ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Greenpeace has identified global climate change as one of the greatest threats to the planet. Last year at the climate summit in Kyoto, industrialized countries agreed to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases they pump into the atmosphere. But crucial details of this agreement are still under negotiation, and at the moment little real action is being taken to address the problem.
Meanwhile, billions of dollars keep being spent on the development of fossil fuels, instead of being invested into clean, renewable energy.
Greenpeace believes that a temperature increase of one degree centigrade is the absolute maximum that should be allowed. If we want to keep the climate change in this scale, three quarters of carbon already found can never be used as fuel. If we continue burning fossil fuels at present levels, the “safe” limit of one degree centigrade will be reached in just 40 years.
Despite this fact, oil companies, such as Shell, Mobil and BP, continue to extend their reach, exploring oil. And governments are encouraging it with favorable tax rates.
Greenpeace is therefore campaigning against new oil exploration. Fossil fuels can no longer be assumed to provide the bulk of our energy in future. Instead, investments need to be made into clean, renewable energy.
ALEXANDER POPOV, THE FIRST INVENTOR OF THE RADIO
Today, when powerful radio stations transmit the latest news all over the globe, and the remotest corners of the world have the possibility to listen in, we realize how great is the name of Alexander Popov, the first inventor of the radio.
One hundred years ago electrical engineering was a new science, and Alexander Popov took great interest in it. He had neither special equipment nor money to buy it, however he did not give up and managed to achieve results.
In 1896 a meeting took place in one of the auditoriums of the Petersburg University. The greatest scientists of the city were present there. Popov made a report and even demonstrated the first radiograms in the world.
After this the government gave him permission to make his experiments on board of a small ship.
At this time an Italian, Marconi, began making the same kind of experiments. He plagiarized Popov’s ideas to make money out of them. In London he found protection of rich businessmen and the English government. He received patent for his invention in 1897.
In 1903 Popov took part in the work of the first International Conference on the Wireless. Marconi was also present there, and tried to prove that he was the inventor of the radio.
Popov died in 1905. A few years after his death, the Russian Physical Society set up a commission which stated that Popov was the first inventor of the radio.
MOSCOW TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATICS
I study at the Moscow Technical University of Communications and Informatics as specialty “Information systems and technologies”.
The MTUCI is one of the largest academic-research centers aimed at education students and retraining professionals in the field of telecommunication, radio engineering and economics. It was founded in 1921 as Moscow Institute of Electrical Engineering and National Communication.
The teaching staff of the University consists of about seven hundred individuals employed as professors, assistant professors and lectures, of whom seventy per cent possess scientific degrees of Doctor of Science or Candidate of Science and have certified academic ranks of Professor or Assistant Professor. More than 15000 under- and postgraduate students, doctorants, trainees and learners both full time and correspondence study at the University.
The University participates in a number of federal projects in the field of telecommunications and informatics, projects of the Russian Foundation for Basic research and the Ministry of Education. Investigations and researches are held in 63 research laboratories and scientific department groups. A distance learning net in Russia has been developed and started to operate under the supervision of the University in collaboration with the largest communication service operators.
THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The Russian academy of Sciences is the higher scientific institution of Russian Federation uniting the most outstanding scientists of the country as its members. It includes such sections as Physics and Mathematics, Chemistry, Geology and Geography, Biology, Engineering Sciences and so on.
The Academy participates in establishing international scientific institutions and organizations. It convenes scientific sessions, congresses, conferences and meetings. The Russian Academy of Sciences also establishes and promotes scientific contacts with other scientific academies abroad.
The Academy consists of full members, corresponding members and foreign members.
The highest body of the Academy is the General Meeting consisting of the Academy’s full and corresponding members. Sessions of the General Meeting are convened whenever necessary but at least twice a year.
A Section of the Russian Academy of Sciences is a scientific and organizational center uniting within the Academy scientists of one or several fields of science. The highest body of the Section is the General Meeting of the Section.
The Academy exchanges publications with different scientific organizations.
CONFERENCES
For the first time, several key organizations and institutions of higher education have joined together to hold a conference.
The Chairman of the session starts the meeting with an opening address. The structure of the Conference is outlined in the program distributed beforehand. It includes sessions of several working groups or workshops. In addition there is a plenary session on the first day and general closing sessions later.
The plenary session includes invited lectures by prominent researchers who surveys recent developments in their respective areas.
Each participant has about twenty minutes for the normal presentation of his paper in working groups and about forty minutes for the lecture in the plenary session. Everyone has a chance to participate in the discussion and exchange of personal experience during the private discussions.
The Conference provides a stimulating ground for exchange of information and for the generation of new ideas.