1970s in science

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The spirit of discovery and exploration characterized the seventies in scientific pursuits in several disciplines. It reached its zenith with the ambitious Voyager program in 1977. The program consisted of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 unmanned expeditions sent to several of the outer planets in the solar system. The Voyager program also sent a Voyager Golden Record with the spaceship presenting aspects of life on Earth to intelligent alien life forms outside the Earth. The record contained pictures and other data about human beings and other living beings on earth. It also had an assortment of music from across cultures.

Coupled with the zenithal achievements of the Voyagers, came the end of manned spacecraft on the part of NASA, with termination of the Apollo lunar flights in 1972 with Apollo 17. The Apollo-Soyuz and Spacelab programs completed in 1976, and there would be a five year hiatus in American manned spaceflight until the flight of the Space Shuttle. The Soviet Union would develop vital technologies involving long-term human life in free-fall on the Salyut and later Mir space stations.

In the sciences, the 1970s witnessed an explosion in the understanding of solid-state physics, driven by the development of the integrated circuit, and the laser. The development of the computer produced an interesting duality in the physical sciences at this period — analogue recording technology had reached its peak at this period, and was incredibly sophisticated. However, digital measurement and mathematical tools, now becoming cheaper (though still not within the reach of the man of the street) allowed discrete answers and imaging of physical phenomena, though at a low resolution and a low bandwidth of data. This tendency was to reach its peak in 1982, though the period 1974–1982 represents the 'period of dichotomy' in the metrication of the sciences.

Deep understanding of physics became important in the 1970s. The CERN super-collider was constructed in this decade, and Stephen Hawking developed his theories of black holes and the boundary-condition of the universe at this period. The biological sciences, spurred by social concerns about the environment and life, gained tremendous detail in this period. The elucidation of molecular biology, bacteriology, virology and genetics achieved their modern forms in this decade. The discrete quantum interactions within living systems became amenable to analysis, and manipulation. Genetic Engineering became a commercially viable technology at this time.

The biodiversity of the earth's rainforest biomes became a cause for concern among conservationists, as the rate of destruction became more widespread. In evolutionary sciences the idea of punctuated equilibrium by Stephen Jay Gould, took hold of the scientific community and redefined the foundations of evolutionary thought.