20What are some of the actual major discoveries and inventions?

Review the most important scientific inventions and discoveries of the 20th century

Point out the two greatest breakthroughs in the field of knowledge in the 20th century: nuclear fission and DNA research

At the same time It also brings about the two greatest dangers, namely the proliferation of nuclear weapons and human cloning.

The Century of Invention: Creation and Destruction

The 20th century gave birth to many amazing ideas and gave birth to many things that made people's lives better than before.

Inventions that provide comfort, better health, and longer life, but at the same time give humans the tools to destroy themselves.

Let us look at life a century later from the perspective of an inventor in 1900, with the help of some magical power.

He will recognize some machines such as cars, telephones, and airplanes, because these

machines were invented a century ago.

There are also some machines, such as spaceships, lasers, deep-sea ships, etc., which are just some of the things imagined in the minds of futurists living in his time.

There are other machines that he can't even imagine: computers, the Internet, nuclear power, genetic engineering, and so on.

The past 100 years started with things like horse-drawn carriages and dip pens. Knowledge only belongs to

library and a small group of upper class people, while diseases, epidemics and deformities will take away people's lives prematurely.

Towards the end of this century, robot messengers were sent from Earth to the outermost reaches of the solar system

E-mail and live satellite broadcasts appeared, and knowledge became available through the Internet

With the advent of popularization, breakthroughs in the field of medicine also made plague, smallpox and cataracts become stories told in the Bible

As the century of physics gives way to the century of biotechnology, more miracles will emerge

Sometime next year, molecular biologists will release the first draft of the human genome

.

Science writer Matt Ridley writes in his upcoming book "The Gene": "In just a few short years, we will know more about our genes than From knowing nothing to knowing everything

"

"I sincerely believe that we are living in the greatest era of knowledge in human history

. There is nothing we don’t understand.”

Some predictions believe that in 25 years, it will be possible to analyze the patient’s genetic makeup through fragments of DNA. The analysis results prescribe genetically modified drugs to patients to treat various cancers, hemophilia, heart disease and sickle cell anemia.

It is also possible to find ways to prevent and treat AIDS and complex brain diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease (a hereditary chronic chorea), mad cow disease, etc.

Vaccines or methods.

Nanorobots the size of bacteria can swim with the human bloodstream, detect

important signals from the human body or remove dangerous deposits from arteries.

However, there is another side to the matter.

The 20th century began in an atmosphere full of hope, with people convinced that science was a tool to promote

human progress. Jules Verne once said optimistically: "As long as people can think of it, there will always be people who can do it."

But two world wars and a cold war However, many outstanding scientists have become tools of destruction instead of progress.

As the 21st century approaches, people often feel

fear and suspicion about research conducted in laboratories.

The two greatest breakthroughs in the field of knowledge - nuclear fission and DNA research - also brought about the two greatest dangers: the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the danger of human cloning.

The philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote: "Science has improved man's ability to control nature and is therefore thought to be likely to increase man's happiness and prosperity. This situation only

Can be based on reason, but in fact humans are always bound by passion and instinct

"

Here are some of the most important of this century. Inventions and discoveries:

Airplane: In 1903, two bicycle manufacturers, the Wright brothers, conducted the first

automatic flight test. In 1930, British engineer Frank Whittle applied for the first patent for a jet engine. However, Germany's achievements in the field of aviation research made it the first country to successfully develop a jet aircraft. The Heinkel Heinkel 178 aircraft developed by Germany was Taking to the skies in 1939.

The first jet airliner, the British Comet 1, successfully flew in 1949.

20 years later, the Boeing 747 wide-body jet aircraft developed on the basis of this aircraft made international air travel faster, more comfortable and cheaper. Future developments

include a 700-passenger superjumbo jet; an updated supersonic Concorde;

and the incredible "Sky Limousine" - which will also Cars flying in the air.

Television: When it comes to the invention of television, people most often think of Scottish engineer John Baird.

He first applied for a patent in 1923 for his device with eight imaging lines

. In 1930, the first television set was put on the market, and he named the device "television receiver".

In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corporation began to transmit the world's first regularly broadcast television program.

Today, television programs are transmitted to every corner of the world through wireless relay stations, cable and satellite transmissions. However, public opinion is still debating whether it is beneficial to education or harmful to culture

.

Penicillin: This miracle drug of the century was discovered in 1928 by the Scotsman Alexander Fleming. At that time, he discovered a mold in a petri dish that could kill bacteria.

But his discovery did not become widespread until 10 years later, when three researchers at the University of Oxford found a way to purify the

mold and use it as a medicine. Should

be used. Large-scale production of penicillin began in 1943 and was greatly promoted during World War II. Penicillin saved countless lives and led to the birth of an entire family of antibiotics

.

Atomic Fission: The controversial atomic age began in 1942. At that time, as part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons, a nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago Stadium reached criticality.

On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

A month later, two atomic bombs (a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb) were exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. After the end of World War II, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union plunged the world into a terrible arms race. Nuclear energy has now been widely used in developed countries.

Electronic Computer: The first practical electromechanical computer was invented by British mathematician Alan Turing in 1943.

This computer named "Giant" was used to decipher

Nazi codes.

Continuous innovations since then have made electronic computers smaller and smaller, but their capabilities have increased thousands of times: transistors (1947), integrated circuits (1,959) The inventions of the hard drive (1956), the modem (1980) and the mouse (1983) increased the speed at which data can be run. Invented and improved the ability to obtain data. In the future, there will be some "smart" devices: such as watch-type dialogue devices, refrigerators that can remind you to buy milk in time, and so on.

Contraceptive pills: Invented in 1954 by American doctor Gregory Pincus. The oral pill - a mixture of two hormones that suppress ovulation - sparked a sexual and social revolution. For the first time, women had effective birth control, allowing them to choose if and when to have children. In the course of this revolution, women got rid of the constraints on their sexual freedom and work rights, which ultimately enabled them to achieve unprecedented political and economic achievements. status.

DNA: On February 28, 1953, British scientist Francis Crick announced in a bar in Cambridge: "We have discovered the secret of life." Crick and American

American James Watson determined that DNA is a double helix molecule that exists in the nucleus of a cell and can determine heredity.

Deciphering the genetic code of humans, animals and plants opens up broad prospects for overcoming diseases and increasing food production

. In the next quarter century, researchers may find gene therapies for cancer, heart disease, hemophilia, diabetes and many other deadly diseases. But genetic research

has also raised ethical issues such as cloning.

Laser: The concept of laser originated from the idea of ??laser waves proposed by Einstein in 1917.

But it was not until 40 years later that Gordon Gould, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University in New York, discovered the powerful power of "stimulating radiation to emit amplified beams" (i.e. lasers) and used it

This idea became a reality after the beam was used to cut heated materials and measure distances

It took Gould nearly 30 years to patent his discovery, by which time

The laser technology he discovered was already widely used in many fields, such as welding, Scanning

, surgery, computing, CD records, VCD videos and retail industries, etc.

Organ Transplantation: 1967 was a milestone. That year, South African doctor Christie

Ann Bernard performed the world's first heart transplant on a patient. With the continuous development of drugs to control organ transplant rejection, doctors can now perform hand, liver, skin, retina and even testicular transplants on patients. Areas to be tackled in the future will be brain cell transplantation to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, as well as allogeneic transplantation - that is, transplanting animal organs transplanted into humans.

In vitro fertilization: Louise Brown celebrated her 21st birthday this year. The British girl was the world's first test-tube baby - conceived from an egg taken from her mother and her father's sperm. The first application of embryo freezing technology was in 1984, and embryo transfer began in 1990. In vitro fertilization technology brings hope and joy to infertile couples

but also raises some ethical issues. For example, do women in their 50s or even 60s have the right to have children, because their parents will die during childhood.

Space exploration: On October 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 (a

small satellite orbiting the Earth and emitting beep signals) Success,

The Space Age began. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon

The ball marked the Americans' victory in the race to land on the moon. Other major space powers include Western Europe (

European Space Agency), China and Japan.

Satellites have shortened the distances around the world, providing people with cheap and instant phone calls, television, radio and data link services, as well as navigation, weather forecasting and science and technology.

Scientific research provides information. Humanity has begun to explore the major planets in the solar system.

With the completion of the International Space Station in the next millennium, manned spaceflight will enter a new era.

The Internet: It is a tool that breaks the information fortress and makes it possible for people to obtain all kinds of knowledge at a low cost.

The Internet was developed from a secret communications network in the Pentagon

. It is like a spider web. Even if a part of the web is interrupted, the entire network is still intact. The network's first communication, packet switching, took place in 1969 between computers in two laboratories in Southern California.

It was 1989 when the Internet became widely used among the people. British computer wizard Tim Berners-Lee designed an easy-to-use connection and data transmission system that is not restricted by central system engineering and special software. address. Today's Internet users have reached 183 million, and it is estimated that this number will increase to 500 million by 2003.

According to AFP

(Excerpted from China News Service on December 27, 1999)