Read the text and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. Science is an evolutionary process and relies on gradual accumulation of knowledge.

2. New ideas shock scientists who are reluctant to readjust.

3. A new paradigm provides a different perspective to the existing problems.

4. Paradigm shift does not necessarily lead to a number of ground-breaking discoveries.

5. Paradigm shift is usually opposed to the prevailing contemporary theory.

6. Only a few of the listed greatest paradigm shifts are the domain of physics.

7. Science seems to have reached its boundaries.

8. An increasing number of people are involved in research.

                                            Paradigm Shift

Many people think of scientific discovery as a process of gradual accumulation of new knowledge, which is added to a pile of the existing knowledge. This is what one might call the sand castle view of science, which sees individual scientists, no matter how eminent and adventurous, as children digging on a beach, adding their contributions to the pile of sand that has already been accumulated. This might describe 98 per cent of what we call scientific advance. But we need another image to convey the nature of the other 1 or 2 per cent.

A recurring theme of the history of science has been the shock of new ideas, and the readjustment of scientific thought they bring about. This process of readjustment was the subject of the book published in 1962 entitled The Structure of Scientific Revolution, by Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-1996), professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kuhn’s thesis was that scientific discovery is for most of the time a process of gradual accumulation of knowledge and understanding within the limits of what he called “normal science”. But once in a while, “a new paradigm” – a revolutionary new model – is put forward, which offers a dramatically changed view of the underlying reality a particular science is trying to explain.

  If the new model proves successful in explaining the hitherto mysterious phenomena, a period of upheaval ensues, as scientists try to come to terms with its implications. This leads to a reorientation of the science in question, which Kuhn called a” paradigm shift”. In due course the new paradigm meets with general acceptance, and there follows a period of exceptionally fruitful enquiry, which may last for two or three centuries, as scientists explore the territory the new field has opened up. Paradigm shifts need not be destructive. To return to the children on the beach, a major scientific breakthrough need not mean the flattening of the sand castle. It would be more like someone saying, “Why don’t we build an ocean liner instead?” If it seems like a good idea, it generates a burst of enthusiasm, construction that the original plain sand castle could never have produced.

The following is just a selection of some notable scientific revolutions of the past 600 years. All of them represent paradigm shifts of the kind Kuhn had in mind. And all of them were followed by a quickening of pace of scientific discovery that continued for a long time.

The Sun-centered Model of the Solar System

The Law of Universal Gravitation

The Periodic Table of Elements

Evolution by Natural Selection

The Planetary Model of the Atom

Special and General Relativity

The Expanding Universe

The Structure of DNA Plate Tectonics

The next 50 years in science will see a greater accumulation of scientific knowledge than any half-century, and there are still new paradigms to be constructed. We are better placed to seek out answers than ever in history. While past ages had a handful of leisured gentlemen amateurs or academics, we have hundreds of thousands of full-time paid scientists, male and female.

  As a result of recent developments in telecommunications – and above all, the Internet, – the opportunities for networking and the speed of diffusion of new knowledge, far exceed anything known even a quarter of a century ago. The technology available to us, especially in computing power, is immeasurably more powerful than that available to our predecessors.

  And, despite a few dark corners, the freedom to pursue enquiry, and the cultural imperative to do so, are built-in characteristics of our modern world. Of course, we might happen to be living at the time when most of what there is to be discovered has been discovered. But the history of science is littered with stories of eminent scientists who felt sure that they too were living at such a time. And how wrong they prove to be!

  It has been a rather private party so far. For nearly 500 years, from Copernicus to the Human Genome Project, Europe and North America, where the money was, had a virtual monopoly of science. Now, at long last, China, India, and a score of other countries have a chance to show what they can do; and the consequence can only be a further quickening of the pace of scientific advance.

2. In the text find the equivalents to the phrases:

- повторяющаяся тема

- реальность, лежащая в основе

- до сих пор загадочные явления

- наука, о которой идёт речь

- исключительно плодотворное исследование

- предложение может быть вполне обоснованным

- намного превосходить

- в распоряжении предшественников

- характеристики, присущие современному миру

- дальнейшее ускорение темпа научного прогресса

WORD FORMATION

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