Make up questions to which the following phrases are the answers. The dialogue is between a newspaper correspondent and professor Grekov, an expert in physics.
| The correspondent: | __? |
| Prof. Grekov: | Oh, yes. I think you’ve heard such names of prominent physicists and Nobel Laureates as Nikolay Basov, Ilya Frank, Peter Kapitza, Aleksandr Prokhorov, Andrey Sakharov, Igor Tamm and Zhores Alferov. |
| The correspondent: | __? |
| Prof. Grekov: | It’s quite true. They’ve made a remarkable contribution to modern physics and electronics. |
| The correspondent: | __? |
| Prof. Grekov: | And of course I’d like to emphasize the achievements of Zhores Alferov. He shared half of the Nobel Prize with American physicist Herbert Kroemer for their independent yet parallel improvements to semiconductors during the early 1960s. |
| The correspondent: | __? |
| Prof. Grekov: | Yes, it’s quite true. Zhores Alferov tried a new method: having combined different semiconducting materials such as gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide in layers as thin as a few atoms, he vastly improved transistor performance. These layered semiconductors are called heterostructures. |
| The correspondent: | __? |
| Prof. Grekov: | Today, the heterostructures are used in satellite communication systems, in the base stations for mobile-telephone networks, and in the fiber-optic technology that speeds Internet data throughout the world. Heterostructure lasers make it possible for CD players to reproduce music and for the bar-code scanners in stores to automatically record sales. |
| The correspondent: | __? |
| Prof. Grekov: | Future improvements in laser-diode technology may one day replace the conventional light bulb with light-emitting devices based on semiconductor heterostructures. |
In the interviews which follow, a number of scientists express their opinions on the path of scientific development and the qualities needed in a contemporary research worker. Study the interviews and work on them.
Imagine that you are participating in the interviews. Which of the speakers do you most agree with? Why? Introducing your point of view and interfering into communication say: Allow me to say this, will you? May I make a comment on what you have just said? I want to come in on this if I may? May I take up that point which I find most interesting?
| Question 1: | How do you explain the fact that in the past few decades science has come to occupy such an important place in the life of the society? |
| Answers: | |
| Academician A.: | We all know that our present age is the age of the scientific and technological revolution. Thanks to its achievements, people have for the first time really come to discover the fundamental laws of nature: they have penetrated the depths of the atom, are investigating the world of distant stars, the laws of heredity and essence of life. The achievements of science have penetrated into all spheres of life. |
| Academician B.: | In the last few decades science has come to occupy such an important place in the life of the society because the results of scientific investigation are very important for the improving of living conditions, transport, communications, etc. |
| Professor C.: | Scientific information is being accumulated and the number of scientific personnel is increasing at the rate which has never before existed. Judge for yourselves: ninety percent of the knowledge which mankind has at its disposal today has been acquired to the last fifty years; between eighty and ninety percent of all scientists who have ever existed on this earth live in our epoch; the quantity of scientific publications and the number of specialist journals doubles practically every ten years. |
| Professor D.: | … because of the great achievements of the past few decades: the successes in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. |
| Question 2: | Which of the problems now facing mankind do you consider the most important and what, in your opinion, can be done to solve them? |
| Answers: | |
| Academician E.: | Even the simplest list of the most important problems facing mankind today would take up too much space. But the main condition, which is essential for the solution of these problems, is peace throughout the whole world, and the close collaboration of people of different nationalities and religions in the further development of productive forces on our planet. |
| Professor F.: | I suppose discoveries in the field of the all-round exploration of solar energy. They are extraordinarily necessary and that means they cannot fail to appear. |
| Dr. J.: | It would be splendid if we could succeed in bridling the three main “killers” of this century – cancer, heart diseases and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). |
| Question 3: | How does science help industry? |
| Answers: | |
| Academician K.: | The application of scientific knowledge is also the task of the scientist. The attaining of truth is only one of the functions of science: its second function is the creation of all possible kinds of technical devices. |
| Academician L.: | The scientist must concern himself with how the knowledge he has acquired can be applied in the economy. Scientific achievements must, in the shortest time possible, be put into practice. Of course, to combine knowledge with fundamental and applied science is not that simple… |