England and Scotland were leading centres of the
Scientific Revolution from the 17th century[1] and the United Kingdom led the
Industrial Revolution from the 18th century,[2] and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances.[3] Some of the major theories, discoveries and applications advanced by people from the United Kingdom are given below.
First tunnel under a navigable river, first all iron ship and first railway to run express services, contributed to by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–59).[13]
The United Kingdom plays a leading part in the
aerospace industry, with companies including
Rolls-Royce playing a leading role in the aero-engine market;
BAE Systems acting as Britain's largest and the Pentagon's sixth largest defence supplier, and large companies including
GKN acting as major suppliers to the
Airbus project.<ref1.48>O’Connell, Dominic,
"Britannia still rules the skies", The Sunday Times, archived from
the original on January 12, 2012.</ref> Two British-based companies,
GlaxoSmithKline and
AstraZeneca, ranked in the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world by sales in 2009[27] and UK companies have discovered and developed more leading medicines than any other country apart from the US.[28] The UK remains a leading centre of automotive design and production, particularly of engines, and has around 2,600 component manufacturers.[29] Investment by
venture capital firms in UK technology companies was $9.7 billion from 2010 to 2015.[30]
The UK is one of only 3 nations with $1trillion technology industry.[citation needed]
Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing
science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry.[31] Between 2004 and 2012, the United Kingdom produced 6% of the world's scientific research papers and had an 8% share of scientific citations, the third- and second-highest in the world (after the United States' 9% and China's 7% respectively).[32][33] Scientific journals produced in the UK include Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.
Britain was one of the largest recipients of research funding from the
European Union. From 2007 to 2013, the UK received €8.8 billion out of a total of €107 billion expenditure on research, development and innovation in EU Member States, associated and third countries. At the time, this represented the fourth largest share in the EU.[34] The
European Research Council granted 79 projects funding in the UK in 2017, more than any other EU country.[35][36] The United Kingdom was ranked fourth in the
Global Innovation Index 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.[37]
^Watt steam engine image: located in the lobby of into the Superior Technical School of Industrial Engineers of the UPM (
Madrid)
^Alexander Graham Bell, born and raised in Scotland, made a number of inventions as a British citizen, notably the telephone in 1876; he did not become an American citizen until 1882, and then spent the remaining years of his life predominately living in Canada at a summer residence.
References
^J. Gascoin, "A reappraisal of the role of the universities in the Scientific Revolution", in David C. Lindberg and Robert S. Westman, eds, Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990),
ISBN0-521-34804-8, p. 248.
^E. E. Reynolds and N. H. Brasher, Britain in the Twentieth Century, 1900–1964 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), p. 336.
^Urbach, Peter (1987). Francis Bacon's Philosophy of Science: An Account and a Reappraisal. La Salle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Co.
ISBN9780912050447. p. 192.
^M. Castells, P. Hall, P. G. Hall, Technopoles of the World: the Making of Twenty-First-Century Industrial Complexes (London: Routledge, 1994),
ISBN0-415-10015-1, pp. 98–100.