PHYS P20 Lecture 2: p20-notes
10 Dec 2017
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One of the first sources of confusion, particularly among those who are not engineers or scientists, is the distinction between science and engineering (10). The primary role of science is to develop knowledge and understanding of the physical universe (11). As pointed out by davis (10) and others, an important distinction is that this pursuit of knowledge (science) may occur largely without regard to societal need (or to societal implications). The direction of scientific research has been described by some as curiosity-based research which is not necessarily driven by the values of society. Societal values (and resulting priorities) do not necessarily define the bounds, direction or scope of scientific curiosity. * this is not a criticism of science, for such is the nature of. Furthermore, it is often not possible to determine relevance of a particular field of scientific inquiry to the future needs of society.
