The history of technology is the history of the invention of tools and techniques and is one of the categories of the history of humanity. Technology can refer to methods ranging from as simple as stone tools to the complex genetic engineering and information technology that has emerged since the 1980s; the term technology comes from the Greek word techne, meaning art and craft, the word logos, meaning word and speech. It was first used to describe applied arts, but it is now used to described advancements and changes which affect the environment around us. New knowledge has enabled people to create new things, conversely, many scientific endeavors are made possible by technologies which assist humans in traveling to places they could not reach, by scientific instruments by which we study nature in more detail than our natural senses allow. Since much of technology is applied science, technical history is connected to the history of science. Since technology uses resources, technical history is connected to economic history.

From those resources, technology produces other resources, including technological artifacts used in everyday life. Technological change affects, is affected by, a society's cultural traditions, it is a force for economic growth and a means to develop and project economic, military power and wealth. Many sociologists and anthropologists have created social theories dealing with social and cultural evolution. Some, like Lewis H. Morgan, Leslie White, Gerhard Lenski have declared technological progress to be the primary factor driving the development of human civilization. Morgan's concept of three major stages of social evolution can be divided by technological milestones, such as fire. White argued. For White, "the primary function of culture" is to "harness and control energy." White differentiates between five stages of human development: In the first, people use the energy of their own muscles. In the second, they use the energy of domesticated animals. In the third, they use the energy of plants.

In the fourth, they learn to use the energy of natural resources: coal, gas. In the fifth, they harness nuclear energy. White introduced a formula P=E*T, where E is a measure of energy consumed, T is the measure of the efficiency of technical factors using the energy. In his own words, "culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased, or as the efficiency of the instrumental means of putting the energy to work is increased". Nikolai Kardashev extrapolated his theory, creating the Kardashev scale, which categorizes the energy use of advanced civilizations. Lenski's approach focuses on information; the more information and knowledge a given society has, the more advanced. He identifies four stages of human development, based on advances in the history of communication. In the first stage, information is passed by genes. In the second, when humans gain sentience, they can pass information through experience. In the third, the humans start develop logic. In the fourth, they can develop language and writing.

Advancements in communications technology translate into advancements in the economic system and political system, distribution of wealth, social inequality and other spheres of social life. He differentiates societies based on their level of technology and economy: hunter-gatherer, simple agricultural, advanced agricultural, special. In economics, productivity is a measure of technological progress. Productivity increases. Another indicator of technological progress is the development of new products and services, necessary to offset unemployment that would otherwise result as labor inputs are reduced. In developed countries productivity growth has been slowing since the late 1970s. For example, employment in manufacturing in the United States declined from over 30% in the 1940s to just over 10% 70 years later. Similar changes occurred in other developed countries; this stage is referred to as post-industrial. In the late 1970s sociologists and anthropologists like Alvin Toffler, Daniel Bell and John Naisbitt have approached the theories of post-industrial societies, arguing that the current era of industrial society is coming to an end, services and information are becoming more important than industry and goods.

Some extreme visions of the post-industrial society in fiction, are strikingly similar to the visions of near and post-Singularity societies. The following is a summary of the history of technology by time period and geography: During most of the Paleolithic – the bulk of the Stone Age – all humans had a lifestyle which involved limited tools and few permanent settlements; the first major technologies were tied to survival and food preparation. Stone tools and weapons and clothing were technological developments of major importance during this period. Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago; the earliest methods of stone tool making, known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago, with the earliest direct evidence of tool usage found in Ethiopia within the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5 million years ago. This era of stone tool use is called the Paleolithic

Sour cherry soup is a sweet soup made with sour cream and whole fresh sour cherries, served chilled. Originating in Hungarian cuisine, this soup is a summer delicacy in several European cuisines; the dish has been adopted by the Austrians, Poles and Germans. Hungarian-Americans and Hungarian-Canadians brought the soup to North America. In Hungarian cuisine, sour cherry soup or meggyleves is a soup made from the fruits of the sour cherry tree, not from sweet cherries; the name is formed from meggy meaning'sour-cherries', leves meaning'soup'. It is traditionally served as a dinner course as either the appetizer, soup or dessert, on warm summer nights or for hot summer luncheons; the soup is cooked with whole sour cherries, including the pits. Sour cherry trees are numerous in Hungary, the soup is a good example of the quintessentially Hungarian fusion of Eastern/Asian influences and traditional Continental European cuisine, it is customary that the soup contain fresh sour cherries, fresh cream and sometimes cloves and cinnamon.

Canned regular cherries are sometimes added and sour cream is substituted for fresh cream. A small amount of sweet white or dry red wine is sometimes added before serving. Packets of dried meggyleves powder are sold in Hungary. List of cherry dishes List of soups

Grazoprevir is a drug approved for the treatment of hepatitis C. It was developed by Merck and completed Phase III trials, used in combination with the NS5A replication complex inhibitor elbasvir under the trade name Zepatier, either with or without ribavirin. Grazoprevir is a second generation hepatitis C virus protease inhibitor acting at the NS3/4A protease targets, it has good activity against a range of HCV genotype variants, including some that are resistant to most used antiviral medications. Side effects have only been assessed in the combination with elbasvir. Common side effects of the combination include feeling tired, reduced appetite, headache. Low red blood cell count has occurred; the most important risks are alanine transaminase elevation, hyperbilirubinemia, drug resistance development and drug interactions. Grazoprevir is transported by the solute carrier proteins SLCO1B1 and SLCO1B3. Drugs that inhibit this proteins, such as rifampicin, a number of AIDS medications, can cause a significant increase in grazoprevir blood plasma levels.

The substance is degraded by the liver enzyme CYP3A4. Combination with drugs that induce this enzyme, such as efavirenz, carbamazepine or St. John's wort, can lead to ineffectively low plasma levels of grazoprevir. Combination with CYP3A4 inhibitors may increase plasma levels. Grazoprevir blocks NS3, a serine protease enzyme the virus needs for splitting its polyprotein into the functional virus proteins, NS4A, a cofactor of NS3. Grazoprevir reaches peak plasma concentrations two hours after oral intake together with elbasvir. In hepatitis C patients, steady state concentrations are found after about six days. Plasma protein binding is 98.8% to albumin and alpha-1-acid glycoprotein. Part of the substance is oxidised in the liver by the enzyme CYP3A4; the biological half-life is 31 hours on average. Over 90% are excreted via the faeces, less than 1% via the urine