Technologies of the new era. Humanity at the turn of a new era

And new construction materials

The development of means of transport continues, a global system of transport communications has already taken shape. TO beginning of XXI century, there are already more than 600 million cars in the world, and their annual production has exceeded 30 million units. All this has led to a number of problems, such as pollution environment, increased mortality on the roads, traffic jams, emergencies. All this makes scientific world look for new forms and types of car. For example, an aircraft designer from Pyatigorsk (Russia) Alexander Begak designed the Stalker runabout: a car with wings that retract inward. "Stalker" develops speed up to 200 km/h in the air, weighs 140 kg and covers a distance of 1.5 thousand km without refueling. This aircraft does not require an airfield - he needs a minimum area for take-off.

The Moscow authorities are thinking about creating string transport in the capital to connect the Khovrino district with the Rechnoy Vokzal metro station. The corresponding proposal was received by the prefecture of the district from the designer Anatoly Yunitskiy. Author of this of the project emphasizes that string transport is a transport of a new generation. “This is a “second level” transport, therefore, the seizure of land for it is an order of magnitude less than that of automobile and railways. At the same time, string transport has an order of magnitude lower capital intensity compared to a monorail,” says the letter sent by A. Yunitskiy to the prefecture of the district. In addition, string transport is resistant to adverse weather conditions and does not require clearing the tracks from snow and ice in winter. The author of the project also claims that throughput this type of transport - up to 25 thousand passengers per hour.

The Americans once again tried to turn fantasy into reality. A certain company Terrafugia announced that in 2009, especially wealthy residents of America will be able to become owners of a flying car. A hybrid car and aircraft called the Transition is valued at $148,000. The machine is equipped with folding wings and a bladed propeller. She will be able to take off directly from the highway, however, she will only need to land at the airfield. There will be no problems with fuel - ordinary gasoline is used as fuel.

Throughout the twentieth century. the carrying capacity of ships has been steadily increasing. In the 1970s tankers with a displacement of more than 500,000 tons have already been built. m. The speed of ships has doubled. The system of their loading and unloading has been significantly improved. Thanks to this, the volume of goods transported by sea has increased tenfold over the past 50 years. With the mastery of nuclear energy, atomic ships and submarines appeared, capable of plying the sea for years without calling at ports. Received development, while limited, vehicles on an air cushion, capable of moving not only on water, but also on land.

Significantly increased the importance of transport aviation. In England, in 1949, the first prototype of the Comet passenger jet aircraft was created. However, the Soviet Tu-104 jet aircraft (produced since 1955) and the American Boeing-707 found mass use on airlines. In 1970, a giant Boeing 747 aircraft was created in the USA, capable of taking on board up to 500 passengers. Already in the 1950s. military aviation mastered supersonic speeds. In the 1970s appeared the first passenger aircraft flying at supersonic speeds: the Soviet Tu-144 (1975) and the Anglo-French Concorde (1976). True, later their production was recognized as economically unprofitable and ceased.

Post-war development rocket technology was mainly subordinated to the aspirations of the USSR and the USA to create more effective means delivery of nuclear weapons than bombers. The leader in this field is Soviet Union. In 1957, with the help of a powerful launch vehicle, the first artificial earth satellite.(The United States carried out such a launch in 1958), and in 1961, a Soviet spacecraft with a man on board. In 1961, the USA adopted a program "Apollo"- manned flight to the Moon, successfully completed in 1969. Automatic space probes reached Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, went beyond solar system.

The American-Soviet rivalry in space led to a rapid increase in the reliability of spacecraft, which made it possible to move on to the systematic exploration of near-Earth space. Have been developed reusable spacecraft: American "shuttles" and the Soviet "Buran".

Orbital stations and artificial satellites of the Earth began to perform not only military functions, but were used for scientific experiments, astronomical observations, broadcasting radio and television programs, maintaining communications (the first communications satellite was launched in 1962), meteorological observations, geological exploration, etc. .

The development of means of transport continued. In the 1990s there were more than 500 million cars in the world (about a third of them - in the USA), their annual production reached 30 million units.
Throughout the 20th century, the carrying capacity of ships has constantly increased. In the 1970s tankers appeared with a displacement of more than 500 thousand tons. The speed of ships has doubled in the last 50 years. With the mastery of nuclear energy, ships and submarines with nuclear power plants appeared, capable of plying the sea for years without calling at ports. Received development, while limited, vehicles on an air cushion, capable of moving not only on water, but also on land.
Significantly increased the importance of transport aviation. In England, in 1949, the first prototype of the Comet passenger jet aircraft was created. However, the Soviet TU-104 jet aircraft (produced since 1955) and the American Boeing-707 (since 1958) found the main application on airlines. In 1970, the giant Boeing 747 aircraft was created in the USA, capable of carrying up to 500 passengers. In the 1950s military aviation mastered supersonic speeds, and in the 1970s. the first passenger aircraft flying at supersonic speeds appeared: the Soviet TU-144 (1975) and the Anglo-French Concorde (1976).
The post-war development of rocket technology was mainly subordinated to the aspirations of the USSR and the USA to create more effective means of delivering nuclear weapons than bombers. The Soviet Union was the first to demonstrate its achievements in this area, launching the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957 (the United States carried out such a launch in 1958), and in 1961 launching a spacecraft with a man on board into orbit around the Earth. In 1961, the United States adopted the Apollo program - a manned flight to the Moon, successfully completed in 1969. Automatic space probes reached Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and went beyond the solar system.
Rivalry in space has made it possible to significantly increase the reliability of spacecraft, reduce their cost, which created the conditions for the transition to the systematic exploration of near-Earth space. The USSR and the USA developed spacecraft reusable, although the Soviet "Buran" did not find practical application. Orbital stations and artificial satellites of the Earth began to perform not only military, but also civilian functions, used for scientific experiments, astronomical observations, broadcasting radio and television programs, maintaining communications (the first communications satellite was launched in 1962), meteorological observations, geological exploration and Further. There is a prospect of creating permanently operating orbital complexes, where new biologically active and crystalline substances for medicine, biochemistry, electronics.
Aviation and astronautics created an incentive to search for new structural materials. In the late 1930s with the development of chemistry, chemical physics, studying chemical processes using achievements quantum mechanics, crystallography, it became possible to obtain substances with predetermined properties that have great strength and durability. In 1938, almost simultaneously in Germany and the United States, artificial fibers were created - capron, perlon, nylon, synthetic resins, which made it possible to develop qualitatively new structural materials. Their production took on a particularly large scale after the Second World War. In the period from 1951 to 1966 alone, the range of products of the chemical industry increased 10 times. Metallurgy did not stand still, having mastered the production of especially strong alloy steel (with the addition of tungsten, molybdenum), titanium alloys used in aviation and astronautics.
Biochemistry, genetics, medicine. Chemistry has not bypassed its attention and agriculture, where, with the beginning of the 20th century, the use of mineral fertilizers that increase soil fertility. In the second half of the century, the use of chemical methods pest control Agriculture(toxic chemicals), weeds. The creation of substances that selectively destroy some plant species and are harmless to others has become possible thanks to the development of biology and biochemistry. The studies carried out at the beginning of the century by the German scientist A. Weismann and the American scientist T. Morgan, which, based on the work of the Czech naturalist G. Mendel on heredity, acquired a new significance, laid the foundations of genetics - the science of the transmission of hereditary factors in the plant and animal world. Experience in the 1920-1930s. on the improvement of agricultural practices (in particular, L. Burbank on seed selection, improvement of varieties cultivated plants) in combination with fertilizers, pesticides, improving the technical means of cultivating the land allowed from the 1930s to the 1990s. increase the yield of many crops by 2-3 times.
Works in the field of genetics, studies of the mechanism of heredity led to the development of biotechnology. Genetic research in the USSR associated with the name of Academician N.I. Vavilov, were curtailed after genetics was declared a pseudoscience, and those who developed it died in Soviet death camps. The leadership in these studies has passed to the United States. In 1953, scientists at the University of Cambridge D. Watson and F. Crick discovered a DNA molecule that carries a program for the development of an organism. In 1972, the University of California explored the possibility of changing the structure of DNA, which opened the way to the creation of artificial organisms. The first patent in this area, for the creation by genetic engineering of a microorganism that accelerates the processing of crude oil, was issued in 1980 to the American scientist A. Chakrabarti. In 1988, Harvard University received a patent for genetically manipulating a live mouse. Breeding of new breeds of animals and plants began. They are much better than the basic species, they are adapted to adverse climatic conditions, they are immune to many diseases, etc.
On the threshold of the 21st century, the possibilities of cloning were discovered - the artificial cultivation of an exact biological similarity of a donor organism from a single cell. Questions of ethics of such a deep intervention in natural processes, the potential danger of genetic experiments, the consequences of which are not always predictable, were discussed repeatedly, but this did not lead to their termination.
The development of biochemistry and genetics affected the development of medicine. At the end of the 19th century, microorganisms were discovered that were the cause of cholera, anthrax, tuberculosis, diphtheria, rabies, plague, malaria, syphilis, the ways of transmission of these diseases were studied, methods of treating many of them were invented. Methods of sanitation and hygiene, prevention and prevention of epidemics, including vaccination (inoculations) against certain diseases, began to be developed, new drugs appeared - aspirin and pyramidon. In the 1920-1930s. vitamins were isolated and obtained artificially (in 1927 vitamins B and C, then D and A). An even greater help for medicine was antibiotics - substances that can stop the development of pathogenic microbes, the most famous of which is penicillin, isolated from mold (named so by A. Fleming in 1929). The chemical (synthetic) analogue of penicillin was streptocid, sulfidine, sulfazol. After the Second World War, with the discovery of the viral nature of many diseases, they began to develop antiviral drugs.
The deepening of knowledge about the nature of living matter has revealed the possibilities of transplantation (transplantation) of organs, the treatment of hereditary diseases caused by genetic factors. Achievements in nuclear physics and electronics opened up new opportunities for medicine. in diagnostics already in the 1930s. X-ray machines, electrocardiographs, electroencephalographs, etc. began to be used. In the last third of the century, artificial kidney devices and an implantable pacemaker were created. New technologies, in particular the use of a laser scalpel, have expanded the possibilities of surgery.

You review the article (abstract): “ Transport, cosmonautics and new construction materials» from disciplines « All-world history - XX century»

The decades that have passed since the Second World War were marked by a further acceleration in the pace of scientific and technological development. Between the two world wars, the period of time required for the volume to double scientific knowledge, was about 24 years, in 1945-1964. -- 14 years, by the end of the century for different areas knowledge he made no more than 5--7 years.

Technologies of the new era

The greatest discovery of the 20th century, the mastery of nuclear energy, was used to a large extent for military purposes. Opening in the early 1950s thermonuclear reactions (fusion of light nuclei into heavier ones at ultrahigh temperatures) and in the USSR and the USA it was turned to create hydrogen bombs. They were hundreds of times more destructive than uranium and plutonium. Only in 1956 was built in the UK nuclear reactor, which has been found fit for commercial use. Nuclear power by the end of the century provides no more than 8% of world energy production. Most of it is produced by burning oil (40%), coal (25%), gas (18%). Hydroelectric power stations and other energy sources provide only 7% of its production. Geothermal (using internal warmth Earth), tidal (sea tide energy), solar, wind power plants are still rare.

Transport, cosmonautics and new structural materials. The development of means of transport continued. In the 1990s there were more than 500 million cars in the world (about a third of them - in the USA), their annual production reached 30 million units.

Throughout the 20th century, the carrying capacity of ships has constantly increased. In the 1970s tankers appeared with a displacement of more than 500 thousand tons. The speed of ships has doubled in the last 50 years. With the mastery of nuclear energy, ships and submarines with nuclear power plants appeared, capable of plying the sea for years without calling at ports. Received development, while limited, vehicles on an air cushion, capable of moving not only on water, but also on land.

Significantly increased the importance of transport aviation. In England, in 1949, the first prototype of the passenger jet aircraft "Comet" was created. However, the Soviet jet aircraft "TU-104" (produced since 1955) and the American "Boeing-707" (since 1958) found the main application on airlines. In 1970, the United States created a giant Boeing 747 aircraft capable of carrying up to 500 passengers. In the 1950s military aviation mastered supersonic speeds, and in the 1970s. the first passenger aircraft flying at supersonic speeds appeared: the Soviet TU-144 (1975) and the Anglo-French Concorde (1976).

The post-war development of rocket technology was mainly subordinated to the aspirations of the USSR and the USA to create more effective means of delivering nuclear weapons than bombers. The Soviet Union was the first to demonstrate its achievements in this area, launching the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957 (the United States carried out such a launch in 1958), and in 1961 launching a spacecraft with a man on board into orbit around the Earth. In 1961, the United States adopted the Apollo program - a manned flight to the Moon, successfully completed in 1969. Automatic space probes reached Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and went beyond the solar system.

Chapter 7. ACCELERATION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The decades that have passed since the Second World War were marked by a further acceleration in the pace of scientific and technological development. Between the two world wars, the period of time required to double the amount of scientific knowledge was about 24 years, in 1945-1964. - 14 years, by the end of the century for different areas of knowledge it was no more than 5-7 years.

The greatest discovery of the 20th century mastery of nuclear energy, largely used for military purposes. Opening in the early 1950s thermonuclear reactions (the fusion of light nuclei into heavier ones at ultrahigh temperatures) and in the USSR and the USA it was turned to the creation of hydrogen bombs. They were hundreds of times more destructive than uranium and plutonium. It was not until 1956 that a nuclear reactor was built in the UK and was deemed fit for commercial operation. Nuclear power by the end of the century provides no more than 8% of world energy production. Most of it is produced by burning oil (40%), coal (25%), gas (18%). Hydroelectric power stations and other energy sources provide only 7% of its production. Geothermal (using the internal heat of the Earth), tidal (sea tide energy), solar, wind power plants are still rare.

Transport, cosmonautics and new structural materials. Continued development means of transport. In the 1990s there were more than 500 million cars in the world (about a third of them - in the USA), their annual production reached 30 million units.

Significantly increased the importance transport aviation. In England, in 1949, the first prototype of the Comet passenger jet aircraft was created. However, the Soviet TU-104 jet aircraft (produced since 1955) and the American Boeing-707 (since 1958) found the main application on airlines. In 1970, the giant Boeing 747 aircraft was created in the USA, capable of carrying up to 500 passengers. In the 1950s military aviation mastered supersonic speeds, and in the 1970s. the first passenger aircraft flying at supersonic speeds appeared: the Soviet TU-144 (1975) and the Anglo-French Concorde (1976).

Postwar rocket technology development was mainly subordinated to the aspirations of the USSR and the USA to create more effective means of delivering nuclear weapons than bombers. The Soviet Union was the first to demonstrate its achievements in this area, launching the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957 (the United States carried out such a launch in 1958), and in 1961 launching a spacecraft with a man on board into orbit around the Earth. In 1961, the United States adopted the Apollo program - a manned flight to the Moon, successfully completed in 1969. Automatic space probes reached Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and went beyond the solar system.

Rivalry in space has made it possible to significantly increase the reliability of spacecraft, reduce their cost, which created the conditions for the transition to the systematic exploration of near-Earth space. Reusable space vehicles were developed in the USSR and the USA, although the Soviet Buran did not find practical application. Orbital stations and artificial satellites of the Earth began to perform not only military, but also civilian functions, used for scientific experiments, astronomical observations, broadcasting radio and television programs, maintaining communications (the first communications satellite was launched in 1962), meteorological observations, geological exploration and Further. There is a prospect of creating permanently operating orbital complexes, where new biologically active and crystalline substances for medicine, biochemistry, and electronics will be created under weightlessness.

Aviation and astronautics created an incentive to search new construction materials. In the late 1930s With the development of chemistry, chemical physics, which studies chemical processes using the achievements of quantum mechanics, crystallography, it became possible to obtain substances with predetermined properties that have great strength and durability. In 1938, almost simultaneously in Germany and the United States, artificial fibers were created - capron, perlon, nylon, synthetic resins, which made it possible to develop qualitatively new structural materials. Their production took on a particularly large scale after the Second World War. In the period from 1951 to 1966 alone, the range of products of the chemical industry increased 10 times. Metallurgy did not stand still, having mastered the production of especially strong alloy steel (with the addition of tungsten, molybdenum), titanium alloys used in aviation and astronautics.

Biochemistry, genetics, medicine. Chemistry did not bypass agriculture, where, at the beginning of the 20th century, the use of mineral fertilizers began to increase soil fertility. In the second half of the century, chemical methods of combating agricultural pests (toxic chemicals) and weeds began to be widely used. The creation of substances that selectively destroy some plant species and are harmless to others has become possible thanks to development of biology, biochemistry. The studies carried out at the beginning of the century by the German scientist A. Weismann and the American scientist T. Morgan, which, based on the work of the Czech naturalist G. Mendel on heredity, acquired a new significance. genetics- the science of the transmission of hereditary factors in the plant and animal world. Experience in the 1920-1930s. to improve agricultural practices (in particular, L. Burbank on seed selection, improvement of cultivated plant varieties) in combination with fertilizers, pesticides, improvement of technical means of tillage made it possible from the 1930s to the 1990s. increase the yield of many crops by 2-3 times.

Works in the field of genetics, studies of the mechanism of heredity led to the development of biotechnology. Genetic research in the USSR associated with the name of Academician N.I. Vavilov, were curtailed after genetics was declared a pseudoscience, and those who developed it died in Soviet death camps. The leadership in these studies has passed to the United States. In 1953, scientists at the University of Cambridge D. Watson and F. Crick discovered a DNA molecule that carries a program for the development of an organism. In 1972, the University of California explored the possibility of changing the structure of DNA, which opened the way to the creation of artificial organisms. The first patent in this area, for the creation by genetic engineering of a microorganism that accelerates the processing of crude oil, was issued in 1980 to the American scientist A. Chakrabarti. In 1988, Harvard University received a patent for genetically manipulating a live mouse. Breeding of new breeds of animals and plants began. They are much better than the basic species, they are adapted to adverse climatic conditions, they are immune to many diseases, etc.

On the threshold of the 21st century, the possibilities of cloning were discovered - the artificial cultivation of an exact biological similarity of a donor organism from a single cell. The ethical issues of such a deep intervention in natural processes, the potential danger of genetic experiments, the consequences of which are not always predictable, were discussed repeatedly, but this did not lead to their termination.

The development of biochemistry and genetics has affected the development medicine. At the end of the 19th century, microorganisms were discovered that were the cause of cholera, anthrax, tuberculosis, diphtheria, rabies, plague, malaria, syphilis, the ways of transmission of these diseases were studied, methods of treating many of them were invented. Methods of sanitation and hygiene, prevention and prevention of epidemics, including vaccination (inoculations) against certain diseases, began to be developed, new drugs appeared - aspirin and pyramidon. In the 1920-1930s. vitamins were isolated and obtained artificially (in 1927 vitamins B and C, then D and A). An even greater help for medicine was antibiotics - substances that can stop the development of pathogenic microbes, the most famous of which is penicillin, isolated from mold (named so by A. Fleming in 1929). The chemical (synthetic) analogue of penicillin was streptocid, sulfidine, sulfazol. After the Second World War, with the discovery of the viral nature of many diseases, antiviral drugs began to be developed.

The deepening of knowledge about the nature of living matter has revealed the possibilities of transplantation (transplantation) of organs, the treatment of hereditary diseases caused by genetic factors. Achievements in nuclear physics and electronics opened up new opportunities for medicine. in diagnostics already in the 1930s. X-ray machines, electrocardiographs, electroencephalographs, etc. began to be used. In the last third of the century, artificial kidney devices and an implantable pacemaker were created. New technologies, in particular the use of a laser scalpel, have expanded the possibilities of surgery.

Electronics and robotics. Achievements in the field of electronics. Their base was laid in the last century. The world's first radio receiver was invented in 1895 by the Russian scientist A.S. Popov, the Italian engineer G. Marconi received a patent for the transmission of electrical impulses without wires in 1896. The reliability and range of receiving radio transmissions increased significantly with the invention in 1904 by the American J. Fleming of a diode - a two-electrode lamp - a frequency converter of electrical oscillations, and in 1907 by the creation of a triode by the American designer Lee de Forest, which amplifies weak electrical oscillations. In 1919-1924. in Russia, the USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, powerful broadcasting stations were put into operation, capable of carrying out international broadcasting. From the mid 1920s. experiments began in the field of image transmission using electronic signals, television. In England, the first television broadcasts began in 1929, in the USSR - in 1932 (sound television since 1934), in Germany - since 1936. During the Second World War, design thought concentrated on improving radar, which made it possible to detect ships in advance and enemy aircraft.

Postwar years marked a real breakthrough in the field of electronics. She, using the achievements of chemistry, began to use fiberglass for signal transmission, crystallography, which made it possible to create lasers that have a very wide range of applications. The greatest applied value was the invention of computers - electronic computers (computers). The first computers appeared after the Second World War. They used the same diodes and triodes as tube radios. One of these machines, built in the USA in 1946, ENIAC, weighed 30 tons and occupied an area of 150 square meters. m, 18 thousand electron tubes were used in it. Despite its huge size, it was possible to carry out only simple calculations that are now available to every owner of a pocket calculator.

The second generation of computers was created in the late 1940s, after the invention of transistors (semiconductors) that replaced vacuum tubes. Transistors are widely used in consumer electronics (radios, televisions, tape recorders), with their miniaturization, it was possible to increase the amount of memory and the speed of computers.

The third generation of computers developed in the 1960s, after the creation of the so-called integrated circuits, boards that housed several dozen components that convert and process information. In the 1970s with the improvement of technology, tens of thousands of components were placed on a single board. Computers on integrated circuits included millions of semiconductors, their speed reached 100 million operations per second.

The fourth generation of computers was created with the invention in 1971 of a microprocessor on a silicon crystal - a chip, less than 1 square in size. cm, replacing thousands of semiconductors. One such crystal could store up to 5 million bits of information, which made it possible to move on to the creation of portable computers intended for individual users.

The fifth, modern, generation of computers is able to perceive and reproduce not only numerical information, but also pictures, graphics, speech signals, conduct a dialogue with a person based on the software. The ubiquity of computers, the creation in firms, industrial, commercial, scientific centers, state structures databanks of computerized information provided new communication opportunities - the creation of local and then global computer communication networks (the most famous of them is the Internet). They allow you to instantly receive and transmit any information, conduct bilateral and multilateral dialogues with other computer users.

The sixth generation of computers will no longer have crystals as a material memory carrier, but molecules of a polymer or biologically active substance (biochips), which puts the creation of artificial intelligence capable of self-programming.

The development of computer technology contributed to the creation of industrial robots, the number of which by the beginning of the 1990s. in the world reached 300 thousand. The spread of robotics has opened up enormous opportunities for improving the manufacturing process.

The question of which of the inventions and discoveries of the 20th century, in which area of knowledge is the most important, is meaningless, since most of them are interconnected. According to American engineers, microchips are used not only in computers and robots, but in 24,000 US-made products, including all types of consumer electronics. Each item that has come into everyday use in recent decades household appliances, refrigerator, TV, etc. is a materialized embodiment of many areas of scientific and technological progress, which not only changed the living conditions and recreation of people, but affected the whole appearance modern society, its development trends.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

1. Describe the main directions of development of new technologies. Give examples of the impact of advances in one area of science and technology on their development in other areas.

2. What social needs caused a leap in the development of electronics, the creation of computers? Determine the importance of the introduction of computer technology for modern society.

3. Which of the directions of scientific and technological progress at the end of the 20th century, from your point of view, will be the most promising in the third millennium?

4. Try to make a prediction about the rate of acceleration of the development of scientific knowledge in the next century.

Parameter name	Meaning
Article subject:	TECHNOLOGIES OF A NEW AGE
Rubric (thematic category)	History

Chapter 7. ACCELERATION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The decades that have passed since the Second World War were marked by a further acceleration in the pace of scientific and technological development. Between the two world wars, the period of time required for doubling the volume of scientific knowledge was about 24 years, in 1945-1964. - 14 years, by the end of the century for different areas of knowledge it was no more than 5-7 years.

The greatest discovery of the 20th century mastery of nuclear energy, largely used for military purposes. Opening in the early 1950s. thermonuclear reactions (the fusion of light nuclei into heavier ones at ultrahigh temperatures) and in the USSR and the USA it was turned to the creation of hydrogen bombs. Οʜᴎ were hundreds of times more destructive than uranium and plutonium. Only in 1956 ᴦ. in the UK, a nuclear reactor was built, which was recognized as suitable for commercial operation. Nuclear power by the end of the century provides no more than 8% of world energy production. Most of it is produced by burning oil (40%), coal (25%), gas (18%). Hydroelectric power stations and other energy sources provide only 7% of its production. Geothermal (using the internal heat of the Earth), tidal (sea tide energy), solar, wind power plants are still rare.

Transport, cosmonautics and new structural materials. Continued development means of transport. In the 1990s. there were more than 500 million cars in the world (about a third of them - in the USA), their annual production reached 30 million units.

Throughout the 20th century, the carrying capacity of ships has constantly increased. In the 1970s. tankers appeared with a displacement of more than 500 thousand tons. The speed of ships has doubled in the last 50 years. With the mastery of nuclear energy, ships and submarines with nuclear power plants appeared, capable of plying the sea for years without calling at ports. Received development, while limited, vehicles on an air cushion, capable of moving not only on water, but also on land.

Significantly increased the importance transport aviation. In England in 1949 ᴦ. the first prototype of the passenger jet aircraft ʼʼKometaʼʼ was created. At the same time, Soviet jet aircraft ʼʼTU-104ʼʼ (produced from 1955 ᴦ.) and American ʼʼBoeing-707ʼʼ (from 1958 ᴦ.) found the main application on airlines. In 1970 ᴦ. in the USA, a giant Boeing 747 was created, capable of carrying up to 500 passengers. In the 1950s. military aviation mastered supersonic speeds, and in the 1970s. the first passenger aircraft appeared flying at supersonic speeds: the Soviet ʼʼTU-144ʼʼ (1975 ᴦ.) and the Anglo-French ʼʼConcordʼʼ (1976 ᴦ.).

Postwar rocket technology development was mainly subordinated to the aspirations of the USSR and the USA to create more effective means of delivering nuclear weapons than bombers. The Soviet Union was the first to demonstrate its achievements in this area, launching in 1957 ᴦ. the first artificial satellite of the Earth (the United States carried out such a launch in 1958 ᴦ.), and in 1961 ᴦ. manned spacecraft into orbit around the earth. In 1961 ᴦ. in the United States, the Apollo ʼʼ program was adopted - a manned flight to the moon, successfully completed in 1969 ᴦ. Automatic space probes reached Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, went beyond the solar system.

Rivalry in space made it possible to significantly increase the reliability of spacecraft, reduce their cost, which created the conditions for the transition to the systematic exploration of near-Earth space. Reusable space vehicles were developed in the USSR and the USA, although the Soviet ʼʼBuranʼʼ did not find practical application. Orbital stations and artificial satellites of the Earth began to perform not only military, but also civilian functions, used for scientific experiments, astronomical observations, radio and television broadcasts, communications (the first communications satellite was launched in 1962 ᴦ.), meteorological observations, geological exploration and so on. There is a prospect of creating permanently operating orbital complexes, where new biologically active and crystalline substances for medicine, biochemistry, and electronics will be created under weightlessness.

Aviation and astronautics created an incentive to search new construction materials. In the late 1930s. With the development of chemistry, chemical physics, which studies chemical processes using the achievements of quantum mechanics, crystallography, it became possible to obtain substances with predetermined properties that have great strength and durability. In 1938 ᴦ. almost simultaneously in Germany and the United States, artificial fibers were created - nylon, perlon, nylon, synthetic resins, which made it possible to develop qualitatively new structural materials. Their production took on a particularly large scale after the Second World War. Only for the period from 1951 to 1966 ᴦ. the range of products of the chemical industry has increased 10 times. Metallurgy did not stand still, having mastered the production of especially strong alloy steel (with the addition of tungsten, molybdenum), titanium alloys used in aviation and astronautics.

Biochemistry, genetics, medicine. Chemistry did not bypass agriculture, where, at the beginning of the 20th century, the use of mineral fertilizers began to increase soil fertility. In the second half of the century, chemical methods of combating agricultural pests (toxic chemicals) and weeds began to be widely used. The creation of substances that selectively destroy some plant species and are harmless to others has become possible thanks to development of biology, biochemistry. The studies carried out at the beginning of the century by the German scientist A. Weismann and the American scientist T. Morgan, which, based on the work of the Czech naturalist G. Mendel on heredity, acquired a new significance. genetics- the science of the transmission of hereditary factors in the plant and animal world. Work experience of the 1920-1930s. to improve agricultural practices (in particular, L. Burbank on seed selection, improvement of cultivated plant varieties) in combination with fertilizers, pesticides, improvement of technical means of tillage made it possible from the 1930s to the 1990s. increase the yield of many crops by 2-3 times.

Works in the field of genetics, studies of the mechanism of heredity led to the development of biotechnology. Genetic research in the USSR associated with the name of Academician N.I. Vavilov, were curtailed after genetics was declared a pseudoscience, and those who developed it died in Soviet death camps. The leadership in these studies has passed to the United States. In 1953 ᴦ. Cambridge University scientists D. Watson and F. Crick discovered a DNA molecule that carries a program for the development of an organism. In 1972 ᴦ. at the University of California, the possibility of changing the structure of DNA was explored, which opened the way to the creation of artificial organisms. The first patent in this area, for the creation by genetic engineering of a microorganism that accelerates the processing of crude oil, was issued in 1980 ᴦ. American scientist A. Chakrabarti. In 1988 ᴦ. Harvard University received a patent for genetically manipulating live mice. Breeding of new breeds of animals and plants began. Οʜᴎ are much better than the basic species, they are adapted to adverse climatic conditions, they are immune to many diseases, etc.

On the threshold of the 21st century, the possibilities of cloning were discovered - the artificial cultivation of an exact biological similarity of a donor organism from a single cell. The issues of ethics of such a deep intervention in natural processes, the potential danger of genetic experiments, the consequences of which are not always predictable, were discussed repeatedly, but this did not lead to their termination.

The development of biochemistry and genetics has affected the development medicine. At the end of the 19th century, microorganisms were discovered that were the cause of cholera, anthrax, tuberculosis, diphtheria, rabies, plague, malaria, syphilis, the ways of transmission of these diseases were studied, methods of treating many of them were invented. Methods of sanitation and hygiene, prevention and prevention of epidemics, including vaccination (inoculations) against certain diseases, began to be developed, new drugs appeared - aspirin and pyramidon. In the 1920s-1930s. vitamins were isolated and obtained artificially (in 1927, vitamins B and C, then D and A). Antibiotics have become an even greater help for medicine - substances that can stop the development of pathogenic microbes, the most famous of which is penicillin isolated from mold (named so by A. Fleming in 1929 ᴦ.). The chemical (synthetic) analogue of penicillin was streptocid, sulfidine, sulfazol. After the Second World War, with the discovery of the viral nature of many diseases, antiviral drugs began to be developed.

The deepening of knowledge about the nature of living matter has revealed the possibilities of transplantation (transplantation) of organs, the treatment of hereditary diseases caused by genetic factors. Achievements in nuclear physics and electronics opened up new opportunities for medicine. In diagnostics already in the 1930s. X-ray machines, electrocardiographs, electroencephalographs, etc. began to be used. In the last third of the century, artificial kidney devices and an implantable pacemaker were created.
Hosted on ref.rf
New technologies, in particular the use of a laser scalpel, have expanded the possibilities of surgery.

Electronics and robotics. Achievements in the field of electronics. Their base was laid in the last century. The world's first radio receiver was invented in 1895 ᴦ. Russian scientist A.S. Popov, a patent for the transmission of electrical impulses without wires in 1896 ᴦ. received the Italian engineer G. Marconi. The reliability and range of radio reception increased significantly with the invention in 1904 ᴦ. American J. Fleming of a diode - a two-electrode lamp - a frequency converter of electrical oscillations and in 1907 ᴦ. the creation by the American designer Lee de Forest of the triode, which amplifies weak electrical vibrations. In 1919-1924 he. in Russia, the USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, powerful broadcasting stations were put into operation, capable of carrying out international broadcasting. Since the mid-1920s. experiments began in the field of image transmission using electronic signals, television. In England, the first television broadcasts began in 1929 ᴦ., in the USSR - in 1932 ᴦ. (sound television from 1934 ᴦ.), in Germany - from 1936 ᴦ. During the Second World War, design thought concentrated on improving radar, which made it possible to detect enemy ships and aircraft in advance.

The post-war years were marked by a real breakthrough in the field of electronics. She, using the achievements of chemistry, began to use fiberglass for signal transmission, crystallography, which made it possible to create lasers that have a very wide range of applications. The greatest applied value was the invention of computers - electronic computers (computers). The first computers appeared after the Second World War. They used the same diodes and triodes as tube radios. One of these machines, built in the USA in 1946 ᴦ., ENIAC, weighed 30 tons and occupied an area of 150 square meters. m, 18 thousand electron tubes were used in it. Despite its huge size, it was possible to carry out only simple calculations that are now available to every owner of a pocket calculator.

The third generation of computers developed in the 1960s, after the creation of the so-called integrated circuits, boards that housed several dozen components that convert and process information. In the 1970s. with the improvement of technology, tens of thousands of components were placed on a single board. Computers on integrated circuits included millions of semiconductors, their speed reached 100 million operations per second.

The fourth generation of computers was created with the invention in 1971 ᴦ. microprocessor on a silicon crystal - a chip, less than 1 sq. cm, replacing thousands of semiconductors. One such crystal could store up to 5 million bits of information, which made it possible to move on to the creation of portable computers intended for individual users.

The fifth, modern, generation of computers is able to perceive and reproduce not only numerical information, but also pictures, graphics, speech signals, and conduct a dialogue with a person based on the embedded software. The ubiquity of computers, the creation of computerized information in firms, industrial, commercial, scientific centers, government structures of data banks provided new communication opportunities - the creation of local and then global computer communication networks (the most famous of them is the Internet). Οʜᴎ allow you to instantly receive and transmit any information, conduct bilateral and multilateral dialogues with other computer users.

The question of which of the inventions and discoveries of the 20th century, in which area of knowledge is the most important, is meaningless, since most of them are interconnected. According to American engineers, microchips are used not only in computers and robots, but in 24,000 US-made products, including all types of consumer electronics. Each item of household appliances, a refrigerator, a TV set, etc., that has come into everyday use in recent decades. is a materialized embodiment of many areas of scientific and technological progress, which not only changed the conditions of life and recreation of people, but also affected the whole image of modern society, its development trends.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

1. Describe the main directions of development of new technologies. Give examples of the impact of advances in one area of science and technology on their development in other areas.

2. What social needs caused a leap in the development of electronics, the creation of computers? Determine the importance of the introduction of computer technology for modern society.

3. Which of the directions of scientific and technological progress at the end of the 20th century, from your point of view, will be the most promising in the third millennium?

4. Try to make a prediction about the rate of acceleration of the development of scientific knowledge in the next century.

TECHNOLOGIES OF A NEW AGE - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "TECHNOLOGIES OF THE NEW AGE" 2017, 2018.