On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
A widespread notion is that computers, the Internet, nanotechnology, bioengineering, and so forth represent a fundamental change in human affairs. These recent inventions are sometimes hailed as a "third Industrial Revolution." The first Industrial Revolution--roughly spanning the 1770s to 1860s--saw the development of the steam engine, steamboat, locomotive, telegraph, cotton gin and steel plow. The second Industrial Revolution--from the 1870s to the 1910s--witnessed the invention of the telephone, internal-combustion engine and electric lightbulb as well as the germ theory of disease, movies and radio.
The first and second Industrial Revolutions vastly increased farm productivity, thus increasingly freeing the labor force to work in other occupations. By eliminating farming as the main occupation of Americans, as the chart shows, these inventions eventually led to the liberalization of sexual mores and the emancipation of women. Agricultural societies need child labor, so fertility is all-important. Anything that interferes with childbearing, such as divorce, homosexuality and abortion, is strongly discouraged.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
