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13,800 | Ethanol is slightly more refractive than water, having a refractive index of 1.36242 (at λ=589.3 nm and ). The triple point for ethanol is at a pressure of . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,801 | Ethanol is a versatile solvent, miscible with water and with many organic solvents, including acetic acid, acetone, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, diethyl ether, ethylene glycol, glycerol, nitromethane, pyridine, and toluene. Its main use as a solvent is in making tincture of iodine, cough syrups etc. It is also miscible with light aliphatic hydrocarbons, such as pentane and hexane, and with aliphatic chlorides such as trichloroethane and tetrachloroethylene. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,802 | Ethanol's miscibility with water contrasts with the immiscibility of longer-chain alcohols (five or more carbon atoms), whose water miscibility decreases sharply as the number of carbons increases. The miscibility of ethanol with alkanes is limited to alkanes up to undecane: mixtures with dodecane and higher alkanes show a miscibility gap below a certain temperature (about 13 °C for dodecane). The miscibility gap tends to get wider with higher alkanes, and the temperature for complete miscibility increases. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,803 | Ethanol-water mixtures have less volume than the sum of their individual components at the given fractions. Mixing equal volumes of ethanol and water results in only 1.92 volumes of mixture. Mixing ethanol and water is exothermic, with up to 777 J/mol being released at 298 K. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,804 | Mixtures of ethanol and water form an azeotrope at about 89 mole-% ethanol and 11 mole-% water or a mixture of 95.6 percent ethanol by mass (or about 97% alcohol by volume) at normal pressure, which boils at 351K (78 °C). This azeotropic composition is strongly temperature- and pressure-dependent and vanishes at temperatures below 303 K. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,805 | Hydrogen bonding causes pure ethanol to be hygroscopic to the extent that it readily absorbs water from the air. The polar nature of the hydroxyl group causes ethanol to dissolve many ionic compounds, notably sodium and potassium hydroxides, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, ammonium chloride, ammonium bromide, and sodium bromide. Sodium and potassium chlorides are slightly soluble in ethanol. Because the ethanol molecule also has a nonpolar end, it will also dissolve nonpolar substances, including most essential oils and numerous flavoring, coloring, and medicinal agents. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,806 | The addition of even a few percent of ethanol to water sharply reduces the surface tension of water. This property partially explains the "tears of wine" phenomenon. When wine is swirled in a glass, ethanol evaporates quickly from the thin film of wine on the wall of the glass. As the wine's ethanol content decreases, its surface tension increases and the thin film "beads up" and runs down the glass in channels rather than as a smooth sheet. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,807 | An ethanol–water solution will catch fire if heated above a temperature called its flash point and an ignition source is then applied to it. For 20% alcohol by mass (about 25% by volume), this will occur at about . The flash point of pure ethanol is , but may be influenced very slightly by atmospheric composition such as pressure and humidity. Ethanol mixtures can ignite below average room temperature. Ethanol is considered a flammable liquid (Class 3 Hazardous Material) in concentrations above 2.35% by mass (3.0% by volume; 6 proof). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,808 | Ethanol is a byproduct of the metabolic process of yeast. As such, ethanol will be present in any yeast habitat. Ethanol can commonly be found in overripe fruit. Ethanol produced by symbiotic yeast can be found in bertam palm blossoms. Although some animal species, such as the pentailed treeshrew, exhibit ethanol-seeking behaviors, most show no interest or avoidance of food sources containing ethanol. Ethanol is also produced during the germination of many plants as a result of natural anaerobiosis. Ethanol has been detected in outer space, forming an icy coating around dust grains in interstellar clouds. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,809 | Minute quantity amounts (average 196 ppb) of endogenous ethanol and acetaldehyde were found in the exhaled breath of healthy volunteers. Auto-brewery syndrome, also known as gut fermentation syndrome, is a rare medical condition in which intoxicating quantities of ethanol are produced through endogenous fermentation within the digestive system. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,810 | Ethanol is produced both as a petrochemical, through the hydration of ethylene and, via biological processes, by fermenting sugars with yeast. Which process is more economical depends on prevailing prices of petroleum and grain feed stocks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,811 | World production of ethanol in 2006 was , with 69% of the world supply coming from Brazil and the U.S. Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugarcane, which has relatively high yields (830% more fuel than the fossil fuels used to produce it) compared to some other energy crops. Sugarcane not only has a greater concentration of sucrose than corn (by about 30%), but is also much easier to extract. The bagasse generated by the process is not discarded, but burned by power plants to produce electricity. Bagasse burning accounts for around 9% of the electricity produced in Brazil. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,812 | In the 1970s most industrial ethanol in the U.S. was made as a petrochemical, but in the 1980s the U.S. introduced subsidies for corn-based ethanol. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, as of 30 October 2007, 131 grain ethanol bio-refineries in the U.S. have the capacity to produce of ethanol per year. An additional 72 construction projects underway (in the U.S.) can add of new capacity in the next 18 months. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,813 | In India ethanol is made from sugarcane. Sweet sorghum is another potential source of ethanol, and is suitable for growing in dryland conditions. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics is investigating the possibility of growing sorghum as a source of fuel, food, and animal feed in arid parts of Asia and Africa. Sweet sorghum has one-third the water requirement of sugarcane over the same time period. It also requires about 22% less water than corn. The world's first sweet sorghum ethanol distillery began commercial production in 2007 in Andhra Pradesh, India. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,814 | Ethanol for use as an industrial feedstock or solvent (sometimes referred to as synthetic ethanol) is made from petrochemical feed stocks, primarily by the acid-catalyzed hydration of ethylene: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,815 | The catalyst is most commonly phosphoric acid, adsorbed onto a porous support such as silica gel or diatomaceous earth. This catalyst was first used for large-scale ethanol production by the Shell Oil Company in 1947. The reaction is carried out in the presence of high pressure steam at where a 5:3 ethylene to steam ratio is maintained. This process was used on an industrial scale by Union Carbide Corporation and others. It is no longer used in the US as fermentation ethanol produced from corn is more economical. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,816 | In an older process, first practiced on the industrial scale in 1930 by Union Carbide but now almost entirely obsolete, ethylene was hydrated indirectly by reacting it with concentrated sulfuric acid to produce ethyl sulfate, which was hydrolyzed to yield ethanol and regenerate the sulfuric acid: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,817 | Ethanol has been produced in the laboratory by converting carbon dioxide via biological and electrochemical reactions. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,818 | Ethanol in alcoholic beverages and fuel is produced by fermentation. Certain species of yeast (e.g., "Saccharomyces cerevisiae") metabolize sugar, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide. The chemical equations below summarize the conversion: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,819 | Fermentation is the process of culturing yeast under favorable thermal conditions to produce alcohol. This process is carried out at around . Toxicity of ethanol to yeast limits the ethanol concentration obtainable by brewing; higher concentrations, therefore, are obtained by fortification or distillation. The most ethanol-tolerant yeast strains can survive up to approximately 18% ethanol by volume. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,820 | To produce ethanol from starchy materials such as cereals, the starch must first be converted into sugars. In brewing beer, this has traditionally been accomplished by allowing the grain to germinate, or malt, which produces the enzyme amylase. When the malted grain is mashed, the amylase converts the remaining starches into sugars. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,821 | Sugars for ethanol fermentation can be obtained from cellulose. Deployment of this technology could turn a number of cellulose-containing agricultural by-products, such as corncobs, straw, and sawdust, into renewable energy resources. Other agricultural residues such as sugarcane bagasse and energy crops such as switchgrass may also be fermentable sugar sources. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,822 | Breweries and biofuel plants employ two methods for measuring ethanol concentration. Infrared ethanol sensors measure the vibrational frequency of dissolved ethanol using the C−H band at 2900 cm. This method uses a relatively inexpensive solid-state sensor that compares the C−H band with a reference band to calculate the ethanol content. The calculation makes use of the Beer–Lambert law. Alternatively, by measuring the density of the starting material and the density of the product, using a hydrometer, the change in specific gravity during fermentation indicates the alcohol content. This inexpensive and indirect method has a long history in the beer brewing industry. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,823 | Ethylene hydration or brewing produces an ethanol–water mixture. For most industrial and fuel uses, the ethanol must be purified. Fractional distillation at atmospheric pressure can concentrate ethanol to 95.6% by weight (89.5 mole%). This mixture is an azeotrope with a boiling point of , and "cannot" be further purified by distillation. Addition of an entraining agent, such as benzene, cyclohexane, or heptane, allows a new ternary azeotrope comprising the ethanol, water, and the entraining agent to be formed. This lower-boiling ternary azeotrope is removed preferentially, leading to water-free ethanol. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,824 | Apart from distillation, ethanol may be dried by addition of a desiccant, such as molecular sieves, cellulose, or cornmeal. The desiccants can be dried and reused. Molecular sieves can be used to selectively absorb the water from the 95.6% ethanol solution. Molecular sieves of pore-size 3 Ångstrom, a type of zeolite, effectively sequester water molecules while excluding ethanol molecules. Heating the wet sieves drives out the water, allowing regeneration of their dessicant capability. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,825 | Membranes can also be used to separate ethanol and water. Membrane-based separations are not subject to the limitations of the water-ethanol azeotrope because the separations are not based on vapor-liquid equilibria. Membranes are often used in the so-called hybrid membrane distillation process. This process uses a pre-concentration distillation column as the first separating step. The further separation is then accomplished with a membrane operated either in vapor permeation or pervaporation mode. Vapor permeation uses a vapor membrane feed and pervaporation uses a liquid membrane feed. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,826 | Pure ethanol and alcoholic beverages are heavily taxed as psychoactive drugs, but ethanol has many uses that do not involve its consumption. To relieve the tax burden on these uses, most jurisdictions waive the tax when an agent has been added to the ethanol to render it unfit to drink. These include bittering agents such as denatonium benzoate and toxins such as methanol, naphtha, and pyridine. Products of this kind are called "denatured alcohol." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,827 | Absolute or anhydrous alcohol refers to ethanol with a low water content. There are various grades with maximum water contents ranging from 1% to a few parts per million (ppm). If azeotropic distillation is used to remove water, it will contain trace amounts of the material separation agent (e.g. benzene). Absolute alcohol is not intended for human consumption. Absolute ethanol is used as a solvent for laboratory and industrial applications, where water will react with other chemicals, and as fuel alcohol. Spectroscopic ethanol is an absolute ethanol with a low absorbance in ultraviolet and visible light, fit for use as a solvent in ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,828 | Rectified spirit, an azeotropic composition of 96% ethanol containing 4% water, is used instead of anhydrous ethanol for various purposes. Spirits of wine are about 94% ethanol (188 proof). The impurities are different from those in 95% (190 proof) laboratory ethanol. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,829 | Ethanol is classified as a primary alcohol, meaning that the carbon that its hydroxyl group attaches to has at least two hydrogen atoms attached to it as well. Many ethanol reactions occur at its hydroxyl group. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,830 | In the presence of acid catalysts, ethanol reacts with carboxylic acids to produce ethyl esters and water: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,831 | This reaction, which is conducted on large scale industrially, requires the removal of the water from the reaction mixture as it is formed. Esters react in the presence of an acid or base to give back the alcohol and a salt. This reaction is known as saponification because it is used in the preparation of soap. Ethanol can also form esters with inorganic acids. Diethyl sulfate and triethyl phosphate are prepared by treating ethanol with sulfur trioxide and phosphorus pentoxide respectively. Diethyl sulfate is a useful ethylating agent in organic synthesis. Ethyl nitrite, prepared from the reaction of ethanol with sodium nitrite and sulfuric acid, was formerly used as a diuretic. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,832 | In the presence of acid catalysts, alcohols can be converted to alkenes such as ethanol to ethylene. Typically solid acids such as alumina are used. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,833 | Since water is removed from the same molecule, the reaction is known as intramolecular dehydration. Intramolecular dehydration of an alcohol requires a high temperature and the presence of an acid catalyst such as sulphuric acid. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,834 | Ethylene produced from sugar-derived ethanol (primarily in Brazil) competes with ethylene produced from petrochemical feedstocks such as naphtha and ethane. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,835 | At a lower temperature than that of intramolecular dehydration, intermolecular alcohol dehydration may occur producing a symmetrical ether. This is a condensation reaction. In the following example, diethyl ether is produced from ethanol: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,836 | Ethanol is a neutral molecule and the pH of a solution of ethanol in water is nearly 7.00. Ethanol can be quantitatively converted to its conjugate base, the ethoxide ion (CHCHO), by reaction with an alkali metal such as sodium: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,837 | The acidities of water and ethanol are nearly the same, as indicated by their pKa of 15.7 and 16 respectively. Thus, sodium ethoxide and sodium hydroxide exist in an equilibrium that is closely balanced: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,838 | Ethanol is not used industrially as a precursor to ethyl halides, but the reactions are illustrative. Ethanol reacts with hydrogen halides to produce ethyl halides such as ethyl chloride and ethyl bromide via an S2 reaction: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,839 | HBr requires refluxing with a sulfuric acid catalyst. Ethyl halides can, in principle, also be produced by treating ethanol with more specialized halogenating agents, such as thionyl chloride or phosphorus tribromide. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,840 | Upon treatment with halogens in the presence of base, ethanol gives the corresponding haloform (CHX, where X = Cl, Br, I). This conversion is called the haloform reaction. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,841 | An intermediate in the reaction with chlorine is the aldehyde called chloral, which forms chloral hydrate upon reaction with water: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,842 | Ethanol can be oxidized to acetaldehyde and further oxidized to acetic acid, depending on the reagents and conditions. This oxidation is of no importance industrially, but in the human body, these oxidation reactions are catalyzed by the enzyme liver alcohol dehydrogenase. The oxidation product of ethanol, acetic acid, is a nutrient for humans, being a precursor to acetyl CoA, where the acetyl group can be spent as energy or used for biosynthesis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,843 | Ethanol is similar to macronutrients such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in that it provides calories. When consumed and metabolized, it contributes 7 calories per gram via ethanol metabolism. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,844 | Pure ethanol will irritate the skin and eyes. Nausea, vomiting, and intoxication are symptoms of ingestion. Long-term use by ingestion can result in serious liver damage. Atmospheric concentrations above one part per thousand are above the European Union occupational exposure limits. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,845 | The fermentation of sugar into ethanol is one of the earliest biotechnologies employed by humans. Ethanol has historically been identified variously as spirit of wine or ardent spirits, and as aqua vitae or aqua vita. The intoxicating effects of its consumption have been known since ancient times. Ethanol has been used by humans since prehistory as the intoxicating ingredient of alcoholic beverages. Dried residue on 9,000-year-old pottery found in China suggests that Neolithic people consumed alcoholic beverages. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,846 | The inflammable nature of the exhalations of wine was already known to ancient natural philosophers such as Aristotle (384–322 BCE), Theophrastus (–287 BCE), and Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 CE). However, this did not immediately lead to the isolation of ethanol, even despite the development of more advanced distillation techniques in second- and third-century Roman Egypt. An important recognition, first found in one of the writings attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (ninth century CE), was that by adding salt to boiling wine, which increases the wine's relative volatility, the flammability of the resulting vapors may be enhanced. The distillation of wine is attested in Arabic works attributed to al-Kindī (–873 CE) and to al-Fārābī (–950), and in the 28th book of al-Zahrāwī's (Latin: Abulcasis, 936–1013) "Kitāb al-Taṣrīf" (later translated into Latin as "Liber servatoris"). In the twelfth century, recipes for the production of "aqua ardens" ("burning water", i.e., ethanol) by distilling wine with salt started to appear in a number of Latin works, and by the end of the thirteenth century it had become a widely known substance among Western European chemists. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,847 | The works of Taddeo Alderotti (1223–1296) describe a method for concentrating ethanol involving repeated fractional distillation through a water-cooled still, by which an ethanol purity of 90% could be obtained. The medicinal properties of ethanol were studied by Arnald of Villanova (1240–1311 CE) and John of Rupescissa (–1366), the latter of whom regarded it as a life-preserving substance able to prevent all diseases (the "aqua vitae" or "water of life", also called by John the "quintessence" of wine). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,848 | In China, archaeological evidence indicates that the true distillation of alcohol began during the Jin (1115–1234) or Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties. A still has been found at an archaeological site in Qinglong, Hebei, dating to the 12th century. In India, the true distillation of alcohol was introduced from the Middle East, and was in wide use in the Delhi Sultanate by the 14th century. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,849 | In 1796, German-Russian chemist Johann Tobias Lowitz obtained pure ethanol by mixing partially purified ethanol (the alcohol-water azeotrope) with an excess of anhydrous alkali and then distilling the mixture over low heat. French chemist Antoine Lavoisier described ethanol as a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and in 1807 Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure determined ethanol's chemical formula. Fifty years later, Archibald Scott Couper published the structural formula of ethanol. It was one of the first structural formulas determined. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,850 | Ethanol was first prepared synthetically in 1825 by Michael Faraday. He found that sulfuric acid could absorb large volumes of coal gas. He gave the resulting solution to Henry Hennell, a British chemist, who found in 1826 that it contained "sulphovinic acid" (ethyl hydrogen sulfate). In 1828, Hennell and the French chemist Georges-Simon Serullas independently discovered that sulphovinic acid could be decomposed into ethanol. Thus, in 1825 Faraday had unwittingly discovered that ethanol could be produced from ethylene (a component of coal gas) by acid-catalyzed hydration, a process similar to current industrial ethanol synthesis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,851 | Ethanol was used as lamp fuel in the U.S. as early as 1840, but a tax levied on industrial alcohol during the Civil War made this use uneconomical. The tax was repealed in 1906. Use as an automotive fuel dates back to 1908, with the Ford Model T able to run on petrol (gasoline) or ethanol. It fuels some spirit lamps. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,852 | Ethanol intended for industrial use is often produced from ethylene. Ethanol has widespread use as a solvent of substances intended for human contact or consumption, including scents, flavorings, colorings, and medicines. In chemistry, it is both a solvent and a feedstock for the synthesis of other products. It has a long history as a fuel for heat and light, and more recently as a fuel for internal combustion engines. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10048 |
13,853 | Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word "technology" may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, industry, communication, transportation, and daily life. Technologies include physical objects like utensils or machines and intangible tools such as software. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,854 | Many technological advancements have led to societal changes. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used in the prehistoric era, followed by fire use, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language in the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age enabled wider travel and the creation of more complex machines. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet have lowered communication barriers and ushered in the knowledge economy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,855 | While technology contributes to economic development and human prosperity, it can also have negative impacts like pollution or resource depletion, or cause social harms like technological unemployment caused by automation. As a result, philosophical and political debates have arisen over the role and use of technology, the ethics of technology, and the mitigation of technology's potential downsides. Historical and contemporary movements like neo-Luddism and anarcho-primitivism criticize technology's pervasiveness, while adherents to transhumanism and techno-progressivism actively support technological change, viewing it as emancipatory. Many negative impacts of technology can be mitigated through technological innovations like renewable energy in transportation and industry, genetically modified crops to address soil depletion, and space exploration to mitigate global catastrophic risks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,856 | "Technology" is a term dating back to the early 17th century that meant 'systematic treatment' (from Greek , "from τέχνη" 'art, craft' and , 'study, knowledge')."" It is predated in use by the Ancient Greek "τέχνη", used to mean 'knowledge of how to make things', which encompassed activities like architecture. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,857 | Starting in the 19th century, continental Europeans started using the terms "Technik" (German) or "technique" (French) to refer to a 'way of doing', which included all technical arts, such as dancing, navigation, or printing, whether or not they required tools or instruments. At the time, "Technologie" (German and French) referred either to the academic discipline studying the "methods of arts and crafts", or to the political discipline "intended to legislate on the functions of the arts and crafts." Since the distinction between "Technik" and "Technologie" is absent in English, both were translated as "technology". The term was previously uncommon in English and mostly referred to the academic discipline, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,858 | In the 20th century, as a result of scientific progress and the Second Industrial Revolution, "technology" stopped being considered a distinct academic discipline and took on its current-day meaning: the systemic use of knowledge to practical ends. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,859 | Tools were initially developed by hominids through observation and trial and error. Around 2 Mya (million years ago), they learned to make the first stone tools by hammering flakes off a pebble, forming a sharp hand axe. This practice was refined 75 kya (thousand years ago) into pressure flaking, enabling much finer work. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,860 | The discovery of fire was described by Charles Darwin as "possibly the greatest ever made by man". Archeological, dietary, and social evidence point to "continuous [human] fire-use" at least 1.5 Mya. Fire, fueled with wood and charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten. The "cooking hypothesis" proposes that the ability to cook promoted an increase in hominid brain size, though some researchers find the evidence inconclusive. Archeological evidence of hearths was dated to 790 kya; researchers believe this is likely to have intensified human socialization and may have contributed to the emergence of language. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,861 | Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era include clothing and shelter. No consensus exists on the approximate time of adoption of either technology, but archeologists have found archeological evidence of clothing 90-120 kya and shelter 450 kya. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more elaborate; as early as 380 kya, humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing, adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions; humans began to migrate out of Africa around 200 kya, initially moving to Eurasia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,862 | The Neolithic Revolution (or "First Agricultural Revolution") brought about an acceleration of technological innovation, and a consequent increase in social complexity. The invention of the polished stone axe was a major advance that allowed large-scale forest clearance and farming. This use of polished stone axes increased greatly in the Neolithic but was originally used in the preceding Mesolithic in some areas such as Ireland. Agriculture fed larger populations, and the transition to sedentism allowed for the simultaneous raising of more children, as infants no longer needed to be carried around by nomads. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops more readily than they could participate in hunter-gatherer activities. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,863 | With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor specialization. What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities, such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known; however, the emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures and specialized labor, of trade and war amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental challenges such as irrigation, are all thought to have played a role. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,864 | Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided, for the first time, the ability to smelt and forge gold, copper, silver, and lead native metals found in relatively pure form in nature. The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone and wooden tools were quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper was probably used from near the beginning of Neolithic times (about 10 ka). Native copper does not naturally occur in large amounts, but copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when burned in wood or charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze and brass (about 4,000 BCE). The first use of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1,800 BCE. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,865 | After harnessing fire, humans discovered other forms of energy. The earliest known use of wind power is the sailing ship; the earliest record of a ship under sail is that of a Nile boat dating to around 7,000 BCE. From prehistoric times, Egyptians likely used the power of the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through purposely built irrigation channels and "catch" basins. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia used a complex system of canals and levees to divert water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for irrigation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,866 | Archaeologists estimate that the wheel was invented independently and concurrently in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture), and Central Europe. Time estimates range from 5,500 to 3,000 BCE with most experts putting it closer to 4,000 BCE. The oldest artifacts with drawings depicting wheeled carts date from about 3,500 BCE. More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world was found in the Ljubljana Marsh of Slovenia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,867 | The invention of the wheel revolutionized trade and war. It did not take long to discover that wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads. The ancient Sumerians used a potter's wheel and may have invented it. A stone pottery wheel found in the city-state of Ur dates to around 3,429 BCE, and even older fragments of wheel-thrown pottery have been found in the same area. Fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled early mass production of pottery, but it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy (through water wheels, windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of nonhuman power sources. The first two-wheeled carts were derived from travois and were first used in Mesopotamia and Iran in around 3,000 BCE. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,868 | The oldest known constructed roadways are the stone-paved streets of the city-state of Ur, dating to circa 4,000 BCE, and timber roads leading through the swamps of Glastonbury, England, dating to around the same period. The first long-distance road, which came into use around 3,500 BCE, spanned 2,400 km from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, but was not paved and was only partially maintained. In around 2,000 BCE, the Minoans on the Greek island of Crete built a 50 km road leading from the palace of Gortyn on the south side of the island, through the mountains, to the palace of Knossos on the north side of the island. Unlike the earlier road, the Minoan road was completely paved. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,869 | Ancient Minoan private homes had running water. A bathtub virtually identical to modern ones was unearthed at the Palace of Knossos. Several Minoan private homes also had toilets, which could be flushed by pouring water down the drain. The ancient Romans had many public flush toilets, which emptied into an extensive sewage system. The primary sewer in Rome was the Cloaca Maxima; construction began on it in the sixth century BCE and it is still in use today. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,870 | The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts, which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 km, but less than 70 km of this was above ground and supported by arches. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,871 | Innovations continued through the Middle Ages with the introduction of silk production (in Asia and later Europe), the horse collar, and horseshoes. Simple machines (such as the lever, the screw, and the pulley) were combined into more complicated tools, such as the wheelbarrow, windmills, and clocks. A system of universities developed and spread scientific ideas and practices, including Oxford and Cambridge. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,872 | The Renaissance era produced many innovations, including the introduction of the movable type printing press to Europe, which facilitated the communication of knowledge. Technology became increasingly influenced by science, beginning a cycle of mutual advancement. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,873 | Starting in the United Kingdom in the 18th century, the discovery of steam power set off the Industrial Revolution, which saw wide-ranging technological discoveries, particularly in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, metallurgy, and transport, and the widespread application of the factory system. This was followed a century later by the Second Industrial Revolution which led to rapid scientific discovery, standardization, and mass production. New technologies were developed, including sewage systems, electricity, light bulbs, electric motors, railroads, automobiles, and airplanes. These technological advances led to significant developments in medicine, chemistry, physics, and engineering. They were accompanied by consequential social change, with the introduction of skyscrapers accompanied by rapid urbanization. Communication improved with the invention of the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and television. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,874 | The 20th century brought a host of innovations. In physics, the discovery of nuclear fission in the Atomic Age led to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Computers were invented and later shifted from analog to digital in the Digital Revolution. Information technology, particularly optical fiber and optical amplifiers led to the birth of the Internet, which ushered in the Information Age. The Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, and later the launch of crewed missions to the moon in the 1960s. Organized efforts to search for extraterrestrial intelligence have used radio telescopes to detect signs of technology use, or "technosignatures", given off by alien civilizations. In medicine, new technologies were developed for diagnosis (CT, PET, and MRI scanning), treatment (like the dialysis machine, defibrillator, pacemaker, and a wide array of new pharmaceutical drugs), and research (like interferon cloning and DNA microarrays). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,875 | Complex manufacturing and construction techniques and organizations are needed to make and maintain more modern technologies, and entire industries have arisen to develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. Modern technology increasingly relies on training and education – their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these technologies have become so complex that entire fields have developed to support them, including engineering, medicine, and computer science; and other fields have become more complex, such as construction, transportation, and architecture. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,876 | Many new technologies have had deep societal ramifications. Technologies have contributed to human welfare through increased prosperity, improved comfort and quality of life, and medical progress, but they can also disrupt existing social hierarchies, cause pollution, and harm individuals or groups. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,877 | Recent years have brought about a rise in social media's cultural prominence, with potential repercussions on democracy, and economic and social life. Early on, the internet was seen as a "liberation technology" that would democratize knowledge, improve access to education, and promote democracy. Modern research has turned to investigate the internet's downsides, including disinformation, polarization, hate speech, and propaganda. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,878 | Since the 1970s, technology's impact on the environment has been criticized, leading to a surge in investment in solar, wind, and other forms of clean energy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,879 | Since the invention of the wheel, technologies have helped increase humans' economic output. Past automation has both substituted and complemented labor; machines replaced humans at some lower-paying jobs (for example in agriculture), but this was compensated by the creation of new, higher-paying jobs. Studies have found that computers did not create significant net technological unemployment. Due to artificial intelligence being far more capable than computers, and still being in its infancy, it is not known whether it will follow the same trend; the question has been debated at length among economists and policymakers. A 2017 survey found no clear consensus among economists on whether AI would increase long-term unemployment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,880 | "Philosophy of technology" is a branch of philosophy that studies the "practice of designing and creating artifacts", and the "nature of the things so created." It emerged as a discipline over the past two centuries, and has grown "considerably" since the 1970s. The "humanities philosophy of technology" is concerned with the "meaning of technology for, and its impact on, society and culture". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,881 | Initially, technology was seen as an extension of the human organism that replicated or amplified bodily and mental faculties. Marx framed it as a tool used by capitalists to oppress the proletariat, but believe technology would be a fundamentally liberating force once it was "freed from societal deformations". Second-wave philosophers like Ortega later shifted their focus from economics and politics to "daily life and living in a techno-material culture," arguing that technology could oppress "even the members of the bourgeoisie who were its ostensible masters and possessors." Third-stage philosophers like Don Ihde and Albert Borgmann represent a turn toward de-generalization and empiricism, and considered how humans can learn to live with technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,882 | Early scholarship on technology was split between two arguments: technological determinism, and social construction. Technological determinism is the idea that technologies cause unavoidable social changes. It usually encompasses a related argument, technological autonomy, which asserts that technological progress follows a natural progression and cannot be prevented. Social constructivists argue that technologies follow no natural progression, and are shaped by cultural values, laws, politics, and economic incentives. Modern scholarship has shifted towards an analysis of sociotechnical systems, "assemblages of things, people, practices, and meanings", looking at the value judgments that shape technology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,883 | Cultural critic Neil Postman distinguished tool-using societies from technological societies and from what he called "technopolies," societies that are dominated by an ideology of technological and scientific progress to the detriment of other cultural practices, values, and world views. Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan suggest that technological society will inevitably deprive us of our freedom and psychological health. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,884 | The "ethics of technology" is an interdisciplinary subfield of ethics that analyzes technology's ethical implications and explores ways to mitigate the potential negative impacts of new technologies. There is a broad range of ethical issues revolving around technology, from specific areas of focus affecting professionals working with technology to broader social, ethical, and legal issues concerning the role of technology in society and everyday life. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,885 | Prominent debates have surrounded genetically modified organisms, the use of robotic soldiers, algorithmic bias, and the issue of aligning AI behavior with human values | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,886 | Technology ethics encompasses several key fields. Bioethics looks at ethical issues surrounding biotechnologies and modern medicine, including cloning, human genetic engineering, and stem cell research. Computer ethics focuses on issues related to computing. Cyberethics explores internet-related issues like intellectual property rights, privacy, and censorship. Nanoethics examines issues surrounding the alteration of matter at the atomic and molecular level in various disciplines including computer science, engineering, and biology. And engineering ethics deals with the professional standards of engineers, including software engineers and their moral responsibilities to the public. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,887 | A wide branch of technology ethics is concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence: it includes robot ethics, which deals with ethical issues involved in the design, construction, use, and treatment of robots, as well as machine ethics, which is concerned with ensuring the ethical behavior of artificial intelligent agents. Within the field of AI ethics, significant yet-unsolved research problems include AI alignment (ensuring that AI behaviors are aligned with their creators' intended goals and interests) and the reduction of algorithmic bias. Some researchers have warned against the hypothetical risk of an AI takeover, and have advocated for the use of AI capability control in addition to AI alignment methods. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,888 | Other fields of ethics have had to contend with technology-related issues, including military ethics, media ethics, and educational ethics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,889 | "Futures studies" is the systematic and interdisciplinary study of social and technological progress. It aims to quantitatively and qualitatively explore the range of plausible futures and to incorporate human values in the development of new technologies. More generally, futures researchers are interested in improving "the freedom and welfare of humankind". It relies on a thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis of past and present technological trends, and attempts to rigorously extrapolate them into the future. Science fiction is often used as a source of ideas. Futures research methodologies include survey research, modeling, statistical analysis, and computer simulations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,890 | Existential risk researchers analyze risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse, and look for ways to build resilience against them. Relevant research centers include the Cambridge Center for the Study of Existential Risk, and the Stanford Existential Risk Initiative. Future technologies may contribute to the risks of artificial general intelligence, biological warfare, nuclear warfare, nanotechnology, anthropogenic climate change, global warming, or stable global totalitarianism, though technologies may also help us mitigate asteroid impacts and gamma-ray bursts. In 2019 philosopher Nick Bostrom introduced the notion of a "vulnerable world", "one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default", citing the risks of a pandemic caused by bioterrorists, or an arms race triggered by the development of novel armaments and the loss of mutual assured destruction. He invites policymakers to question the assumptions that technological progress is always beneficial, that scientific openness is always preferable, or that they can afford to wait until a dangerous technology has been invented before they prepare mitigations. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,891 | Emerging technologies are novel technologies whose development or practical applications are still largely unrealized. They include nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, 3D printing, blockchains, and artificial intelligence. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,892 | In 2005, futurist Ray Kurzweil claimed the next technological revolution would rest upon advances in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, with robotics being the most impactful of the three. Genetic engineering will allow far greater control over human biological nature through a process called directed evolution. Some thinkers believe that this may shatter our sense of self, and have urged for renewed public debate exploring the issue more thoroughly; others fear that directed evolution could lead to eugenics or extreme social inequality. Nanotechnology will grant us the ability to manipulate matter "at the molecular and atomic scale", which could allow us to reshape ourselves and our environment in fundamental ways. Nanobots could be used within the human body to destroy cancer cells or form new body parts, blurring the line between biology and technology. Autonomous robots have undergone rapid progress, and are expected to replace humans at many dangerous tasks, including search and rescue, bomb disposal, firefighting, and war. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,893 | Estimates on the advent of artificial general intelligence vary, but half of machine learning experts surveyed in 2018 believe that AI will "accomplish every task better and more cheaply" than humans by 2063, and automate all human jobs by 2140. This expected technological unemployment has led to calls for increased emphasis on computer science education and debates about UBI. Political science experts predict that this could lead to a rise in extremism, while others see it as an opportunity to usher in a post-scarcity economy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,894 | Some segments of the 1960s hippie counterculture grew to dislike urban living and developed a preference for locally autonomous, sustainable, and decentralized technology, termed "appropriate technology". This later influenced hacker culture and technopaganism. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,895 | Technological utopianism refers to the belief that technological development is a moral good, which can and should bring about a utopia, that is, a society in which laws, governments, and social conditions serve the needs of all its citizens. Examples of techno-utopian goals include post-scarcity economics, life extension, mind uploading, cryonics, and the creation of artificial superintelligence. Major techno-utopian movements include transhumanism and singularitarianism. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,896 | The transhumanism movement is founded upon the "continued evolution of human life beyond its current human form" through science and technology, informed by "life-promoting principles and values." The movement gained wider popularity in the early 21st century. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,897 | Singularitarians believe that machine superintelligence will "accelerate technological progress" by orders of magnitude and "create even more intelligent entities ever faster", which may lead to a pace of societal and technological change that is "incomprehensible" to us. This "event horizon" is known as the technological singularity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,898 | Major figures of techno-utopianism include Ray Kurzweil and Nick Bostrom. Techno-utopianism has attracted both praise and criticism by progressive, religious, and conservative thinkers. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
13,899 | Technology's central role in our lives has drawn concerns and backlash. The backlash against technology is not a uniform movement and encompasses many heterogeneous ideologies. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29816 |
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