The progress of science in the 20th century

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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Exercise 1. Name the sciences in which the greatest achievements have been made. Read the text & add more information. Compare your answers with a partner.

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE 20th CENTURY

Our century has seen great changes in the life and living conditions of people. Less than a hundred years ago, many of the things that we do now seemed impossible. No one could imagine that people could fly or that we could listen to music thousands of miles away.

You can clearly see that technology affects everything from travel and health to music and communications. When you wake up with your alarm clock, open the refrigerator for a glass of milk, get on the school bus or write down your homework you're using technology! Someone thought of the idea, did something about it, and now we all benefit from it.

The history of technology goes all the way back to when a man first began to use stone knives to hunt for food. People discovered how to use metal and soon they were creating weapons, jewelers, and tools. Wheels, levers, screws, and pulleys are technologies that we still use today.

Imagine a man of Dickens' time in our modern world. In the sky, he sees people flying in tremendous "birds". At home, we turn a switch and the dark room immediately becomes light. But the greatest surprise is the radio and the television set standing in a corner of the room.

Today, radio and television serve many purposes besides pleasure and entertainment. They help us to find fish in the sea and to land airplanes in bad weather or at night. They control the work of large numbers of machines in industry, and they hold space-ships in their orbits. With the help of radio and television scientists photographed the far side of the Moon.

Among the most important scientific discoveries are new medicines. Many illnesses that people died of fifty years ago are no longer dangerous. People today have a better chance of living long.

The little electron is the giant of modern times. Scientists are moving forward towards a better understanding of its laws. The wonderful bird in the Russian legend could warn people of coming danger. Electronic means were used during World War II to learn of coming airplane attacks, and many lives were saved.

Electrons do wonderful things in calculating machines; which besides working hundreds of times faster than any mathematician, can feel, touch, smell, hear and see. It is difficult to imagine how we could calculate the orbits of sputniks and spaceships without using electronic calculating machines. More and more often, we hear of scientist using these machines in new fields, it was with the help of an electronic calculating machine that scientists succeeded in reading the language of the Mayas, the ancient people of Mexico. Scientists of many countries had tried in vain to do this for many, many years. The machines can tell us what to plant in fields under different climatic conditions, they can tell us when an earthquake is coming, and where.

In the old days, chemists tried to make gold in their laboratories. The synthetic products created by chemists today are more wonderful and more important than gold. Chemistry has had a new birth in our century, especially organic chemistry. The new light clothes that are so popular everywhere in the world — dresses and blouses, shirts and socks, coats and jackets — are often made out of synthetic, man-made materials based on cellulose. Beautiful paints, plastics, cosmetics and many medicines are all based on cellulose. What is most important is that there is cellulose in all trees, vegetables and fruits; cellulose is easily found everywhere in nature in all things that grow. Every day chemists are finding new uses for this wonderful material.

You have to keep your eyes open and be willing to think of a fresh approach to solving a problem. You also have to learn from your mistakes. In fact, many technologies were discovered completely by accident! John Walker was trying to scrape some chemicals off a stick when they burst into flame — and he ended up with a match. Robert Green ran out of cream for his drinks, so he used vanilla-ice cream instead — and invented the ice-cream soda. Harry Brearly realized that some metal in his scrap pile didn't rust — and so used that recipe to make stainless steel.

Mention often leads to another discovery. Writing led to printing, which led to books, newspapers, and magazines. Glass led to lenses, which led to spectacles, microscopes, and telescopes. Many new technologies are built on old ones, that is why we have so many tools today.

Technology sounds wonderful, doesn't it? And in many ways, it is. But while technology has helped us in many ways, there's another side to new technology — one that many people don't like. New chemicals and pesticides can pollute the environment, and may be dangerous for people. Some new technologies like early cars weren't very safe. And some people think animals shouldn't be used in medical experiments.

There's another reason people may not want new technology. Back in 1812, a group of people called Luddites destroyed the machines in the factories where they worked because they were afraid the machines would take away their jobs. Today, there are still people who fear the changes that are brought about by new technologies.

But for all the jobs that technology has taken away, new ones have opened up. Thanks to technology, we enjoy air conditioning, movies, space shuttles, antibiotics, and much, much more.

The twenty-first century is already here. What new technology we look forward tomorrow?

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