Scientists began to recognize
patterns in the properties  of these elements and set about developing classification
schemes.

45 

Scientists are constantly working on discovering new materials and further  investigating
the properties of existing elements. The periodic table can be reviewed and  new
elements can be added, but only added after rigorous scientific examination. The  
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) verifies the additions of
new  elements and at the end of 2015 the 7th period of the periodic table of elements
was  completed with the addition of four new elements. 

Activity Task: 

The following timeline summarizes the development of the periodic table. Using  the
brief history of the periodic table as an example and applying what you have learned 
about intellectual revolutions, select any topic (can be an object or theory) and present
its  historical evolution to its present day form. Identify the key persons who are
instrumental  in its development and how each key person worked on the findings of
his/her  predecessors in the field to further improve the work. Be creative in presenting
your  timeline and in presenting your work.

46 

1862 

Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois plotted  

the atomic weights of elements on paper tape and  

wound them, spiral like, around a cylinder. He called  

his model the telluric helix or screw.1864 

English chemist John Newlands proposed  

his Law of octaves based on the periodic  

similarity every seventh element.  

1868 

Lothar Meyer compiled a periodic table based on  

regular repeating pattern of physical property such  

as molar volume. Once again the elements were  

arranged in order of increasing atomic weights.1869 

Dmitri Mendeleev produced a periodic table  

based on atomic weights but arranged  

“periodically”. Elements with similar  

properties appeared under each other. Gaps  

were left for yet to be discovered elements. 1894 

William Ramsay discovered the noble gases  

and realized that they represented a new group  

in the periodic table. The noble gases added  

further proof to the accuracy of Mendeleev’s  

table. 1913 

Henry Moseley determined the atomic number  

of each of the known elements. He realized that  

arranging the elements in order of increasing  

atomic number rather than atomic weight gave  

1944 

Glenn Seaborg proposed an ‘actinide hypothesis’ and published his version of the table
in 1945. The  lanthanide and actinide series form the two rows  under the periodic table
of elements.

a better fit within the “periodic table”. 

47 
Chapter 3 

Science, Technology and Nation Building 

Introduction 

This section presents the policies of the government regarding science and  technology,
how it is being implemented through its various departments and agencies,  and its role
in nation building. It also includes a list of Filipino inventors and their  inventions. 

Intended Learning Outcomes 

1. Discuss the role of science and technology in Philippine nation building. 2. Evaluate
government policies on science and technology in terms of their  contributions to nation
building. 

3. Identify actual science and technology government policies and appraise their  impact
on the development of the Filipino nation. 

A. The Philippine Government Science and Technology Agenda 

Scientists and technologists are the backbone of an industrialized nation that  propels
socioeconomic gain and national progress. They are the key players and  lifeblood of
research and innovation and plays an important role in the industry and  manufacturing
sector. As such, it can be said that scientists and technologists are  essential players in
nation building.  

In the Philippines, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is tasked  to

oversee and manage national technology development and acquisition, undertake 
technological and scientific research and promote public consciousness of science  and
technology. DOST is responsible for formulating and adopting a comprehensive 
National Science and Technology plan for the Philippines and subsequently, to  monitor
and coordinate its funding and implementation. It undertakes policy research, 
technology assessment, feasibility and technical studies, and maintains a national 
information system and databank on science and technology. 

In 2017, DOST launched the Science for the People thru Administrative Order  No. 003
s. 2017. This is in response to the government’s call to address inequity in 
developments within and among countries and is aligned with the national goals and 
plans. It aims to make science and technology more relevant to the conditions, needs 
and opportunities for contributing to regional development while keeping abreast with 
the trends and development in the country and in the world. Likewise, the program 
intends to maximize the use of science, enhance innovation and the creative capacity 
of the Filipinos towards the achievement of inclusive and sustainable growth. 

48 

Stipulated in the strategic plan are the seven outcomes that the agency strives  to
achieve. These are as follows: 

1. Innovation and stimulus 

2. Technology and adoption promoted and accelerated 

3. Critical mass of globally competitive STI human resources developed  

4. Productivity and efficiency of communities and the production sector,  

particularly MSMEs improved  

5. Resiliency to disaster risks and climate change ensured  

6. Inequality in STI capacities and opportunities reduced  

7. Effective STI governance achieved 

The strategies to attain these outcomes are embodied in the DOST Eleven Point  
Agenda as follows:  
1. Pursue R&D to address pressing national problems.  

2. Conduct R&D to enhance productivity and improve management of  resources.  

3. Engage in R&D to generate and apply new knowledge and technologies  across
sectors.  

4. Strengthen and utilize regional R&D capabilities.  

5. Maximize utilization of R&D results through technology transfer and 

commercialization.  

6. Develop STI human resources and build a strong STI culture.  

7. Upgrade STI facilities and capacities to advance R&D activities and expand  S&T
services.  

8. Expand STI assistance to communities and the production sector,  particularly

MSMEs.  

9. Provide STI-based solutions for disaster risks and climate change adaptation and
mitigation.  

10. Strengthen industry-academe-government and international STI  collaboration.  

11. Enhance effectiveness of STI governance. 

Agenda 1 highlights the latest advancements in research and development  geared

towards the shared goal of improved nutrition and health for all. Focused on  health
technology development, drug discovery and development remains to be the  high-
impact and big ticket program supported by the Department in the area of health.  
Central to this R&D program is the study of endemic resources, partnered with 
documentation of traditional knowledge and practices in health, that could eventually 
lead to decreased cost of medicines and health interventions for diseases that affect 
the quality of lives of many Filipinos. 

Agenda 2 presents how R&D can be utilized to make key traditional industries 
steadfast and competitive through technological innovations that can address gaps in 
productivity and increase production yield. Enhancing the capacity of marginalized 
49 

sub-sectors and people groups to use better and new technologies can expand their 
access to participate in economic activities and progress. The primary industries that 
will benefit from the featured major R&D programs include the agriculture, specifically 
coconut and rice production, non-wood forest products, i.e., bamboo processing and 
utilization, and natural textile among others. 

Agenda 3 engages R&D in emerging scientific and technological platforms  which lay
the inroads to the development of new products, services, and industries.  Promising
new technologies may potentially disrupt and change the way things are  done.
Recognizing this, the Department anticipates impact of new technologies in  existing
industries in the country by supporting local capability programs in the areas  of artificial
intelligence for new industry development and supporting research in  nanotechnology
for new materials development.  

Agenda 4 focuses in strengthening institutional capacity to undertake research  and

development and contribute to regional development. Utilizing local researchers 
equalize opportunities in generating new knowledge and technologies suited for the 
specific need of the region. The Department partners with Higher Education Institutions 
in the regions in establishing niche R&D centers which may also serve as hubs for 
developing R&D capability of adjacent localities. 

Agenda 5 includes mechanisms to encourage technology transfer and avenues  where

R&D results are promoted in the bid to maximize its utilization. The Department 
provided support in bringing R&D results to its final stage of development up to 
commercialization. 

Agenda 6 aims to build a critical mass of competitive researchers, scientists,  and

engineers (RSEs) and promoting a culture of STI. Towards this goal, the  Department
continues to provide scholarship programs to scale up the number of  RSEs.  
Agenda 7 features various S&T facilities that offer technical services for carrying  out
research and development, as well as addressing the needs of the industry in terms  of
quality assurance, adherence to standards, product development, and innovation.  The
electronics, semi-conductor, automotive parts, gear assembly manufacturing, 
agriculture produce, and food manufacturing industries can benefit from the various 
S&T facilities and technical services.  

Agenda 8 focuses on S&T assistance provided to upgrade the technological 

capabilities and improve the productivity and efficiency of Micro, Small and Medium 
Enterprises (MSMEs). The Department has continued to provide technological 
interventions such as process and system improvement, technical consultancy, 
packaging and labelling, training, testing and calibration, and product development to 
empower MSMEs to innovate, move up the technology scale and become more 
competitive. 

50 

Agenda 9 highlights the role of the Department in building a disaster-resilient 

community through the provision of accurate and timely information. Specifically, 
progress was made by establishing and upgrading observation and monitoring 
systems, efforts in hazard and risk assessment, and researches for disaster risk 
management, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation.  

Agenda 10 focuses on the linkages and networks being pursued by the   Department in
terms of S&T collaboration. In 2017, the Department took part in 24  bilateral
engagements and participated in a number of activities which involved 14  international
organizations. 

Agenda 11 (Enhance effectiveness of STI governance) provides the policy  framework

that governs the implementation of the programs, projects and activities of  the
Department in contribution to national development and progress. Taking off from  the
National 0+10 Socioeconomic Agenda and Philippine Development Plan, the 
Department crafted the Science for the People 11-point Agenda, Harmonized R&D 
Agenda, and Regional Offices Strategy Map.  

In Focus: Batangas State University KIST Park 

Batangas State University made history as it officially launched the country’s first 
Knowledge, Innovation and Science Technology (KIST) Park on July 20, 2020. This 
milestone placed Batangas State University at the forefront of national development.
BatStateU KIST Park was designated as a Special Economic Zone under Presidential 
Proclamation No. 947, s. 2020. The theme of the launching event was “Towards a New 
Frontier of Knowledge-building and Innovation in Science and Technology.” 

BatStateU headed by Dr. Tirso A. Ronquillo became a key partner of the  government in
fostering industry-academe linkages, knowledge and technology  transfer, and
promoting the commercialization of innovations. The KIST Park will serve  as a catalyst
for industrial productivity and increased economic growth in  CaLaBaRZon. This
manifestation of the strong collaboration between government,  industry and academe
is central to inclusive innovation strategy. 

BatStateU KIST Park is now open and spearheads a long-term vision for “state 
universities and colleges in the country to expand their programs for industry, 
academe, market synergy, technopreneurship, [innovation-based] business incubation 
and acceleration, and knowledge co-creation in science and technology.”
(http://batstateukistpark.com.ph/#/main/home) 

Question: Which of the 11-point Agenda relates to the launching and operation of 
BatStateU KIST Park? Expound your answer.

51 

B. Major Development Programs and Personalities in Science and  

 Technology in the Philippines 

Major Development Programs in Science and Technology  

The Science for Change Program (S4CP) was created by the Department of  Science
and Technology (DOST) to accelerate STI in the country in order to keep up with   the
developments in our time wherein technology and innovation are game changers. 
Through the Science for Change Program (S4CP), the DOST can significantly
accelerate  STI in the country and create a massive  

S4CP focuses on Accelerated R&D Program for Capacity Building of R&D  Institutions
and Industrial Competitiveness which is composed of four (4) programs  namely: (1)
Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D (NICER) Program, (2) R&D Leadership 
(RDLead) Program, (3) Collaborative R&D to Leverage PH Economy (CRADLE) for
RDIs  and Industry Program, (4) Business Innovation through S&T (BIST) for Industry
Program. 

The NICER Program capacitates Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the  regions to
make significant improvement in regional research by integrating its  development
needs with the existing R&D capabilities and resources. It provides  institutional grants
for HEIs in the regions for R&D capacity building to improve their S&T  infrastructure.
The NICER Program was established in consultation with the academe  and industry;
and endorsed by the Regional Development Council (RDC). Hence, a  NICER is a
unique center for collaborative R&D to address specific S&T needs of local 
communities and industries, thereby accelerating regional development. It caters to the 
specific needs of the Regions, which include upgrading, development, and acquisition
of  R&D equipment to undertake collaborative R&D activities. Currently, there are 18
existing  NICERs across 14 regions for a total funding of P641M. 

The R&D Leadership Program complements the establishment of R&D Centers  thru
the NICER Program. RDLead provides the mechanism to bring in experts and highly 
skilled professionals with strong leadership, management and innovative policy-making 
proficiencies to be in charge of strengthening the research capabilities of the HEIs, 
National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Research Development Institutions (RDIs) 
in the regions. Together, the RDLead and NICER Programs will capacitate HEIs to help 
improve and hasten the use of research results that will contribute to the socio-
economic  development of the country and help address pressing challenges. The
NRCP is the  implementing agency for this program. 

The Collaborative Research and Development to Leverage Philippine Economy 

(CRADLE) Program is specifically designed to foster collaboration between academe
and  local companies to improve competitiveness and catalyze innovation. It aims to
improve  the country’s innovation ecosystem by facilitating the smooth transition of new 
technologies from universities and research and development institutes (RDI) to 
industries - from lab to market. The framework of CRADLE is a trihelix partnership 

52 

between the government, the industry and the academe wherein the government
finances  the collaboration of the private company and the partner university or RDI.
The Program  aims to address a problem of a Filipino company using R&D to develop
innovative  solutions. To date, the DOST has already provided almost Php 125 M of
funding to 29  academe-industry collaborations all over the country. 

The Business Innovation through S&T (BIST) for Industry Program aims to level up the
innovation capacity of the Philippine Industrial Sector through R&D by helping  private
companies and industries acquire novel and strategic technologies, such as state of-
the-art equipment and machinery, technology licenses and patent rights among others. 
The program will cover up to 70% of the total eligible cost of the needed technology at 
zero percent interest. To date, the BIST Program has approved one project from an
herbal  company, Herbanext Laboratories Inc., providing a total financial assistance of 
Php11.7M. 

A Steering committee for CRADLE and BIST Programs was created through the  DOST
Special Order No. 0276 which was approved on 02 April 2018. The Steering  
Committee is headed by Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, Undersecretary for R&D, and 
the members include the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Federation of 
Philippine Industries (FPI), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), 
Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and 
Development (PCAARRD), Philippine Council for Health Research and Development 
(PCHRD) and Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology 
Research and Development (PCIEERD) 

The committee performs the following functions: (1) Review/formulate policies  relating
to the implementation of CRADLE and BIST Program; (2) Provide advice and  guidance
in the management and administration of the projects; and (3) Other functions 
necessary for the successful implementation of CRADLE and BIST Programs. Since
the  implementation of the S4CP in 2017, the DOST has spent a total of Php
407,585,946.60  to the four programs. 

53 

Personalities in Science and Technology in the Philippines 

Aisa Mijeno 

To light up the rest of the  

Philippines sustainably was the vision of  

Filipina scientist Aisa Mijeno when she  

made the Sustainable Alternative Lighting  

(SALt) lamp. The product concept was  

formed after living with the Butbut tribe for  

weeks relying only on kerosene lamps  

and moonlight to do evening chores. Her  

mission and advocacy is to address the  

light inequality gap and end the use of  

combustion based light sources  (kerosene lamps and candles) for the 16  Million
Filipinos and 1.4 Billion people  across the world. 

https://www.asianscientist.com/2015/05/features /asias-rising-scientists-aisa-mijeno/

The SALt Lamp is an environment-friendly and sustainable alternative light source  that
runs on saltwater, making it suitable to those who live in coastal areas. It can also 
function well in remote barrios. With just two table spoons of salt and one glass of tap  
water, this ecologically designed lamp can run for eight hours. 

The idea behind the SALt lamp is the chemical conversion of energy. It utilizes the 
scientific process behind the Galvanic cell, but instead of electrolytes, the SALt lamp
uses  saline solution, making it harmless and non-toxic. Compared with kerosene lamp,
the  SALt lamp is also a lot safer since it does not have components and compounds
that may  spark fire. Moreover, it does not emit toxic gases and leaves minimal carbon
footprint. 

Because of its inspiring vision and ground-breaking innovation, the SALt lamp has 
received various awards and recognition from organizations in the Philippines,
Singapore,  Japan, and South Korea. SALt have won several awards including KOTRA
Top 5 Best  Global Startup at Startup Nations Summit 2014, People's Choice at Startup
Nations  Summit 2014 and recognized by the ASEAN Corporate Sustainability Summit
and  Awards 2015 giving them the SME Sustainability Commitment Category. 

One of Mijano’s career highlights was when she was invited as an APEC CEO  Summit
panel member together with ex-President Barack Obama and Alibaba CEO Jack  Ma.
Looking forward, she wishes to distribute more lanterns to communities across the 
Philippines and possibly throughout South East Asia. 

54 

Ramon C. Barba 

He is a Filipino scientist, inventor and  

horticulturist who is known for his successful  

experiment on the inducement of flowering of  

mango trees by spraying them with ethrel and  

potassium nitrate. He developed a process  

that caused the flowering and fruiting of  

mango trees three times a year, instead on  

once a year, so dramatically improving yields. 

Since his discovery, the mango industry in the  

Philippines expanded. Apart from the mango  

producers themselves, other business  

sectors such as the producers of the pest  

https://joinpase.weebly.com/pases-of success/ramon-cabanos-barba 

control chemicals, harvesters, sellers, and all  the other smaller groups of workers
related to  mango industry have benefitted from his  invention. This technology has also
been  

successfully applied on other fruit trees including cashew. 

Barba also developed a tissue culture procedure for the banana plant and sugar  cane
which enabled production of large quantities of planting materials that were robust  and
disease-free. With his research team, Barba devised micro propagation protocols for
more than 40 important species of fruit crops, ornamental plants, plantation crops,
aquarium plants, and forest trees. In 2013, Ramon C. Barba was conferred the rank and
title of National Scientist in the Philippines for his distinguished achievements in the field
of plant physiology. 

Fe V. del Mundo 

She is known as the Mother of Philippine  

Pediatrics, a very great scientist and a symbol of  

female empowerment in medicine, both in the  

Philippines and abroad. The first Asian woman  

admitted into Harvard, she pursued graduate  

degrees in America after receiving her medical  

degree from the University of the Philippines. Del  

Mundo pioneered numerous inventions throughout  

her more than 70-year medical career. She 

revolutionized Philippine medicine, making major  

breakthroughs in immunization and in the  

treatment of jaundice, and providing healthcare to  

thousands of poor families. She is credited with  studies that led to the invention of the
incubator  and a jaundice relieving device. Her methods, like  

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/pro files/fe-del-mundo-25104.php

the BRAT diet for curing diarrhea, have spread throughout the world and saved millions.
Del Mundo’s field of natural science and the field of public health was something she
was  

55 

actively involved in. When she was not busy treating and taking care of children, she
did  some pioneering work on infectious diseases in Philippine communities and
authored the  Textbook of Pediatrics, as well as hundreds of articles and medical
reports on diseases  such as dengue, polio and measles.  

During her lifetime, del Mundo won numerous awards and recognition for her 
outstanding work. Among these was the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, 
which she received in 1977. She became the Philippines’ first female National Scientist 
in 1980, in recognition of her work in Pediatrics. The rank of National Scientist is
awarded  to science practitioners with “distinguished individual or collaborative
achievement in  science and technology.” In 2010, del Mundo was awarded the Order of
Lakandula, rank  of Bayani, as a Filipina who lived a life “worthy of emulation.”
Posthumously, she was  conferred the Grand Collar of the Order of the Golden Heart
Award in 2011, by President  Benigno Aquino III.  

Maria Y. Orosa 

Advances in modern Filipino food  

technology owe a great deal to the creative  

researches and salutary inventiveness of a  

woman chemist and pharmacist from  

Batangas – Maria Y. Orosa. The now 

commercially available thirst quencher, the  

calamansi juice, is just one of the popular  

native food products in whose preparation and  

preservation she had a hand. She produced  

the “calamansi nip,” the desiccated and  

powdered form of the fruit which could be  

made into juice. The most notable of her food  

inventions, is “Soyalac,” a powdered  

preparation of soya-beans, which helped save  

the lives of thousands of Filipinos, Americans,  and other nationals who ever held
prisoners in  different Japanese concentration camps  

https://food52.com/blog/24700-maria orosa-profile

during World War II. It became known to them as the “magic food.”   She is also credited
with the making of the banana ketchup; wines from native  fruits, like casuy and guava;
vinegar from pineapples; banana starch; soyamilk; banana  flour; cassava flour; jelly
from guava, santol, mango, and other fruits, as well as the  invention of rice cookies,
known as ricebran or darak, which is effective in the treatment  of patients with beri-beri.
Aside from making food preparations, Miss Orosa taught  Filipinos how to preserve
such native delicacies as the adobo, dinuguan, kilawen and  escabeche. Together with
her associates in the Bureau of Plant Industry, she invented  “Oroval” and “Clarosa.”  

In 1923, she helped organize the food preservation division under the Bureau of 
Science. On June 3, 1927, she became the acting division head. Orosa also tried her 
hand in improving household wares. She invented the “Orosa Palayok Oven” for
cooking  various dishes. In 1928, the government, recognizing her dynamism and
strong  leadership, sent her to various countries as a state scholar to specialize in food  
56 

processing and canning. To perpetuate her memory, the government has named after 
her a street stretching from T.M. Kalaw to Padre Faura in Ermita, Manila, as well as a  
building in the Bureau of Plants and Industry. She was one of the 19 scientists who
were  conferred awards on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Institute of
Science and  Technology. On November 29, 1983, the National Historical Institute
installed a marker  in her honor at the Bureau of Plant Industry in San Andres, Manila.  

Angel Alcala 

He is a Filipino scientist whose  

biological contributions to the  

environment and ecosystems have made  

him a hero for natural sciences. During his  

30 years of experience as a biologist,  

Alcala made major contributions to  

marine biology research efforts in the  

Philippines and authored over 160  

scientific papers as well as books. Alcala  

was the first Filipino scientist to engage in  

comprehensive studies concerning  

Philippine reptiles and amphibians and  

minor studies on mammals and birds.  From the 400 already known species of  reptiles
and amphibians, 50 more species  were identified due to his efforts. Because  of his
work, conservation programs in the  Philippines are now well established. 
http://heroes.aseanbiodiversity.org/2017/09/ 07/asean-biodiversity-hero-dr-angel-c
alcala-philippines/

Alcala also made a highly valuable and groundbreaking contribution to marine 

ecosystems when he established the first artificial reef around the coastline of the 
Philippines, greatly boosting the ecosystem's health and viability. 

. In 1994, he was given the Field Museum Founders’ Council Award of Merit for 
contributions to environmental biology. He is a recipient of the Magsaysay Award for 
Public Service. In September 2011 he received the Gregorio Y. Zara Award for Basic 
Science from the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science Inc. In 2014,
he  was proclaimed National Scientist by President Benigno S. Aquino III through
Presidential  Decree 782 on June 6, 2014. 

57 

Activity: Small Group Activity 

Work with your three (3) classmates and discuss your answers to the following 
questions. 

1. What are the best and the most useful inventions in the 20th and 21st centuries? 

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________ 

2. What do you think is the worst invention of mankind? 

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
__________________________________ 

3. What kinds of things do inventors need to think about before they try to build  
something? Why? 

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________ 

4. Can you name some inventions you are looking forward to?  

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________ 

5. What would you invent if you are a scientist? 

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________ 

.  

C. Science Education in the Philippines  

The role and goal of science in education should always be the same. Since  science is
considered both knowledge and method, operating independent of time and  place, the
benefits of science anywhere can only be the same. The value of science lies  not only
in the knowledge that it imparts and bequeaths to the learner but also in its 
58 

methods and techniques that inculcate in the learner’s scientific habits, skills, and 
attitudes. Science, even as it is considered a body of knowledge, it is also taken as 
methodology. It has given a tangible method and system to what would otherwise be by 
chance and accident. From the utilization of scientific methods and techniques, one is 
able to very possibly explain the past and predict what the future holds. 

The general benefits of science have greatly challenged education of the  Philippines.
While the country might have been a beneficiary of the methods of science  even before
the program of formal education, it was during the American period that   brought about
a most significant and essential change in the nature of education. There  has been a
corresponding increase in knowledge and understanding of natural and social 
phenomena covered by all the disciplines of science available now. It is this education  
that has been largely credited for the development of science in the Philippines. 

Early Efforts to Improve Science Education 

As early as the decade of the 1950s, scientists were concerned with the state of 
science education in the schools. Leading scientists made Philippine authorities aware 
that the teaching of science from grade school level to college levels in both public and  
private schools was very inadequate. The inadequacies and weaknesses of science 
teaching were recognized as those relating to undertrained teachers, the inadequate 
science curriculum in schools and colleges, the minimum allotted to science, the lack of 
books, equipment and teaching aids. In 1957, the Philippine government made the 
teaching of science compulsory in all elementary and secondary schools. A National 
Committee for Science Education was set up in 1958 to formulate objectives for the 
teaching of science education at all levels and to recommend steps that would upgrade 
the teaching of science. The committee identified the areas to which improvement
efforts  were needed such as integration of science with classroom instruction,
acquisition of  more science equipment and tools, coordination of efforts with other
agencies,  negotiations for a science institute for teachers, national science talent
search and  fellowships, higher salaries of science and mathematics teachers and
promotion of  science teachers competence. 
The BSCS Adaptation Project 

In1959, biological sciences curriculum study (BSCS) project was launched by  American
Institute of Biological Science, university of Colorado in order to improve biology 
education in secondary schools. A steering committee of biological scientists, teachers 
and educators was constituted. The project was financed by National Science 
Foundation, USA. 

The BSCS project was started to design high school biology course with the  objectives
to: provide recent and latest knowledge in biological sciences; develop  understanding
of the conceptual structure of biological sciences; develop skills and  processes of
biology among the students; create an opportunity to use inquiry approach  in teaching
and learning of biology; prepare rich supplementary or support materials to  enrich
learning experiences in biological sciences and present current status of biological 
sciences

59 

The organization of the BSCS project necessitated because of the inadequacies  and
defects felt in the ongoing or conventional biological sciences teaching. Defects were 
observed in conventional biological science teaching such as inclusion of dead or
useless  contents in syllabus, little practical work, no correlation of biological sciences
and physical  science, lack of integrated approach and no proper consideration of
psychological  aspects of teaching learning. 

The Science Education Project 

These were the total efforts of SEP TO improve science education in the  Philippines.
First, the dissemination of improved curricula, teaching techniques and  approaches in
science and mathematics on basic levels of education through the  introduction of new
curriculum and the application of new teaching techniques and  approaches by the
returned Master of Arts in Teaching trainees and the teachers that  they teach. On the
other hand, these institutions disseminated many of the curriculum  materials by the UP
Science Education Center. Second, quality science and math  education programs in
the recipient-sponsor institutions through new and/or improved  course offerings and a
generally improved teacher education program. 

60