From the History of the Origin of Science

Science had its origin in some distant era when people began to show desire to know about their environment and to record what they saw. In time, studies of these observations led to the idea that nature is knowable, that is operates according to ‘laws’.

The actual birth of science took place in prehistoric times, probably in Egypt and Babylonia, more than 2,000 years before our era.

But true progress in science did not begin until about the sixth century before our era, when Greek civilization began to flourish. The next 500 years was the age of the great philosophers of antiquity – Thales, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Archimedes, and others.

Archimedes discovered some of the basic laws governing mechanisms and floating bodies. To Archimedes we owe the first application of mathematics to the description of nature. He was very far in advance of his time.

In the period from the Greeks to the Renaissance few contributions were made to the development of science. First in importance among the scientific achievements of the Renaissance was the idea that the sun, rather than the earth, is the centre of our system of sun, moon, and planets. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the prevailing idea was that of an earth-centered universe, as described by Ptolemy.

The Polish astronomer N. Copernicus assumed that the earth is merely one of the planets and that all of them moved about the sun. It is hard now to understand the courage required to advance an idea of this nature because of the great wave of opposition, which confronted Copernicus.

 

2. Прочитайте текст и назовите имена учёных и их достижения из Вашей научной сферы деятельности.

 

How Science Grew in Russia

Russian scientists have always made great contribution to world science. Peter I established the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences as early as 1725. There the brilliant scientist Lomonosov worked in the fields of physics, chemistry, and astronomy and laid the foundation of the Russian literary language.

The peoples of this land produced many geniuses such as Mendeleyev who gave the world his periodic table of elements, mathematicians like Lobachevsky whom the world knows as the ‘Copernicus of Geometry‘.

We are proud of scientists like Lodygin who produced the electric lamp, and Popov who invented the radio, Tsiolkovsky who was the founder of the modern theory of space rockets. In scientific achievements we can also mention the name of the great biologist Mechnikov as well as Zinin who discovered aniline, and Vernadsky who did brilliant work in geochemistry.

These are individual names, which the whole world knows so well.

 

3. Прочитайте текст и составьте план-схему о том, как в нашей стране ведётся подготовка научных кадров.

 

Training Scientists

Young people learn to love science even while they are at school. Schools of higher learning develop the first elements of scientific training, which boys and girls get at secondary schools. At higher schools, for the first time, students begin to take part in scientific and engineering work. Besides their studies, they carry out research in different societies. Professors help students to develop their abilities and discover in which field of science and technique they will employ these abilities.

The main way in which research workers and higher-school teachers get their scientific training is the post-graduate course. The establishment of such courses in 1925 laid the foundation for the training of scientists.

Young people who graduate from schools of higher learning and want to take a post-graduate course take examinations in special subject, philosophy and a foreign language. There is also an extra-mural course of training for those who want to combine doing scientific research and not leaving work.

Universities and institutes provide post-graduates with all scientific instruments and experimental equipment, which enable them to carry out research and make important contributions to the development of science.

 

4. Просмотрите тексты ещё раз и выпишите ключевые слова и выражения, которые Вы могли бы использовать в Ваших рассказах: а) об учёбе в вузе и участии в НИРС; б) о Вашей учёбе в магистратуре; в) о Ваших научных планах.

 

5. Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык.

а) 1. Русский народ гордится достижениями своих учёных. 2. Все исследования магистранты и аспиранты проводят в лабораториях университета. 3. Я тоже хочу внести свой вклад в развитие науки. 4. Аспираты нашего университета работают в различных областях науки. 5. Этот молодой учёный занимался в аспирантуре нашего университета. 6. Доклад этого аспиранта очень важен. 7. Я не хочу бросать работу и, поэтому, буду поступать в заочную аспирантуру. 8. Все студенты нашей группы занимаются исследовательской работой и много выступают с докладами на научных конференциях. 9. Профессора университета уделяют особое внимание работе студенческого научного общества. 10. После окончания исследовательской работы магистранты и аспиранты защищают диссертации и получают научную степень.

 

б) Профессор Н. читает курс истории России на нашем факультете. Он занимается научной работой и публикует статьи в ведущих журналах. Он знает два языка: он свободно говорит и читает на английском и немецком языках. В настоящее время профессор учит французский язык. Он учит его уже несколько месяцев. Он собирается принять участие в научной конференции во Франции и опубликовать там свою статью.

 

6. Дополните предложения следующими глаголами в соответствующих формах:

a) take, study, learn, speak, read, translate, revise:

 

I …a master degree course at the university. I …here since September. I … English since school. I … English fairly well. I like … and … articles from English and American journals. Now we … the English tenses. We … them for two weeks.

 

b) enter, finish (×2), write, work, publish (×2):

 

My friend … master degree course two years ago. Peter … the first chapter of his thesis and now he … the second one. He … on his thesis for a year. I think he … it by the end of the next year. Usually a student of master degree course must … two or three articles before presenting his thesis. Peter … already two articles this year.

 

7. Прочитайте диалог и расскажите об участниках конференции.

Scientists from different countries representing various sciences have come to attend the conference on “Science and Global Security Problems”. We can hear fragments of a talk and an exchange of news between old friends, as well as spontaneous introductions of those who are less fortunate.

 

Laura: Hallo, James. Glad to see you again.

James: Hallo Laura! Happy to see you. You are looking as charming as ever.

Laura: Thanks. Meet Robert Roy, a geologist from Illinois. He has written a paper on the role of soils in prospecting for oil.

James: How do you do, Mr. Roy. Happy to meet you!

Robert: How do you do. It’s pleasure.

James: What’s your mission here?

Robert: I’m to give a talk on environmental pollution as a result of nuclear tests. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. Ronald Onyx. He works at the laboratory of radioelectronics at Oxford.

Ronald: Good morning, everybody.

James: Good morning. Dr. Onyx, are going to give a paper at the conference?

Ronald: Yes, I’m a contributing participant.

James: What are going to talk about?

Ronald: I haven’t decided yet what field to choose.

Susan: Excuse my interrupting you. I’m Susan Dewston, a chemist from Houston.

All: Glad to meet you.

Ronald: I believe I’ve heard your name before, but I can’t place it. What’s your field of investigation?

Susan: I’m a chemist at a city perfumery. Also I write reviews for the ‘Chemical News”.

Ronald: Oh, I’ve got it. I heard your name from my friend Rosy Snow. She is a well-known sociologist from Rome. Her goal is to study global sociological problems on the whole, including those of lonely hearts. She is a nice person. Here she is. This is Rosy Snow, a sociologist from Rome.

All: Hallo, Rosy. Pleased to meet you.

Rosy: Glad to see everybody. Romans used to say: “All roads lead to Rome.” Now we should say: “All roads lead to peace.” That’s why I’m here. I’d like you to meet my friend, Clyde Brian. He is a young psychiatrist from Brighton. He is very bright, has an inquisitive mind and is highly competent in his field. Clyde, are going to speak on after-effect of nuclear tests on psychics?

Clyde: Right. To begin with…

Radio Announcement: Attention! Attention! Participants of the conference are invited to proceed to the Conference Hall. The session starts in five minutes.

8. Прочитайте диалог и укажите, какие вопросы обсуждаются, выскажите своё мнение.

 

Is It Worth Doing Science?

James: Hallo, Laura. I’m sorry to be late for the morning session; I’ve missed the bus and had to go there by taxi.

Laura: Take it easy. There’s nothing to worry about. You didn’t miss much.

James: What’s on the agenda?

Laura: During the morning session only two papers were given.

James: Aha! I’ve missed two. What was the subject?

Laura: The first paper was “Methods of Science and Scientific Methods’. It was followed by the second one “The Layman and his Attitude to Science.”

James: Did you find them interesting?

Laura: Both papers were presented in a rather peculiar way. The first speaker followed the classical principle “stand up, speak up, shut up”. A number of slides were shown and even some jokes were told.

James: What about the second one?

Laura: As to the second paper, the subject was a bit boring, the presentation monotonous, and the translation poor.

James: Have taken any notes?

Laura: I’m looking through them right now and I can’t help feeling frustrated. On the one hand, according to the speaker, there’s an ever growing number of scientists in every branch of knowledge. On the other hand, not every researcher qualifies for an academic degree.

James: Obviously female researchers are meant here. They got married too soon and give up science.

Laura: You’re being unfair.

James: Actually making a decision on one’s career is not easy. Every University graduate is faced with it. If one intends becoming a scientist, before making the final decision he’s advised to weigh all the pros and cons, lest he should regret taking the step later.

Laura: And when you’ve made up your mind, if you’re sure that you’re capable of doing science, if you’re interested in research, stick to the strategy: (1) collect information, (2) put forward a hypothesis, (3) make experiments, (4) confirm your theory with experimental data, and (5) submit your thesis to the Academic Board.

James: Still many people don’t enjoy sacrificing their personal life for science. Research will prevent them from visiting friends, going out, playing with their kids.

Laura: I think you’re exaggerating.

 

9. Составьте диалог по следующей ситуации.

Yesterday I met one of the students of our course. I asked him what he was doing. He answered he was fooling a post-graduate course. I asked him when he had begun studying and who was his scientific supervisor. He said he had been a post-graduate for a year and his scientific supervisor was the head of the department. I was interested to know if he had passed any examination and whether he had published any articles on the subject of his thesis. He answered that one of his articles had already been published, two more would have been published by the end of the year. He added that he had already passed two exams, language and philosophy.

 

9. Ознакомьтесь с вопросами к кандидатскому экзамену и предлагаемым рассказом о научной работе аспиранта, затем ответьте на них сами, используя активный словарь этого раздела.

 

1) Introduce yourself, please: - What are you? - What higher school do you study at?	Let me introduce myself. My name is …
2) What field are you interested in?	I am interested in dealing in securities.
3) What literature in your specialty do you read?	I often read such journal as “Money and Credit”, “Money”, “Banks and Banking”.
4) Why did you decide to be a scientist? Was it your own decision?	In order to develop my scientific outlook I have decided to take a Master degree course at Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies. I entered this course in …
5) How many exams did you take entering Master degree course?	I took three exams in special subject, in Philosophy and in English.
6) Was it an easy year in respect of your studies? Why do you think so? 7) What were you doing from entrance till final examinations?	This year was quite difficult; I’ve had to combine my work and studies, to attend classes, to read a lot of material for them getting ready for final examinations.
8) Do you prefer dealing with pure or applied sphere of science?	I prefer dealing with applied sphere of science.
9) Have you any articles published?	I don’t have any articles published yet, but I’m working at.
10) Have you started collecting and working up the material for your master’s thesis? 11) What does your research deal with? 12) What is the subject of your study? 13) What methods of investigation do you use in the preparatory work? 14) Do you need any equipment in your research? 15) Does this research have any practical value for the branch of industry you work in? 16) What is the practical use of your work? 17) What advantages does it have as compared to similar ones? 18) What are the most interesting aspects of your research work?	I have already started collecting and working up the material for my master’s thesis. My future research deals with the Russian security market and general principles of functioning of similar markets abroad. The subject of my research is different kinds of securities and stock exchanges where the given financial instruments circulate. My thesis consists of two chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the analysis of stock price fluctuations, indicators, indexes and factors. In the second chapter I am going to work out some new rules and principles to receive legible formulations. The most interesting aspect, I think, is an attempt to formulate some laws of a revolution in the field of securities in the contemporary Russian economic environment. I hope my future research will be of great importance and serve as guidance to forecast different situations at the Russian security market. I don’t use any special equipment except my notebook.
19) Are you satisfied with the result reached? 20) When do you plan to submit your thesis?	Of course, I’m not satisfied with the result reach. I have a long way to go. I plan to submit my thesis in two years, in …
21) Who is your scientific supervisor?	My scientific supervisor is Mr… He is a professor, Doctor of Economics.
22) What role does the English language play in your life and study?	The English language plays an important role in my life and study. I think of improving my speaking skills, so I’ll be able to talk to foreign specialists on my own, to take part in scientific conferences abroad. But now I am reading a lot of specialized and scientific books and journals in English searching the material for my thesis.

 

11. Прочитайте и переведите текст.

 

Science vs.pseudoscience

Illusion can a rope cut in half really be made whole again? Is a ghost actually present in a photograph? was the focus of Joe Nickell, author of books investigating claims of the paranormal. The paranormal, Nickell said, is a question of good science versus bad science, or science and pseudoscience. Some who investigate the paranormal begin with the answer and look only at evidence that proves that answer. Good science, however, requires looking at all evidence to delve behind the illusion. Nickell explained several cases of what were originally thought to be instances of the paranormal by showing the evidence that proved them otherwise. Here is one of them.

The media reported that a flying saucer had crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Nickell investigated and found that the rancher on whose property the crash took place never referred to the debris as a flying saucer; only the media described it that way. The rancher described the material he found as light and consisting of foil, sticks, rubber, string, and tape. The debris matched a balloon with a radar target attached to it. Indeed, a spy balloon sent up by the US government, in what was termed Project Mogul, was lost near Roswell.

When we speak of knowing science we do not mean simply knowing scientific facts (e.g., the distance from earth to sun; the distinction between mammal and reptile, etc.) We mean that one must clearly understand the nature of science itself - the criteria of valid evidence, the testing of hypotheses, the establishment of useful theories, the many aspects of the methods of science which make it possible to draw accurate, reliable, meaningful conclusions about the phenomena of the physical universe. Pseudoscience lays emphasis on unverifiable eyewitness testimony, stories, faked footprints, blurry photos, and tall tales, hearsay, rumor, and dubious anecdotes.

Pseudoscience writers tend simply to make up bogus “facts” where needed, instead of going to the trouble of consulting reliable reference works, much less investigating directly. Yet these fictitious facts are often central to the pseudoscientist’s argument and conclusions! The first edition of any pseudoscience book is almost always the last, even though the book may go through innumerable new printings, over decades or centuries. Compare to science textbooks, which usually see a new edition every few years because of the rapid accumulation of new facts, ideas, discoveries, experiments and insights in science.

One of the most bizarre recent tactics of pseudoscientists is to publish a novel, a work of fiction in which essentially everything is made up by the author - as usual in works of fiction! - but then to turn directly around and treat the completely made-up material as if it were actual, factual and researched. Recent examples of this tactic are The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield (1994), and The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown (2003).

Science and pseudoscience are precisely opposed ways of viewing nature. Science relies on, and insists on, difficult, narrow, strict procedures of self-questioning, testing and analytical thinking that make it hard to fool yourself or to avoid facing facts. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, preserves the ancient, irrational, unobjective modes of thought which have given rise to most superstition and to most of the fanciful and mistaken ideas about man and nature... from voodoo to racism; from the flat earth to the house-shaped universe with God in the attic, from doing rain dances to torturing and brutalizing the mentally ill to drive out the demons that possess them. Pseudoscience encourages you to believe anything you want, and supplies many examples of specious "arguments" by which you can fool yourself into thinking your belief has some validity, despite all the facts being to the contrary.

One of the features of pseudoscience is that any particular pseudoscience somehow involves almost all the other pseudosciences. Thus, someone who believes that flying saucers exist and are piloted by space aliens might also claim to communicate with the aliens via a Ouija board*; a spirit medium who is supposedly communicating with spirits of the dead might also claim to be a "psychic" who can read living minds and foretell the future. The explanation for this continuum is that pseudoscience is a manifestation of an entire anachronistic world view, evidence of an individual's powerful belief in an animistic universe that is essentially magical and fundamentally "nonmaterial." No amount of evidence, investigation or fact-finding has ever shaken a pseudoscientist's faith in his delusions.

The popularity of pseudoscience is assured, because it invariably tells us things that are reassuring far past the point of being too good to be true. You are grieving over your beloved lost pet dog? Well, this psychic lady can tell you precisely where to find it, all she has to do is touch its photo! You are 75 years old and in poor health, but this hippy-looking professor says he's right on the verge of discovering how people can live for 5,000 years, even you! Wow, where do we send our money?!? You're 100 pounds overweight and have never been able to slim down? Well, here's a new miracle diet: eat as much as you want of anything you want and still lose weight, by taking this mystical special wonder herb! Only $100 for a 2-week supply!

Moreover, the media provide a continuous bombardment of sheer nonsense, misinformation, fantasy and confusion - proclaimed to be “true facts.” Sifting sense from nonsense is an almost overwhelming job. A typical reporter asked to write an article on astrology thinks he has done a thorough job if he interviews six astrologers and one astronomer. The astronomer says it's all total bunk; the six astrologers say it's great stuff and really works and for $50 they'll be glad to cast anyone's horoscope. Everything in pseudoscience seems to generate something for sale; look for courses in how to remember past lives, how to do remote viewing, how to hunt for ghosts, how to become a prophet, how to heal yourself of any disease mentally, how to get the angels on your side, how to... you name it, you got it... but pay up first.

It is, unfortunately, vital for each citizen to learn to distinguish carefully between science and pseudoscience. In a democracy, every voter must be capable of seeking and recognizing authentic sources of information. Pseudoscience often strikes educated, rational people as too nonsensical and preposterous to be dangerous, a source of amusement rather than fear. Unfortunately, this is not a wise attitude. Pseudoscience can be extremely dangerous. Penetrating political systems, it has justified atrocities in the name of racial or religious purity; penetrating the educational system, it drives out science and sensibility; penetrating the health professions it dooms thousands to unnecessary death or suffering; penetrating religion, it generates fanaticism, intolerance, and holy war; penetrating the communications media, it makes it nearly impossible for voters to obtain factual information on public issues of extreme importance.

So, to overcome illusion we have to resort to a bit of critical thinking the goal of which is to arrive at the most reasonable beliefs and take the most reasonable actions.

NOTES:

* A Quija board (correctly pronounced "wee-jah" /wi/ although often pronounced "wee-gee") is any flat surface printed with letters, numbers, and other symbols, to which a planchette or movable indicator points, supposedly in answer to questions from people at a séance. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette that then moves about the board to spell out messages.

 

12. Найдите слова, выделенные жирным шрифтом в тексте, заполните столбцы «Science» или «Psuedoscience», сопоставьте их с существительными. Объясните значение словосочетаний.

 

SCIENCE	Psuedoscience
	evidence conclusions reference works material people		testimony footprints photos anecdotes facts tactics modes of thought ideas arguments

13. Для слов 1-7 найдите соответствующие определения A-F.

 

Aa false appearance or deceptive impression of reality B a mistaken or misleading opinion, idea, belief, etc C a suggested explanation for a group of facts accepted as likely to be true Dsomething you are told sounds so exciting, unpleasant or dangerous that you don’t believe it is true E information that you have heard without having any proof that it is true Ithe ability to perceive clearly or deeply; penetration and understanding, as of a complex problem F behaviour or an action that is of extreme cruelty

1delusion 2hearsay 3illusion 4hypothesis 5atrocities 6tall tale 7insight

 

14. Заполните пропуски, используя слова из правой колонки предыдущего упражнения.

1. His evidence was all just ……………………..

2. It is the great ……………………. about the web-enabled future: that the internet will, by its nature, set us free.

3. With the help of their sophisticated equipment, they have gathered the reliable technical data that makes ……………………… a less easy to dismiss.

4. he may not yet be a household name, but her work provides a rare and compelling ………………………. into the lives of children and young people growing up in 21st-century Britain.

5. Saddam Hussein was confronted with video evidence of his ……………. as part of CIA efforts to get him to talk. Atrocities

6. One of the great strengths of science is that it is comfortable with being wrong. When a researcher proposes a ……………………. that fails to be confirmed by the data, there may be disappointment but there is no dishonour – so long, that is, as he or she accepts the evidence and moves on.

 

15. Почему лженаука может создать проблемы для общества? Определите пять факторов.

1. ………………………………………………………………..

2. ………………………………………………………………..

3. ………………………………………………………………..

4. ……………………………………………………………….

5. ……………………………………………………….……….

6. Сравните: Science vs. Pseudoscience

 

Model: SCIENCE: Is in constant search for new facts, proof, evidence. It results in new editions and opportunities for new discoveries. ………………………………………………… …………………………………

PSEUDOSCIENCE: displays a remarkable and characteristic indifference to fact. Pseudoscientists never revise their books. ……………………………………………… …………………………………

 

16. Круглый стол.

Panel discussion is the format of a debate in which participants representing various shades of opinion on a topic argue the case, usually under the guidance of a chairperson.

• Research Work. Look for the information on the following topic in various sources of information.

 

 

PSEUDOSCIENCE helps to survive in our rough world.

 

The relevant issues may be useful to consider while discussing the topic:

 

• Alternative medicine: a reliable substitute for conventional medicine or a rush for wealth.

• People with supernatural abilities: healers or charlatans?

• Astrology: can it define our life.

• “Junk Science” versus critical thinking

 

• Arrange the information in the written form.

• Choose a chairperson to lead the discussion.

• Contribute to the discussion.

• Make use of more words and phrases:

Giving an opinion   It is my view that … In regard/ With regard/ As far as I'm concerned, … I tend to agree with you. That may be true, but … You have my support on this one.	Expressing an Alternative Viewpoint There is also the matter of … A point in favour of … is … Something worth mentioning is … Not to be taken lightly is the fact that … I can't say I have strong views either way.
Expressing hesitation On the one hand …, but on the other … In a sense …, however … That's true up to a point, but … It must be said that …, however	When you disagree I would argue that … I think this deserves careful consideration … I wouldn't go along on that. I'm (not) persuaded that …

 

17. Прочтите комментарии об освоении космического пространства и обсудите их.

1. Space exploration is ridiculously expensive, considering how little we get for the money wasted on it.

2. It's stimulating to think about what exists beyond, but what are the chances of getting something useful out of space exploration? It should be scaled down.

3. We've got our priorities wrong. It's about time science turned its eye back to this planet and set about doing something about poverty, disease and pollution. Once we've sorted out our own problems, let the exploration continue.

4. The equivalent of exploration in the 21st century often has more to do with overcoming physical challenges than discovering the unknown.

 

18. Прочитайте и переведите текст.