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Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, United States. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the high-tech sector. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading high-tech hub because of its large number of cutting-edge entrepreneurs, engineers and venture capitalists. Geographically, Silicon Valley encompasses the northern part of the Santa Clara Valley and adjacent communities, though the term is often used when referring to the Santa Clara Valley as a whole.

LANSCE (The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center) is the major experimental science facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), underpinning the Laboratory as a world-class scientific institution. At the heart of LANSCE is a powerful linear accelerator that accelerates protons to 84% the speed of light. When these protons strike a target of tungsten metal, neutrons are produced. Protons and neutrons are used in a wide range of applications that help the nation maintain its leadership role in many areas of science and technology. Research conducted at LANSCE helps to maintain the nation’s nuclear deterrent, counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction and lays the foundation for many of the products we use in our daily lives by supporting materials sciences and technology.

The National Space Science Data Center serves as the permanent archive for NASA space science mission data. "Space science" means astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma physics, and planetary and lunar science. As permanent archive, NSSDC teams with NASA's discipline-specific space science "active archives" which provide access to data to researchers and, in some cases, to the general public.

NSSDC was first established at Goddard Space Flight Center in 1966. NSSDC's staff consists largely of physical scientists, computer scientists, analysts, programmers, and data technicians. Early in its life, NSSDC accumulated data primarily on 7-track and 9-track tape and on various photoproducts, and all data dissemination was via media replication and mailing. Starting in the mid-1980's NSSDC received and disseminated increasing data volumes via electronic networks. Most network dissemination today is via WWW and FTP, and most offline data dissemination is via CD-ROM.

Answer the following questions on the text.

1) What did the term “Silicon Valley” originally refer to?

2) How is this term used now?

3) Where is Silicon Valley located?

4) What kind of research is conducted at LANSCE?

5) What device is located at the heart of LANSCE?

6) What does the word “space science” mean?

7) When was NSSDC established?

8) How is data dissemination carried out at NSSDC today?

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1226