This article has been divided into two parts. The firstone includes an insightful look regarding science andtechnology as social processes; it is based on the notionthat treating of science and technology as closed entities,at most influenced by social elements, can generateextreme reactions and does not allow for the possibilityof understanding the full dimensions of human activity.In order to best understand them, two elements aresingled out: not separating the scientific from thetechnological and grasping the idea that neither is aneutral field. In the second part, that has been illustratedby means of the notion of risk, the main idea is thatscience and technology are social processes that arehelpful when trying to understand in a more assertivemanner the characteristic phenomenon of contemporarysocietie
