ABSTRACT
Changes in the nature of science or technology or in the external society–in either the scale of events or their temporal order–can affect the preconditions, the presumptions, of scientific activity, and can thus alter the future consequences of activities. The focus must be on all the ties of the sciences to society and culture and on the impact of scientific knowledge and technological advancement on all human, indeed all planetary, life. Both quantitative and qualitative changes have surely affected the impact of science and technology upon society. Qualitatively, science and technology have been directed increasingly to synthesis--to the formulation of new substances designed for specific human purpose. Thus immersion in the world of science, with its store of accumulated and substantiated fact, can make the participant intolerant of, and impatient with the uncertainties and non-reproducibilities of the human world. Scientists are keenly sensitive to the evaluations of their peers.
