As old as writing

Study help: Time lines The time line provides a study tool that allows you to organize information that is presented chronologically. This format allows you to review information as a sequence of events that must be understood and remembered in sequence. Time lines would be effective to use in classes in which you present historical, biological and other developments. To make the order clear, we mention dates and time, and we also use various links and connectives.

Written communication has been the centre of civilization for centuries. However, putting thoughts down in a written form wasn’t always easy or practical. Paper has a long history, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and continuing to the present day. It has largely survived the test of time but now it is facing a new challenge from its electronic equivalent. A particularly fruitful way to look at the evolution of paper is to study how it has changed over time, with an eye to what that trajectory might suggest about the future.

3500 BC	Sumerians use cuneiform alphabet, pressed in clay with a triangular stylus. Clay tablets were dried and/or fired for longevity. Some even had clay envelopes,' which were also inscribed.
3000 BC	Egyptians created Papyrus, a material made from thinly cut strips from the stem of Cyprus Papyrus plant.
2400 BC	Date of the earliest surviving papyrus scroll with writing.
200 BC	Both Greeks and Romans used wax tablets, framed and backed with wood, for note taking, orders, correspondence, and other temporary communication.
197-159 BC	In the Middle East, near Pergamum, large herds of cattle are raised for skins to be made into what we now call 'parchment.' It was the most popular material for manuscripts until the 12th century.
105 AD	Papermaking was invented in China by Ts'ai Louen. Material used: plant bark, discarded cotton and old fishnets.
300-700	Secret of papermaking crept out from China to Vietnam, Nepal, Korea and Japan.
751	Arabs became acquainted with papermaking and set paper mills.
1151	First papermaking mill was established in Spain
1300C.	Papermaking reached Southern Italy, where, until quite recently, some of the oldest handmade paper mills in Italy were operating in the Naples area. European papermakers focused not on raw materials but on its preparation thus improving the actual papermaking process.
1448	Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press.
1700 C.	Tremendous increase in papermaking led to a serious shortage of raw materials.
1843	Saxon Keller invented a groundwood pulp.
1854	Mellier Watt patented a chemical pulp.
Late 18-th	Nicholas Luis Robert created a machine that could produce a seamless length of paper. Paper production became industrialized with the advent of steam-driven paper making machines.
1950s	New material and fillers were used, new processed chemicals and dyers were developed.
	2000 – Britain-based company E Ink demonstrated//developed first flexible paper-like electronic ink display with flexible transistors;

(Adapted and abridged from the Internet sites www.papiermuseum.ch

http://www.wipapercouncil.org/invention.htm

http://www.hqpapermaker.com/paper-history/)

Functional language
The text	was written by …
The report	was presented at …
The article	was published in …
	comes from …
	reports on …
The text	discusses …
The report	describes …
The article	informs on/about …
The author	deals with …
	considers the problem of …
The information presented in the …	is very interesting because …
The report	is widely-discussed in the press because …
The problem	is the most up-to-date.
	of great
	of particular	interest
I find the information	of general	value	because …
	of little	significance
	of no

Discuss

• Are their many things/devices that underwent many changes as centuries pass?

• What were those changes brought about/on?///чем были вызваны эти изменения?//due to

• What changes have those improvements brought into being?//brought along?

Get real

2. Search the Internet and any popular science magazines to find information on the transformations of any device or tool in your field of science. Draw a timeline showing/illustrating the evolution of the device/tool you have chosen.//// OR Create a timeline to demonstrate the evolution of a specific invention or the evolution toward an invention in your field of science

Writing

Study help: Narrating and reporting Past tense is common. Chronological order is also common, but when we are writing about past events, it is necessary to be explicit about the order in which things happened.

Think of any device or tool in your field of science in your field of science. Has it changed greatly from the time it was introduced? Write a paragraph of about 100-150 words describing its evolution and give reasons for your choice of the device/tool. Make use of the timeline help box, functional language box.

In the Realm of Science

1. Read the following widely used//common abbreviations and think of their Russian equivalents

AI

VR

IT

GM

GPS

HDTV

HTML

DNA

R&D

2. Here are some of the well-known//widely-used//buzz scientific terms you should know.

Biodiversity – the existence of a large number of different kinds of animals and plants which make a balanced environment

Bot - a computer program that performs a particular task again and again many times

Breed – to make animals or plants produce young in a controlled way, in order to develop new and better types.

Cell – the smallest unit of living matter that can exist on its own

Cellular – connected with or consisting of the cells (often used in reference with a telephone system that works by radio instead of wires)

cyber - a prefix for things related to computers, especially the internet (e.g. cybercafe - a place where you can buy drinks and use computers at the same time)

Eco-friendly - not harmful to the environment

E-ink –

emissions - when gas, light, heat etc. are sent out or released (e.g. Cars create emissions which are dangerous for the environment)

Food additives – a substance that is added in small amounts to food, in order to improve it, give it colour, make it last longer

Gene therapy – a type of medical treatment that changes someone’s genes to help them get rid of a disease or cure a medical condition.

Genetic engineering – when scientists change the genes of a person, plant or animal in order to make it stronger, healthier, bigger, more attractive, etc.

Genome - the complete set of genes in a cell or living thing

Hi-definition - a system which provides very high quality images in more detail than ordinary images

Nanotech - short for nanotechnology - an area of science that deals with creating extremely small tools and machines

a placebo - a drug which has no physical effects, used in pharmaceutical tests to distinguish the physical effects of taking a real drug from its psychological effects.

a side effect - an extra, usually bad, occurrence caused by taking a drug. It is also used in non-medical English in a more neutral way.

Sci-fi – science-fiction

Teleconferencing – a way of having meeting between people who are in different places, using video cameras and computer systems that are connected to each other.

Wireless – not using wires

Unit 1. Progress Monitoring In this unit you have worked on the following vocabulary related to the topic “science progress//evolution//science terms” challenging situation to be instrumental to technological innovations to supply smb with smth to witness smth a key factor origins of smth a vital role evolution of smth crucial/critical to make progress to be indispensible for momentous change property enormous benefit main/major reasons to become visible to survive the test of time to provide the basis for to face smth (chalenges) to search for ways Tick (V) the points you are confident about and cross (X) the ones you need to revise.

Unit 2 Visions of the Future

Lead In

1. Do you agree with the statement that an optimist is someone who thinks the future is uncertain? Why?/Why not?

Are you optimistic about the future? Why?/Why not?

2. Take turns to read the statements about the future below. Do you agree with them? If not, what do you think will happen?

• Within fifty years many people will be living on the Moon and Mars.

• By the middle of the century scientists will have discovered a way to stop ageing and terminal diseases such as cancer, AIDS, etc.

• People will have developed their skills of telepathy and won’t need any other means of communication.

• Mankind may contact other living beings beyond our solar system sometime in the next century.

• Breakthroughs will also be made in research on cultivating human organs.

• We'll live longer, 120 years or more.

• We’ll crack the genetic code and doctors will be able to replace damaged DNA with healthy genes.

• We won’t need doctors as we’ll have micro machines circulating in our blood and repairing our organs.

• We won’t depend on the weather because we’ll learn to create favourable weather conditions.

Reading

1. Read the excerpts from the popular science articles and match them with the headlines below: (должны выглядеть, как выдержки/вырезки из газеты, т.п.)

1. Imagine you’re looking for romance at a party full of strangers. You’re nervous. Who are these people? How do you strike a conversation? Fortunately, you’re wired for social success: You’ve got a gizmo* that beams energy at microchips in everyone’s name tag. The chips beam back name, occupation, hobbies, obsessions, phobias, favorite movie, and availability for a date this Friday night – whatever. Dating made simple. This hasn’t quite happened in real life. But the world is already undergoing a revolution involving REID – radio frequency identification…

2. Imagine an army of tiny robots, each no bigger than a bacterium, swimming through your bloodstream. One platoon** takes continuous readings of blood pressure in different parts of your body; another monitors cholesterol; still others measure blood sugar, hormone levels and immune system activity… If the nanotech guys are right, a call to a family doctor a few decades from now could yield a high-tech variation on an old cliché: «Take two teaspoons of diagnostic sensors, and call me in the morning.”

3. Self-heating hats and glow-in the-dark sweatshirts might correctly be labeled as ‘smart’, but how about a shirt that ‘knows’ whether you are free to take a cell phone call or retrieve information from a 1000 page safety manual displayed on your inside pocket? Such items, termed ‘intelligent’ clothing to distinguish them from their lower-tech cousins, have proved…

4. … Soon teams of up to 40 robots could be employed as border security guards and outside airports. The patrolling robots will use Wi-Fi to share what they see, sniff and hear. They may even be able to triangulate*** the exact position of an intruder, or the source of plume of smoke from an explosion, something no single robot could do. The ideal is swarms of robots that need no central control. And McLurkins’s robots have proved the principle that, equipped with the right algorithms, swarms of hardware can have autonomous control. Last year, for instance…

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*gizmo – штуковина, вещица (о механизмах). (should go to Unit 1?)

**platoon – зд. взвод, отряд.

***triangulate – производить триангуляцию; делать тригонометрическую съемку.

A) Wearable Intelligence

B) The Radio Age

C) Robot Army Will Think for Itself

D) And will they go inside us?