Inventor

2. Match the names of the scientists and researchers with their achievements.

Discuss as a class.

1)Alfred Nobel	a) structure of DNA
2) Alexander Kolmogorov	b) digital compact disk
3) Norbert Wiener	c) dynamite
4) Watson & Crick	d) MS disk operating system
5) Edwin Hubble	e) 1st personal computer
6) Tim Berners-Lee	f) underwater exploration
7) Bill Gates	g) proof of expanding universe
8) Albert Einstein	h) Linux operating system
9) Ed Roberts	i) theory of relativity
10) Alfred Wagener	j) cybernetics
11) Reynold Johnson	k) algorithmic complexity theory
12) Linus Torvalds	l) magnetic disk drive
13) James Russell	m) continental drift
14) Jacques-Yves Cousteau	n) the World Wide Web

3. Read the text to learn more about Alfred Nobel’s life and work.

Double-edged sword

The double-edged sword of discovery is exemplified by the life of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel, who left instructions in his will to recognize people whose work was of the greatest benefit to mankind.

Nobel made a fortune by inventing dynamite, which greatly improved the safety of explosives. He initially hoped that his invention would put an end to war, by making it so horrible that no one would want to engage in it. He was wrong – fundamentally wrong -- but the wealth generated from his invention did create the Nobel Peace Prize.

A meeting with Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero, inventor of nitroglycerine, led to Nobel's invention of dynamite. Because nitroglycerine and its production were difficult to control - an explosion killed Nobel's brother Emil in 1864 - Nobel tried adding different substances to make it safer. He eventually mixed it with silica, making a paste that could be shaped into rods and inserted into drilling holes. In 1867, he patented this material, calling it dynamite.

His invention was a boon* during the era of rapidly growing industries and cities, because dynamite reduced the cost of blasting rock and drilling tunnels. It was a profitable one, too, and Nobel became a very wealthy man. In fact, Nobel held the patent for some 600 inventions, including dynamite.

He died in Italy on December 10, 1896. In his will, he directed that his estate - about $4 million, the equivalent to about $173 million today -- be used for prizes in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and peacekeeping.

With the exception of the Peace Prize, all Nobel Prizes are awarded at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden.

Nobel specified that prizes in science and literature were to be awarded by a Swedish committee, while the peace prize was to be given out by a Norwegian panel. So it has been more than a century since Nobel issued his orders.

Each year, thousands of international experts and research institutes are invited to nominate candidates, and previous Nobel Prize winners also may submit nominations. The nominations are carefully investigated. Then, the committees present a selection of possible candidates to the prize-awarding institutions, and a vote is taken. The year's laureates are announced immediately after the vote.

The Nobel Prizes have tremendous prestige and offer significant financial rewards. The annual Nobel Prize ceremonies last for a week in December in Stockholm and Oslo, culminating on December 10^th - the anniversary of Nobel's death.

(Adapted form http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/nobel.100/overview.html)

----------------------

*a boon – благо, благодеяние

4. Answer the questions.

1. How many inventions did Nobel register?

2. Who inspired Nobel to invent dynamite?

3. How did the world benefit from Nobel’s invention of dynamite?

4. What problems did this invention bring about?

5. Who awards Nobel Prizes in science and literature?

6. What time of year does the ceremony take place? Why?

Discuss

• Why do you think the text is entitled “Double-edged sword”? What idea is emphasized with such a title?

• Name the most outstanding discoveries/inventions in your subject area. What are their strong and weak points?

• Name the most outstanding scientists of the 20^th century in your subject area. What was their contribution to scientific research?

• What Nobel Prize winners from Russia do you know? In what fields of science did they get their awards?

Get real

Search the Internet or popular science magazines. Find information about national and international awards in your field of science. Report back your findings to the class.

Listening

1. Look at the words below and say which field(s) of science they refer to.

2. What do you know about polythene and its uses in our everyday life?

3. You are going to listen to Anthony Willbourn talking about the discovery of polythene. As you listen, mark the statements below T for ‘true’ or F for ‘false’. Correct the false ones.

1. Anthony Willbourn is a journalist. ( )

2. He was lucky to meet and talk to people that discovered polythene. ( )

3. A team of researchers discovered polythene in 1939. ( )

4. The researchers were investigating the phenomena at high pressures. ( )

5. Their discovery was made by accident. ( )

6. The experiments were carried out in a well-equipped laboratory. ( )

7. Scientists failed to find practical applications of polythene at that

time. ( )

8. The substance was launched into mass production the month after the war broke out. ( )

9. Radars helped the British aircraft, RAF, to contain Luftwaffe attacks. ( )

Speaking

Work in small groups. Think of any discovery or invention made in your field of science in the 20^th century. Which do you think has been of major importance for the advance of science and technological development? Give reasons for your choice of the discovery or invention. Tell the class about them.

In the Realm of Science

1. Learn how to say the singular and plural nouns.

phenomenon [fi'nɔminən]	phenomena [fi'nɔminə]
medium ['mi:diəm]	media ['mi:diə]
radius ['reidjəs]	radii ['reidiai]
analysis [ə'næləsis]	analyses [ə'næləsi:z]
crisis ['kraisis]	crises ['kraisi:z]
formula ['fɔ:mjulə]	formulae ['fɔ:mjuli:]
nucleus ['nju:kliəs]	nuclei ['nju:kliai]
axis ['æksis]	axes ['æksi:z]
index ['indeks]	indices ['indisi:z]

2. Read and remember the prefixes that show various sizes. Add more words to each group.

Number	Prefix	Symbol	Example	Number	Prefix	Symbol	Example
10 1	deka- [ʹdekə-]	da	decade	10 -1	deci- [ʹdesɪ-]	d	decilitre
10 2	hecto- [ʹhektəυ-]	h	hectometer	10 -2	centi- [ʹsentɪ-]	c	centigram
10 3	kilo- [ʹkɪləυ-]	k	kilofoot	10 -3	milli- [ʹmɪli-]	m	millibar
10 6	mega- [ʹmegə-]	M	megabyte	10 -6	micro- [ʹmaɪkrəυ-]	u (Greek µ)	microinch
10 9	giga- [ʹgɪgə-]	G	gigaflop	10 -9	nano- [ʹnænəυ-]	n	nanoampere
10 12	tera- [ʹterə-]	T	teraohm	10 -12	pico- [ʹpi:kəυ-]	p	piconewton
10 15	peta- [ʹpetə-]	P	petajoule	10 -15	femto- [ʹfemtəυ-]	f	femtosecond
10 18	exa- [ʹeksə-]	E	exavolt	10 -18	atto- [ʹætəυ-]	a	attohertz
10 21	zetta- [ʹzətə-]	Z	zettakelvin	10 -21	zepto- [ʹzeptəυ-]	z	zeptomole
10 24	yotta- [ʹjɔtə-]	Y	yottawatt	10 -24	yocto- [ʹjɔktəυ-]	y	yoctocalorie

(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 7^th edition)

Unit 2 Progress Monitoring In this unit you have worked on the vocabulary related to the topic “Evolution of the Natural Sciences” to make a breakthrough dramatically/essentially/profoundly the advancement of electronics technological achievements to have tremendous/great/practical effect on sth double-edged sword discovery or invention scientist/philosopher/explorer/inventor/ discoverer to be of the greatest benefit to mankind programmable electronic devices to open a new frontier to find practical applications to launch a satellite to experiment with different techniques to solve the mystery of human genetic code to transmit images over wires to redefine sth/smb’s understanding to show positive or negative potential deep insights into the nature of sth to solve complex problems to nominate candidates for a prize Tick (V) the points you are confident about and cross (X) the ones you need to revise.

Unit 3 Review

1. Science students often have to work in a laboratory. A lot of funny and ridiculous things happen there. Make up a ‘chain story’ to describe one of them.

Example: Peter got into a lot of trouble a couple of days ago. The trouble began

at his chemistry lab class.

Cue: While …………………

Student A: While the teacher was explaining the procedure of the experiment he was looking out of the window and daydreaming.

Cue: When …………………

Student B: When students started heating the substances he by mistake took the wrong test tube. He was nearly frightened to death to see the substance going out of the tube and splitting on the desk and his clothes. The desk got stains on it and his jeans got holes in them.

Cue: ………before………..

Student C: The teacher was very angry with him, though he was glad Peter had remembered to wear safety glasses before starting the experiment. Anyway, Peter’s lab work was a complete failure and now he has to …

Cue: …………………

Student D: ………………..

Cue words:

when after before as soon as already while by the time never then next for

since because after that later

2. Use the word in blocks to form one word that fits in the gap in the sentence.

Any __________ data should be confirmed experimentally.	THEORY
I’ve always wanted to be a ___________.	SCIENCE
What ____________ reaction is going on now?	CHEMISTRY
Hubble’s brilliant ___________ was that the red shift of galaxies was directly proportional to the distance of the galaxy from earth.	OBSERVE
Nicolai Lobachevsky was a great Russian __________.	MATHEMATICS
Livingstone was the first European to make an ___________ of the Zambezi river.	EXPLORE
I’m afraid this device isn’t accurate enough to do all necessary ____________.	MEASURE
The ____________ of America forms the beginning of a new period, both in modern history and in modern geography.	DISCOVER
I’m sure this new digital device will find widespread ____________.	APPLY
The product of two numbers is called ____________.	MULTIPLY
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for __________ Black Holes.	INVESTIGATE

3. Divide into five teams. Each team completes word webs for the words experiment, accomplishment, development, laboratory and technology using its own colour marker. The word webs are rotated every one minute, then the results are checked in class. The team that suggests more combinations than the others is the winner.

4. Explain the similarity and difference between these words.

to invent to patent

experiment observation

technology technique

award reward

to be nominated for a prize to be awarded a prize

5. Read these sayings. Choose one or two you agree or disagree with and discuss them with a partner.

• “Our inventions mirror our secret wishes”. Lawrence George Durrell.

• “The guns and bombs, the rockets and the warships, all are symbols of

human failure”. Lyndon B. Johnson.

• “Accident is the name of the greatest of all inventors”. Mark Twain

• “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess”. Sir Isaac Newton.

6. Work in pairs. Think of three words with each prefix from the list below.

tele-	3) mono-	8) semi-
aero-	4) bi-	9) multi-
photo-	5) super-	10) dec-
micro-	6) extra-	11) trans-
auto-	7) hydro-

7. Take turns to dictate and note down the following measurements.

8. See how quickly you can find the answer to this rather long sum.

Four add two, divide by three, subtract one, multiply by eight, take away

four, times three, plus two, minus four, halved, equals what?

Each one teach one

Work on your own. Make a list of ten international and ‘false friends’ words. Ask your fellow student to sort them out.

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth.

We are all crew.”

Marshall McLuhan