section_path: Economy/Science and technology
section_name: Science and technology
paragraph_text: Science and technology
  
  England and Scotland were leading centres of the Scientific Revolution from the 17th century. The United Kingdom led the Industrial Revolution from the 18th century, and has continued to produce scientists and engineers credited with important advances. Major theorists from the 17th and 18th centuries include Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science; from the 19th century Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution by natural selection was fundamental to the development of modern biology, and James Clerk Maxwell, who formulated classical electromagnetic theory; and more recently Stephen Hawking, who advanced major theories in the fields of cosmology, quantum gravity and the investigation of black holes.
  
  The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is responsible for helping to encourage, develop and manage the UK's scientific, research, and technological outputs. Scientific research and development remains important in British universities, with many establishing science parks to facilitate production and co-operation with industry. During 2022 the UK produced 6.3 per cent of the world's scientific research papers and had a 10.5 per cent share of scientific citations, the third highest in the world for both. The UK ranked 1st in the world for Field-Weighted Citation Impact. Scientific journals produced in the UK include publications by the Royal Society, Nature, the British Medical Journal and The Lancet.
  
  In 2022 the UK reached the milestone of a combined market value of $1 trillion for its startup and scaleup ecosystem. By 2024 the UK tech sector reached a value of $1.2 trillion surpassing the combined values of the French and German sectors together. Cambridge was named the number one university in the world for producing successful technology founders. The UK ranked third globally in a 2024 report on artificial intelligence development by Stanford University. In 2024 the UK ranked 5th in the Global Innovation Index.