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Positive and negative effects of brain maping

2008-11-09T17:31:00.001-08:00

As the two article mentioned, brain mapping has both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, the technology have many obvious and immediate applications. First of all, it could eventually lead to the use of brain scans to indentify thought and could have applications in the study of autism, disorders of though such as paranoid schizophrenia, and semantic dementias such as Pick's disease. As we all know that such kinds of diseases are hard to cure right now, so if the technology succeeds in the field, many people who suffer from the diseases will benefit from it. The technology also has applications in criminal investigation, for example, a guilty suspect's brain might show recognition of a crime scene that an innocent suspect would have no knowledge of. In addition, brain mapping can make contributions in understanding of language in the brain. Last but not the least, the technology opens up all sorts of new possibilities for looking into the structure of how patterns of brain activity relate to human thought processes. However, on the other hand, brain mapping also has many negative. Firstly, accuracy and error rates are issues waiting to be solved. Also, imaging the brain and storing the data are likely to be very expensive and the security of personal privacy is a problem as well. Furthermore, the most controversial issues are ethical considerations surrounding the test of children. It is unwise to determine the natural aptitude of a child just according to the brain scans, because things can be changed with learning and environment. So if I am a researcher, I will try to establish standards about accuracy and done error rates and also rules about what can and cannot be done with children. It should be clear that who will be tested, why they will be tested and how the result will be used.

Summary of Prevent nuclear terror

2008-09-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Terroeists wished to make nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors for research or power are scattered about hte globe, so nuclear security represents one of the most urgent policy if the 21st century. Engeering shares the formidable challages of finding all the dangerous nuclear materials in the world, keeping track of it, securing it, and detecting its diversion or transport for the terrorist use. There are many challenges to prevent nuclear terror attacks. Informationally, it is essential to have a sound system to protect against their theft of purchase of nuclear materials on the black market by terrorists. Also, terrorists could buy the innards of a dismantled bomb, or fuel from a nuclear power plant and build a homemade explosive device. Beside, concern for nuclear security complicates the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purpose. A possible engineering solution would be the development of a passive device situated near a teactor, which could transmit real-time data on the reactor's contents, betraying any removal of plutonium. "Nuclear car wash" can also help to detect nuclear material. In addition, real-time mutual surveillance systenms can help ensure that there is no unauthorized access to storage containers of weapon-usable materials. In short, other nuclear challanges will surface and additional engineering methods will be needed to protect against the variety of possible nuclear assualts.

Outline

2008-09-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Outline
Why We shouldn’t Go to Mars: Someday people may walk on the planet, but not until it makes technological sense
A. Bush announced his desire for a program to send men and women to Mars and compared it with Lewis and Clark’s expedition.
B. Differences between Lewis and Clark’s expedition and a Mars mission:
a) Lewis and Clark were headed to a place amenable to life;
b) They are certain to discover places and things of immediate value to the new nation;
c) Their venture cost next to nothing by today’s standards.
C. The thought of travel to Mars is exhilarating, but it makes no sense with current technology:
a) A Mars mission costs a lot by cutting other important programs or raising taxes and people can get the same result at a tiny fraction of the cost of sending people;
b) Bush’s proposal may lead to a reduction in unmanned science;
c) People should research new launch system and advanced propulsion, rather than go to Mars using current technology;
d) Against needs for some important programs, the case for vast expeditions to go to Mars using current technology is very weak.
D. For the moment, going to Mars is hopelessly unrealistic.

Past unreal conditionals

2008-09-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

Grammar Mistake:
I would have bought the computer when it had been cheaper.
This sentence is related to past unreal conditionals and only the word “if” is used with it because the sentence is discussing imaginary situations. “When” cannot be used.
So the sentence should be changed to:
I would have bought the computer if it had been cheaper.

Form
In past unread conditional sentence, the if-clause presents the unreal condition. The result clause presents the unreal or imagined result of that condition.
1) If … Past Perfect …, … would have + past participle …
2) … would have + participle … if … Past Perfect …

Statement
We use past unreal conditionals to express unreal or imagined situations in the past.
Examples:
If Roger had studied business, he would have been more prosperous.
(Roger did not have success and he was not prosperous)
Roger would have had success if he had been smart.
(He did not have success and he was not smart)

Note: When the result is not certain, use might have or could have in the result clause to express possibility. There are some special conditional forms for modal verbs in English:
would have + can = could have
would have + shall = should have
would have + may = might have
Example:
If Roger had studied business, he might have been more prosperous.

Exercise:
Fill the blanks with the appropriate form of the verbs in parenthesis.
You did not pay attention in class yesterday. If you ______ (pay) attention, you ______ (fail-negative) the test.

Answer:
Have had paid; would not have failed

About Engineering

2008-08-21T07:19:00.001-07:00

After reading the two articles, I realize that engineering has a much brighter future than I thought before. Because of the curriculum design and pedagogical approach, engineering-trained graduates have gained the ability to analyze complex sets of information and apply systems thinking in designing solutions. As a result, many engineers take jobs in fields such as banking, finance, logistics and commerce. However, in my opinion, finding solutions to the challenges the world poses is still the most important to the engineering profession.

Though engineering education is flexible and diversified, it is still aimed to train engineers to solve different formidable problems. As the world is developing at such a high speed, manufacturing and associated sectors are still the most fundamental to engineering. Nowadays, engineering is trying to fulfill the needs of society development and deal with different kinds of challenges, such as energy shortage, environment pollution, pandemic diseases, and so on. If all the engineers venture into service sector, nobody is going to handle the challenges and this kind of education is no longer called engineering.

As we all can see, there are many challenges which must be met to ensure the future itself, for example, environmentally friendly power, countermeasures for nitrogen cycle problems, quality and quantity of water and so on. All these are urgent problems waiting to be solved, or it hard to achieve sustainable development, and engineers are responsible to solve the problems.

In addition, because of social division of labor, the society needs different kinds of jobs including engineers. So an engineers should focus on engineering and tries to find solutions to challenges, they are indispensable and playing an important role in the society. Thus, it is important for an engineer to take a job in manufacturing and associated sectors.

In short, it is true that engineering education trains the mind to systematically analyze complex sets of information and apply systems thinking in designing solutions. But the most important duty for engineers is to use their ability to find solutions to all kinds of formidable challenges and make the world a better place.