Материал: Гвоздева Пхысицс фор адванцед студентс 2011

Give Russian correspondence:

This is the case (this is true), another (a second), the other (the second of the two), to make somebody do something (to force somebody to do it), rather (introduces a correction), eventually (finally, ultimately), in a natural way

Study the quotations.

“If I have seen further it was by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Sir Isaac Newton

“The human mind treats the new idea the way the body treats a new protein, it rejects it.”

Medawar, biologist

“The human mind is the most inertial system.”

(Anonymous)

THE OPPONENTS ARE NEVER CONVINCED

FYI

1 an opponent – a person who disagrees with something you suggest and criticizes it

2 utopian – idealistic

Study the passage. Mind the underlined grammar points.

There is a beautiful, utopian notion that science marches forward step-by-step in understanding the world we live in. The trouble is, there is a non-linearity in the advance of science, as in other fields of creative human activity. The history is much more dramatic than that utopian notion. Bolzmann committed suicide. Today he is considered one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth century. He was one of the inventors of statistical mechanics. One of the reasons he committed suicide was because the leading intellectual figure in Vienna at that time was Ernst Mach and Mach didn’t believe in atoms. All of Boltzmann’s work depended on the existence of atoms.

Another example is Maxwell, the other great scientist of the end of the nineteenth century. James Maxwell came up with Maxwell’s equa-

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tions for electromagnetism. The leading physicist of his time was Lord Kelvin, who decided that Maxwell was wrong. And when Maxwell died, there were only a handful of young physicists in England who thought that Maxwell was right.

There are many stories like this. But of course when they write a history of science, they take all of that out and make it sound like science is a step-by-step march forward and that everyone agrees when a new idea comes. To show how little this is the case in science, as in other fields, there is a beautiful quote from Max Planck: “Scientific truth never triumphs by convincing its opponents and making them see the light., but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with that and regards new ideas in a natural way.” Planck was one of the inventors of quantum theory, a very revolutionary theory. He did this work around nineteen-hundred. It was really the first step in the direction of the quantum theory.

Chitin, American mathematician

Vocabulary Notes

1.to convince somebody – to talk somebody into the idea

2.a notion – a concept – an idea

3.to come up with a theory – to suggest a theory

4.to regard – to consider

POST-READING TASK

(To be done at home in writing)

I. Explain why there is a non-linearity in the fields of creative human activity.

II. Reconstruct the passage.

Begin with: ‘The scientific truth never triumphs by convincing its opponents.’ and then give some examples to prove it.

III. Complete the sentences. Follow the passage.

1.There is a beautiful utopian notion …..

2.There is non-linearity ……

3.There is another ….

4.There were only a handful of young physicists …..

5.There are ….

6.There is ….

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IV. Give words close in meaning.

1.idealistic

2.a concept

3.the progress of science

4.to consider

5.to suggest a theory

6.this is true

V. Study grammar point I and make the sentences passive. Make an indirect object the subject of a sentence and use the

passive form of the V.

Model: Life bored me. – I was bored with life.

1.My mother took me to a family doctor.

2.Doctors never actually told me what was wrong.

3.Then the doctors told me I had a brain damage.

4.It was the end of the fifties, and what was called the Establishment disillusioned young people. Life bored me and most of my con-

temporaries.

5.Stars drew me.

6.Medicine or biology didn’t attract me because they seemed too inexact and descriptive.

7.My mother did not influence me as much as my father.

8.They sent me a copy of the review

9.The television series impressed me very much.

10.No alien civilization has contacted us yet.

(From the book Black Holes and Baby Universes by Stephen Hawking)

Note

1.The Establishment – the political system

2.Someone who is your contemporary lives at the same time as

you.

CLASS EXERCISES

Exercise 1 (in pairs)

You have different points of view with your partner. One of you reads the positive sentence. The other one changes its meaning to the negative. Follow the passage.

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1.Science marches forward step-by-step in understanding.

2.There is a linearity in the advance of science.

3.Mach believed in atoms.

4.Lord Kelvin decided that Maxwell was right.

5.Many physicists in England thought that Maxwell was right.

6.Science is a step-by-step march forward.

7.Everyone agrees when a new idea comes.

8.Scientific truth triumphs by convincing its opponents.

Exercise 2 (do it yourself)

Translate the sentences using there is, there are. Follow the passage.

1.Существует утопическое понятие, что наука развивается равномерно.

2.Это не так. Развитию науки присуща нелинейность.

3.Нелинейность присуща любой области творческой человеческой деятельности.

4.Существует еще один пример.

5.Таких историй много.

6.Существует прекрасное изречение Макса Планка, которое объясняет причину нелинейности развития любой области творческой человеческой деятельности.

Exercise 3 (in pairs)

Make up sentences by matching the left and the right columns. Follow the passage.

Model: This notion is (was) utopian.

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