For your topics about science:

1. Discoveries and inventions that changed the world

1. It's difficult to overestimate the role of science and technology in our life. They accelerate the development of civilization and help us in our co-operation with nature. Scientists investigate the laws of the universe, discover the secrets of nature, and apply their knowledge in practice improving the life of people. Let's compare our life nowadays with the life of people at the beginning of the 20th century. It has changed beyond recognition. Our ancestors hadn't the slightest idea of the trivial things created by the scientific progress that we use in our everyday life. I mean refrigerators, TV sets, computers, microwave ovens, radio telephones, what not. They would seem miracles to them that made our life easy, comfortable and pleasant. On the other hand, the great inventions of the beginning of the 20th century, I mean radio, airplanes, combustion and jet engines have become usual things and we can't imagine our life without them. A century is a long period for scientific and technological progress, as it's rather rapid. Millions of investigations, the endless number of outstanding discoveries have been made. Our century has had several names that were connected with a certain era in science and technology. At first it was called the atomic age due to the discovery of the splitting of the atom. Then it became the age of the conquest of space when for the first time in the history of mankind a man overcame the gravity and entered the Universe. And now we live in the information era when the computer network embraces the globe and connects not only the countries and space stations but a lot of people all over the world. All these things prove the power and the greatest progressive role of science in our life. But every medal has its reverse. And the rapid scientific progress has aroused a number of problems that are a matter of our great concern. These are ecological problems, the safety of nuclear power stations, the nuclear war threat, and the responsibility of a scientist. But still we are grateful to the outstanding men of the past and the present who have courage and patience to disclose the secrets of the Universe.

2. Great Inventions

Television (1920s)

The invention that swept the world and changed leisure habits for countless millions was pioneered by Scottish-born electrical engineer John Logie Baird. It had been realised for some time that light could be converted into electrical impulses, making it possible to transmit such impulses over a distance and then reconvert them into light.

Motor Car (late 19th Century)

With television, the car is probably the most widely used and most useful of all leisure-inspired inventions. German engineer Karl Benz produced the first petroldriven car in 1885 and the British motor industry started in 1896. Henry Ford was the first to use assembly line production for his Model Т car in 1908. Like them or hate them, cars have given people great freedom of travel.

Electricity

The name came from the Greek word for amber and was coined by Elizabeth I's physician William Gilbert who was among those who noticed that amber had the power to attract light objects after being rubbed. In the 19th century such great names as Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, Alessandro Volta and Andre Marie Ampere all did vital work on electricity.

Photography (early 19th Century)

Leonardo da Vinci had described the camera obscura photographic principle as early as 1515. But it was not until 1835 that Frenchman Louis Daguerre produced camera photography. The system was gradually refined over the years, to the joy of happy snappers and the despair of those who had to wade through friends' endless holiday pictures.

Telephone (1876)

Edinburgh-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention of the telephone in 1876. The following year, the great American inventor Thomas Edison produced the first working telephone. With telephones soon becoming rapidly available, the days of letter-writing became numbered.

Computer (20th Century)

The computer has been another life-transforming invention. British mathematician Charles Babbage designed a form of computer in the mid-1830s, but it was not until more than a century later that theory was put into practice. Now, a whole generation has grown up with calculators, windows, icons, computer games and word processors, and the Internet and e-mail have transformed communication and information.

Aeroplane

The plane was the invention that helped shrink the world and brought distant lands within easy reach of ordinary people. The invention of the petrol engine made flight feasible and the American Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903.

3. Moving with the Gear Train of Modern Science

By Ajeet Khurana

Fire was the first discovery and wheel was the first inven­tion. Since that time, we have travelled far. Science has taken us to territories we could not have imagined some centuries ago. 20^th century was when science really came into its own. Half of our present day inventions were unthinkable a century ago.

Science had brought great laurels in every field but the one place where it has really shone is technology. Today, we have access to some of the most advanced technical inventions. A few centuries ago, a mastermind called Leonardo da Vinci made the first blue-print for an aeroplane. Today, even the economy class, domestic seaters have become passe. It is time for the new inventions.

Some time ago, NASA launched a Space Shuttle called Dis­covery. Imagine, a metallic object run on hydrogen fuel, in space, a thousand miles away, bringing us news, data and new­er means of improvement.

It's not only about the air.

Vehicles which run on land are packed with newer inven­tions by the day. The Lamborghini, Masseratti, and Maybachs have technology written all over them. These are the mechani­cal devices which have made us a Nano-race.

We have come into a digital age. Computers have given way to laptops and then to notebooks and palmtops. Picture-tube televisions have metamorphosed into LCDs and Plasma.

The mobiles have turned into a complete island of entertain­ment and communication.

Internet has brought the impossible within means. Web has made online education possible through its familiarised terri­tory. A teacher in Spain can teach a student in Nigeria with the help of Elluminate whiteboards and Voice Chat modules.

Mathematicians such as John Nash, scientists like Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, and many others have turned the tables of the world.

Science has really beautified life. Today, you can visit your distant relative on the other side of the globe within a day. You can look at an award ceremony held in London, sitting in a shel­ter in Algeria. You can put thousand and thousand pages of text into a pin size chip and still have plenty of space left.

You cannot come back from the dead but that's probably the only thing you cannot do. The borders of time and space are certainly shrinking.