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The achievements which dispelled our fears of the cosmos took place three centuries ago.

What additional roles has the scientific understanding of the 19th and 20th centuries played??

In the physical sciences, these achievements concern electricity, chemistry, and atomic physics.

In the life sciences, there has been an enormous increase in our understanding of disease, in the mechanisms of heredity, and in bio- and physiological chemistry.

The major effect of these advances appears to lie in the part they have played in the industrial revolution and in the tools which scientific understanding has given us to build and manipulate a more protective environment.

In addition, our way of dealing directly with natural phenomena has also changed.

Even in domains where detailed and predictive understanding is still lacking, but where some explanations are possible, as with lightning and weather and earthquakes, the appropriate kind of human action has been more adequately indicated.