Complete the text with the appropriate word.

Technology may be said to have begun with the 1 ... of the first stone age tools. For most of its history, 2 ... was achieved mainly by a process of 3 ... and error, with little regard for 4 ... . This gave us the wheel and the sailing ship, but it is extremely 5 ... that the nuclear reactor could have been developed by such methods alone. 6 ... science, or the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of natural phenomena, is probably just as old as technology, but its progress was for a long time 7 ... by the claims of superstition and religion. When such 8 ... were finally cast off and 9 ... triumphed over 10 ... science progressed by leaps and bounds. Science has always had a double function: not only to increase our knowledge, but also to increase our power – the power to change our world, for better or worse.