The Applied Science They are those that instead of being satisfied with theoretical reflection and the elucubration of theories, it is advocated to solve practical problems or concrete challenges through the use of different scientific knowledge. In that sense they are opposed to the basic sciences, whose purpose is only to increase the knowledge of humanity. For instance: biotechnology, photography, medicine, engineering.
Applied sciences gave rise to the notion of technology, which is nothing other than the ability to transform reality through tools capable of carrying out practical tasks that humans cannot on our own. It is estimated that technology, both in the Industrial Revolution and in the Technological Revolution of the late twentieth century, have changed the way of life of man more quickly and profoundly than ever.
Examples of applied science
- Agronomy. Also called agronomic engineering, it comprises a set of scientific knowledge applicable to agriculture (physics, chemistry, biology, economics, etc.), with the purpose of improving the quality of obtaining and processing food and agricultural products.
- Astronautics. Science that explores the theory and practice of navigation outside the confines of our planet, by manned or unmanned vehicles. This includes the manufacture of the ships, the design of the mechanisms to put them into orbit, the sustainability of life in space, etc. It is a complex and varied investigation that takes advantage of different branches of science in its favor.
- Biotechnology. Product of the application of medicine, biochemistry and other sciences to human food and nutrition, biotechnology arises from the hand of the most recent techniques of genetic manipulation and biological experimentation, to meet the needs of an ever-growing world population. How to make food more nutritious, how to protect it during planting, how to eliminate its side effects and more are the questions to which biotechnology seeks a practical answer.
- Health Sciences. Under this common name there is a set of disciplines related to human health and the preservation of public health, from the use of tools from chemistry and biology, to produce drugs (pharmacology and pharmacy), prophylactic procedures (preventive medicine) and other types of specialties that aim to protect human life and prolong it.
- Electricity. One of the applied sciences that most revolutionized the world during the Industrial Revolution was electricity, capable of producing movement, work, light and heat from the handling of electrons and their flow. It is considered an applied branch of physics, although many other disciplines use and intervene in it.
- Photography. Although it may not seem like it, photography is a good example of a science applied to a unique task: preserving images on paper or in other formats that allow them to be viewed again in the future. In this sense, there is one of the greatest wishes of humanity, which is to preserve things in time, hand in hand with chemistry, physics (especially optics) and recently, computing.
- Cattle raising. The livestock sector also has applied sciences in its development, which study how to improve the feeding and breeding of domesticated animal species, how to prevent their diseases and, from the hand of veterinary medicine and biochemistry, how to obtain from them a more efficient model of food for man.
- Computing. From the complex development of applied mathematics, such as mathematical models and simulations, computing or computing emerged at the end of the 20th century as one of the main applied human sciences in industrial and commercial importance. This includes computer systems engineering, the study of data processing and artificial intelligence models, to name a few examples.
- Lexicography. If linguistics is the study of languages and languages created by man, lexicography is a branch of this science that is applied to the technique of making dictionaries. It uses the sciences of language, as well as library science or publishing, but always with the same task of producing books that allow verifying the meaning of words.
- Metallurgy. The science of metals focuses its attention on the techniques of obtaining and treating metals from their minerals of origin. This includes the various quality controls, possible alloys, production and handling of by-products.
- Medicine. Medicine is the first of the applied sciences of man. Taking tools from biology, chemistry and physics, and even mathematics, medicine aims to study the human body and human life from the perspective of improving health, remedying diseases and prolonging life. It is, if you will, the engineering of the human body.
- Telecommunications. It is often said that telecommunications revolutionized the world in the late 20th century, and it is true. This discipline applies knowledge of physics, chemistry and numerous engineering to allow the miracle of overcoming distances and communicating at almost immediate speed using a telephone or computer device.
- Psychology. The study of the human psyche, allows numerous applications to the professional or economic fields of human life, such as clinical psychology (treats mental disorders), social (faces sociological problems), industrial (focuses on the field of work) and a huge etcetera that makes psychology a useful tool for man to understand himself.
- Nanotechnology. This technology uses chemical and physical knowledge of matter, as well as biology and medicine about life, to compose industrial, medical or biological solutions to numerous everyday problems at the atomic or molecular level (nanometric scale). Its ideal is the production of remotely controlled microscopic machines, capable of producing or dissolving matter according to specific desired patterns.
- engineering. Engineering is a set of scientific and technological techniques and knowledge that, organized into various branches of interest, allows man to innovate, produce and invent tools that facilitate, protect and improve the quality of life. Mathematics, physics, chemistry and other sciences find their transformation into something practical in engineering.