Here at Science Progress we write often about science and technology, invention and innovation. These two valuable traditional distinctions—between science and technology and invention and innovation—are rapidly evolving. Some of the same forces are at work in both cases. As we consider the public policy choices ahead in rebuilding our nation’s industrial economy, it’s important to appreciate how the foundations of technological innovation are changing.First of all, science and technology are in the process of converging. Technology has been around since at least the beginning of agriculture, arguably in tools and weapons used by hunter-gatherers, but science in its modern form is a latecomer. One difference between science-based and non-science-based technology is that scientific theories often have surprising implications that even their pioneers don’t anticipate.
A classic example: Albert Einstein had to be persuaded by fellow physicist Leo Szilard that the atomic bomb was a practical possibility, partly in light of the Einstein’s own special theory of relativity, so that Einstein would lend his prestige to a letter alerting President Franklin D. Roosevelt of this potential.
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