📘 Part 3: Learning about science

This episode's vocabulary

Salient#nbsp;(adj.) -#nbsp;the salient facts about something or qualities of something are the most important things about them.

Communicable#nbsp;(adj.) -#nbsp;able to be given from one person to another.

Contribute#nbsp;(verb) -#nbsp;to give something, especially money, in order to provide or achieve something together with other people.

Advancement#nbsp;(noun) -#nbsp;the development or improvement of something.

Dispense#nbsp;(verb) -#nbsp;to give out things, especially products, services, or amounts of money.

Enhance#nbsp;(verb) -#nbsp;to improve the quality, amount, or strength of something.

Inevitable#nbsp;(adj.) -#nbsp;certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented.

Manpower#nbsp;(noun) -#nbsp;the supply of people who are able to work.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, let's talk about learning about science. How popular are science subjects at school?

R: I imagine that depends on what the subject is and how much it fires the imagination. I mean, for example, nuclear physics probably isn't as popular as biology just because it's too abstract for many people and it's hard to relate to. By contrast, biology allows us to imagine how our bodies and those of other life forms operate.

M: How important is it for everyone to learn about science at school?

R: I suppose having a grasp of the basics is useful, so we should encourage a broad education students can choose from, but I don't know if it's important for everyone to know everything in depth.

M: How can museums help young people to understand science better?

R: Well, they can draw students attention to the most salient features and inspire them to learn more by sparking an interest.

M: And how can they spark the interest?

R: Well, like I said, you draw attention to things with exhibits, for example. Different activities for people to do, maybe presentations by famous people. You can do this at museums.

M: Let's talk about science in daily life. Does science affect our daily lives? How?

R: I suppose it doesn't have a direct impact if we talk about all of the research happening at this moment, but it can be indirect if we consider how it helps shape public policy and the scientific breakthroughs in terms of technological progress that it produces. I mean, take, for example, like the impact scientists have, they've had on coronavirus policies of various countries. So that is at least partially guided by science.

M: What do you think have been some of the most important inventions in the past 100 years?

R: Well, that's a good question. I don't know what to prioritize, really. Probably various vaccines and developments in electronics. They've allowed people to live longer and grow closer in terms of communication and development and proximity, if you think about vaccines that fight communicable diseases.

M: Do you agree that individuals have a responsibility to contribute to scientific research?

R: Well, if those individuals are scientists, then yes, but if not, then I don't think you can make any such demands. I'm not sure what they could contribute otherwise, to be honest.

M: Let's talk about science and the future. What great advances in science might be in the future?

R: I think the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics hold the greatest potential. Even if it's not like Star Trek levels of advancement, there's still definitely great potential for revolutionary advances like robots to assist in hospitals and A.I. that can dispense medication. That would save a lot of time and labor, actually.

M: What are the benefits of scientific collaboration between countries?

R: Well, you can pull resources and knowledge effectively. I think the Large Hadron Collider in Europe is a good example of this. Different countries brought together people to build something to enhance their understanding of the universe. That's quite cool.

M: So do you think is going to continue in the future?

R: The Large Hadron Collider or scientific collaboration?

M: Both.

R: Well, the Large Hadron Collider, I think, has got like a never ending list of projects and collaboration between countries. Well, as resources become stretched in some places and others have more then that's just inevitable. Otherwise, other countries will fall behind.

M: Will science alone be able to solve urgent global problems, do you think?

R: It will help us understand problems and provide options to help tackle them. But of course, we all need someone to authorize the release of resources and manpower to resolve them through action. You can have all the ideas in the world, but if they aren't backed up by action, then they will just remain exactly that. Ideas.

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Discussion

M: Thank you, Rory. That's the end of the speaking test. Whoo hoo hoo hoo! Yay! There we go. We have different fields of science. And in the previous episode we mentioned that... We gave you examples of different fields of science. Here Rory talked about nuclear physics, for example. Biology. And these sciences can fire your imagination.

R: Yes. So to fire someone's imagination means to like, well, inspire them to think about things in an interesting way.

M: It's good to have a grasp of the basics. So have a grasp of the basics.

R: Yes. So we have a grasp of something and you can understand it.

M: For example, Rory has a grasp of the basics in linguistics.

R: You would hope so. Have a grasp of more than just the basics. Thank you very much. Just not conditionals.

M: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just about to make this comment. Rory has a grasp of the basics about conditionals. And conditionals do spark his interest.

R: So if you spark people's interest, then you make people interested in it or you attempt to.

M: Hmm. And then like museums should should spark our interest.

R: They should try if they want to get public funding.

M: And then they should draw students attention to the most salient features. What is it? Salient features in the sciences.

R: Salient features are just the ones that you like should notice and maybe hang onto. So if you think about paleontology, you think about dinosaurs. If you think about marine biology, you think, oh, I'll study whales and sharks, for example.

M: So salient like the most interesting or the basics?

R: Uh, it's the most interesting, I would say, or at least the ones that stand out.

M: We need another example. Salient.

R: Well, think about the salient features of people. Like, for example, your salient features are fashion sense in hair.

M: Oh, OK.

R: We just talk about what's on the surface, obviously.

M: Yeah.

R: In the same way with, oh, I don't know, the salient features of someone like Vladimir Lenin. You think like bald head and a beard.

M: Oh, OK. OK.

R: Things that stand out.

M: Yeah. Do you know I used to have gray hair.

R: I thought you're going to say did you know I used to have a beard.

M: Seriously. My hair was gray. Literally gray.

R: Did you have a beard?

M: No I've never had a beard.

R: Why not?

M: Luckily. Maybe for Halloween I can have a beard. I'm not sure I can grow a beard.

R: That's transphobic.

M: If I take some medicine, I can grow a beard. Anyway, science in daily life. So it was nice to say that science shapes public policies.

R: So instead of making public policy, you shape it, which means you influence it in some way, maybe not completely, but you influence how it looks.

M: And when we talk about science surely we talk about scientific breakthroughs. You can say scientific breakthroughs are important or breakthroughs in technology.

R: Unless you have a cold.

M: And then we speak about vaccines and developments in electronics.

R: Yes.

M: So various vaccines.

R: But if you don't know what to say specifically about something then you can just say, oh, developments in this area.

M: Yeah, developments in robotics. Robotics, yeah. You can talk about robotics.

R: You don't have to say what the specific development is. I don't know what specific developments in robotics are. We have robots. That's all.

M: Yeah. What else do we have? We have virtual reality. There we go.

R: Is that my stomach or yours?

M: Vanya's.

R: Oh, OK.

M: So virtual reality, there we go, developments in the VR. So video games reality.

R: Bearded women.

M: What?

R: Bearded women.

M: Bearded women.

R: So what were you going to say?

M: What's that The Large Hadron Collider? What's that?

R: That's... Oh God. It's a supercollider in Europe, but that doesn't mean anything. A supercollider is something that accelerates, and that means just speeds up particles and makes them smash into each other. And when they do, they take a kind of photograph of the things smashing together. And that tells you lots of information about the nature of the universe and the structure of the particles that make up the universe.

M: Oh, wow. It's pretty impressive.

R: It is. It's extraordinary work. I think it's also incredibly dangerous if you're inside one of them when it's active.

M: So it's the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

R: A supercollider supercollider.

M: Supercollider supercollider. OK, it's like LHC, the Large Hadron Collider.

M: There we go, you see, that's why a band nine is the level of an educated nature speaker. And educated native speakers do know the stuff about Large Hadron Collider.

R: You know what a supercollider is.

M: Ok, now, you know, dear listener. So go ahead, Google it and have a look at the lovely pictures of this lovely colliders. Right. We can also talk about manpower. Manpower.

R: Manpower.

M: Yeah. Girl's power. But manpower, women, people's power.

R: Well, the word is manpower, but what it really means is just people working to do something. It doesn't mean specifically men.

M: No, no. Manpower.

R: So resources and manpower. When countries collaborate with one another, they pool resources. Yeah. Pool resources and knowledge effectively. That's a nice verb to pool. So they kind of collect all their knowledge and resources. We can also collect a pool of activities, for example, for our learners. So a pool of listening activities, kind of like a pool. Well, imagine a swimming pool. Yeah. And then imagine that instead of water, instead of water, we put all listening activities for you and you take them from this pool. Yeah. Do you like my explanation, Rory?

R: I thought so, yeah. It's like the... It's a good demonic device to have in your head to imagine how it's going to work. Put everything together.

M: Yeah. Create a pool of ideas. And then countries collaborate together and they enhance our understanding of the universe. And this is a lovely word. Enhance.

R: Enhance the understanding.

M: What else can we enhance? We can enhance our understanding of something. We can enhance our knowledge. Right?

R: You can enhance your appearance with Photoshop.

M: Right. Yeah, enhance. Can you enhance your level of English?

R: By listening to our podcast.

M: Yay, and by...

R: Being cool.

M: And by checking out our "Podcourse", by the way. Anyway. Right. Don't forget to mention artificial intelligence. Right. And revolutionary advances, like robots.

R: So revolutionary advances is another way of talking about breakthroughs.

M: Yep. Again if you have no idea what to talk about, just talk about technology, different phones, iPhones, robots, advances in medicine, vaccines. So and check out this Large Hadron Collider, watch a couple of episodes of Big Bang Theory and you'll be fine. You're ready to talk about science.

R: But I think that we've exhausted our pool of vocabulary for now.

M: Yeah.

R: So good luck.

M: Thank you very much.

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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