LASER CUTTER IS AT YOUR DISPOSAL

Task 6.Read the textto check if your questions are answered. Is technology described in the text a new one?

WE HAVE THE SOLUTION! OUR NEW 1500 WATT CNC-CONTROLLED

LASER CUTTER IS AT YOUR DISPOSAL

The Process

Laser technology is not new, but it is only recently that the full benefits have become available to manufacturers.

Taking light and passing it through a series of lenses makes the light source so great that its power density is several million times that of the sun - this laser energy is then used to cut almost any material.

The light is directed down towards a CNC-controlled table making it very easy to produce accurate complicated shapes without distortion, giving burr-free, smooth, and perfectly square edges.

The Materials

The laser is suitable for cutting:

- All types of steel including stainless and spring steel.

- Most non-ferrous metals.

- Plastics, wood, fibreglass, and almost any other material you care to mention!

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The Capacity

- Carbon Steel - up to 13 mm

- Stainless Steel-up to 10 mm

- Plastics-up to 40 mm Wood - up to 40 mm

- Rubber - up to 40 mm

- Table movement 1650 mm x 1250 mm

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The Advantages

- Short lead time

- No tooling costs

- Low set-up costs

- Extremely accurate

- Highest quality

- Minimal heat affected zones

- Design flexibility

Task 7. Watch the video “Lasers” and answer the question – how do lasers work?

Task 8.Summarize everything that you have learned about the applications of lasers and laser technologies.

Task 9.Prepare a presentation on any application of lasers or laser technology.

UNIT 2

INNOVATIONS

LESSON 1

BEST AND WORST INNOVATIONS

Task 1. Answer the following questions.

1. What is innovation? How do you understand this word?

2. What role do innovations play in our life? Think of some innovations that has had the greatest influence on our lives.

Task 2. Read this text about the best and worst innovations.

BIKES ARE BEST AND GM FOOD THE WORST, SAY RADIO 4 LISTENERS

Since the beginning of April BBC Radio 4's You And Yours has been asking listeners to vote for the most significant technological innovation since 1800 and what they would most like to disinvent. The answers, revealed in tomorrow's programme (Thursday 5 May, 12.04 pm) are the bicycle and GM foods. The washing machine emerged as listeners' favourite technological invention for the home.

The humble bike beat such technological innovations as electro-magnetic induction ring (which gave us the means to harness electricity), the internal combustion engine and the germ theory of infection (which gave rise to vaccination as we know it today).

The survey was launched on Friday 1 April on Radio 4's flagship consumer affairs programme, taking up the theme of this year's Reith Lectures: The Triumph Of Technology, given by Lord Alec Broers. Experts from the field of science and technology as well as listeners were asked for their nominations.

The nominations included:

ü Bicycle

ü Communications satellite

ü Computer

ü Electro-magnetic induction ring

ü Germ theory of infection

ü Internal Combustion engine

ü Internet

ü Nuclear power

ü Transistor Radio

Visitors to the You and Yours website were also asked to complete an online survey, designed to investigate attitudes towards technology.

Participants were asked which innovation they'd most like to disinvent (GM foods came top with 26% of the vote, followed by nuclear power at 19%).

The piece of technology that most people would like to see invented is an AIDs vaccine (35%) with interplanetary commuter transport lagging behind at 15%.

When it came to voting for a technological innovation that was of most use in the home, 34% of listeners voted for the washing machine, with central heating coming second with 25% of the vote.

Looking ahead to the regulation of technological advancement, 43% said it should be down to independent international bodies.

Task 3. Do you agree with the respondents? Why? Why not? Give your reasons.

Task 4. In no more than 12-15 sentences, summarize the information you learnt from the text.

Task 5. Below you can find the description of some very successful recent inventions, which are currently part of our daily lives. Match the correct name of the invention with its corresponding description.

1. iPod, or MP3 player
2. PS2
3. 3G phone
4. GPS

a)

b)

c)

d)

Answers:

Task 6.Watch the video “2008 Best inventions” and answer the question – which invention do you think is the best and why?

Task 7. Work with you partner or in small groups of 3-4 people. Discuss the following questions.

1. What technology would you most like to see invented?

2. What technology would you most like to see disinvented?

3. What technological innovation is of most practical use in your home?

4. Which technological change has given the greatest benefit to society?

5. If you could only take one piece of technology to your Desert Island, what would it be?

6. Who should regulate the development of new technology?

Task 8. Present the results of your discussion to the class.

LESSON 2

BIZARRE INVENTIONS

Task 1. Answer the following question – what does the word ‘bizarre’ mean? Consult a dictionary if necessary.

Task 2. Work with your partner. Try to think of some really bizarre inventions you have ever heard of. You have about 5-8 minutes to prepare. Then present your ideas to the class.

Task 3. In fact, there are many “crazy” scientists who sometimes come up with bizarre inventions. You can find some of those below. Do you think they are strange?

Task 4. Match the inventions with their description / utility.

Task 5. Check your knowledge of the following words and word combinations.

Task 6.Use these words and word combinations in your own sentences. Read some of your sentences to your partner and ask him to translate them.

Task 7. Read the text “Bizarre inventions”.

BIZARRE INVENTIONS

Sadie Nine meets a man who has become a world authority on strange devices and gadgets... Maurice Collins lives in a slightly surreal world. He’s the authority on strange devices, in particular, antique gadgets. He's even written two books about the items that were designed to make life a little easier, for people living over a hundred or more years ago.

“I’ve just bought this item; it’s a match holder and striker, a cigar cutter and also a bell!” Maurice explains as he persuades Sadie to demonstrate how it works.

Maurice has been collecting these strange items for more than thirty years.
He started off when his son was small, wondering around Victorian rubbish dumps looking for the ultimate antique lemonade bottle. “When I got the bottle, I began to look at other things. There were other bottles that were painted and the concept of items being sold across the shop counter in that period began to fascinate me. "I looked around and found a Victorian knife cleaner, a lemon squeezer, all very, very peculiar…”

Maurice is intrigued by the look of the items he collects. He likes objects that look very sculptural, are mechanical and also a little bit weird. He’s not even sure what some items are, so spends his time doing research at the Patent Office to try to identify them. Sometimes he has bought things that turn out to be totally different to what he thought they were.

Maurice’s collection is made up of time saving devices. “The pride of my collection is a teasmaid. To work it you set the alarm. The alarm goes off - it pushes a lever, which pushes a lever, which pushes another lever - causing a match to strike some sandpaper which then lights the heater and then boils the water. When it’s boiled, it pours into the teapot..!”

He has hundreds of contraptions in his north London home, which make it feel a bit like an antique parlour.

Many of his best items have now been lent out to museums. However not all of Maurice’s prized possessions are completely eccentric. Bletchley Park Museum in Milton Keynes boasts some of his more practical gadgets such as a mangle and one of the first ever food processors.

But collectors who have it all still want more; something very, very rare and very, very strange. Maurice talks of a ‘machine that tattooed deserters in 1810, with the letter ‘D’ on their forehead’ that he would like to own. Quite by surprise he hears news that suggests this machine has shown up…somewhere in Portobello Market.

Maurice could easily be way-laid by lots of curious items and strange knick knacks that Portobello market is famous for, but there is still no sign of the rare ‘Deserter Tattooing’ machine….until he suddenly gets a tip off. A specialist who deals in antique scientific instruments says he’s got one of them. Maurice tracks the machine down and sees a demonstration on how it works. It costs £2,800.So, for now, Maurice says: “I think I’ll have to start saving up my pennies…”

The images in this feature are taken from Maurice Collins' books Ingenious Gadgets and Eccentric Contraptions.

Task 8. Answer the questions.

1. Why does Maurice Collins live in a slightly surreal world? What is so peculiar about his hobby?

2. How long has Maurice been collecting his strange gadgets?

3. What is Maurice intrigued by?

4. What is the pride of his collection?

5. Are all of Maurice’s possessions completely eccentric?

6. What do you personally think about Maurice’s hobby? Would you also like to possess some of those strange things? Do you have any eccentric things at home? If you do, what are they?

Task 9. Find information in the text where it is said about:

- the antique lemonade bottle

- the look of Maurice’s items

- the teasmaid

Task 10. Write a summary of the text. In no more than 12 sentences, express the main idea and the general content of the text.

ADDITIONAL TASKS.

Task 1a. Work with a partner to read about some high-tech innovations. Complete the chart for your innovations.

Task 2a. Tell your partner about your texts. Complete all the parts of the chart.

STUDENT A

High-tech sewing machine   Brother has produced a high-tech sewing machine, Quattro 6000D, which makes use of various technologies to help users to make the most precise sewing. Apparently, as shown in the picture, the sewing machine comes equipped with a 4.5 x 7-inch Sharp HD LCD display, which allows the users to take every possible angle and to have a closer zoom and view of the piece under the needle. The Quattro 6000D employs the Brother’s “InnovEye” and “Up-Close Viewer” technology, which has a camera placed next to the needle to give the user a bird-eye view on the LCD to allow perfect placement of stitching. Also equipped with runway lighting, making it highly usable even under a dim environment. Some more it has three USB ports, which I’m not too sure what the main purpose is. Perhaps, they’re useful for loading some tutorials or sewing programme onto this sewing machine. If your granny is tech-savvy enough, then this sewing machine will definitely come in handy to help her to make the perfect stitching. But the elderly will have problems to pick up on how to make use of the LCD, the USB drives, which sounds rather complex to them.

High-tech WASHUP   "Wasup" is a conceptual design integrating washing machine with toilette-flush. It suggests a sustainable water consumption by storing the wasted water in toilette-flush tank and reuse it with flushing. Moreover, "washup" brings a solution for the problem of location of washing machines in small bathrooms, overlapping washing machine usage space with toilette usage space. It is fixed on wall upwards toilette, so that loading of clothes would be easier for the user without bending or crouching. A special interface including three semi-sphere control units & two flushing buttons is designed for a practical usage of the product. "Washup" is a green product offering solutions for the problems of standard washing machines.

STUDENT B

Smart refrigerator   Loathe writing grocery lists and deciding what to make for dinner? Be sure to put this refrigerator on your “must have” list. This smart appliance comes with a built-in 15” HD-ready LCD screen and message center. Watch TV or surf the Internet for your favorite recipes, right in your kitchen. Say goodbye to fridge magnets and wall calendars. The LCD screen also functions as a digital tablet, enabling you to leave hand-written messages for your family or set reminders for yourself. Some models even give you the option to leave voice messages. Depending on the brand and model you choose, the refrigerator will inventory what’s inside, and based on what you normally stock, create a grocery list for you and send it to the grocery store.

High-tech suit   In Finland, the leisurewear manufacturer Reima has launched a range of high-tech clothes that navigate, carry out health checks and send emergency signals. Reima says its Cyberia technology-packed clothing is for use in Arctic conditions. The Cyberia jump suits monitor the user's heart rate, body temperature and movement, and in an emergency it can send a message over mobile phone networks and then concentrate remaining energy on keeping the user warm. A hand-held module connected to the suit with a cable provides weather forecasts and information on light conditions, and uses the Global Positioning System to help in navigation and in locating the user in an emergency. It even includes a water and fire-proof pocket for melting snow for drinking water.

LESSON 3

INVENTORS

Task 1. Answer the question. Can you name an inventor? What did he/she invent?

Task 2. Look at the photos of famous inventors. Work with a partner to discuss the following.

1. What do you know about the people in the photos on this page?

2. What did they invent?

1. Alexander Fleming	2. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
5. Albert Einstein
3. Henry Ford	4. Thomas Edison

a. Penicillin	b. Theory of relativity	c. Incandescent electric lamp
d. X-Rays	e. Model T automobile

Task 3. Watch the video “X-rays” and read the text “Who invented the X-ray?’ and answer the questions.

1. When were X-rays invented?

2. How does an X-ray work?

3. What does the X-Ray machine consist of?

4. What does an X-ray image show?

5. Why are X-rays important?

WHO INVENTED THE X-RAY?

Have you ever had an X-ray taken? X-rays are used to analyze problems with bones, teeth and organs in the human body; to detect cracks in metal in industry; and even at airports for luggage inspection. Yet, despite their versatility, the invention of the X-ray wasn't intentional. The scientific and medical community will forever be indebted to an accidental discovery made by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895.

While experimenting with electrical currents through glass cathode-ray tubes, Röntgen discovered that a piece of barium platinocyanide glowed even though the tube was encased in thick black cardboard and was across the room. He theorized that some kind of radiation must be traveling in the space. Röntgen didn't fully understand his discovery so he dubbed it X-radiation for its unexplained nature.

To test his newfound theory, Röntgen enlisted the help of his wife for his first X-ray photos and captured images of the bones in her hand and her wedding ring in what would become known as the first röntgenogram. He discovered that when emitted in complete darkness, X-rays passed through objects of varying density, rendering the flesh and muscle of his wife's hand mostly transparent. The denser bones and the ring left behind a shadow on a special photographic plate covered in barium platinocyanide. The term X-radiation or X-ray stuck although it is still sometimes referred to as the Röntgen ray in German-speaking countries.

Röntgen's discovery garnered much attention in the scientific community and with the public. He gave his first public lecture on X-rays in January 1896 and showed the rays' ability to photograph the bones within living flesh. A few weeks later in Canada, an X-ray was used to find a bullet in a patient's leg.

Honorary degrees, medals, streets named in his honor and memberships to academic societies all followed. The recognition peaked with the awarding of the first Nobel Prize for physics in 1901. Röntgen deliberately didn't patent his discovery, feeling that scientific advances belonged to the world and should not be for profit.

Task 4. Watch the video “Thomas Edison Biography” and make up 3 questions to the listening text. Ask your partner to answer them.

Task 5. Complete the table with appropriate forms of words.

Task 6. Discuss the following statements.

1. There's a saying that genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. What does that saying mean, and do you agree with it? Why or why not?

2. What can an inventor do to make it easier for him or her to come up with ideas?

3. Inventors often patent their inventions. What does it mean to patent an invention? In what way does patenting protect an inventor?

Task 7. Read the text and decide if the following statements are true or false.

1. You can potentially patent any idea that is novel, nonobvious, and useful.

2. You can patent a species of mouse that you find running around your laboratory.

3. You cannot patent a genetically engineered mouse that you designed for use in cancer research

4. You cannot patent a combination of bacteria with beneficial properties if that combination occurs somewhere in nature.

5. You can patent a species of bacteria that you genetically alter to solve a common problem if that form does not occur naturally.

6. You can patent computer software.

PATENT PROTECTION

Patents are the most complicated type of intellectual property, as well as the most restrictive. To patent an invention, you have to meet a number of requirements. First of all, the invention must be sufficiently novel. That is, it must be substantially unlike anything that is already patented, has already been on the market or has been written about in a publication. In fact, you can't even patent your own invention if it has been on the market or discussed in publications for more than a year.

The vast majority of inventions are actually improvements on existing technology, not wholly new items. The camcorder, for example, is essentially a combination of a video camera and a tape recorder, but it is a unique idea to combine them into one unit. It was so innovative, in fact, that when Jerome Lemelson first submitted the idea to the patent office in 1977, it was rejected as an absurd notion. When the invention was eventually patented, it launched a flood of portable video machines. If you search for the term "camcorder" in the U.S. Patent Office's database, you will find more than a thousand separate patents. A modern camcorder is a combination of hundreds of patented inventions.

Adaptations of earlier inventions can be patented as long as they are nonobvious, meaning that a person of standard skill in the area of study wouldn't automatically come up with the same idea upon examining the existing invention. For example, you can't patent the concept of making a toaster that can handle more pieces of bread at once, because that is only taking an existing invention and making it bigger. For an invention to be patented, it must be innovative to the point that it wouldn't be obvious to others.

Another condition for patenting something is that the invention is "useful." Generally speaking, this means that the invention serves some purpose and that it actually works. You couldn't patent a random configuration of gears, for example, if it didn't do anything in particular. You also wouldn't be able to patent a time machine if you couldn't construct a working model. Unproven ideas generally fall into the realm of science fiction, and so are protected only by copyright law. The "useful" clause may also be interpreted as a prohibition against inventions that can only be used for illegal and/or immoral practices.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1143