The highest specific strength (i.e. the strength available from unit weight of material) now available comes from non-metals, such as fibreglass, and from metals, such as berillium and titanium, and new ultrahigh strength steels.

Fibre technology, in its modern form, is of more recent origin than plastics, but composites based on glass and/or on carbon fibres are already being applied to pressure vessels, to lorry cabs and to aircraft engines, and may well replace aluminium for the skin and structure of aircraft. An all-plastic car has been exhibited: nearly the whole car, except the engine and transmission is of plastics or reinforced plastics.

It is not only plastics and their reinforcement which are changing the materials scene. Ceramics too are gaining an increasing foothold. Their impact as tooling materials in the form of carbides, nitrides and oxides is also well known — cutting tools made of these materials are allowing machining rates which had previously been considered quite impossible,

Silicon nitride seems to offer particular promise for a wide variety of applications. Among these is liquid metal handling. Pumps for conveying liquid aluminium are now on trial which could revolutionize the foundry industry. Silicon nitride is also being tested for the bearing surfaces of the Wankel rotary engines which are being developed as potential replacements for the conventional piston engines of our motor cars. And ceramic magnets have replaced the traditional steel pole-piece plus copper field coil for providing the engineering field for many electric motors.

It is clear that the number of combinations of all kinds of original trends in the production of new materials is practically unlimited. This, in turn, opens new realms for the designing of still cheaper, effective and unthinkably perfected, compared to that we have today, machines and mechanisms.

Exercise 4. Make up questions to the text B.

The Negative and Positive Ecological Impacts of Technology

In today's society more people are working longer hours and utilizing more technology in their everyday life. As a result of these longer hours and increased use of technology, more energy is being consumed. (Hayden and Shandra 575) The impact that this is having on the environment is substantial in both negative and positive ways. It is hard to deny the benefits modern technology has produced for the world, in industry and in everyday life. With more and more technological breakthroughs, there have been many positive ecological impacts. However, it is also hard to deny that there are considerable negative impacts as well.

The Negative Ecological Impacts of Technology

One of the biggest problems the world faces today is the amount of energy that is consumed globally. With almost all of the world's businesses using computer technology to operate, the energy consumption of the industrial world is constantly

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on the increase. Countries such as the United States where the average employee works more than 40 hours a week, as a result, the energy consumption of a typical office in the United States is likely to be higher than that of an office in a country where the average work week does not exceed 40 hours. (Hayden and Shandra 576) Many offices run their computer systems on a mainframe server. This server is usually running 24 hours a day and is rarely shut down. To keep these servers from overheating, fans are installed within the hard drives. With the combined energy of the fans and the operation of the servers, the amount of energy being consumed is huge and results in a very high thermal count. (Courtney 48)

As it currently stands, many of the world's organizations have not begun to actively look for greener more ecologically sound methods for producing the energy they need. (Courtney 48) Today, many of these companies are not thinking of ways to improve their carbon footprint, yet it is an issue that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

But it is not just information communications technologies that have affected the ecology of the planet. A number of the ecological and environmental problems that are occurring are due to the rapid growth of new industrialized countries such as South Korea and China. (Jorgenson and Jorgenson 365) With so many countries now outsourcing their manufacturing to these industrialized nations, more and more factories are being constructed as a result. To run these factories, a large amount of energy consumption is needed as many of the factories operate 24 hours a day. The emissions these factories produce are amongst some of the highest in the world and contribute significantly to the amount noxious gases that pollute the air. (Hayden and Shandra 582)

Industry aside, there are many other ways technology has had a negative, ecological impact on the world. In the modern home, there are numerous high technology gadgets designed to make our lives easier and more pleasant. These gadgets range from the microwave to the electric kettle to refrigeration. One of the largest contributors to gases in the atmosphere are the gases produced by the combustion process used to produce energy. (Williams 36)

In the United States alone, 83% of this energy comes from a combustion process. (Williams 36) The combustion process is an effective way to produce energy for a wide range sources. The negative aspect of the combustion process however, is the amount of harmful gases that it produces. These gases can have a devastating impact on the ozone layer and contribute to what is known as the "Greenhouse Effect".

The Positive Ecological Impacts of Technology

Despite the claims that technology is to blame for many of the world's ecological problems, technology has also served to improve the shape of our planet. Since the rise of technology in the workplace, numerous ICT companies have been designing "greener technology" to combat the detrimental effect that computers and their accompanying technology have on the environment. One of the best known organizations is the Green Grid. (Courtney 49) The Green Grid is

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an organization that consists of IT companies and professionals from around the world. (Courtney, p. 49) The Green Grid is devising ways to improve the way energy is consumed by IT oriented businesses and their offices. (Courtney 49) One of the biggest achievements of the Green Grid is the Power Usage Effectiveness or, PUE, metric system. This system records data center energy consumption. How it works is by recording the energy consumption of a data center or mainframe server every 15 minutes. By recording in these 15 minute increments it helps those monitoring the data to notice if there are any energy fluctuations and if the data center systems are using an adequate amount of energy. (Courtney 49) The long term goal of the Green Grid is to introduce a standard system that allows business managers and IT operatives to compare the amount of the energy they are consuming and if necessary resolve ways to reduce it. (Courtney 49)

Another technology that is having positive impacts on the environment is low carbon technology. (Xie 1593) Low carbon technology is a form of technology that has been developed in China. Largely developed because of China's low carbon footprint in comparison to other developing countries, the low carbon technology aims to offset the amount of emissions polluting the air by using renewable fossil fuels. (Xie 1594)

Other countries can also diversify into new low carbon options, thanks to the advances in technology. Bio-fuels, solar power and wind power are no longer science fiction but science fact. They are more than capable of replacing some of the energy resources currently used that produce harmful gases. (Xie 1596) These new developments towards a low carbon future are only possible through our advancements in modern technology and are one way that technology is having a positive and beneficial effect on the environment.

One obvious way that technology is helping the ecology of the planet is by reducing the need for paper. With the ever increasing use of email and electronic communication, paperless offices are now a common occurrence in companies.

Another example is the replacement of laser printers with multi-function devices. Multi-function devices usually incorporate a printer, fax machine and photocopier all in one system. This not only saves space but saves the amount of electronic hardware that is permanently on standby in an office. (

Conclusion

As a result of the increase in the various forms of technology, there are many positive and negative ecological impacts on the planet. Through the rise in modern technology and increase in globalization, there is a high increase in energy consumption. This in turn has devastating effects on the planet's climate and air quality. However, without modern technology there would not be the capability to improve energy management systems or to develop environmentally friendly products such as bio-fuels. To make a progressive step towards reducing the amount of damage technology does to the environment, it is necessary to find ways to manage new technology responsibly so that it can continue to have positive ecological impacts.

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