Say whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE. 1. The atomic clock may lose or gain about 10 seconds in some 138 million years

1. The atomic clock may lose or gain about 10 seconds in some 138 million years. 2. The performance of the UK’s atomic clock is based on the measurement of the energy required to change the spin of caesium atoms. 3. The work of the UK’s and the world’s clocks can be compared with the work of the NPL – CsF2 clock which ensures that they are all ticking at the same time. 4. There are five “primary frequency standards” in different countries. 5. The international time standard is kept by a network of over 500 clocks all over the world.

2. Give synonyms to the following words from the text:

accuracy, to require, a set of, to accomplish, correct, nearly, to gather, detailed, to collide, implication, to maintain.

5. Researchers Rev Up Electric Nano-Motors

to rev up	прискорювати(сь)	a pivot	точка обертання
an obstacle	перешкода	capacity	здатність
a breakthrough	прорив	to figure out	зрозуміти
eventually	зрештою	to attain	досягти
a feat	подвиг	to pinpoint	точно вказати
a clump	група	fruition	реалізація

Scientists have created a molecule-sized motor that runs on electricity, as opposed to similar-sized motors running on chemicals or light. The ability to control a single-molecule motor could lead to innovations in more precise medical and engineering technology and could lead to tinier, advanced digital devices. Many obstacles stand in the way of practical applications, however.

Researchers at Tufts University announce they’ve created an electrical motor many thousands of times smaller than the width of a single human hair, a breakthrough they claim could eventually lead to innovations in healthcare and technology.

The microscopic motor is the size of a single molecule and is electrically charged, an innovative feat since previous single-molecule-sized motors were powered by chemicals or light.

The distinction is important. With a light or chemically charged motor, scientists struggle with precision in adding chemicals to a clump of trillions of molecules. In that scenario, the practicality of charging the motors decreases.

The Tufts research showed that electricity could be used with precision and accuracy to control a single molecule, even when additional molecules sat just a nanometer away.

An interesting thing would be to get this into opto-electronics, where you are interfacing light with electronics. With the tiny chargers on the motors, you have a tiny rotating motor and you could create something that would give off light, or a tiny microwave generator or tiny antenna.

The research, published in a recent edition of Nature Nanotechnology, was made possible thanks to huge advances in research technology such as the scanning tunneling microscope, which uses electrons instead of light.

The scientists sent an electrical current through a butyl methyl sulfide molecule using the tip of the microscope as the molecule rested on a copper surface. In that position, a single atom worked as a pivot.

From there, the scientists could measure the molecule as it spun to prove the movements were directed by the electrical charge.

While the implications could be far-reaching in the technological field chemistry experts say applications are still a long way off.

One reason for that is the extreme temperature needed to measure the molecules as they spin. Since higher temperatures increase the rate at which the motors charge, the scientists had to keep the molecules in a chilly environment.

Even at 100 Kelvin, or about negative 279 degrees Fahrenheit, the molecules spin at an astonishing million spins per second. To have the capacity to measure what was going on, the research team had to keep temperatures closer to 5 degrees Kelvin, or about negative 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

To apply the information found in the study to practical applications in medical or engineering fields, scientists must figure out how to operate at easier-to-attain temperatures.

If advances in technology do come through, the motors will be used in medical devices, perhaps to pump fluid through the pipes to better pinpoint a spot where medicine is headed or to sense the local environment for a clearer diagnosis. Those applications, though, are far from fruition.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30