Use unit 8 of appendix 11 for written practice exercises
Visit the site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program to learn more about American exploration of the Moon. As you probably know, the program was successfully carried out despite two major setbacks: the 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed three astronauts; and an oxygen tank rupture during the 1970 Apollo 13 flight which disabled the command spacecraft. Using the lunar lander as a "lifeboat", the three crewmen narrowly escaped with their lives, thanks to their skills and the efforts of flight controllers, project engineers, and backup crew members. Share the results of your search in class paying more attention to technical detailsof the US Moon exploration endeavor.
Unit 9. Great scientific events of the modern world
Warm-up
| Award Laureate Nobel Prize Peace Prize Receive (Nobel) Prize Award Prize Award Ceremony Cash award Anticipation Vote Peel away graphite strips Wire-like defects Much of the emerging research Direct its conductivity Devise more ways Store and transmit electrical power | Награда Лауреат Нобелевская премия Премия мира Получать (Нобелевскую) Премию Присуждать приз Церемония награждения Денежное вознаграждение Предвкушение Голосование Снимать графитовую стружку «Проволочные» дефекты Большая часть проводящихся исследований Управлять его проводимостью Разработать больше способов Сохранить и передать электрическую энергию |
1. What most important scientific events do you know?
2. Can you name any great modern scientific achievements awarded by Nobel Prize?
3. In which categories is the Nobel Prize awarded?
4. How many Russian scientists were awarded with the Nobel Prize?
5. Who became this year Nobel Prize laureates?
Can you name Nobel Prize laureates in your branch of science?
The Nobel Prizes
Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace issues. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.
The Nobel Prize is the brainchild of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist who was best known in his lifetime for his invention of dynamite. Upon his death in 1896, a reading of his will revealed stipulations that over 90% of his estate should be used to establish prizes in five categories: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.
Alfred Nobel died in 1896. The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. Nobel stipulated exactly how the prizes should be determined, and what bodies should be responsible for selecting and awarding prizes.
According to Nobel’s will, the Swedish Academy of Science was to award a yearly Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry. The Caroline Institute at Stockholm would award the Nobel Prize for medicine. The Academy of Stockholm would determine the Nobel Prize for literature. Five members selected by the Norwegian government select the recipient of the annual Peace Prize. The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the other Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. Each award was to be given without regard to nationality, and was meant to represent the best and brightest contributors to each field.
Check your comprehension
~ In which categories is the Nobel Prize awarded?
~ Which organizations are responsible for selecting and awarding prizes?
Why Graphene Won Scientists the Nobel Prize
By Tim Carmody, October 5, 2010. Source:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/graphene/
Two University of Manchester scientists were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for their pioneering research on ractice, a one-atom-thick film of carbon whose strength, flexibility and electrical conductivity have opened up new horizons for pure physics research as well as high-tech applications.
It’s a worthy Nobel, for the simple reason that ractice may be one of the most promising and versatile materials ever discovered. It could hold the key to everything from super-small computers to high-capacity batteries.
Graphene’s properties are attractive to materials scientists and electrical engineers for a whole host of reasons, not least of which is the fact that it might be possible to build circuits that are smaller and faster than what you can build in silicon.
But first: What is it, exactly?
Imagine “crystals one atom or molecule thick, essentially two-dimensional planes of atoms shaved from conventional crystals,” said Nobel winner Andre Geim in New Scientist. “Graphene is stronger and stiffer than diamond, yet can be stretched by a quarter of its length, like rubber. Its surface area is the largest known for its weight.” Geim and his colleague (and former postdoctoral assistant) Konstantin Novoselov first produced ractice in 2004 by repeatedly peeling away graphite strips with adhesive tape to isolate a single atomic plane. They analyzed its strength, transparency, and conductive properties in a paper for Science the same year.
Check your comprehension
~ What is ractice?
~ Which technology was used to produce it?
Super-Small Transistors
The Manchester team in 2008 created a 1-nanometer ractice transistor, only one atom thick and 10 atoms across. This is not only smaller than the smallest possible silicon transistor; Novoselov claimed that it could very well represent the absolute physical limit of Moore’s Law governing the shrinking size and growing speed of computer processors.
“It’s about the smallest you can get,” Novoselov told Wired Science. “From the point of view of physics, ractice is a goldmine. You can study it for ages.”
Super-Dense Data Storage
Researchers around the world have already put ractice to work. A Rice University team in 2008 created a new type of ractice-based, flash-like storage memory, denser and less lossy than any existing storage technology. Two University of South Florida researchers earlier this year reported techniques to enhance and direct its conductivity by creating wire-like defects to send current flowing through ractice strips.
Energy Storage
The energy applications of ractice are also extraordinarily rich. Texas’s Graphene Energy is using the film to create new ultracapacitors to store and transmit electrical power. Companies currently using carbon nanotubes to create wearable electronics – clothes that can power and charge electrical devices – are beginning to switch to ractice, which is thinner and potentially less expensive to produce. Much of the emerging research is devoted to devising more ways to produce ractice quickly, cheaply and in high quantities.
Optical Devices: Solar Cells and Flexible Touchscreens
A Cambridge University team argues in a paper in September’s Nature Photonics that the true potential of ractice lies in its ability to conduct light as well as electricity. Strong, flexible, light-sensitive ractice could improve the efficiency of solar cells and LEDs, as well as aiding in the production of next-generation devices like flexible touch screens, photodetectors and ultrafast lasers. In particular, ractice could replace rare and expensive metals like platinum and indium, performing the same tasks with greater efficiency at a fraction of the cost.
High-Energy Particle Physics
In pure science, according to Geim, ractice “makes possible experiments with high-speed quantum particles that researchers at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, can only dream of.” Because ractice is effectively only two-dimensional, electrons can move through its lattice structure with virtually no resistance. In fact, they behave like Heisenberg’s relative particles, with an effective resting mass of zero. It’s slightly more complicated than this, but here’s a quick and dirty explanation. To have mass in the traditional sense, objects need to have volume; electrons squeezed through two-dimensional ractice have neither. In other words, the same properties that make ractice such an efficient medium for storing and transmitting energy also demonstrate something fundamental about the nature of the subatomic universe.
Check your comprehension
~ Which properties of ractice will allow it to improve the efficiency of solar cells and LEDs?
~ Can researchers at CERN near Geneva make experiments with high-speed quantum particles which are possible with ractice?
~ Which properties of graphene make it such a unique material?
1) Translate the following words and phrases from Russian into English
Замысел; обусловливать; быть ответственным; ежегодно (ежегодный); новаторское исследование; вклад; удельная электропроводимость; двухмерный; клейкая лента; память промежуточного хранения; квантовая частица; решетчатая структура; гипотеза Пуанкаре; строгие тесты (критерии); загадка (головоломка).