HT to Jim De Borst for this piece

STS starts from the proposition that scientific knowledge is one of the basic means with which modern societies make sense of who they are, how they relate to the world around them, and what they can or should do in order to improve their conditions. It follows that societies also need to study the processes through which science and technology are made – in order to understand how knowledge advances, what makes innovation happen, and why things do not always progress as hoped or planned.