The first book of english readings m.c. enrique ruiz diaz -1

The First Book of English Readings of M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.
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The First Book of English Readings
of M.C. Enrique Ruiz Díaz.
From Document 1 to 100.
All rights reserved.
Con título y cédula profesional 5632071
en la Maestría en Ciencias de la Computación.
Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Veracruz, México.

Acerca de Mí.
Titulado en la Maestría en Ciencias en Ciencias de la Computación, Cédula
profesional 5632071. Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, Ver., México.
Antes, me Titulé en la Licenciatura en Informática, Cédula profesional 4046033.
Egresado del Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtepec, Oax., México, distinguiéndome
además, por ser el mejor promedio de mi generación con 98%.
Bien, regresando al tema de mi Título de Maestría en Ciencias de la Computación,
para subrayar que ésta, requirió el desarrollo de una TESIS. Otro aspecto muy
importante, fue que durante el desarrollo de mi Maestría escribí un ARTICULO,
mismo que fue aceptado para publicación y con mi ponencia en el evento 'Primer
Encuentro de Estudiantes en Ciencia de la Computación - E2C2' ISBN-10:970-36-
0404-8 e ISBN-13:978-970-36-0404-3 celebrado en el Instituto Politécnico
Nacional, México, D.F. 2007.

Mi Diploma por mi Ponencia en el Instituto Politécnico
Nacional, durante mis estudios de Maestría, México, D.F. 2007.

You have the Index at the End of this
Document.
Tú tienes el Índice al final de este
Documento.

«The more you learn, the more you earn.
The more knowledgeable you become about your field, the more courage and confidence
you will have to implement your skills in your work.
The more courage and confidence you develop, the higher will be your self-esteem and
your sense of personal power.
You will become virtually unstoppable in everything you do.
Dedicate yourself to becoming one of the most knowledgeable and competent people in
your field».
Brian Tracy.
«The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge».
From the Book: Think & Grow Rich.

Texts from 1 to 10.
«The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their
commitment to excellence, no matter what their chosen field ».
—Vince Lombardi

1. Words and Their Stories: Computer Terms.
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Computer technology has become a major part of people's lives. This technology has its own
special words.
One example is the word mouse. A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings
and open fields. It is a small device that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer.
The mouse moves the pointer, or cursor, on the computer screen.
Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen-
sixties. The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was
called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the
computer.
Using a computer takes some training. People who are experts are sometimes called hackers. A
hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language. But the
word hacker is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer
systems.

Another well known computer word is Google, spelled g-o-o-g-l-e. It is the name of a popular
"search engine" for the Internet. People use the search engine to find information about almost
any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in
mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l, is an extremely large number. It is the number one
followed by one-hundred zeros.
When you "Google" a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people
like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the
Internet.
If you Google someone, you might find that person's name on a blog. A blog is the shortened
name for a Web log. A blog is a personal Web page. It may contain stories, comments, pictures
and links to other Web sites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who
have blogs are called bloggers.
Blogs are not the same as spam. Spam is unwanted sales messages sent to your electronic
mailbox. The name is based on a funny joke many years ago on a British television show, "Monty
Python's Flying Circus." Some friends are at an eating place that only serves a processed meat
product from the United States called SPAM.
Every time the friends try to speak, another group of people starts singing the word SPAM very
loudly. This interferes with the friends' discussion – just as unwanted sales messages interfere
with communication over the Internet.
This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I'm Faith
Lapidus.
You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher:
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-Computer-Terms-
99686864.html

2. How Freud Changed What People Thought About the Mind.
Sigmund Freud
FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. The work and theories of Sigmund Freud continue to
influence many areas of modern culture.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Today, we explore Freud's influence on the treatment of mental disorders
through psychotherapy.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Sigmund Freud was born May sixth, eighteen fifty-six, in Moravia, in what is now
the Czech Republic. He lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Early in his adulthood, Freud
studied medicine. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was developing some exciting new
ideas about the human mind. But his first scientific publications dealt with sea animals, including
the sexuality of eels.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The
mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and
reason.

He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and
emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis. He wanted to see if putting patients into a sleep-
like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only
temporary.
Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. His method involved sitting with his
patients and listening to them talk. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All
ideas, thoughts and anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no
holding back because of fear or guilt.
BOB DOUGHTY: Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the
unconscious self. He said this part of the mind contains wishes, desires and experiences too
frightening to recognize.
He thought that if these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the
patient would again feel the pain. But this time, the person would experience the memories as
an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally
understand them.
Using this method, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly
weakened. They would lose their power over the person's physical health. Soon the patient
would get better.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Sigmund Freud proposed that the mind was divided into three parts: the id, the
ego and the superego. Under this theory, the superego acts as a restraint. It is governed by the
values we learn from our parents and society. The job of the superego is to help keep the id under
control.
The id is completely unconscious. It provides the energy for feelings that demand the immediate
satisfaction of needs and desires.
The ego provides the immediate reaction to the events of reality. The ego is the first line of
defense between the self and the outside world. It tries to balance the two extremes of the id
and the superego.
BOB DOUGHTY: Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual
connections. These ideas included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their
mothers and daughters toward their fathers.

If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Others came to
accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health.
Professor James Gray at American University in Washington, D.C. says three of Freud's major
ideas are still part of modern thinking about the mind.
One is the idea of the unconscious mind. Another is that we do not necessarily know what drives
us to do the things we do. And the third is that we are formed more than we think in the first five
years, but not necessarily the way Freud thought.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Doctor Freud was trained as a neurologist. He treated disorders of the nervous
system. But physical sickness can hide deeper problems. His studies on the causes and treatment
of mental disorders helped form many ideas in psychiatry. Psychiatry is the area of medicine that
treats mental and emotional conditions.
Freud would come to be called the father of psychoanalysis.
BOB DOUGHTY: Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy. It includes discussion and investigation
of hidden fears and conflicts.
Sigmund Freud used free association. He would try to get his patients to free their minds and say
whatever they were thinking. He also had them talk about their dreams to try to explore their
unconscious fears and desires.
His version of psychoanalysis remained the one most widely used until at least the nineteen fifties.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Psychoanalysis is rarely used in the United States anymore. One reason is that it
takes a long time; the average length of treatment is about five years. Patients usually have to
pay for the treatment themselves. Health insurance plans rarely pay for this form of therapy.
Psychoanalysis has its supporters as well as its critics. Success rates are difficult to measure.
Psychoanalysts say this is because each individual case is different.
BOB DOUGHTY: More recently, a number of shortened versions of psychological therapy have
been developed. Some examples are behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive-
behavioral therapy. Behavior is actions; cognition is knowing and judging.
Some patients in therapy want to learn to find satisfaction in what they do. Others want to
unlearn behaviors that only add to their problems.

In these therapies, patients might talk with a therapist about the past. Or patients might be
advised to think less about the past and more about the present and the future.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Other kinds of therapy involve movement, dance, art, music or play. These are
used to help patients who have trouble talking about their emotions.
In many cases, therapy today costs less than it used to. But the length of treatment depends on
the problem. Some therapies, for example, call for twenty or thirty visits with a therapist.
How long people continue their therapy can also depend on the cost. People find that health
insurance plans are often more willing to pay for short-term therapies than for longer-term
treatments.
BOB DOUGHTY: Mental health experts say therapy can often help patients suffering from
depression, severe stress or other conditions.
For some patients, they say, a combination of talk therapy and medication works best. There are
many different drugs for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional disorders.
Critics, however, say doctors are sometimes too quick to give medicine instead of more time for
talk therapy. Again, cost pressures are often blamed.
Mental health problems can affect work, school, marriage, and life in general. Yet they often go
untreated. In many cases, people do not want others to know they have a problem.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Mental disorders are common in all countries. The World Health Organization
says hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are affected by mental, behavioral,
neurological or substance use disorders.
The W.H.O. says these disorders have major economic and social costs. Yet governments face
difficult choices about health care spending. The W.H.O. says most poor countries spend less
than one percent of their health budgets on mental health.
There are treatments for most conditions. Still, the W.H.O. says there are two major barriers.
One is lack of recognition of the seriousness of the problem. The other is lack of understanding
of the services that exist.
(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, left Vienna soon after troops from
Nazi Germany entered Austria in nineteen thirty-eight. The Nazis had a plan to kill all the Jews of
Europe, but they permitted Freud to go to England. His four sisters remained in Vienna and were
all killed in Nazi concentration camps.
Freud was eighty-three years old when he died of cancer in London on September twenty-third,
nineteen thirty-nine. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children, became a noted psychoanalyst
herself.
Before Sigmund Freud, no modern scientist had looked so deeply into the human mind.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith
Lapidus.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Sigmund-Freud-2010-04-12-90676114.html

3. National Standards for US Schools Gain Support From States.
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Americans have never had national education standards. Goals for what public schools should
teach are set by state and local school boards. Their members are often elected.
But some Americans say the lack of national standards is wrong in a competitive global economy.
Former president Bill Clinton said it was as if somehow school boards "could legislate differences
in algebra or math or reading."
President George W. Bush and Congress expanded federal intervention. His education law, still in
effect, required states to show yearly progress in student learning as measured by the states' own
tests.
Now, the Obama administration supports what are known as the Common Core State Standards.
These were developed in a year-long process led by state governors and chief state school
officers. Texas and Alaska were the only states not to take part.
The standards are in two subject areas, English-language arts and mathematics. They establish
goals for each year from kindergarten through grade twelve. The aim is for students to finish high
school fully prepared for college and careers.

The developers considered standards in other countries, along with almost one hundred
thousand public comments.
One way the Education Department is trying to persuade states is with money. States are
competing to share in almost three and a half billion dollars as part of a school reform
competition. They will earn extra points in the Race to the Top if they approve the standards by
August second.
States are trying to recover from the recession. There are concerns that some could accept the
standards and then lack the money to follow them.
The final standards were released June second. A new report say about half the states have
approved them already.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is an education group in Washington. It says the standards are
clearer and stronger than those used in three-fourths of the states. But the comparison also found
that existing English standards are "clearly stronger" in California, Indiana and the District of
Columbia.
States that approve the new standards have a right to add up to fifteen percent of their own. In
California, the State Board of Education plans to vote on August second to accept or reject a new
set of standards. These are based largely on the common core, but also existing California
standards.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/National-Standards-for-US-Schools-Gain-
Support--98968994.html

4. Severe Weather: How Ocean Storms Work.
BARBARA KLEIN: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.
BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we remember Hurricane Katrina and tell about the
science of severe ocean storms.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Many Americans are observing the fifth anniversary of one of the nation’s worst
natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina reached the state of Louisiana on the morning of August
twenty-ninth, two thousand five. It was the costliest hurricane in American history, and one of
the deadliest.
Radio and television programs, concerts and films are recalling the storm and its effects on the
nation. Literary readings and religious observances also are marking the event.

Hurricane Katrina struck hardest in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Death and destruction
from the hurricane and its effects extended along the Gulf Coast. More than one thousand eight
hundred people were killed.
BOB DOUGHTY: The storm formed over the Bahamas on August twenty-third, two thousand five.
The next day, it grew strong enough for scientists to call it a tropical storm. Then it moved toward
the United States. It first reached land in south Florida on August twenty-fifth.
At that time, the National Hurricane Center said the winds were at a top continuing speed of more
than one hundred thirty kilometers per hour. Experts identified the storm as a hurricane. They
named it Katrina, and rated it as the least severe type of hurricane. Still, it caused flooding and
killed people in Florida.
BARBARA KLEIN: Hurricane Katrina weakened again after striking Florida. Later it moved to the
Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf’s warm waters helped it gain strength. At one point, the storm’s winds
were blowing at more than two hundred sixty-eight kilometers per hour. Experts increased its
rating to the most severe hurricane.
Time passed, and the winds again weakened. Then Hurricane Katrina reached land in Louisiana.
Its speed had fallen to about two hundred kilometers per hour when it struck near New Orleans.
But the wind was strong enough to pick up trees, vehicles and buildings. It threw them into the
air like toys. Walls of water flooded over the land. Intense rain fell. Then Hurricane Katrina struck
land again, this time at the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. Again, there was loss of life and
terrible destruction.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Severe ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late
summer or early autumn near the equator. Scientists call them cyclones when they develop over
the Indian Ocean. When they happen over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, the storms are
typhoons. And in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean they are called hurricanes.
Ocean storms develop when the air temperature in one area is different from the temperature
nearby. Warmer air rises, while cooler air falls. These movements create a difference in the
pressure of the atmosphere.

BARBARA KLEIN: If the pressure changes over a large area, winds start to blow in a huge circle.
High pressure air is pulled toward a low pressure center. Thick clouds form and heavy rains fall as
the storm gains speed and moves over the ocean waters. Storms can get stronger as they move
over warm ocean waters.
The strongest, fastest winds of a hurricane blow in the area known as the eyewall. It surrounds
the center, or eye, of the storm. The eye itself is calm by comparison.
Wind speeds in severe ocean storms can reach more than two hundred fifty kilometers an hour.
Up to fifty centimeters of rain can fall. Some storms have produced more than one hundred fifty
centimeters of rain.
These storms also cause high waves and ocean surges. A surge is a continuous movement of water
that may reach as high as six meters or more. The water strikes low coastal areas. Surges are
commonly responsible for about ninety percent of all deaths from ocean storms.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, keeps watch on severe storms.
It works closely with public officials and with radio and television stations to keep people
informed. Experts believe this early warning system has helped reduce deaths from ocean storms
in recent years.
But sometimes people cannot or will not flee the path of a storm. That is what happened in many
places in New Orleans.
BARBARA KLEIN: Weather scientists use computer programs to create models that show where a
storm might go. The programs combine information such as temperatures, wind speed,
atmospheric pressure and the amount of water in the atmosphere.
Scientists collect the information with satellites, weather balloons and devices floating in the
world's oceans. They also collect information from ships and passenger flights and from
government planes. These planes fly into and around storms. The crews drop instruments
attached to parachutes. The instruments report temperature, pressure, wind speed and other
conditions.
BOB DOUGHTY: Scientists use the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale to measure the intensity of
storms based on wind speed. It provides an idea of the amount of coastal flooding and property
damage that might be expected. The scale is divided into five groups or categories.

The mildest hurricane is called category one. It has winds of about one hundred twenty to one
hundred fifty kilometers an hour. This storm can damage trees and lightweight structures. It can
also cause flooding.
Wind speeds in a category two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an
hour. These storms are often powerful enough to break windows or blow the roofs off houses.
Winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour represent
categories three and four. An even more powerful storm is a category five hurricane.
BARBARA KLEIN: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Hurricane Katrina
was a strong category three hurricane when it hit land in Louisiana. But researchers say other
forces than its wind speed helped cause Katrina’s extensive destruction. NOAA scientists say
Katrina’s air pressure was very low. The lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm. And
Katrina was also an unusually wide storm.
Katrina’s most damaging power, however, came from the water it brought. The storm surge was
estimated at more than six meters, and may have been as high as nine meters.
BOB DOUGHTY: All this water poured into Lake Pontchartrain on the north side of New Orleans.
It also flooded into the Mississippi River to the south. New Orleans was built below sea level. The
city is surrounded by levees made of earth and walls made of concrete.
The water and wind pressure from Katrina broke through the flood dams and destroyed many
areas of New Orleans. The surge washed away large areas of the coastal cities of Biloxi and
Gulfport, Mississippi. There was also heavy damage in Alabama.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Some scientists believe climate change affects major storms. Some say the
warming of Earth’s atmosphere is already making the storms worse. Other scientists have
published studies that disagree.
Earlier this year, a special World Meteorological Organization committee reported on severe
storms. The committee’s work appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience. Ten scientists took
part. The experts represented both sides of the debate about global warming. They reached no
clear answer about whether global warming had already intensified storms. Still, the committee
made some predictions.

BOB DOUGHTY: They said global warming might cause more powerful ocean storms in the future.
They said the overall strength of storms measured by wind speed might increase two to eleven
percent by the year twenty-one hundred. And there might be an increase in the number of the
most severe storms. But there might be fewer weak and moderate storms.
The current Atlantic Ocean hurricane season began in June. Weather experts say fewer severe
storms than usual have struck since then. Experts had predicted above-normal numbers of storms
during the season, which continues through November.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by
June Simms.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Severe-Ocean-Storms-101305319.html

5. Why Vitamins Are Important to Good Health.
Eat Fruits and Vegetables.
BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about vitamins.
BOB DOUGHTY: Many jobs must be done with two people. One person takes the lead. The other
helps. It is this cooperation that brings success.
So it is with the human body. Much of our good health depends on the cooperation between
substances. When they work together, chemical reactions take place smoothly. Body systems are
kept in balance.
Some of the most important helpers in the job of good health are the substances we call vitamins.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The word “vitamin” dates back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk in 1912. He was
studying a substance in the hull that covers rice. This substance was believed to cure a disorder
called beriberi.
Funk believed the substance belonged to a group of chemicals known as amines. He added the
Latin word "vita," meaning life. So he called the substance a “vitamine” -- an amine necessary for
life.
BOB DOUGHTY: Funk was not able to separate the anti-berberi substance from the rice hulls; it
was later shown to be thiamine. Other studies found that not all vitamines were amines. So the
name was shortened to vitamin. But Funk was correct in recognizing their importance.
Scientists have discovered 14 kinds of vitamins. They are known as vitamins A, the B group, C, D,
E and K. Scientists say vitamins help to carry out chemical changes within cells. If we do not get
enough of the vitamins we need in our food, we are at risk of developing a number of diseases.
FAITH LAPIDUS: This brings us back to Casimir Funk. His studies of rice were part of a long search
for foods that could cure disease.
One of the first people involved in that search was James Lind of Scotland. In the 1740's, Lind was
a doctor for the British Navy. He was investigating a problem that had existed in the Navy for
many years.
The problem was the disease scurvy. So many sailors had scurvy that the Navy’s fighting strength
was very low. The sailors were weak from bleeding inside their bodies. Even the smallest wound
would not heal. Doctor Lind thought the sailors were getting sick because they failed to eat some
kinds of foods when they were at sea for many months.
BOB DOUGHTY: Doctor Lind separated 12 sailors who had scurvy into two groups. He gave each
group different foods to eat. One group got oranges and lemons. The other did not. The men who
ate the fruit began to improve within seven days. The other men got weaker. Doctor Lind was
correct. Eating citrus fruits prevents scurvy.
Other doctors looked for foods to cure the diseases rickets and pellagra. They did not yet
understand that they were seeing the problem from the opposite direction. That is, it is better to
eat vitamin-rich foods to prevent disease instead of eating them to cure a disease after it has
developed.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Which foods should be eaten to keep us healthy? Let us look at some important
vitamins for these answers.

Vitamin A helps prevent skin and other tissues from becoming dry. It is also needed to make a
light-sensitive substance in the eyes. People who do not get enough vitamin A cannot see well in
darkness. They may develop a condition that dries the eyes. This can result in infections and lead
to blindness.
Vitamin A is found in fish liver oil. It also is in the yellow part of eggs. Sweet potatoes, carrots and
other darkly colored fruits and vegetables contain substances that the body can change into
vitamin A.
BOB DOUGHTY: Vitamin B-one is also called thiamine. Thiamine changes starchy foods into
energy. It also helps the heart and nervous system work smoothly. Without it, we would be weak
and would not grow. We also might develop beriberi.
Thiamine is found not just in whole grains like brown rice, but also in other foods. These include
beans and peas, nuts, and meat and fish.
Another B-vitamin is niacin. It helps cells use food energy. It also prevents pellagra -- a disease
that causes weakness, reddish skin and stomach problems. Niacin is found in meat, fish and green
vegetables.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Vitamin B-12 is needed so folic acid can do its work. Together, they help produce
red blood cells. Vitamin B-12 is found naturally in foods like eggs, meat, fish and milk products.
Folic acid has been shown to prevent physical problems in babies when taken by their mothers
during pregnancy.
Vitamin B-12 is found in green leafy vegetables and other foods, like legumes and citrus fruits. In
some countries, it is added to products like bread.
BOB DOUGHTY: In 2003, Japanese researchers identified a new member of the B-vitamin group.
It is a substance known as pyrroloquinoline quinone, or PQQ.
The researchers found that PQQ is important in the reproductive and defense systems of mice.
They said the substance is similarly important for people. PQQ is found in fermented soybeans
and also in parsley, green tea, green peppers and kiwi fruit.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Vitamin C is needed for strong bones and teeth, and for healthy blood passages.
It also helps wounds heal quickly. The body stores little vitamin C. So we must get it every day in
foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and uncooked cabbage.

Vitamin D increases levels of the element calcium in the blood. Calcium is needed for nerve and
muscle cells to work normally. It also is needed to build strong bones.
BOB DOUGHTY: Vitamin D prevents the children’s bone disease rickets. Ultraviolet light from the
sun changes a substance in the skin into vitamin D. Fish liver oil also contains vitamin D. In some
countries, milk producers add vitamin D to milk so children will get enough.
Vitamin K is needed for healthy blood. It thickens the blood around a cut to stop bleeding. Bacteria
in the intestines normally produce vitamin K. It can also be found in pork products, liver and in
vegetables like cabbage, kale and spinach.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Experts agree that everyone needs vitamins so that their bodies can operate
normally. In general, a complete diet should provide all the vitamins a body needs in their natural
form. In addition, many foods and food products now have extra vitamins and minerals added.
Some people fear they do not get enough vitamins from the foods they eat. So they take products
with large amounts of vitamins. They think these products, called vitamin supplements, will
improve their health and protect against disease. Many adults now take vitamin supplements
every day.
BOB DOUGHTY: In 2006, medical experts gathered near Washington, D.C. to discuss studies about
vitamin supplements. The experts found little evidence that most supplements do anything to
protect or improve health. But they noted that some do help to prevent disease.
The experts said women who wish to become mothers should take folic acid to prevent problems
in their babies. And, they said vitamin D supplements and calcium can protect the bones of older
women.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The medical experts agreed with doctors who say that people who know they
lack a vitamin should take vitamin supplements. Some older adults, for example, may not have
enough vitamin B-12. That is because, as people get older, the body loses its ability to take it from
foods.
The experts also noted that taking too much of some vitamins can be harmful. They said people
should be sure to discuss what vitamins they take with their doctors.
Several studies have not been able to show that taking vitamin supplements in addition to a
balanced diet helps to prevent disease. One study found that older Americans do not get enough
Vitamin C and required minerals. The study involved more than 6,000 individuals. More than half
of them took vitamin supplements.

BOB DOUGHTY: Vitamins are important to our health. A lack of required vitamins can lead to
health problems.
Different vitamins are found in different foods -- grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, eggs
and milk products. And even foods that contain the same vitamins may have them in different
amounts. Experts say this is why it is important to eat a mixture of foods every day, to get enough
of the vitamins our bodies need.
FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Faith
Lapidus.
BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in
Special English on the Voice of America.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Vitamins-are-Important-to-Good-Health-
102777384.html

6. After 50 Years, Lasers Have Made Their Mark.
An Announcement In relation to the Lasers and the Optical Fiber.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
This week, we tell about one of the most recognizable objects in science fiction — the laser. And
we tell how the laser has made its mark in the fifty years since its invention.
STEVE EMBER: Three professional research groups have been leading a year-long celebration
of the laser’s fiftieth anniversary. It is called LaserFest. The American Physical Society, the
Optical Society (OSA), and SPIE, a group that supports the study of light, all have been involved.
One goal is to honor the early developers of lasers who were both scientists and business
leaders.
Another goal is to show the public that lasers are a great example of how scientific research can
result in technology that improves economies everywhere. And LaserFest is also meant to
inspire young people to take up careers in optical science and engineering.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Laser is short for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The
idea behind lasers is complex. Just how complex? Consider that it took the mind of Albert
Einstein to discover the physics behind the laser.
Theodore Maiman succeed in building the first working laser in nineteen sixty. Mr. Maiman
worked at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
A laser fires a light beam. Before the laser, scientists developed a similar device: a maser which
stands for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A maser is basically
a microwave version of the laser. Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation similar
to, but shorter than, radio waves. The best-known use of masers is in highly accurate clocks.
In the nineteen fifties, researchers in the United States and Russia independently developed
the technology that made both masers and lasers possible. Charles Townes was a professor at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He and his students
developed the first maser.
Russians Nicolay Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov did their research in Moscow. Their work led
to technology important to lasers and masers. The three men received the Nobel Prize in
Physics in nineteen sixty-four.
STEVE EMBER: The idea of a thin beam of light with deadly power came much earlier. By the
end of the eighteen hundreds, the industrial revolution had shown that science could invent
machines with almost magical powers. And some writers of the time were the first to imagine
something like a laser.
In eighteen ninety-eighty, H.G. Wells published a science fiction novel called “The War of the
Worlds.” In it, he described creatures from the planet Mars that had technology far beyond
anything on Earth. Among their weapons was what Wells called a “heat ray.” Listen to actor
Orson Welles describe the weapon in a famous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds”
from nineteen thirty-eight.
ORSON WELLES (PROFESSOR PIERSON): “I shall refer to the mysterious weapon as a heat
ray. It's my guess that in some way they are able to generate an intense heat in a chamber of
practically absolute non-conductivity. This intense heat they project in a parallel beam against
any object they choose, by means of a polished parabolic mirror of unknown composition, much
as the mirror of a lighthouse projects a beam of light. That -- That is my conjecture of the origin
of the heat ray.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: H.G. Wells’ description is not too far from the truth. All lasers have several
things in common. They have a material that supplies electrons and a power source that lifts
the energy level of those electrons. And, as Wells guessed, many lasers have mirrors that direct
light.
Laser light is different from daylight or electric lights. It has one wavelength or color. Laser
light is also highly organized. Light behaves like a wave and laser light launches in one orderly
wave at a time from its source.
STEVE EMBER: The physics of the laser may be complex. Still, it is just a story of how electrons
interact with light. When a light particle, or photon, hits an electron, the electron jumps to a
higher energy state. If another photon strikes one of these high-energy electrons, the electron
releases two photons that travel together at the same wavelength. When this process is
repeated enough, lots of organized, or coherent, photons are produced.
In Theodore Maiman’s first laser, a rod of man-made ruby supplied the electrons. A more
powerful version of the flash on a common camera was used to lift the energy state of the
electrons. Mirrors on either end of the ruby rod reflected and increased the light. And an
opening at one end of the rod let the laser light shoot out — just like the flash ray of science
fiction hero Buck Rogers.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Industry put lasers to work almost immediately after they were invented in
nineteen sixty. But weapons were not first on the list.
The first medical operation using a laser took place the year following its invention. Doctors
Charles Campbell and Charles Koester used a laser to remove a tumor from a patient’s eye at
Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Since then, doctors have used lasers to cut
and remove tissue safely with little risk of infections.
Other health uses include medical imaging and vision correction surgery. Eye surgeons use
lasers in LASIK operations to reshape the cornea, which covers the lens of the eye. The reshaped
cornea corrects the patient’s bad eyesight so he or she does not have to wear glasses or other
corrective lenses.
STEVE EMBER: Lasers have made measurement an exact science. Astronomers have used lasers
to measure the moon’s distance from Earth to within a few centimeters. Mappers and builders
use laser technology every day. For example, drawing a perfectly level straight line on a
construction site is easy using a laser.

Energy researchers are using lasers in an attempt to develop fusion, the same energy process
that powers the sun. Scientists hope fusion can supply almost limitless amounts of clean energy
in the future.
Lasers have also changed the way we communicate. It is likely that laser light on a fiber optic
network carried this EXPLORATIONS program at least part of the way to you if you are reading
or listening online. Super-fast Internet connections let people watch movies and send huge
amounts of information at the speed of light.
Manufacturers have used lasers for years to cut and join metal parts. And the jewelry industry
uses lasers to write on the surface of the world’s hardest substance, diamonds.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Since nineteen seventy-four, the public has had direct experience with lasers
— at the grocery store checkout line.
Laser barcode scanners have changed how stores record almost everything. They help
businesses keep track of products. They help in storage and every detail of the supply process.
Experts say no company has put barcode technology to better use than Wal-Mart, based in
Bentonville, Arkansas. By nineteen eighty-eight, all Wal-Mart stores used laser bar code
scanners. Highly detailed records on its products, and how they were selling, helped Wal-Mart
keep costs down. Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest corporation.
STEVE EMBER: Lasers are found in many products used almost everywhere. Laser printers can
print out forms and documents quickly and are relatively low in cost. They are required
equipment for offices around the world.
If you have a CD or DVD player, you own a laser. Laser disc players use lasers to accurately read
or write marks on a reflective, coated plastic disc. A device turns these optical signals into digital
information that becomes music, computer software or a full-length movie.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Over one hundred years ago, writers imagined that beams of light could be
powerful weapons. Today, lasers guide missiles and bombs.
For example, pilots can mark a target invisibly with a laser. Bombs or missiles then track the
target with deadly results.

And, yes, American defense companies are working on giant laser guns recognizable to science
fiction fans everywhere. But there are technological difficulties. Scientific American magazine
says huge lasers turn only about twenty to thirty percent of the energy they use into a laser
beam. The rest is lost as heat.
That has not stopped scientists from working to perfect powerful lasers that, one day, may be
able to shoot missiles out of the sky.
STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/After-50-Years-Lasers-Have-Made-Their-
Mark-101939778.html

7. Leonardo da Vinci: One of the Greatest Thinkers in History.
STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
Today, we tell about one of the greatest thinkers in the world, Leonardo da Vinci. He began his
career as an artist. But his interest in the world around him drove him to study music, math,
science, engineering and building design. Many of his ideas and inventions were centuries
ahead of his time.
STEVE EMBER: We start with one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous drawings, called
“Vitruvian Man.” This work is a good example of his ever questioning mind, and his effort to
bring together art, math and science.

“Vitruvian Man” is a detailed sketch of a man’s body, which is drawn at the center of a square
and circle. The man’s stretched arms and legs are in two positions, showing the range of his
motion. His arms and legs touch the edges of the square and circle.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: With this drawing Leonardo was considering the size of the human body and
its relationship to geometry and the writings of the ancient Roman building designer Vitruvius.
Leonardo wrote this about how to develop a complete mind: “Study the science of art. Study
the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything
connects to everything else.”
STEVE EMBER: Leonardo da Vinci spent his life studying and observing in order to develop a
scientific understanding of the world. He wrote down his thoughts and project ideas in a series
of small notebooks. He made drawings and explained them with detailed notes. In these
notebooks, he would write the words backwards. Some experts say he wrote this way because
he wished to be secretive about his findings. But others say he wrote this way because he was
left-handed and writing backwards was easier and helped keep the ink from smearing.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The notebooks show many very modern ideas. Leonardo designed weapons,
machines, engines, robots, and many other kinds of engineering devices. When disease spread
in Milan, Leonardo designed a city that would help resist the spread of infection. He designed
devices to help people climb walls, and devices to help people fly. He designed early versions
of modern machines such as the tank and helicopter. Few of these designs were built during his
lifetime. But they show his extraordinarily forward- thinking mind.
The notebooks also contain details about his daily life. These have helped historians learn more
about the personal side of this great thinker.
STEVE EMBER: Very little is known about Leonardo’s early life. He was born in fourteen fifty-
two in the town of Vinci. His father, Ser Piero da Vinci, was a legal expert. Experts do not know
for sure about his mother, Caterina. But they do know that Leonardo’s parents were never
married to each other. As a boy, Leonardo showed a great interest in drawing, sculpting and
observing nature.
However, because Leonardo was born to parents who were not married to each other, he was
barred from some studies and professions. He trained as an artist after moving to Florence with
his father in the fourteen sixties.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: It was an exciting time to be in Florence, one of the cultural capitals of
Europe. Leonardo trained with one of the city’s very successful artists, Andrea del Verrocchio.
He was a painter, sculptor and gold worker. Verrocchio told his students that they needed to
understand the body’s bones and muscles when drawing people.
Leonardo took his teacher’s advice very seriously. He spent several periods of his life studying
the human body by taking apart and examining dead bodies. Experts say his later drawings of
the organs and systems of the human body are still unequalled to this day.
STEVE EMBER: While training as an artist, Leonardo also learned about and improved on
relatively new painting methods at the time. One was the use of perspective to show depth. A
method called “sfumato” helped to create a cloudy effect to suggest distance. “Chiaroscuro” is
a method using light and shade as a painterly effect. The artist also used oil paints instead of
the traditional tempura paints used in Italy during this period.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Leonardo’s first known portrait now hangs in the National Gallery in
Washington, D.C. He made this painting of a young woman named Ginevra de’Benci around
fourteen seventy-four. The woman has a pale face with dark hair. In the distance, Leonardo
painted the Italian countryside.
He soon received attention for his extraordinary artistic skills. Around fourteen seventy-five he
was asked to draw an angel in Verrocchio’s painting “Baptism of Christ.” One story says that
when Verrocchio saw Leonardo’s addition to the painting, he was so amazed by his student’s
skill, that he said he would never paint again.
STEVE EMBER: Leonardo once said the following about actively using one’s mental abilities:
“Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen;
even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” His mind was so active that he did not often
finish his many projects.
One religious painting he never finished was called “Adoration of the Magi”. He was hired to
make the painting for a religious center. The complex drawing he made to prepare for the
painting is very special. It shows how carefully he planned his art works. It shows his deep
knowledge of geometry, volume and depth. He drew the many people in the painting without
clothes so that he could make sure that their bodies would be physically correct once covered.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Around fourteen eighty-two, Leonardo moved to Milan. There, he worked
for the city’s ruler, Ludovico Sforza. This ruler invited Leonardo to Milan not as an artist, but as
a musician. Historians say Leonardo was one of the most skillful lyre players in all of Italy. But
he also continued his work as a painter. He also designed everything from festivals to weapons
and a sculpture for Ludovico Sforza.
STEVE EMBER: One famous work from Leonardo’s Milan period is called “Virgin of the Rocks.” It
shows Jesus as a baby along with his mother, Mary, and John the Baptist also as a baby. They
are sitting outside in an unusual environment. Leonardo used his careful observations of nature
to paint many kinds of plants. In the background are a series of severe rock formations. This
painting helped Leonardo make it clear to the ruler and people of Milan that he was a very
inventive and skillful artist.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Leonardo later made his famous painting “The Last Supper” for the dining
room of a religious center in Milan. He combined his studies in light, math, psychology,
geometry and anatomy for this special work. He designed the painting to look like it was part
of the room. The painting shows a story from the Bible in which Jesus eats a meal with his
followers for the last time. Jesus announces that one of them will betray him.
The work received wide praise and many artists tried to copy its beauty. One modern art expert
described Leonardo’s “Last Supper” as the foundation of western art. Unfortunately, Leonardo
experimented with a new painting method for this work. The paint has suffered extreme
damage over the centuries.
STEVE EMBER: In addition to the portrait of Ginevra de’Benci that we talked about earlier,
Leonardo also painted several other non-religious paintings of women. One painting of Cecilia
Gallerani has come to be known as “Lady with an Ermine” because of the small white animal
she is holding. This woman was the lover of Milan’s ruler, Ludovico Sforza.
However, Leonardo’s most famous portrait of a woman is called the “Mona Lisa.” It is now in
the collection of the Louvre museum in Paris. He painted this image of Lisa Gherardini starting
around fifteen-oh-three. She was the wife of a wealthy businessman from Florence named
Francesco del Giocondo. It is from him that the painting takes its Italian name, “La Gioconda.”
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Lisa Gherardini is sitting down with her hands crossed in her lap. She looks
directly at the painter. She seems to be smiling ever so slightly. A great deal of mystery
surrounds the painting. Experts are not sure about how or why Leonardo came to paint the
work. But they do know that he never gave it to the Giocondo family. He kept the painting with
him for the rest of his life, during his travels through France and Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci died in France in fifteen nineteen. A friend who was with him at his death
said this of the great man’s life: “May God Almighty grant him eternal peace. Every one laments
the loss of a man, whose like Nature cannot produce a second time.”
STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Leonardo-da-Vinci-One-of-the-Greatest-
Thinkers-in-History-102911564.html

8. Crime and Punishment.
Logo of the FBI.
STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
“Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. This list includes a picture and description of people suspected
of crimes so that the public can help provide information leading to their arrest.
The idea was that if the public knew what a criminal looked like, it would be harder for that person
to hide. Since its beginnings sixty years ago, four hundred ninety-four criminals have been placed
on the “Top Ten List.” Four hundred and sixty-three of these criminals have been found. Today
we tell about this special list. And we visit a museum in Washington that helps people learn more
about crimes and investigations.

STEVE EMBER: The beginning of the “Ten Most Wanted” list dates to nineteen forty-nine. A
reporter for United Press International called the FBI and asked them for the names of the
“toughest guys” that the agency wanted to capture. The FBI provided the reporter with a list of
ten criminals it believed to be the most dangerous.
This list was then published on the front page of the Washington Daily News. The list received
wide public attention. And the help of the American public soon led to several arrests. The
director of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, made the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list a
permanent program in nineteen fifty.
BARBARA KLEIN: Over the years, the kinds of criminals on the list have changed. During the
nineteen fifties, the “Top Ten” list mostly included escaped prisoners, suspected murderers or
people who stole money from banks. During the nineteen sixties, the list included kidnappers,
criminals suspected of sabotage and those who stole government property. Today, the list
includes people suspected of crimes including terrorism, drug dealing, financial wrongdoing and
murder. The most widely known person currently on the list is al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
STEVE EMBER: A suspect must meet two requirements to be on the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives”
list. He or she must be considered a threat to society. And, the FBI must believe that wide publicity
about the criminal might help lead to an arrest.
A suspect is removed from the list if he or she is captured, found dead or surrenders. Suspects
can also be removed from the list if the federal case against them is dismissed or if they are no
longer believed to meet the “Top Ten” requirements. Once a suspect is removed, a new suspect
is placed on the list.
BARBARA KLEIN: The first woman to be on the “Top Ten” list was Ruth Eisemann-Schier. In
nineteen sixty-eight she and her boyfriend kidnapped a wealthy young woman in the state of
Georgia. After committing the crime, Eisemann-Schier fled the area. She changed her name and
moved to the state of Oklahoma.
But she applied for a job that required the prints of her fingertips be taken. An official noted that
her fingerprints matched those of a wanted criminal. Eisemann-Schier was arrested. She admitted
she was guilty of the crime and was sentenced to seven years in prison. She served four years,
then was sent back to her native country of Honduras. So far, eight “Top Ten” suspects have been
women.

STEVE EMBER: The FBI has studied how “Top Ten” criminals have been caught over the past
twenty years. It says citizen cooperation after publicity about the crime has resulted in the capture
of about forty percent of the suspected criminals. The agency says the “Ten Most Wanted
Fugitives” program uses many kinds of media to gain public attention. These include newspapers,
wanted signs, and television news and crime shows. Of these, the popular television show
“America’s Most Wanted” is responsible for the largest number of criminals captured.
BARBARA KLEIN: To learn more about crime investigation, we visited the National Museum of
Crime and Punishment in Washington. A lawyer and businessman from Florida, John Morgan,
owns and operates the museum. He was influenced to open the museum after a visit to Alcatraz
prison in San Francisco, California.
Mister Morgan opened the museum in partnership with John Walsh. He is the host of the
television show “America’s Most Wanted.”
Parts of this program are recorded in a studio in the Museum of Crime and Punishment.
“America’s Most Wanted” tells about people who are suspected of crimes. People watching the
show are asked to telephone if they have information that could help capture the criminals.
STEVE EMBER: The Museum of Crime and Punishment has exhibits that explain how experts
gather evidence at the place where a crime is committed. Some of the professionals who examine
evidence gathered during criminal investigations are called forensic scientists.
These experts use chemistry, physics, anthropology, biology and other sciences to study the clues
surrounding a crime. This evidence can be used by investigators who are working to solve the
crime and as proof in a court of law.
BARBARA KLEIN: When crime scene investigators arrive at the place of a crime, they first try to
make sure the area is secure. They must make sure that nothing in the area gets moved or
touched. This could weaken or change any evidence. The investigators also document all
evidence by taking photographs and drawing pictures of what they see. Then they collect the
evidence and carefully document and transport it so that it can be further examined in a
laboratory.
STEVE EMBER: What are some of the clues investigators might look for? Fingerprints are one
important clue in a crime scene. No two people have the same fingerprints, so they are useful in
identifying suspects. Fingerprints are sometimes very easy to see. For example, a murderer might
have blood or dirt on his or her hands which leaves prints on the wall. Investigators sometimes
use chemicals and special lighting to uncover fingerprints that cannot be seen with the eye alone.
BARBARA KLEIN: The criminal might also leave his or her shoe prints. Experts can discover the
manufacturer of the shoe. They can also tell about a person’s height and the way he or she walks.

A suspect might also leave behind hairs or some kind of body fluid such as blood. DNA testing can
then reveal the suspect’s identity.
If the crime involves a murder, the body itself holds many clues. Medical examiners can give
important information about how the victim died. They study wounds and chemical tests to find
out if the victim died accidentally or not. They can tell if a wound was created by the victim or by
another person. And, they can discover the time of death to see if it matches information given
by suspects and witnesses.
STEVE EMBER: Visitors to the Museum of Crime and Punishment can learn more about blood and
its importance in an investigation. They can attend a Crime Scene Investigation workshop. During
these events, a trained expert talks to museum visitors and leads an experiment. We attended
one that was taught by a graduate student from George Washington University’s Forensic Science
Department.
For example, she discussed how investigators can learn a great deal from the shape of the blood
drops found at a crime scene. A circular blood drop could mean the blood fell directly downward.
But blood drops with long tails can tell a great deal about the direction, speed and angle of the
blood’s starting point.
LARISSA: “That tail tells you the direction the blood was travelling. So if your tail is pointing that
way, which direction was your blood going?”
BARBARA KLEIN: This information can show what kind of weapon was used in a murder. And it
can show from what position the murderer killed a victim.
LARISSA: “Now if you look at that bottom picture on your pages, you’ll see that you can measure
the length and the width of that spatter droplet, right? You can actually calculate the angle at
which that blood hit your surface.”
For this workshop, Larissa used red paint to show how different murder weapons can leave
different patterns of blood. But she says in a real lab, experts would use pig blood to conduct their
tests. Pig blood is very close in thickness to human blood. But it is safer for the scientists to use.
She also shows how the chemical Luminol can reveal hidden blood stains that the eye alone
cannot see.
This workshop shows that it takes a deep understanding of science to lead a crime scene
investigation. And, the job requires careful attention to detail, because even the smallest
observation can lead to solving a crime.

STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Crime-and-Punishment-92804829.html

9. How Nine Researchers Won Their Nobel Prizes.
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson.
And I'm Mario Ritter.
Today, we will tell about the two thousand nine Nobel Prizes for discoveries in science. We also
will tell about progress against acquired immune deficiency syndrome, better known as AIDS.
The Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine are to be presented in Sweden
this week. The winners were chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. They will receive
their prizes at ceremonies in Stockholm on December tenth. The winners in each area of science
will share a prize valued at one million four hundred thousand dollars.
Nobel week is a busy time in the Swedish capital. The winners make speeches, meet with
reporters and attend parties. But the most important event is when the King of Sweden presents
the honorees with their awards.
Among those expected to accept their prizes are Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack
Szostak. They share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This year, it is presented for
solving a problem in biology.

The three honorees are working in the United States. Elizabeth Blackburn does her research at
the University of California in San Francisco. Carol Greider works at the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine in Maryland. Jack Szostak works from the Harvard University Medical School,
the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says it is honoring the researchers for showing how
telomeres and the enzyme that makes them protect chromosomes.
A telomere is a structure of genetic material. Telomerase is the enzyme in the body that builds
the telomeres. A chromosome contains molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA.
This material carries the genetic information that makes us who we are. A telomere is at each end
of a chromosome. Telomeres are necessary for a cell to divide.
The identification of telomeres about twenty years ago helped scientists understand how cells
operate. But it was a finding that did not at first seem important to everyday life. Scientists now
know that telomeres are involved in two subjects of widespread interest – aging and cancer.
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were involved in the findings. Elizabeth
Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered the exact order of genetic information that protects
chromosomes from ruin. They found that cells age if telomeres are shortened. For example, the
first genetic copy of a sheep had shortened telomeres. The cloned animal started to suffer from
arthritis at an age that some experts thought was unusually early for a sheep.
Miz Blackburn and Carol Greider identified the enzyme telomerase. Cells do not die as fast if a lot
of telomerase is produced, so aging is slowed. But studies suggest that cancer cells may use
telomerase to divide in abnormal ways.
The winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine are all American citizens. Mister Szostak came to the
United States from England. Miz Blackburn was born in Australia and is also an Australian citizen.
Another woman, an Israeli, is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She is Ada Yonath of the
Weitzmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
She is sharing the prize with two male researchers. They are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University in England, and Thomas Steitz of
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Mister Ramakrishnan is a British citizen, and Mister
Steitz is an American.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is honoring all three researchers for studies of the
structure and operation of a kind of cell called a ribosome. The Academy said the three were
chosen for having shown what a ribosome looks like and how it operates at the atomic level.
The researchers demonstrated how information in pieces of DNA is translated into the thousands
of proteins contained in living matter.
Each researcher worked independently. They made maps that placed hundreds of thousands of
atoms in the ribosomes. Some of their work involved X-rays produced by particle accelerators,
devices that bring atomic particles into high energies.
The Royal Swedish Academy says the DNA in cells contains the designs for how people, plants and
bacteria look and operate. But if there were nothing beyond the DNA in cells, life could not exist.
Ribosomes change the design into living matter of all kinds. They make proteins including oxygen-
carrying blood substances, antibodies to protect against disease, and substances that break down
sugar.
Many antibiotic medicines currently in use block bacterial ribosomes from action. Bacteria cannot
survive without bacterial ribosomes. Each Nobel Prize winner showed how ribosomes tie or bind
with antibiotics. The Academy says new medicines could result from the work of the Nobel Prize
winners in chemistry.
The Nobel Prize in Physics is going to three scientists who brought the light of knowledge to the
subject of light. Half the prize money will go to Charles K. Kao. He did his award-winning work at
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China and at the Standard Telecommunication Laboratories
in Britain.
The other two winners are Willard Boyle and George Smith. They did their research at Bell
Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Mister Boyle and Mister Smith will share the remaining
prize money equally.
Mister Kao discovered how to transmit, or send, light signals over long distances through optical
glass fibers. He learned to get light to go far enough down a glass fiber to pass on signals. The
signals can travel great distances. His work has made possible the development of
communications carried around the world by the Internet.

When Mister Kao began his research twenty years ago, fiber optic materials already existed. But
they were short by comparison with today. Mister Kao's work helped result in the fact that, if
lined up, the current optical cables would make a fiber more than nine hundred sixty-five million
kilometers long.
Mister Boyle and Mister Smith invented the charge-coupled device, or CCD. The device can turn
light into electrical signals. It provided technology for telescopes, medical images and digital
cameras. The Royal Swedish Academy says the researchers' work has made possible great
developments in those areas.
For example, doctors are able to use better instruments to examine organs in the body. And,
many people now use cameras that do not require film.
Mister Kao was born in Shanghai, China. He is a citizen of the United States and Britain. Mister
Boyle was born in Canada and is a citizen of Canada and the United States. Mister Smith is an
American.
December first was World AIDS Day. A new report about AIDS and the virus responsible for the
disease provided some reason to celebrate.
Experts say the number of new H.I.V. infections has fallen by seventeen percent since two
thousand one. H.I.V. is short for the human immunodeficiency virus. The experts say estimates of
new H.I.V. infections are down by about fifteen percent in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. And,
new infections have decreased almost twenty-five percent in East Asia. In Eastern Europe, the
number of new H.I.V. infections has leveled off. But new infections appear to be rising again in
some countries.
The numbers come from a report by the UNAIDS program and the World Health Organization. It
says H.I.V.-related deaths appear to have reached their highest level in two thousand four. Since
then, deaths have fallen by around ten percent as more people have received treatment.
Experts credit the good news in the report, at least in part, to prevention programs. Yet
treatments and population growth mean that more people than ever are living with H.I.V. The
latest estimates say almost thirty-three million five hundred thousand have the virus. There were
two million AIDS-related deaths last year, and two million seven hundred thousand new
infections.

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Our producer was
Brianna Blake. I'm Doug Johnson.
You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or , ask for it to the teacher:
http://unsv.com/voanews/specialenglish/scripts/2009/12/08/0045/

10. The Color of Money: America’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Produces Millions of Dollars a Day.
Dollars.
BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember.
Today on our program, we visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. to hear
how American dollars are made. In two thousand nine, the Bureau produced about twenty-six
million bills a day.
Producing money requires both artistic and technological skills. Dollar bills are made so that they
are interesting to look at but very hard to copy. In total, there are sixty-five separate steps
required to make a dollar bill.

BARBARA KLEIN: Guided tours of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are a popular activity for
visitors to Washington, D.C. These trips are a good way to learn new and interesting facts about
the history of money and its complex production methods. It is also exciting to stand in a room
with millions of dollars flying through machines.
TOUR GUIDE: "All right, ladies and gentlemen, once again welcome to the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing. And this is where the color of money begins. The money making process begins
when a yearly order sent by the Federal Reserve Board. That order will then be divided in half.
Half will be done here in Washington, D.C. and the other half will be done in Fort Worth, Texas.”
STEVE EMBER: Next, the Bureau orders special paper from the Crane Paper Company in the state
of Massachusetts. The paper is actually cloth since it is seventy-five percent cotton and twenty-
five percent linen.
This paper is made so that it can last a long time. And, it is made with details that make it hard to
copy. For example, bills contain security threads. These narrow pieces of plastic are inside the
paper and run along the width of the bill. This special paper is also made with very small blue and
red fibers. Both of these designs make it very hard to copy.
BARBARA KLEIN: The first step in production is called intaglio printing. This is done on high-speed
presses using printing plates onto which images have been cut. Each plate receives a layer of ink,
which gathers in the cut areas of the plate. Then, each piece of paper goes into the press to
receive the printing plate. The machine forces about twenty tons of pressure onto the printing
plate and paper. One side of a dollar bill is colored with green ink, while the other is printed in
black. Each side must dry for about forty-eight hours.
STEVE EMBER: The printing plate used in this process is created from hand-cut engravings called
master-dies. Highly skilled artists called engravers copy images on soft steel to make the dies.
There are separate dies for the different images on the bill, such as the picture of the president,
the lettering and other designs.
BARBARA KLEIN: After each master-die is copied, they are put together to make a printing plate
that has thirty-two copies of the bill being printed. A master-die can last for many years. For
example, the master-die with the picture of President Abraham Lincoln was made in the eighteen
sixties. It was used again in two thousand eight to redesign the five-dollar bill.
Next, the large printed sheets are carefully examined to make sure there are no mistakes on any
of the bills. This process used to be done by people. Now, computers do the work.

TOUR GUIDE: "OCIS is an acronym for Off-line Currency Inspection System and this is where the
money from the last phase will be inspected. Now that blue box will take a picture to size of the
sheets of the money and compare its cut, color and shape with the master image sent by the
Federal Reserve Board. It will take that picture and break it down into over one million pixels.
Every single last one has to be absolutely correct."
STEVE EMBER: In this part of production, the thirty-two bill sheets are cut into sheets of sixteen.
In the next step, a series of identifying numbers and seals are added to the bills.
TOUR GUIDE: “And this is where the money from the last phase will be put to its final state. If you
look to the left of the room, ladies and gentlemen, there is a tall machine with green ink at the
top of it. That is the machine that will print your serial numbers, Federal Reserve seal and Treasury
seal onto the money.”
BARBARA KLEIN: The serial numbers on the money tell the order that the bills were printed. Other
numbers and letters on the bill tell when the note was printed, what space on the printing plate
the bill occupied and which Reserve Bank will issue the bill.
STEVE EMBER: Once the money is printed, guillotine cutters separate the sheets into two notes,
then into individual notes. The notes are organized in “bricks,” each of which contains forty one-
hundred-note packages. The bricks then go to one of twelve Federal Reserve Districts, which then
give the money to local banks. Ninety-five percent of the bills printed each year are used to
replace money that is in circulation, or that has already been removed from circulation. The
Federal Reserve decides when to release this new money into use.
BARBARA KLEIN: You may know that America's first president, George Washington, is pictured on
the one-dollar bill. But do you know whose face is on the two, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one
hundred-dollar bills? They are, in order, President Thomas Jefferson, President Abraham Lincoln,
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, President Andrew Jackson, President Ulysses Grant and
statesman Benjamin Franklin.
STEVE EMBER: During the tour, visitors can learn many facts about money. For example, the
average life span of a one-dollar bill is twenty-one months. But a ten-dollar bill lasts only about
eighteen months. The one hundred-dollar note lasts the longest, eighty-nine months.
One popular question that visitors ask is about the two-dollar bill. This bill is not made very often.
This is because many Americans believe two-dollar bills are lucky, so they keep them. Two-dollar
bills do not have to be manufactured often because they do not become damaged quickly like
other bills.

People can send their damaged or torn bills to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Bureau
will replace damaged bills with new bills. However, it is illegal to purposely damage United States
currency in any way. Anyone found guilty of damaging American money can be fined or jailed.
BARBARA KLEIN: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing first began printing money in eighteen
sixty-one. It operated in a room of the Treasury building. Two men and four women worked
together there to place seals on money that was printed in other places by private companies.
Today, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has over two thousand employees in its two printing
centers in Washington and Texas.
STEVE EMBER: The Treasury Department continually works to change the design of bills to make
it difficult to copy. One method it uses is called microprinting. For example, what looks like a very
thin line around the edge of a picture may actually be the words “The United States of America”
in very small letters. Also, many bills now have color-shifting ink that looks like metallic paint. In
the last five years, the ten, twenty and fifty-dollar bills have been redesigned. All the bills are
mostly green. But other colors are added when they are redesigned.
BARBARA KLEIN: The most recent note to be redesigned is the one hundred-dollar bill. This is the
highest value bill currently made in the United States. More than ten years of research and
development went into its new security features. They offer a simple way to make sure that a
new one hundred-dollar note is real. For example, there is a blue ribbon woven into the front of
the note.
If you tilt the note back and forth while looking at the blue ribbon, you will see bells on the note
change to hundreds as they move. When you tilt the note back and forth, the bells and the
hundreds move from side to side. If you tilt it from side to side, they move up and down.
STEVE EMBER: There is also an image of a bell inside a copper-colored inkwell on the front of the
note. Tilt the note to see the bell change from copper to green. This makes the bell seem to appear
and disappear within the inkwell. There are several other security features in the redesigned one
hundred-dollar bill.
Last month, the Federal Reserve Board announced a delay in releasing the new one-hundred
dollar notes. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing identified a problem with creasing of the paper
during printing. The new bills were supposed to be released February tenth, two thousand eleven.
The Bureau is working to solve the problem.

BARBARA KLEIN: Our program was written by Dana Demange and Shelley Gollust. Our producer
was Brianna Blake. I’m Barbara Klein.
You can take the audio (mp3) from the next url, or, Request it the teacher.
http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/The-Color-of-Money-Americas-Bureau-of-
Engraving-and-Printing-Produces-Millions-of-Dollars-a-Day-107973739.html

Texts from 11 to 20.
«Every man has become great; every successful man has
succeeded, in proportion as he has confined his powers to one
particular channel».
— Orison Swett Marden.

11. A Rolling History of Americans on the Move.
And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, travel back in time to explore the history of transportation in
the United States.
In eighteen-hundred, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president. Jefferson had
a wish. He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. He
wanted to build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country. At that time
the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent.
Jefferson proposed that a group of explorers travel across North America in search of such a
waterway. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from eighteen-oh-three
to eighteen-oh-six. They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land. They also found
no coast-to-coast waterway.
So Jefferson decided that a different transportation system would best connect American
communities. This system involved roads, rivers and railroads. It also included the digging of
waterways.

By the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, dirt roads had been built in parts of the nation. The use
of river steamboats increased. Boats also traveled along man-made canals which strengthened
local economies.
The American railroad system began. Many people did not believe train technology would work.
In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States.
In nineteenth-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel. Trains also
found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and
Walt Whitman.
In eighteen-seventy-six, the United States celebrated its one-hundredth birthday. By now, there
were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities. The flow of business
changed. Lives improved.
Within those first one-hundred years, transportation links had helped form a new national
economy.
Workers finished the first coast-to-coast railroad in eighteen-sixty-nine. Towns and cities could
develop farther away from major waterways and the coasts. But, to develop economically, many
small communities had to build links to the railroads.
Railroads helped many industries, including agriculture. Farmers had a new way to send wheat
and grain to ports. From there, ships could carry the goods around the world.
Trains had special container cars with ice to keep meat, milk and other goods cold for long
distances on their way to market.
People could now get fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Locally grown crops could
be sold nationally. Farmers often hired immigrant workers from Asia and Mexico to plant, harvest
and pack these foods.
By the early nineteen hundreds, American cities had grown. So, too, had public transportation.
The electric streetcar became a common form of transportation. These trolleys ran on metal
tracks built into streets.
Soon, however, people began to drive their own cars. Nelson Jackson and his friend, Sewall
Crocker, were honored as the first to cross the United States in an automobile. Their trip in
nineteen-oh-three lasted sixty-three days. And it was difficult. Mainly that was because few good
roads for driving existed.

But the two men, and their dog Bud, also had trouble with their car and with the weather. Yet,
they proved that long-distance travel across the United States was possible. The trip also helped
fuel interest in the American automobile industry.
By nineteen thirty, more than half the families in America owned an automobile. For many, a car
became a need, not simply an expensive toy. To deal with the changes, lawmakers had to pass
new traffic laws and rebuild roads.
Cars also needed businesses to service them. Gas stations, tire stores and repair centers began to
appear.
Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work. The open highway came to
represent independence and freedom. During the nineteen twenties and thirties, the most
traveled road in the United States was Route Sixty-Six. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the
Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. It was considered the "people's highway."
The writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the "Mother Road" in his book "The Grapes of
Wrath." Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression
of the nineteen thirties. They came from the middle of the country. They moved West in search
of work and a better life.
In nineteen forty-six, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route Sixty-Six."
World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. Soldiers came home and started families. Businesses
started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing. Most families in these
growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around. Buses also became popular.
The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening
of many downtown areas. City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support
downtown development.
Underground train systems also became popular in the nineteen fifties. Some people had enough
money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane.
But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no
state-to-state highway system. In nineteen fifty-six Congress passed a law called the Federal-Aid
Highway Act. Engineers designed a sixty-five-thousand kilometer system of roads. They designed
highways to reach every city with a population over one-hundred-thousand.

The major work on the Interstate Highway System was completed around nineteen ninety. It cost
more than one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. It has done more than simply make a trip to
see family in another state easier. It has also led to the rise of the container trucking industry.
The American transportation system started with horses and boats. It now includes everything
from container trucks to airplanes to motorcycles. Yet, in some ways, the system has been a victim
of its own success.
Many places struggle with traffic problems as more and more cars fill the roads. And a lot of
people do not just drive cars anymore. They drive big sport utility vehicles and minivans and
personal trucks.
For others, hybrid cars are the answer. Hybrids use both gas and electricity. They save fuel and
reduce pollution. But pollution is not the only environmental concern with transportation. Ease
of travel means development can spread farther and farther. And that means the loss of natural
areas.
Yet, every day, Americans depend on their transportation system to keep them, and the largest
economy in the world, on the move.
The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has a transportation exhibition
that explores the connection to the economic, social and cultural development of the United
States. And you can experience it all on the Internet at americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u.
Again, the address is americanhistory-dot-s-i-dot-e-d-u.
(americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition).
Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus.
https://sites.google.com/site/mcenriqueruizdiaz/

12. Isaac Newton: One of the World’s Greatest Scientists.
STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS.
Today we tell about one of the world's greatest scientists, Isaac Newton.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Much of today's science of physics is based on Newton's discovery of the three
laws of motion and his theory of gravity. Newton also developed one of the most powerful tools
of mathematics. It is the method we call calculus.
Late in his life, Newton said of his work: "If I saw further than other men, it was because I stood
on the shoulders of giants. "
STEVE EMBER: One of those giants was the great Italian scientist, Galileo. Galileo died the same
year Newton was born. Another of the giants was the Polish scientist Nicholas Copernicus. He
lived a hundred years before Newton.
Copernicus had begun a scientific revolution. It led to a completely new understanding of how
the universe worked. Galileo continued and expanded the work of Copernicus.

Isaac Newton built on the ideas of these two scientists and others. He found and proved the
answers for which they searched.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England, on December twenty-fifth,
sixteen forty-two.
He was born early. He was a small baby and very weak. No one expected him to survive. But he
surprised everyone. He had one of the most powerful minds in history. And he lived until he was
eighty-four.
Newton's father died before he was born. His mother married again a few years later. She left
Isaac with his grandmother.
The boy was not a good student. Yet he liked to make things, such as kites and clocks and simple
machines.
STEVE EMBER: Newton also enjoyed finding new ways to answer questions or solve problems. As
a boy, for example, he decided to find a way to measure the speed of the wind.
On a windy day, he measured how far he could jump with the wind at his back. Then he measured
how far he could jump with the wind in his face. From the difference between the two jumps, he
made his own measure of the strength of the wind.
Strangely, Newton became a much better student after a boy kicked him in the stomach.
The boy was one of the best students in the school. Newton decided to get even by getting higher
marks than the boy who kicked him. In a short time, Newton became the top student at the
school.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Newton left school to help on the family farm.
It soon became clear, however, that the boy was not a good farmer. He spent his time solving
mathematical problems, instead of taking care of the crops. He spent hours visiting a bookstore
in town, instead of selling his vegetables in the market.
An uncle decided that Newton would do better as a student than as a farmer. So he helped the
young man enter Cambridge University to study mathematics.
Newton completed his university studies five years later, in sixteen sixty-five. He was twenty-two
years old.

STEVE EMBER: At that time, a deadly plague was spreading across England. To escape the disease,
Newton returned to the family farm. He did more thinking than farming. In doing so, he found
the answers to some of the greatest mysteries of science.
Newton used his great skill in mathematics to form a better understanding of the world and the
universe. He used methods he had learned as a boy in making things. He experimented. Then he
studied the results and used what he had learned to design new experiments.
Newton's work led him to create a new method in mathematics for measuring areas curved in
shape. He also used it to find how much material was contained in solid objects. The method he
created became known as integral calculus.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One day, sitting in the garden, Newton watched an apple fall from a tree. He
began to wonder if the same force that pulled the apple down also kept the moon circling the
Earth. Newton believed it was. And he believed it could be measured.
He called the force "gravity." He began to examine it carefully.
He decided that the strength of the force keeping a planet in orbit around the sun depended on
two things. One was the amount of mass in the planet and the sun. The other was how far apart
they were.
STEVE EMBER: Newton was able to find the exact relationship between distance and gravity. He
multiplied the mass of one space object by the mass of the other. Then he divided that number
by the square of their distance apart. The result was the strength of the gravity force that tied
them to each other.
Newton proved his idea by measuring how much gravity force would be needed to keep the moon
orbiting the Earth. Then he measured the mass of the Earth and the moon, and the distance
between them. He found that his measurement of the gravity force produced was not the same
as the force needed. But the numbers were close.
Newton did not tell anyone about his discovery. He put it aside to work on other ideas.
Later, with correct measurements of the size of the Earth, he found that the numbers were exactly
the same.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Newton spent time studying light and colors. He used a three-sided piece of
glass called a prism.

He sent a beam of sunlight through the prism. It fell on a white surface. The prism separated the
beam of sunlight into the colors of a rainbow. Newton believed that all these colors -- mixed
together in light -- produced the color white. He proved this by letting the beam of rainbow-
colored light pass through another prism. This changed the colored light back to white light.
STEVE EMBER: Newton's study of light led him to learn why faraway objects seen through a
telescope do not seem sharp and clear. The curved glass lenses at each end of the telescope acted
like prisms. They produced a circle of colored light around an object. This created an unclear
picture.
A few years later, Newton built a different kind of telescope. It used a curved mirror to make
faraway objects seem larger.
Light reflected from the surface of the mirror, instead of passing through a curved glass lens.
Newton's reflecting telescope produced much clearer pictures than the old kind of telescope.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Years later, the British astronomer Edmund Halley visited Newton. He said he
wanted Newton's help in finding an answer to a problem no one had been able to solve. The
question was this: What is the path of a planet going around the sun?
Newton immediately gave Halley the answer: an egg-shaped path called an ellipse.
Halley was surprised. He asked for Newton's proof. Newton no longer had the papers from his
earlier work. He was able to recreate them, however. He showed them to Halley. He also showed
Halley all his other scientific work.
STEVE EMBER: Halley said Newton's scientific discoveries were the greatest ever made. He urged
Newton to share them with the world.
Newton began to write a book that explained what he had done. It was published in sixteen
eighty-seven. Newton called his book “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” The
book is considered the greatest scientific work ever written.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In his book, Newton explains the three natural laws of motion. The first law is
that an object not moving remains still. And one that is moving continues to move at an
unchanging speed, so long as no outside force influences it.
Objects in space continue to move, because nothing exists in space to stop them.
Newton's second law of motion describes force. It says force equals the mass of an object,
multiplied by the change in speed it produces in an object.

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