Wikipedia:Contents/Technology and applied sciences

Wikipedia's contents: Technology and applied sciences

Technology is an expanded concept that deals with a species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment. In human civilization, it is a consequence of science and engineering, although several technological advances predate the formalization of these two disciplines. The term can either be applied generally or to specific areas – examples include construction technology, medical technology, or state-of-the-art technology.

The human race's use of technology began with the conversion of plentiful natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food, and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear bombs.

Applied science is the application of knowledge from one or more natural scientific fields to solving practical problems. For example, fields of engineering are applied sciences. Applied science is important for technology development. Its use in industrial settings is usually referred to as research and development (R&D).

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Applied Science – The application of scientific knowledge transferred into a physical environment. Examples include testing a theoretical model through the use of formal science or solving a practical problem through the use of natural science.

Technology – The making, usage, knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function is referred as technology. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures.

Technologies and applied sciences

Aerospace – flight or transport above the surface of the Earth.
- Space exploration – the physical investigation of the space more than 100 km above the Earth by either manned or unmanned spacecraft.
Applied physics – physics which is intended for a particular technological or practical use. It is usually considered as a bridge or a connection between "pure" physics and engineering.
- Meteorology – forecasts the weather
Agriculture – cultivation of plants, animals, and other living organisms.
- Fishing – activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.
  - Fisheries – A fishery is an entity which is engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats, purpose of the activities or a combination of the foregoing features".
  - Fishing industry – industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the FAO as including recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing, and the harvesting, processing, and marketing sectors.
- Forestry – art and science of tree resources, including plantations and natural stands. The main goal of forestry is to create and implement systems that allow forests to continue a sustainable provision of environmental supplies and services.
- Organic gardening and farming – a method of crop and livestock production that involves much more than choosing not to use pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics and growth hormones.
- Sustainable agriculture – farming in sustainable ways based on an understanding of ecosystem services, and the study of relationships between organisms and their environment.
Communication – the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium.
- Books – A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side
- Telecommunication – the transfer of information at a distance, including signaling, telegraphy, telephony, telemetry, radio, television, and data communications.
  - Radio – Aural or encoded telecommunications.
  - Internet – the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP).
  - Television broadcasting – Visual and aural telecommunications.
Computing – any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computers. Computing includes designing and building hardware and software systems; processing, structuring, and managing various kinds of information; doing scientific research on and with computers; making computer systems behave intelligently; creating and using communications and entertainment media; and more.
- Computer engineering – discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems, from designing individual microprocessors, personal computers, and supercomputers, to circuit design.
  - Computers – general purpose devices that can be programmed to carry out a finite set of arithmetic or logical operations. Since a sequence of operations can be readily changed, computers can solve more than one kind of problem.
- Computer science – the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems.
  - Artificial intelligence – intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it.
    - Computer vision – interdisciplinary field that deals with how computers can be made to gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to automate tasks that the human visual system can do.
      - Object recognition – in computer vision, this is the task of finding a given object in an image or video sequence.
    - Natural language processing – computer activity in which computers are entailed to analyze, understand, alter, or generate natural language. This includes the automation of any or all linguistic forms, activities, or methods of communication, such as conversation, correspondence, reading, written composition, dictation, publishing, translation, lip reading, and so on.
  - Cryptography – the technology to secure communications in the presence of third parties.
  - Human-computer interaction – the study of how people interact with computers and to what extent computers are or are not developed for successful interaction with human beings.
- Information technology – the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
- Software engineering – the systematic approach to the development, operation, maintenance, and retirement of computer software.
  - Programming – the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs.
  - Software development – development of a software product, which entails computer programming (process of writing and maintaining the source code), but also encompasses a planned and structured process from the conception of the desired software to its final manifestation.
    - Web design and web development – web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites, while web development is the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network).
  - C++ – one of the most popular programming languages with application domains including systems software, application software, device drivers, embedded software, high-performance server and client applications, and entertainment software such as video games.
  - Perl – high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Used for text processing, CGI scripting, graphics programming, system administration, network programming, finance, bioinformatics, and more.
- Software – one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer for one or more purposes. In other words, software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system.
  - Application software – is program or a group of programs designed for end users.
    - Databases – is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed and updated.
      - MySQL ("My Structured Query Language") – world's second most widely used relational database management system (RDBMS) and most widely used open-source RDBMS.
    - Search engines – information retrieval systems designed to help find information stored on a computer system.
  - Free software – software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction.
  - Operating systems
    - iOS – mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV.
    - Ubuntu – multi-platform Debian Linux-based operating system.
- Internet – the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP).
  - Wikipedia – a multilingual free internet encyclopedia created by volunteers using a wiki-based editing system
- Computer industry
  - Apple Inc. – manufacturer and retailer of computers, hand-held computing devices, and related products and services. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies.
  - Google – Google Inc. and its Internet services including Google Search.
  - Microsoft – American multinational technology corporation producing computer software and hardware. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies.
- Computer security – Computer security, also known as cybersecurity or IT security, is the protection of information systems from theft or damage to the hardware, the software, and to the information on them, as well as from disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.
Construction – building or assembly of any physical structure.
Design – the art and science of creating the abstract form and function for an object or environment.
- Architecture – the art and science of designing buildings.
Electronics – the branch of physics and technology concerned with the design of circuits using transistors and microchips, and with the behavior and movement of electrons in a semiconductor, conductor, vacuum, or gas.
Industry – production of an economic good or service.
- Automation – use of machinery to replace human labor.
- Industrial machinery –
- Machines – devices that perform or assist in performing useful work.
- Manufacturing – use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale.
- Robotics – deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots.
  - Object recognition
Energy – is an indirectly observed quantity often understood as the ability of a physical system to do work on other physical systems.
- Energy development – ongoing effort to provide abundant, efficient, and accessible energy resources through knowledge, skills, and construction.
- Energy storage – the storage of a form of energy that can then be used later.
- Nuclear technology – the technology and application of the spontaneous and induced reactions of atomic nuclei.
  - Nuclear power – use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity.
- Wind energy – is the kinetic energy of air in motion, also called wind.
- Solar energy – radiant light and heat from the sun.
Engineering – the application of science, mathematics, and technology to produce useful goods and systems.
- Chemical engineering – the technology and application of chemical processes to produce useful materials.
- Computer engineering – a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer hardware and software
- Control engineering –a discipline that applies control theory to design systems with desired behaviors. The practice uses sensors to measure the output performance of the device being controlled and those measurements can be used to give feedback to devices that can make corrections toward desired performance.
- Electrical engineering – the technology and application of electromagnetism, including electricity, electronics, telecommunications, computers, electric power, magnetics, and optics.
- Mechanical engineering – applies the principles of engineering, physics, and materials science for the design, analysis, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems.
- Software engineering – the technology and application of a systematic approach to the development, operation, maintenance, and retirement of computer software.
Firefighting – act of extinguishing fires. A firefighter fights fires to prevent destruction of life, property and the environment. Firefighting is a professional technical skill.
Forensic science – application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action.
Futures studies – includes identification and forecasting of possible futures and future events, and analysis of their ramifications
Health
- Biotechnology – applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts.
- Ergonomics – the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.
- Medicine – applied science of diagnosing and treating illness and disease.
Hydrology – The study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability.
Information science – interdisciplinary field primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information.^[1]
- Cartography – the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.
- Library science – technology related to libraries and the information fields.
Military science – the study of the technique, psychology, practice and other phenomena which constitute war and armed conflict.
Mining – extraction of mineral resources from the earth.
Nanotechnology – The study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometre in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices possessing at least one dimension within that size.
Prehistoric technology – technologies that emerged before recorded history (i.e., before the development of writing).
Rocketry – the design and construction of rockets.
Sustainability – capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
Transport – the transfer of people or things from one place to another.
- Transport, by type:
  - Transport, by mode:
    - Land transport
      - Rail transport – means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks consisting of steel rails installed on sleepers/ties and ballast.
  - Transport, by power source:
    - Animal-powered transport – human use of non-human working animals for the movement of people and goods, via riding, having them carry packs or pull sleds or wheeled vehicles.
- Transportation planning – process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations.
- Transportation Systems
  - Bridges – a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath.
- Public transport – transport of passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public, typically managed on a schedule, operated on established routes, and that charge a posted fee for each trip.
- Vehicles – mechanical devices for transporting people or things.
  - Vehicles, by type:
    - Land vehicles
      - Automobiles – human-guided powered land-vehicles.
      - Bicycles – human-powered land-vehicles with two or more wheels.
      - Motorcycles – single-track, engine-powered, motor vehicles. They are also called motorbikes, bikes, or cycles.
  - Vehicle components
    - Tires – ring-shaped coverings that fit around wheel rims