Instinct or Cleverness ?
From the Earth: Greetings
RaRadio astronomy has greatly increased our understanding of the universe.
We have been brought up to /car insects. We regard thеm as unnecessary RaRadio telescopes have one big advantage over conventional telescopes in that
creatures that do more harm than good. Man continually wages war on ththey can operate in all weather conditions and can pick up signals coming from
them, for they contaminate his food, carry diseases, or devour his crops. vevery distant stars. These signals are produced by colliding stars or nuclear
They sting or bite without provocation; they fly uninvited into our rooms rereactions in outer space. The most powerful signal that have been received
on summer nights, or beat against our lighted windows. We live in dread
not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless re have been emitted by what seem to be truly colossal stars which scientists
ones like moths. Reading about them increases our understanding without hahave named 'quasars'. A better understanding of these phenomena may
dispelling our fears. Knowing that the industrious ant lives in a highly cocompletely alter our conception of the nature of the universe. The radio
organized society does nothing to prevent us from being filled with teltelescope at Jodrell Bank in England was for many years the largest in the
revulsion when we find hordes of them crawling over a carefully prepared wworld. A new telescope, over twice the size,- was recently built at Sugar Grove
picnic lunch. No matter how much we like honey, or how much we have
in West Virginia. •
read about the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess, we have a
horror of being stung. Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are AsAstronomers no longer regard as fanciful the idea that they may one day
impossible to erase. At the same time, however, insects are strangely pipick up signals which have been sent by intelligent beings on other worlds.
fascinating. We enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that, ThThis possibility gives rise to interesting speculations. Highly advanced
like the praying mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. We enjoy staring civcivilizations may have existed on other planets long before intelligent forms
at them, entranced as they go about th e ir business, unaware (we hope) of of of life evolved on the earth. Conversely, intelligent beings which are just
our presence. Who has not stood in awe at the sight of a spider pouncing bebeginning to develop on remote worlds may be ready to pick up our signals
on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly bearing home an enormous in thousands of years' time, or when life on earth has become extinct. Such
dead beetle?
spspeculations no longer belong to the realm of science fiction, for
asastronomers are now exploring the chances of communicating with living
Last summer I spent days in the garden-watching thousands of ants crcreatures (if they exist) on distant planets. This undertaking which has been
crawling up the trunk of my prize peach tree. The tree has grown against a nanamed Project Ozma was begun in 1960, but it may take a great many years
warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am especially proud of it, not bebefore results are obtained.
only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it
occasionally produces luscious peaches. During the summer, I noticed that Aware of the fact that it would be impossible to wait thousands or millions of
the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither. Clusters of tiny insects years to receive an answer from a distant planet, scientists engaged in Project
called aphis were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were Ozma are concentrating their attention on stars which are relatively close. One
visited by a large colony of ants which obtained a sort of honey from of the most likely stars is Tau Ceti which is eleven light years away. If signals
them. I immediately embarked on an experiment which, even though it from the earth were received by intelligent creatures on a planet circling this
failed to get rid of the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty-four hours. I star, we would have to wait twenty-two years for an answer. The Green Bank
bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the telescope in West Virginia has been specially designed to distinguish between
ants to reach the aphis. The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to random signals and signals which might be in code.; Even if contact were
cross it. For a long time, I watched them scurrying around the base of the eventually established, astronomers would not be able to rely on language to
tree in bewilderment. I even went out at midnight with a torch and noted communicate with other beings. They would use mathematics as this is the
with satisfaction (and surprise) that the ants were still swarming around ont truly universal language. Numbers have the same value anywhere. For this
the sticky tape without being able to do anything about it. I got up early rereason, intelligent creatures in any part of the universe would be able to
next morning hoping to find that the ants had given up in despair. Instead, ununderstand a simple arithmetical sequence. They would be able to reply to
I saw that they had discovered a new route. They were climbing up the ouour signals using similar methods. The next step would be to try to develop
wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly mmeans for sending television pictures. A single picture would tell us more
that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity.
ththan thousands of words. In an age when anything seems to be possible, it
wowould be narrow-minded in the extreme to ridicule these attempts to find
The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific ou if there is life in other parts of the universe.
methods!
VELOCITY HAS ITS LIMITS
'Before the Second World War the speed of aircraft was far below the speed
of sound. Today we have supersonic aircraft. Radio waves propagate at the
velocity of light. Could we perhaps create "superlight" telegraphy to send
signals at velocities greater than the velocity of light? No, that is an impossible
thing to do.
Since the experiment disproves absolute nature of time we
conclude that signal transmission cannot be instantaneous. The .velocity of
transmission from one point in space to another cannot be infinite, in other
words, cannot be greater than some ultimate value, called the speed limit. The
speed limit concurs with the light velocity. Indeed, according to the principle
of the relativity of motion the laws of nature will be the same for all the
laboratories moving relatively to each other (rectilinearly and with the same
uniform velocity). The affirmation that no velocity can be greater than the
given limit is also the law of Nature and, therefore, the value of the speed limit
should be exactly similar in different laboratories. The light velocity, as we
know, possesses the same qualities. Thus, the speed of light is not merely the
speed of propagation of a natural phenomenon. It plays the important part of
being the top velocity. The discovery of the existence in the Universe of the
top velocity is one of the greatest triumphs of human genius and of the
experimental capacity of mankind. In the 19th century physicists were unable
to perceive that a top speed existed and that its existence could be proved.
Moreover, if they would have stumbled upon it by chance in their experiments,
they would not have been sure that it was a law of Nature and not merely the
effect of their limited experimental capacity
The principle of relativity reveals that the existence of a top velocity lies in the
very nature of things. To assume that technological development will enable us
to attain velocities greater than the velocity of light is just as ridiculous as to
suggest that the absence of points on the Earth's surface more than 20 thousand
kilometres apart is not a geographical law, but the upshot of our limited
knowledge, and to hope that some day, when geography makes further
advances, we shall be able to find points on the Earth that are still farther apart.
Light velocity plays such an .exceptional part in Nature exactly because it is
the top velocity for the propagation of anything. Light either outstrips all other
phenomena, or, at the outside, arrives simultaneously with them.
If the Sun should split in two and form two stars, the motion of the Earth
would, naturally, suffer a change as well. The 19th-century physicist, who
did not know that a top velocity existed in Nature, would certainly assume
that the Earth changed its motion instantly after the Sun split in two. Yet
it would have taken light all of eight minutes to cover the distance from
the split Sun to the Earth. The change in the Earth's rotary motion would
begin eight minutes after the Sun split up. Until that moment, the Earth
would continue to move as if the Sun had not split. Anything that may occur
with or on the Sun will not affect the Earth or its motion until eight minutes
later.
TRANSLATE INTO RUSSIAN
NEO ORGANS
1. Because of malfunction of some vital organs people have
different diseases and can even die.
2. There is lack of transplantable organs and especially
hearts in the American Heart Association.
3. The boy needs a life-saving transplant operation.
4. She was taken to the hospital with serious burns all over
her body.
5. His serious wounds failed to heal during several weeks.
6. Sometimes it is easier to repair an automobile after an
accident than to treat and cure a driver of a car.
7. Regeneration of living cells is a very important medicine
objective.
8. There is a new way of treatment of sick organs. It is the
creation of man-made tissues or organs.
9. Researchers have taken the first steps toward creating
semisynthetic, living organs that can be used to replace
the diseased organs.
10.Scientists think that it is at least theoretically possible to
engineer large, complex organs such as livers, kidneys,
intestine, etc.