---
title: "History of science and technology"
chunk: 1/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:38:20.945172+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history that examines the development of the understanding of the natural world (science) and humans' ability to manipulate it (technology) at different points in time. This academic discipline also examines the cultural, economic, and political context and impacts of scientific practices; it likewise may study the consequences of new technologies on existing scientific fields.

== Academic study of history of science ==

History of science is an academic discipline with an international community of specialists. Main professional organizations for this field include the History of Science Society, the British Society for the History of Science, and the European Society for the History of Science.
Much of the study of the history of science has been devoted to answering questions about what science is, how it functions, and whether it exhibits large-scale patterns and trends.

=== History of the academic study of history of science ===
Histories of science were originally written by practicing and retired scientists, starting primarily with William Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences (1837), as a way to communicate the virtues of science to the public.
Auguste Comte proposed that there should be a specific discipline to deal with the history of science.
The development of the distinct academic discipline of the history of science and technology did not occur until the early 20th century. Historians have suggested that this was bound to the changing role of science during the same time period.
After World War I, extensive resources were put into teaching and researching the discipline, with the hopes that it would help the public better understand both Science and Technology as they came to play an exceedingly prominent role in the world.
In the decades since the end of World War II, history of science became an academic discipline, with graduate schools, research institutes, public and private patronage, peer-reviewed journals, and professional societies.

==== Formation of academic departments ====
In the United States, a more formal study of the history of science as an independent discipline was initiated by George Sarton's publications, Introduction to the History of Science (1927) and the journal Isis (founded in 1912). Sarton exemplified the early 20th-century view of the history of science as the history of great men and great ideas. He shared with many of his contemporaries a Whiggish belief in history as a record of the advances and delays in the march of progress.
The study of the history of science continued to be a small effort until the rise of Big Science after World War II. With the work of I. Bernard Cohen at Harvard University, the history of science began to become an established subdiscipline of history in the United States.
In the United States, the influential bureaucrat Vannevar Bush, and the president of Harvard, James Conant, both encouraged the study of the history of science as a way of improving general knowledge about how science worked, and why it was essential to maintain a large scientific workforce.

== Universities with history of science and technology programs ==

=== Argentina ===
Buenos Aires Institute of Technology, Argentina, has been offering courses on History of the Technology and the Science.
National Technological University, Argentina, has a complete history program on its offered careers.

=== Australia ===
The University of Sydney offers both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the History and Philosophy of Science, run by the Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science, within the Science Faculty. Undergraduate coursework can be completed as part of either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts Degree.  Undergraduate study can be furthered by completing an additional Honours year. For postgraduate study, the Unit offers both coursework and research-based degrees. The two course-work based postgraduate degrees are the Graduate Certificate in Science (HPS) and the Graduate Diploma in Science (HPS). The two research based postgraduate degrees are a Master of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

=== Belgium ===
University of Liège, has a Department called Centre d'histoire des Sciences et Techniques.

=== Canada ===
Carleton University Ottawa offer courses in Ancient Science and Technology in its Technology, Society and Environment program.
University of Toronto has a program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.
Huron University College offers a course in the History of Science which follows the development and philosophy of science from 10,000 BCE to the modern day.
University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia has a History of Science and Technology Program.

=== France ===
Nantes University has a dedicated Department called Centre François Viète.
Paris Diderot University (Paris 7) has a Department of History and Philosophy of Science.
A CNRS research center in History and Philosophy of Science SPHERE, affiliated with Paris Diderot University, has a dedicated history of technology section.
Pantheon-Sorbonne University (Paris 1)  has a dedicated Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technics.
The École Normale Supérieure de Paris has a history of science department.

=== Germany ===

Technische Universität Berlin, has a program in the History of Science and Technology.
The Deutsches Museum, 'German Museum' of Masterpieces of Science and Technology in Munich is one of the largest science and technology museums in the world in terms of exhibition space, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology.

=== Greece ===
The University of Athens has a Department of Philosophy and History of Science