A history of the English Language

212.
The Growth of Science.
The most striking thing about our present-day civilization is probably the part that 
science has played in bringing it to pass. We have only to think of the progress that has 
been made in medicine and the sciences auxiliary to it, such as bacteriology, 
biochemistry, and the like, to realize the difference that marks off our own day from that 
of only a few generations ago in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and cure of disease. 
Or we may pause to reflect upon the relatively short period that separates the Wright 
brothers, making history’s first powered and controlled airplane flight, from the landings 
of astronauts on the moon, the operation of a space shuttle, and the voyages of spacecraft 
past the outer planets of the solar system. In every field of science, pure and applied, 
there has been need in the last two centuries for thousands of new terms. The great 
majority of these are technical words known only to the specialist, but a certain number 
of them in time become familiar to the layperson and pass into general use. 
In the field of medicine this is particularly apparent. We speak familiarly of 
anemia, 
appendicitis, arteriosclerosis,
difftcult as the word is, of 
bronchitis, diphtheria,
and 
numerous other diseases and ailments. We use with some sense of their meaning words 
like 
bacteriology, immunology, orthodontics,
and the acronym 
AIDS (acquired immune 
deficiency syndrome).
We maintain 
clinics,
administer an 
antitoxin
or an 
anesthetic,
and 
vaccinate
for smallpox. We have learned the names of drugs like 
aspirin, iodine, insulin, 
morphine,
and we acquire without effort the names of antibiotics, such as 
penicillin, 
streptomycin,
and a whole family of
 sulfa
compounds. We speak of
 adenoids, endocrine 
glands,
and 
hormones
and know the uses of the 
stethoscope,
the 
EKG 
(electrocardiogram),
and the 
CAT scan (computerized axial tomography)
. We refer to the 
combustion of food in the body as 
metabolism,
distinguish between 
proteins
and 
carbohydrates,
know that a dog can digest bones because he has certain 
enzymes
or 
digestive fluids in his stomach, and say that a person who has the idiosyncrasy of being 
made ill by certain foods has an 
allergy
.
 Cholesterol
is now a part of everyone’s 
vocabulary, and there is an awareness that some fats are 
polyunsaturated
. All of these 
words have come into use during the nineteenth and, in some cases, the twentieth 
century. 
In almost every other field of science the same story could be told. In the field of 
electricity words like 
dynamo, commutator, alternating current, arc light
have been in 
the language since about 1870. Physics has made us familiar with terms like 
calorie, 
electron, ionization, ultraviolet rays, quantum mechanics,
and 
relativity,
though we don’t 
always have an exact idea of what they mean. The development of 
atomic energy
and 
nuclear weapons
has given us 
radioactive, hydrogen bomb, chain reaction, fallout,
and 
meltdown
. In recent years 
laser, superconducting supercollider, quasar, 
and 
pulsar
have 
come into common use; and 
black holes, quarks,
the 
big bang model,
and 
superstrings
have captured the popular imagination. Chemistry has contributed so many common 
words that it is difficult to make a selection—
alkali, benzine, creosote, cyanide, 
formaldehyde, nitroglycerine, radium,
to say nothing of such terms as 
biochemical, 
petrochemical,
and the like. The psychologist has taught us to speak of 
schizophrenia, 
extrovert
and 
introvert, behaviorism, inhibition, defense mechanism, inferiority complex, 
bonding,
and 
psychoanalysis
. Originally scientific words and expressions such as 
ozone, 
natural selection, stratosphere, DNA
(for 
deoxyribonudeic acid
) became familiar through 
A history of the english language 280

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the popularity of certain books or scientific reports in magazines and newspapers. Among 
the most publicized events since the 1960s have been the achievements of space and 
engineering in the exploration of space. In addition to 
astronaut
and 
cosmonaut,
space 
science has given us dozens of new words, especially compounds like 
spacecraft, space 
shuttle, launch pad, countdown, blast off, flyby, command module
. Consciously or 
unconsciously, we have become scientifically minded in the last few generations, and our 
vocabularies reflect this extension of our consciousness and interest.