Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Pictures
- Identify the inventions.
Which science or industry are they connected with? Say what you know about each.
- Look at the pictures of the
technological inventions of the 2Oth century. How have they changed with the advance of technology-compare their size, quality...? Which of
them has had the greatest effect on people’s life? What have they enabled people to do that they couldn‘t do before?
- Do you recognise the machines/equipment in these pictures? Describe them, discuss what they are used for and say whether you have any
experience of using them. Put the following inventions in your order of importance.
- Look at the
following inventions and discoveries and decide which field of knowledge they cover. Then choose those which you think contributed most to
improvement in living standards. Make your own list according to their importance.
Discussion
1. Give your
opinion on scientific progress. How had science affected our lives in the last two hundred years? Consider these branches of science –
communication, entertainment, housing, medicine, transport, war, work.
- What do you think of genetic engineering, including
cloning and genetically altered food stuffs?
- Do you think radio and telecommunications inventions have improved the quality
of our life?
- How can TV have a negative effect on family life?
5. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of
technology at home.
- What are the benefits of TV watching?
- Are computers an essential part of life?
- What inventions have improved the quality of your life? Why?
- Compare life in the past with that at present. Think about
household appliances, travelling, communication technologies and entertainment opportunities.
- Name the most remarkable
inventions and discoveries of all parts of life. Think about both their advantages and disadvantages.
- Think of technological
inventions of the 20th century. Which of them has had the greatest effect on the life of mankind? Are they a curse or a blessing?
- How will the advance in technology affect people’s life in the future? How will teaching and learning change? What will the visit to
the doctor’s look like?
- Do you agree with building nuclear power stations as a source of energy? Why? Why not?
- Which inventions do you consider threatening for mankind?
- Put the following inventions in your order of importance: airplane,
telephone, car, TV, radio, mobile phone, computer, penicillin, atomic bomb, Internet, printing press.
- What kind of
electrical appliances do you have at home? What do you use them for? Can you name all the appliances used in the kitchen?
- Have
you got access to a computer? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using computers?
- What do you use the Internet for?
List the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet.
- Which modern inventions help most to make your life easier? Choose three
and give reasons.
- Which professions will be affected by the advance of technology?
- Who do you think is the most
important inventor of all times? What did he invent?
Role-plays and simulations
- You
are on holiday and have just remembered that you wanted to record a TV programme, but you forgot to set the VCR before your departure.
Call your friend who is watering your plants while you are away, and ask him to tape the programme for you. Give him instructions using the
following information and phrases: day and time of programme, which channel it is on, where the blank cassette is, how to set the VCR, use the
remote control, select the channels, key in the time. /Role-play/
- It is your birthday next week. You really long for
a mobile phone, but your mother is against. Try to persuade her using reasonable arguments. /Role-play/
3. Explain why
children shouldn’t spend too much time playing computer games. /Simulation/
- Read the following statements and choose one
you do not agree with. First think about arguments you will use.
- Mobile phones are irritating. People should not be allowed to use
them in public places.
- Mobile phones are an essential part of life, like computers.
- Mobile phones are a fashion accessory and are not
really necessary. /Simulation/
- Choose 3 machines/equipment/electrical appliances. Do not name them, describe them,
discuss what they are used for and say whether you have any experience of using them. /Simulation/
- Tell your partner
about an electronic device that you own /e.g. mobile phone, MP3-player, video game/ or about an electrical appliance that you have at
home. Describe the following: appearance, features, performance, price, etc. Let your partner ask questions. Give as much information as
possible. /Role-play/
Vedecko-technický rozvoj
- život kedysi
a dnes /výdobytky vedy a techniky a životná úroveň, prístroje v domácnosti/
- pozoruhodné objavy vedy
a techniky
- veda a technika na pomoc človeku /elektrotechnika, informatika, jadrová fyzika,.../
- zneužitie vedy a techniky /zbrane, závislosti, násilie, konzumná spoločnosť, civilizačné choroby/
- človek a veda a technika v budúcnosti /nahradenie učiteľa počítačom, deti a počítače, únik
mozgov/
A.
Mankind has come a long way during its existence. In the pre-historic
times, people´s lives and their need were simple – everything needed for life was at hand. People hunted for food, and made tools from stones and
simple clothes to protest them from the cold. The only tool they had was the human hand, and it was an excellent tool.
Step by step, people
started changing the world, trying to make their lives easier and more comfortable. They invented the wheel, started transporting goods and traded
precious materials. They learnt how to use water for energy and built water mills. Later, windmills were built to use wind energy. Important
discoveries, exploration and inventions came in the 15th and 16th centuries – the discovery and exploration by Europeans of new continents, such as
America, Asia, Africa, the invention of the printing press, and the developments in the true sciences like astronomy, philosophy, medicine and
biology. All this resulted in new thinking.
Mankind started down a road of progress that he could not get off. The 18th and 19th centuries
witnessed the industrial revolution that completely changed the world. It brought important inventions: the steam engine /J.Watt/, the electric
light bulb /T.A.Edison/, the electric motor /M.Faraday/ and the first petrol-driven car /G.Daimler, K.Benz/. Thanks to these inventions, small
manufacturing businesses changed into large factories and hand-made good were replaced by machine-made products. Mass production started and all
sorts of goods became cheaper and more available to more people. Traditional materials /wood, stone, steel, silver, gold, copper/ were still used ,
but as technologies improved new and cheaper materials were introduced, e.g. rubber, glass, paper and later plastics.
The development of
science and technology want on rapidly and the 20th century brought such inventions as the airplane, the TV, the computer, the mobile phone, the
Internet and the videophone. Research in medicine brought new drugs and vaccines that prolong people’s lives, research in chemistry brought
pesticides and fertilizers that enable us to plant more crops for the constantly growing population of Earth.
At the beginning of the 3rd
millennium, science and technology have a deep influence on our lives. They influence communication; we can talk to our friends or relatives in any
part of the world using phones, satellites or computers. We can take part in online discussions, teleconferences and even do our shopping from home
by mail order. These are the advantages of new technologies. The problem, however, is that we spend less time with our families ad friends. We
communicate with a computer, not with real people.
New technologies have also made some transactions easier. Sometimes, it´s as of we don´t
even need paper money or coins. Using smart cards /cards that carry a lot of information on a magnetic strip/ like credit cards or phone cards is
simple and comfortable and you can easily get used to it. Many people don´t like these cards because they think confidential information can get to
the wrong people and be misused.
In the past few decades, we´ve witnessed a rapid development of new technologies in medicine. New medical
equipment, like the lasers used in surgery or microsurgery, is more efficient and shortens the amount of time a person has to spend in hospital after
having an operation.
The food industry has also been influenced by scientific and technological advances. Genetic engineering is used to
produce more and better grains, fruits and vegetables. People used to think it was a good idea, but today public opinion has changed and some people
refuse to buy genetically modified food, as they are afraid of its side effects.
New technologies are everywhere, even surrounding us at home.
Our households are equipped with modern appliances, such as refrigerators and freezers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dishwashers, microwave
ovens, computers, TV sets, stereos and DVD and video players. All these appliances and entertainment equipment have made our lives much easier and
more comfortable that the lives of our great grandparents. It makes one wonder what life will be like for our great grandchildren and what wonders
science and technology will come up with for them.
B.
New inventions and discoveries /9th – 18th
century/
Printing – Johannes Gutenberg developed the first mechanical printing machine in the 1440s. The first printed book was the
Bible in 1456 with the run of 150 copies. The invention of printing was to have a great effect on European society. It contributed to the expansion
of learning and allowed for the faster propagation of new ideas.
Modern science in Europe began in a period of great upheaval. The Protestant
Reformation, the discovery of the Americans by Christopher Columbus, the Fall of Constantinople, but also the re-discovery of Aristotle in the 12th
and 13th centuries, presaged /predznamenať/ large social and political changes.
The telescope was invented by Dutchman Hans Lippershey. In
1610 Galileo Galilei was able to prove that the Earth revolved around the Sun. This confirmed the ideas of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. In
1543 Copernicus wrote his book, in which there was the thesis that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
The first industrial
revolution /1760 -1840/
Steam power – James Watt is recognized as the inventor of the steam engine in 1765.
Photography –
The French inventor Niepce produced the first permanent picture using bitumen of Judea spread on a pewter plate. His technique was improved by Louis
Daguerre by using compounds of silver, the basis of modern photography.
The second industrial revolution /19th century – 1945/
In 1867, the Swedish chemist Alfred Bernard Nobel invented a safer way of using nitro-glycerin in the production of dynamite. In
1869, Dmitri Mendeleyev composed his periodic table of elements.
The French biologist Louis Pasteur was able to link microorganisms with
disease, thus revolutionizing medicine. He also devised one of the most important methods in the preventive medicine when in 1880; he produced a
vaccine against rabies. Pasteur also invented the process known as pasteurization, to help the spread of disease through milk and other foods.
Perhaps the most important theory in science is the theory of evolution by natural selection by the British naturalist Charles Darwin in his book On
the Origin of Species.
Albert Einstein published the special theory of relativity. Fleming discovered penicillin.
Thomas Edison´s
electric light bulb was one of the most important inventions of this period.
The telephone is an invention that made money. Alexander Graham
Bell was the first in the race to patent a machine that you could use to talk to someone on the other side of the world.
Until the 1860s all
motor cars were steam driven. German inventor Nicolas Otto created an improved internal combustion engine and this is the way cars work today. In
1885, the first car, Benz Patent Motorwagen, was developed by Karl Benz.
Communications – The German physicist Heinrich Hertz was the first
to prove that radio waves existed but it was Marconi who set up the world’s first radio stations to transmit and receive Morse code. Te first
clear television pictures to be transmitted were sent by Scottish-born John Baird Television Company Limited and worked for programmes for the
BBC.
The third scientific-technical revolution
Plastics were developed for the first time. In 1949, the first
practical programmed electronic computer ran mathematical problems. It fitted into one room. In the 1960s, the electronic silicon chip was
invented. In 1984, the CD was born and the digital revolution began. Other important inventions and discoveries of this period were mobile phone,
web, the discovery of the structure of DNA, genetic engineering, space.
C.
The Internet was started by the
military. In the 1960s the Pentagon were worried about communications after a nuclear war. And in 1969 they thought of linking computes into a
network was destroyed, other parts could continue working. Later, people in universities all over the world began to use the network to share ideas.
They used it for work and for fun. In the 1980´s, people started calling it the Internet. In the mid-1990´s the Internet began to grow fast.
There are many things people can do on the Internet: do the shopping, e-mail friends, get information for school, find advertisement /to be informed
about latest trends/, find what is on in the town /in the theatre, cinema, what exhibitions are held/, pay bills /gas, phone, electricity/, chat
with friends and share ideas, play games, look for a job on special websites, download films and songs, learn to know new people.
Of course,
there are not just advantages of the Internet, but also disadvantages. Firstly, computers as such, not just the Internet, destroy communication.
People surf the Internet rather than talking to family members. Secondly, hackers /people who enter other people’s computer programmes without
permission and they can misuse the information/ are a great problem too. Thirdly, spams /the e-mails, mainly advertisements/ are sent to a large
number of people, especially when they are not wanted. Moreover, there are many viruses, which can attack one’s computer programme. Computers, as
well as the Internet, may cause many diseases, mainly eye diseases. If people use the Internet too often, they may be later addicted on it.
When Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it was a revolution in communication. For the first time, people could talk to
each other great distances almost as clearly as if they were in the same room. Nowadays, though, we increasingly use Bell´s invention for taking
photographs, accessing the Internet, or watching video clips, rather than talking. Over the last two decades a new means of spoken communication has
emerged: the mobile phone. Over the last few years mobiles have become more and more advanced. Firstly we saw the introduction of built-in cameras,
global positioning devices and Internet access. More recently we have witnessed the arrival of the ´third generation´ of mobile phones: powerful
micro-computers with broadband Internet access, which will allow us to watch TV, download Internet files at high speed and send video clips to
friend.
Key words
science, scientific, technology, field, branch, experiment, laboratory, physics, engineering,
chemistry, biology, genetics, ecology, botany, zoology, geography, geology, meteorology, computer science, mathematics
technology at home –
hi-fi, telephone, fax machine, mobile phone, fringe, tape recorder, TV, VCR, DVD, radio, walkman, CD-player, DVD-player, microwave oven, washing
machine, dish washer, vacuum cleaner, food-processor, cordless iron, portable TV, computer
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