The one-sentence truth: Science-and-technology vocabulary matters because GP questions rarely ask whether innovation is simply good or bad; they ask how evidence, uncertainty, adoption, risk and institutions interact.
Use the Top 100 General Paper Vocabulary Words for JC1 as the suite’s core inventory, and keep the wider JC1–JC2 vocabulary guide as the conceptual parent.
Core vocabulary
- innovation — introduction of new methods, products or processes that create value.
- diffusion — spread of a technology or practice through society.
- adoption — actual uptake and use.
- disruption — substantial change to established systems or industries.
- uncertainty — limits on what can be known or predicted.
- risk — possibility of harm combined with its severity.
- evidence base — body of evidence supporting a claim or intervention.
- regulatory lag — delay between technological change and institutional response.
- unintended consequence — an effect not anticipated by designers.
- technological determinism — the assumption that technology alone drives social change.
Invention is not adoption
A technology can exist without transforming society. Adoption depends on cost, infrastructure, trust, skills, regulation and complementary institutions. This distinction prevents students from assuming that technical capability automatically becomes social reality.
Evidence and uncertainty
Scientific claims vary in confidence. Useful vocabulary includes empirical, preliminary, robust, replicable, uncertain, probabilistic, causal. GP students should avoid turning a tentative finding into certainty.
Risk is not the same as danger
Risk combines likelihood and consequence. A rare event can still deserve attention if the potential harm is enormous. This helps in essays about biotechnology, climate engineering, AI and public health.
Technological determinism is a trap
Technology does not act alone. Institutions, incentives, culture and regulation shape outcomes. “Social media caused polarisation” is usually too simple; platform design may amplify existing divisions under particular political and social conditions.
Before-and-after language
Weak: “New technology changes society.”
Stronger: “Technological innovation produces social change only when adoption is sufficiently widespread and complementary institutions adapt to new capabilities.”
Weak: “Science proves this is safe.”
Stronger: “Current evidence suggests the risk is low under tested conditions, although uncertainty remains for long-term or large-scale use.”
Paper 1 use
Science-and-technology essays improve when you separate capability from adoption, innovation from distribution, and evidence from certainty.
Paper 2 use
This vocabulary helps describe writers who differ over whether evidence is mature enough to justify adoption or regulation.
The deeper lesson
Technology vocabulary gives students a language for systems in motion: invention, adoption, diffusion, feedback, regulation and risk.
Return to the JC1 Top 100 GP Vocabulary Hero, especially the systems, evidence and evaluation families.
Phase 4 Expansion: Science Questions Turn on Evidence, Uncertainty and Deployment
Science-and-technology essays become much stronger when students distinguish what is technically possible from what is socially ready for use. A capability can be impressive while the evidence base, infrastructure, regulation or public understanding remains immature.
Uncertainty is not ignorance
Scientific uncertainty often means the range of plausible outcomes has not yet narrowed enough, not that nothing is known. Useful language includes confidence, uncertainty range, preliminary evidence, robustness, replication, probability. Mature GP writing can acknowledge uncertainty without treating every claim as equally doubtful.
Hazard, exposure and risk are different
A hazard has the potential to cause harm. Exposure concerns whether people or systems encounter it. Risk combines probability and consequence under actual conditions. This distinction prevents students from assuming that anything hazardous is equally dangerous in every use.
Diffusion changes the social problem
A technology used by a few experts may create very different risks from the same technology used by millions. Adoption scale can change externalities, market power, dependency and regulation needs. The social question therefore evolves as diffusion increases.
Model paragraph
“Scientific innovation should not be judged only by whether a technology can work under controlled conditions. Large-scale deployment changes the problem because users vary in expertise, institutions may adapt slowly, and rare errors can become socially significant when multiplied across millions of decisions. Responsible adoption therefore depends on both technical performance and evidence about real-world use.”
Science-and-technology audit
- Am I discussing capability, evidence, adoption or impact?
- How mature is the evidence?
- What uncertainty remains?
- Does scale change the risk?
- Which institutions shape real-world outcomes?
What mastery looks like
You are reasoning well about science and technology when innovation stops being a simple force for progress and becomes a system of evidence, uncertainty, adoption, incentives and institutional response.
Continue with AI, Innovation, Privacy and Regulation Vocabulary for GP.