Science and technology in Ukraine

For a long time science in Ukraine developed as a part of the scientific efforts of the former Soviet Union. However, it had its own Academy of Sciences, founded in 1918 by hetman Skoropadsky. Since 1994 it has been called the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Ukraine has contributed many outstanding scientists to the world. In the 15-17^th centuries they were the talented physician Yury of Drohobych and linguist L. Zyzaniy and P. Berynda. The beginning of the 17^th century was also marked by the creative activity of the prominent linguist M. Smotrytsky whose “Slavic Grammar” became the basis of grammars of many Slavic languages. In the 18^th century the main scientific centre of Ukraine was the Kyivo-Mohyla Academy whose most famous representatives of that time were N. Maksymovych and O. Shumlyansky. The 19^th and 20^th centuries produced such outstanding scientists as the mathematicians M. Ostrogradsky and A. Pohorelov, the linguists O. Bodynsky, A. Potebnya, the historians V. Antonovych, M. Hrushevsky and D. Bahaliy, the orientalist A. Krumsky, the geologist P. Tutkovsky, the physician V. Obraztsov, M. Strazhenko, V. Filatov, the lawyer M. Vasylenko and many others.

Ukrainians are also proud of the fact that only several months after the nucleus of atom was split by the English physicists G. Cockroft and E. Walton in 1932, the same result was achieved in one of the laboratories of Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology headed by Kurchatov and A. Ioffe. It was the first split of an atom in the USSR and a great success of Soviet scientists. Nobel Prize laureate Academician Lev Landau worked in Kharkiv for many years, heading the Institute of Physics and Technology. Another Nobel Prize laureate Illia Mechnikov was born in Kharkiv region, studied in Kharkiv National University and worked there for a long time. The first electronic computing machine in Europe was designed by our countryman S. Lebedev in 1951. The famous astronomer Academician Mykola Barabashov worked in Kharkiv Observatory and made significant discoveries concerning Mars, Moon and Venice. Ukrainian scientists made their contribution into the development of space exploration. The Southern Machine Building plant and Kharkiv “Kharton” designed and launched hundreds of artificial satellites including the famous “Zenith”.

The world famous Ukrainian scientists are Volodymyr Vernadsky and Yevhen and Borys Patons.

Volodymyr Vernadsky was the first President of the Ukrainian academy of Sciences. He was a prominent naturalist, mineralogist, the founder of geochemistry and biochemistry, the creator of the biosphere theory. Together with Oleksandr Fersman he was first to suggest the use of radioactivity in studying geological processes. He was also the first to estimate the age of the most ancient elements of the Earth surface as being 4.5 billion years old.

Yevhen Paton was an outstanding Ukrainian constructor, famous for his contribution in bridge-building and welding. He studied Engineering in Dresden (Germany) and St. Petersburg, and in 1904 became a professor of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute where he headed the bridge-testing laboratory. Evhen Paton designed over 35 bridges, including the famous bridge across the Dnipro River that was named after him. He is also considered to be the father of electronic welding. The Institute of Electronic welding the director of which Evhen Paton had been till his death, developed his theory and mastered the highly productive hidden welding technique which is used world-wide. His son Borys succeeded him and became an outstanding scientist, too. For many years he headed the institute founded by his father and was the President of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. The Ukrainian Institute of Electronic Welding and the American aviation and space firm “Pratt and Wiltny” established a joint research centre and an enterprise to develop the technologies of new materials, using techniques of speed electronic beam evaporation and vacuum condensation. They also founded a joint venture “Paton-Weld” to develop the Ukrainian technologies of permanent metal, metal-non-metal, ceramic and other combinations, and to market them in the USA and other countries.

3. READING COMPREHENSION

A. Match the scientist and the branch of science he worked in.

Igor Kurchatov	Linguistics
Ilia Mechnikov	Mathematics
Oleksandr Potebnya	Biology, zoology
Volodymyr Vernadsky	Engineering
Evhen Paton	Nuclear physics
Mykhailo Ostrogradsky	Geochemistry

B. WORD SEARCH

1. What seven-letter verb in the reading means “to improve the quality of”?

d _ _ _ _ _ _

2. What seven-letter noun means “a society of scholars, scientists, or artists”?

a _ _ _ _ _ _

3. What eleven-letter adjective means “standing out among others of its kind; prominent”?

o _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

4. What six-letter verb in the reading means “to plan out in systematic, usually graphic form”?

d _ _ _ _ _

5. What eight-letter noun means “One honored or awarded a prize for great achievements especially in the arts or sciences”?

l _ _ _ _ _ _ _

6. What ten-letter adjective means “made by humans; produced rather than natural.”?

a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

4. THINK SMART