Lack of deep sleep may increase risk of type 2 diabetes

Suppression of slow-wave sleep in healthy young adults significantly decreases their ability to regulate blood-sugar levels and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, report researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the “Early Edition” of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Deep sleep, also called “slow-wave sleep,” is thought to be the most restorative sleep stage, but its significance for physical well-being has not been demonstrated. This study found that after only three nights of selective slow-wave sleep suppression, young healthy subjects became less sensitive to insulin. Although they needed more insulin to dispose of the same amount of glucose, their insulin secretion did not increase to compensate for the reduced sensitivity, resulting in reduced tolerance to glucose and increased risk for type 2 diabetes. The decrease in insulin sensitivity was comparable to that caused by gaining 20 to 30 pounds.

 

1. Новая возможность Google Earth – просмотр звездного неба.

После того, как компания Google превратила миллионы пользователей интернета в виртуальных исследователей мира с помощью программы Google Earth, теперь она предлагает взглянуть им и на небо. Для этого в новой версии программы добавлен сервис Sky, который позволяет пользователям изучать звездное небо. В новом сервисе также возможно перемещение и масштабирование, и всего доступно для просмотра около 100 млн. звезд и 200 млн. галактик.

 

2. Новое оружие против рака: нанокапсулы с радиоактивным веществом.

Химики Университета Райса (Rice University) нашли способ упаковки одних из самых мощных в природе радиоактивных частиц внутрь трубок из чистого углерода размером с молекулу ДНК – метод, который они надеются использовать для уничтожения крошечных опухолей и даже отдельных лейкозных клеток.

 

3. Эвакуатор для космических аппаратов

Центр космических технологий Военно-морской исследовательской лаборатории (Naval Research Laboratory, NRL), США, совершил прорыв в создании автономного устройства для помощи космическим аппаратам. Действуя совместно с Агентством по современным оборонным проектам (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA), специалисты NRL разработали, протестировали и провели наземную демонстрацию алгоритмов ориентации и управления, позволяющих роботизированному аппарату самостоятельно сближаться и стыковаться со спутниками, не предусматривающими возможность стыковки.

 

4. Самосборка молекул для изготовления проводников в микрочипах.

По мере того, как технологии становятся все меньше, перед компьютерной индустрией все сильнее встает проблема изготовления микрокомпонентов. «Чипы непрерывно становятся все меньше и меньше», - говорит Джиллиан Буриак (Jillian Buriak), профессор химии из Университета Альберты (University of Alberta), Канада, и главный научный сотрудник Национального института нанотехнологий (National Institute for Nanotechnology, NINT). «Если, допустим, вы собираетесь изготавливать компоненты с размерами 22 и даже 18 нанометров, то вам еще нужно подумать над проводниками, с помощью которых они будут соединяться», - добавляет она.

Создан новый материал, по твердости уступающий только алмазу

 

5. В США создан "самопроизводящийся" робот

Американские ученые Ход Липсон и Джордан Поллак из Массачусетского технологического института разработали компьютерную систему, которая без участия человека придумала, разработала и построила робота. Как сообщают инженеры, перед системой стояла задача создать самую простую модель механизма, которая могла бы перемещаться горизонтально. Сначала компьютер создает тысячи различающихся между собой виртуальных проектов, используя технологию, воспроизводящую процесс эволюции животных и растений, а затем из имеющихся вариантов выбирает самый оптимальный. Система сама выбирает все компоненты будущего робота. Потом вся информация передается на автоматическую установку, с помощью которой и строится передвигающийся по столу механизм. Ученые считают, что их успешный эксперимент - это первый шаг к созданию "самовоспроизводящихся" роботов.

 

SPEAK OUT

 

Be ready to explain the following:

 

All of the biggest technological inventions created by man – the airplane, the automobile, the computer – says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness. ~Mark Kennedy

 

Modern technology

Owes ecology

An apology.

~Alan M. Eddison

 

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. ~Albert Einstein

 

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. ~Richard P. Feynman

 

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation...tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation. ~Jean Arp

 

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. ~Aldous Huxley

 

Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences. ~Lewis Mumford

 

God never made his work for man to mend. ~John Dryden

 

Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971

 

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. ~Karl Marx

 

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. ~Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, 1988

 

The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them. ~Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

 

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. ~Carl Sagan

 

The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers. ~Sydney J. Harris

 

UNIT 10

ELECTIONS

THE INAUGURATION OF BARACK OBAMA THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TRIVIA QUESTIONS

 

– Which Amendment to the Constitution makes inauguration day January 20?

– Which president said in his 1961 inaugural address: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

– In which national crisis did Franklin Roosevelt say in his first inaugural address, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."?

– Which president took his oath of office in April in New York City on the balcony of the Senate Chamber at Federal Hall on Wall Street?

– Which inaugural address (which president, first or second) included these famous words: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds..."

– Which president gave the longest inaugural speech but serving the shortest term of office because he died of a pneumonia from giving the speech in the cold March rain?

– Which president was the first to give his inaugural speech in January?

– Which president was the first to take the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda?

– Which presidential inaugural was the first known to have been photographed?

– Who the first president to ride to and from his inaugural in an automobile?

– Who was the first ex-president to administer the oath of office as Chief Justice (to Calvin Coolidge)?

– Who is the only president to have had more than two inaugurations?

– At whose inaugural did Robert Frost participate in the official ceremonies at the Capitol for the first time as a poet?

–. Which president was the first to use a bullet-proofed, closed limousine in the inaugural parade?

–. Which president used an old family Bible and a second Bible on lectern had been used at inauguration of George Washington?

– Who was the first president to walk all the way from the Capitol to the White House with his family after ceremony?

– At whose first inaugural did poet Maya Angelou recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning?"

– Which chief justice of the Supreme Court was the last to give the Oath of office in 2005?

– Who will administer the oath of office to President-Elect Barack Obama in 2009?

– On which side of the US Capitol is the oath of office administered?

– Which presidential couple had the first inaugural ball thrown for them at Long's Hotel in 1809?

– Including Barack Obama's how many inaugural ceremonies have taken place?

– Who was the First Vice President to assume Presidency upon the death of the President?

– Which president's inaugural was the first to have African Americans participate in the Inaugural parade for the first time.

– Which president's first inauguration, in 1801, was the first to take place in the new capital city of Washington?

– Which president had to be sworn-in a second time because the chief justice made a mistake when administering the oath?

– How many people were estimated to be on the National Mall when Barack Obama was sworn in as president?

– How many inaugural balls did Barack and Michelle Obama attend?

– Who designed the dress for Michelle Obama's inaugural ball appearances?

– What did Barack Obama ask the audience at the Neighborhood Ball when he introduced Michelle?

 

VOCABULARY

Inaugural address To begin campaigning for the presidency Puppet administration Press coverage Major players Majority vote Presidency President elect Hefty majority Slim majority By (e)-election Marginal seat

To suspend elections Televised phoning session Transitional government Rotating presidency Policy-maker Yes-campaign To win votes Landslide A stellar politician Constituency Referendum Stand/run for Parliament

 

READING 1

OBAMA’S VICTORY SPEECH BY ROSIE MCANDREW

I. Pre-listening

Have you been following the American election campaign?

Have you heard any extracts from Barack Obama’s speeches?

If you have, did you hear them in English, or in your own language?

Did you think he was an effective speaker?