Elevator to space

An interesting article on the National Geographic news website discusses a study of a " partial space elevator" between Earth and the moon that would not be connected to Earth, but rather would hang in space.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140306-space-elevator-partial-orbit-science/

This type of space elevator seems more feasible than one that reaches from the surface of the Earth. The information about why this is a better idea provides excellent vocabulary for comparisons and contrast. So in addition to discussing the topic, students can be focused on the useful vocabulary. For example:

• about a quarter of the distance
• would be less than half as long
• worth exploring more
• Today's materials aren't strong enough
• Instead, a much smaller elevator looks less far-fetched.
• a much higher counterweight
• far more efficient than
• using longer tethers resulted in more energy savings
• costs ... are lower than those of ...
• even more energy efficient
• would be better, as it does away with ...

Due to the subject matter, there is also a lot of vocabulary in the semantic field of space travel:

• space elevator
• hanging in space
• space travel
• high orbit
• distance to the moon
• space engineer
• space rockets
• geosynchronous orbit
• communications and television satellites
• low Earth orbit
• the planet's surface
• satellites
• sending a spacecraft from low Earth orbit
• a rocket
• the spacecraft
• rocket-powered transportation
• low-Earth orbit launch
• International Space Elevator Consortium

 Another useful semantic field for engineers is that of energy:

• energy requirements
• far more efficient than
• more energy savings
• solar powered
• even more energy efficient

Finally, the article has many examples of how numbers and statistics are used in English. My students need to know this information for their presentations, technical writing and future professions. Some examples, with collocations highlighted:

• cut the costs of space travel to high orbit by 40 percent
• about a quarter of the distance to the moon
• would be less than half as long
• It now costs about $25,00 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) to put something into geosynchronous orbit
• which extends from roughly 99 miles (160 kilometers) to 1,243 miles (2,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface
• some 26,200 miles (42,164 kilometers) above Earth
• at around $5,000 to $10,000 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), accounting for some of the savings

So my students had an interesting discussion about this topic in class, and I was able to make the vocabulary material relevant to their studies.

Waterproofing smartphones

Photo from P2iLabs blog

P2i is a nanotechnology firm that has developed a coating to waterproof a wide variety of objects. Its coating for smartphones is said to "create an invisible shield around a smartphone to protect it from water, dirt and sweat."

An article in the online edition of The Telegraph includes a video (1:52) that shows how the nanotechnology coating works.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/10600349/P2i-The-company-that-can-waterproof-just-about-anything.html

The topic of the article was very interesting for my students, since we cover many aspects of innovation in our curriculum. It was especially useful for those studying information technology and computer science, because many of them already work in mobile phone technologies.

The text of the article itself proved to be useful for:

• process description - "To apply the coating, a rack of smartphones is placed in a low-pressure machine that looks something like a large microwave. The machine creates a vacuum and passes a radio frequency through it to activate the surface of the handset. A chemical vapour is then released into the vacuum which attaches itself to the product, creating the invisible layer that shields it from liquids."

• graph language; statistics - "Revenues are now growing rapidly, up from £6m in 2012 to £8m last year and a forecast of £12m in 2014 and £18m in 2015. P21 has 190 machines in factories in 16 countries, and is expecting much bigger numbers in the years ahead.

•  comparisons, change - more than, less than, expected to double this year, to grow exponentially, more robust devices, biggest risk,  now growing rapidly, up from, making the transition from ... to ...

• contrast phrases with "but" - "Smartphones are the company's biggest business, but its technology is now focused on four areas ..." There are 8 sentences with this construction in the article.

The video is also useful since it is short, but illustrates the innovation very well, both with the explanation and with the visuals.

There is further information about this innovation on the company's website:  http://www.p2i.com.

Predictions for the digital future

A contact of mine on Linked-In posted a link to a blog article by Tyler Falk (on the website Smartplanet) titled, "15 Predictions for the Digital Future." It reports predictions made by hundreds of experts in the technology sector that were then consolidated by the Pew Research Center's Internet Project into this list of 15 predicitons, which cover both positive and negative aspects.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/15-predictions-for-the-digital-future/

Since it is the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web and the curriculum for my engineering students covers the impact of technology, I thought this would be a good article to share with my students - particularly those studying information technology.

I first asked them what their predictions were. They brainstormed ideas first alone and then in pairs. Their ideas ranged from the obvious (we will use a greater range of technology) to science fiction (robots will take over the planet). But during the class discussion, the students thought more seriously about the kind of developments that are conceivable in their lifetimes.

Then I assigned the article to be read for homework so that the following lesson we could compare their ideas with those of the experts. It was interesting that not only did they engage in a lively discussion about which predictions they agreed with, but they also disagreed about which predictions were positive and which were negative.

Among the predictions that aroused the most disagreement were numbers 5 and 6:

5. "Political awareness and action will be facilitated and more peaceful change and public uprisings like the Arab Spring will emerge."

6. "The spread of the 'Ubernet' will diminish the meaning of borders, and new 'nations' of those with shared interests may emerge and exist beyond the capacity of current nation-states to control."

I think that this would be an interesting discussion with any group of engineering students, and gives them food for thought about what impact their area of technology could have on the future.