Art and Science.  Subjectivity vs. Objectivity

Although both art and science are human activities, they are thought about in different ways. Monet’s Palazzo do Mula and Mozart’s Die Zauberflote are regarded as wondrous acts of creativity.

 

1. We value variety in, say, art or biology. Nobody thinks the world would be better if Eduard Manet (be) more like Mark Chagall, or fish like fowl.

2. Would the world now be different if Albert Einstein (…) never  (live)?

3. Had Monet not lived, the world (be) different because the Palazzo do Mula never (paint).

4. Had Mozart not (live), the world (be) different because the opera Die Zauberflote never would have been composed.

5. It is indeed likely that if Einstein (not create) the Special Theory of Relativity, someone else would have created something equivalent to Einstein's theory.

 

  UNIT 23  BRAIN – THE MOST POWERFUL COMPUTER

1. Read the text and give it a title:

    Man has a lot to learn about the most powerful and complex part of the body –

the brain. In the ancient times people did not think that the brain was the centre of

mental activity. The great ancient philosopher of Greece Aristotle thought that the

mind was based in the heart. It was not until the 18^th century that people realized the

brain to be involved in the mental process of the mind.

During recent years, research has shown that the brain is a much more intelligent than

we ever imagined. Even the commonly known statement that, on average, we use only

one per cent of our brain may well be wrong. It now seams that we can use even less

than one per cent which means that we have to learn how to use an enormous part of

our brain.

    In the past 50 years chemists and biologists have found that the way the brain works is far more complicated than they had thought. For example, over 100,000 chemical reactions take place in the brain every second. However, the more scientists know, the more questions appear to be answered.

    Marian C. Diamond, one of the respected scientists of the University of California at Berkeley examined a small slice of Albert Einstein’s brain but found nothing unusual about the number or size of its neurons (nerve cells). But in the association cortex, responsible for high-level cognition, she did discover a surprisingly large number of nonneuronal cells known as glia – a much greater concentration than that found in the average Albert's head. An odd curiosity? Perhaps not. A growing body of evidence sug­gests that glial cells play a far more important role than historically presumed. For decades, physiologists focused on neurons as the brain's prime communicators. Glia, even though they outnumber nerve cells nine to one, was thought to have only a maintenance role: bringing nutrients from blood vessels to neurons, maintaining a healthy balance of ions in the brain, and warding off pathogens that evaded the immune system. Propped up by glia, neurons were free to communicate across tiny contact points called synapses and to estab­lish a web of connections that allow us to think, remember and jump for joy.

  That long-held model of brain function could change dramati­cally if new findings about glia pan out. In the past several years, sen­sitive imaging tests have shown that neurons and glia engage in a two-way dialogue from embryonic development through old age. Glias influence the formation of synapses and help to determine which neural connections get stronger or weaker over time; such changes are essential to learning and to storing long-term memories. And the most recent work shows that glia also communicate among them­selves, in a separate but parallel network to the neural network, in­fluencing how well the brain performs. Neuroscientists are cautious about assigning new prominence to glia too quickly, yet they are ex­cited by the prospect that more than half the brain has gone largely unexplored and may contain a trove of information about how the mind works.

2. Find in the text equivalents to the phrases:

- центр умственной активности;

- вскрытие трупа;

- скупо выделять небольшие срезы мозга;

- изучать ткань (мозга),

- в попытках разгадать причину гениальности Эйнштейна;

- давно существующая модель функции мозга;

- с момента развития эмбриона вплоть до преклонного возраста;

- хранение давних воспоминаний;

- паутина связей;

- работа нейронов;

- приписывать выдающуюся роль;

- кладезь информации

 

3. Translate into Russian the following words and phrases:

mind, minded, mindful, mindless, mind-reader; mental, mental activity, mental process, mental deficiency, mentality;

intellection, intellectual, intellectual property, intelligent, intelligence, intelligible; cognition, cognitional, cognitive, cognitively, cognizable;

neuron, neuronal, neuropathology, neurophysiology, neurophysiological, neurophysiologist, neuropsychology, neuropsychological.

 

TALKING POINT

4. Make a dialogue, asking your partner:

- if we know everything about the brain;

- interesting facts Marian C. Daimond discovered about Albert Einstain’s brain;

- how recent works have changed the understanding of glia’s role for brain function.

5. Translate into Russian:

The mental picture most people have of our nervous system resembles a tangle of wires that connect neurons. Each neuron has a long, outstretched branch – an axon – that carries electrical signals to buds at its end. Each bud emits neurotransmitters – chemical mes­senger molecules – across a short synaptic gap to a twiglike receptor, or dendrite, on an adjacent neuron. But packed around the neurons and axons is a diverse population of glial cells. By the time of Einstein's death, neuroscientists suspected that glial cells might contribute to in­formation processing, but convincing evidence eluded them. They eventually demoted glia, and research on these cells slid into the back­water of science for a long time.

 

6. Form phrases by matching the words from 1-11 with the words a-k and translate :

 

1) glial, 2) twiglike, 3) nervous, 4) in­formation, 5) adjacent, 6) outstretched,

7) a tangle, 8) synaptic, 9) brain, 10) high- level,  11) immune

 

a) system, b) system, c) neuron, d) cell, e) receptor,  f) of wires,

g) slice, h) cognition,  i) branch, j) gap, k) processing

 

WORD FORMATION

7. Fill in the gaps with an appropriate form of the words in brackets:

  If you wake up feeling hazy, wait for the fog to clear before you make any big decision, according to a new study. 1… (research) at the university of Colorado and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that people just wake from eight hours of sound sleep have weaker 2 … (cognise) skills than people who have had no sleep for more than 24 hours. The small study, which is outlined in research letter in an issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that people had diminished short-term memory, counting skills and cognitive abilities during the groggy period upon 3 … (awake), a period known as sleep inertia. “This is the first time anyone has quantified the effects of sleep inertia”, said Kenneth Wright, the study’s leader. “For a short period, at least, the effects of sleep inertia may be as bad as or worse than being legally drunk.” The researchers said that the most severe effects of sleep inertia generally dissipated within the first 10 minutes, although its effects are often 4 … (detect) for up to two hours. The researchers said the findings are important for doctors and other 5 … (profession) who have quick transitions from sleep mode to “on” mode. They also said the study illuminates the challenges faced by everyday people who are forced to make crucial 6 … (decide) following an abrupt awakening. “If a person is awakened suddenly by a fire alarm, for example, 7 … (motivate) alone may be insufficient to overcome the effects of sleep inertia”, Wright said in a news release.

 

TALKING POINT

8. Discuss in pairs:

· possibility to make crucial decisions right after awakening after sound sleep?

· time necessary to regain cognitive skills upon awakening?

 

WRITING

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