Breakthroughs of the 20th century

An unprecedented explosion of creativity, insight, and breakthrough occurred in every field of science in the last century. It started without airplanes, television, computers and ended with spacecraft on Mars and a walk on the Moon along the way, the structure of DNA and a model of the atom, advances in particle physics and cosmology as well as wireless Internet. These discoveries profoundly changed the way we understand the world and our place in it.

However, choosing the most important breakthroughs and inventions of the last 100 years is like choosing the most beautiful flower in a garden of roses. Picking the most important of anything is quite tricky. When one invention leads to the next, which is more important, the chicken or the egg? Some breakthroughs, like Einstein’s theory of relativity, redefined our understanding of the universe, while others had more impact on everyday life.

Since the 1940s, computers have provided a way to solve complex problems and penetrated nearly every aspect of our lives. The rise in the 1990s of the Internet, the World Wilde Web and e-mail are changing the way we gather information, communicate and shop. Programmable electronic devices of all sorts have come to spread to modern society to such a degree that future generations may well characterize the 20th century as the Computer Age.

Francis Crick and James Watson won a Nobel Prize after solving mystery of the human genetic coding called DNA in 1953. They discovered how the genes for recreating life were arranged in a double helix (spiral). Existing in every cell, DNA controls what we look like and our susceptibility and resistance to disease and tells our cells how to act to keep our bodies functioning.The first entirely synthetic plastic, Bakelite, was invented – by accident, as it happened – by American chemist Leo Baekeland in 1909. Early uses included radios, light sockets, jewelry, telephones, washing machines, fishing reels and guns. Later synthetics, like cellophane, nylon and Teflon, brought revolution of their own.

From the launching of the first satellite in 1957 – Sputnik – to man’s walk on the moon 12 years later to today’s sophisticated telescopes, shuttles and trips to Mars, space exploration has opened a new frontier. Lessons learned in space also have had implications for some very earthbound problems.

Technology that allowed images to be transmitted over wires was being developed in the 1920s. In 1932 the heart of the TV, the electron scanning tube was patented under the name of an iconoscope. Since that time TV has transformed how much and how quickly we see the world, and – more than radio or motion pictures – how we spend our leisure time.

Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity was another great 20th century breakthrough. It provides deep insights into the nature of gravity as well as the world’s understanding of itself. For the first time, his work proved that space can be curved and that time could differ from point to point. His theory also led to the conclusion that all the galaxies, and the whole Universe had originated in a Big Bang, thousands of millions of years in the past. And so the modern science of cosmology was born. By describing how light moves, Einstein created principles that led us to lasers and transistors. And his suggestions, via his special theory of relativity, that a little mass of matter could create tremendous energy led to the atomic bomb and the Nuclear Age. It is often claimed that no breakthrough has shown more negative and positive potential.

American astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the universe is expanding. Hubble made his great discoveries on the best telescope in the world at that time - the 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson in southern California. Today his name carried by the best telescope we have, not on Earth, but a satellite observatory orbiting our planet. The Hubble Space Telescope is continuing the work begun by Hubble himself to map our Universe, and producing the most remarkable images of distant galaxies ever seen.

Three American physicists received the 1956 Physics Nobel Prize for their joint invention of a transistor. Transistors played a key role in the advancement of electronics. Today’s computer microchips are tens or even hundreds of millions of transistors and derivative devices on a single wafer* of silicon. Without transistors, we wouldn’t have personal computers, cell phones, fax machines, modems or most other modern electronic devices.

(Adapted from the Internet sites)

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*a wafer of silicon - здесь: тех. кремневая плата, подложка

2. Explain what the highlighted words and expressions mean. Use a dictionary or consult your teacher if necessary.

Discuss

Ø Do you agree with the author’s choice of the most significant discoveries and inventions? Why?/Why not?

Ø Compare the lists of the breakthroughs you have made with that of the author’s.

Ø Do you think that scientific and technological achievements have really made the world a better place to live? Give reasons for your opinion.

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