12.. Nauka i technika
Odkrycia naukowe, wynalazki
Ćwiczenie 1.
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Palm-size computers and special-purpose devices will continue to flourish in the near future, forecasts Allen Parrish, associate professor of computer science at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. The market for new technologies such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) will rise as people look to computers to aid in daily tasks like making dining reservations or ordering in restaurants. "For example, there maybe restaurants where you can order on your own PDA," he notes. "Voice input is going to become popular on PDAs."
Parrish believes that computers will assume a different shape in order to increase function. These smaller, lighter units will give people greater ability to read e-mail in public places without needing a dial-up connection.
In the entertainment realm, Parrish thinks that high-definition TVs will continue to grow in the market over the next few years.
Law enforcement will update its technological devices, Parrish predicts. "When you get a speeding ticket, your driver's license may be scanned, the data entered on a handheld computer, and then transmitted to the court system."
A Brave New World
*on the cusp - on the verge (tu: u progu)
By all accounts, we are on the cusp* of a great technological revolution or revolutions. In the last several months, newspapers and magazines have run cover stories on the technological marvels about to transform our lives. None of this apparently is science fiction but what leading scientists in their respective fields are predicting as fact. Some of the changes will be of the James Bond variety, like auto-piloted cars and nonlethal phaser guns. Other inventions will have broader effects. New virtual-reality games and the Internet will complete a process that TV inaugurated, the metamorphosis of our civilization into one increasingly driven by images and sentiment rather than words and thought. And other changes in the offing will be even more dramatic, going to the very heart of what it means to be a human being. Discoveries just over the immediate horizon in human genetics and computers threaten (or promise, depending upon your perspective) to usher in, as strange as it may sound, a 'posthuman' era.
Not long ago the editors of the New York Times advised: 'We need to remember that the measure of a civilization is not the tools it owns but the use it makes of them.' Well, of course. But one must also keep in mind that technology is more than a mere tool; it inevitably shapes our world, regardless of whether we use it wisely.
Pytania do dyskusji
1. Give examples of gadgets or special-purpose devices that have appeared in recentyears. Which claim about them is more true in your opinion? Why?
a. They really are making our lives easier.
b. They are merely another short-lived fashion and a way for people to show off.
c. People are becoming overly dependent on them instead of relying on their ownmemory or skills, for example.
2. In what way do you think technology has changed our understanding of what it means to be a human being?
3. Do you agree or disagree with some scientists' predictions about technological developments that will take place in the future? Justify your opinion.
Scientific 'Giants'
Nobel Laureates have used their enormous curiosity, intellectual brilliance and creative drive to make discoveries that have greatly expanded our understanding of the universe. We have made great strides in science and medicine as a result of the work of Nobel Prize winners. Discoveries related to the formation of ozone have enabled us to take crucial steps to protect our environment, and the invention of the integrated circuit has revolutionized the way we exchange information globally. In medicine, Nobel
Laureates have developed knowledge about the immune system that helps fight cancer and insights about nerve cell signals that open new avenues for treating neurological and psychiatric diseases. These are just a few of the breakthroughs we can attribute to Nobel Prize winners.
The Nobel Prize has provided many role models for young people who aspire to be tomorrow's leading scientists. You may remember the words of Isaac Newton: 'If I have seen further,... it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.' Our Nobel Laureates are all giants.
Not Very Nobel
Every year, the Annals of Improbable Research awards Ig Nobel prizes to individuals whose scientific discoveries 'cannot or should not be reproduced'. With the Nobel judges in 2000 honouring the inventor of the microprocessor, it seems fair that in the same year the Ig Nobels salute another high-tech innovator: Chris Niswander, for creating PawSense, software that sounds a warning when a cat walks across a keyboard. "It's surprising no one had ever thought of it, and it's surprising that someone bothered to think of it at all," says Marc Abrahams, creator and organiser of the awards and editor of the journal Annals of Improbable Research.
1. What are the qualities that should characterize a true scientist? Justify your opinion.
2. How can you explain the appearance of the Ig Nobel prizes awarded for ignoble (= bad and dishonest) scientific research? What do you think is the message that their creators convey to scientists all over the world? To what extent is this message a warning (if so, against what?), ora reprimand (if so, for what reasons?), or both?
Scientists and technology
Every scientific breakthrough
owes a debt to good old-fashioned brainpower. Newton's laws, Einstein's theory of relativity -the list is as long as that physics textbook you never read in high school. But often, science needs a boost, and for the past 20 years it's received a big one from technology. Sophisticated computer systems have let biologists unravel the genetic code of life, astronomers map the universe, and meteorologists improve the accuracy of their forecasts. But discoveries are an unending cycle: There's always something more we can learn about that thing we just discovered.
Today, American scientists are extracting an amazing amount of data at lightning speed, from experiments in the lab and from satellites in space. Rapid advances in technology have reenforced America's standing as the most sophisticated scientific community in the world.
But analyzing data still demands staggering computational abilities. We have the capability to accomplish some amazing feats, but not every feat, and many scientists find themselves waiting for technology to catch up. What's more, as , researchers become more dependent on technology to do their jobs, they need to interact more intensely with computer scientists and engineers.
Scientists have been making breakthroughs for centuries, but now they're using technology to share the fruits of their knowledge. The Human Genome Project, for example, has made its working draft available at no charge to anyone with Internet access.
Despite the enlightenment it brings, technology cannot answer the hardest question of all: How should we manage and apply the information that science tells us about ourselves? The solution is up to all of us, as we continue to be awestruck by great discoveries and struggle with their implications.
1. Give examples of some scientific breakthroughs and explain why you regard them as important.
2. What are, in your opinion, the conditions for a scientific discovery or invention to deserve breakthrough status?
GM Food
The techniques of modern genetics have made possible the direct manipulation of the genetic makeup of organisms. In agriculture, genetic engineering allows simple genetic traits to be transferred to crop plants from wild relatives, other distantly related plants, or virtually any other organism.
Recombinant DNA technology thus has brought a new precision to the process of crop development, which traditionally selects desired traits through crosses between crops and their wild relatives (a laborious and relatively imprecise method).
Genetic modification can be used in many ways to control a variety of traits of plants, and the consequences of one manipulation may be completely different from another based on the traits modified.
The appearance of genetically modified foods in the marketplace has resulted in a firestorm of public debate, scientific discussion, and media coverage. A variety of ecological and human health concerns come with the new advances made possible by genetic modification.
Benefits
Genetically modified foods (GM
foods or GMF) offer a way to quickly improve crop characteristics such as yield*, pest resistance, or herbicide tolerance, often to a degree not possible with traditional methods. Further, GM crops can be manipulated to produce completely artificial substances, from the precursors to plastics to consumable vaccines.
Risks
The power of genetic modification techniques raises the possibility of human health, environmental, and economic problems, including unanticipated allergic responses to novel substances in foods, the spread of pest resistance or herbicide tolerance to wild plants, inadvertent toxicity to benign* wildlife, and increas...
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