Yet in public discourse, innovations and events that have a significant technological component are often described as science. Take the building and launching of the Hubble Space Telescope. Although its purpose is scientific-to gather data about the universe and its origins-the telescope itself is the product of science and engineering. Similarly, the development of new drugs is often misidentified solely as science. Obviously, a great deal of scientific research underlies the development of a new drug, but that research is put to work toward a technological end. Even in the computer industry, the first thing that comes to many people's minds when they think of technology, cramming more transistors onto a chip or more memory onto a magnetic disk is a technological, rather than a scientific, advance.

It is not surprising that many people attribute technological advances exclusively to science. Science and technology are closely related. But the confusion is significant because it indicates that many people do not appreciate the combined role of science, engineering, and technology in shaping modern life. A sense of this complementary relationship is crucial to many policy decisions, for example, how public research dollars should be allocated.