ABSTRACT
The Third World is comprised of more than 100 independent states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. There is an enormous diversity in their respective histories, people, and cultures; yet, they share many similarities in their progress, problems, and plight. The panacea commonly believed to help in the promethean struggle is modern science and technology. Panacea or not, modern science and technology are at the core of advancing development in the Third World. The need for science and technology in the Third World is also emphatically recognized by political leaders and leaders of science development in the Third World. Science and modernization are inseparable, said Alatas, a prominent sociologist of the Third World. Modernization, he says, is a process of the expansion of scientific knowledge in all domains of human life. It is a striving for “scientific spirit”. However, in most Third World countries, the expansion of science and technology has been neither very productive nor very socially relevant.
