Articles in English (Road To Band 9)

Supervoids

Being able to make accurate astronomical measurements of galaxies is laborious and costly, but scientists are finding ways to manipulate these measurements to find supervoids, only which might shed light on cold spots. Cold spots are places where light seems to lose a minimal amount of its energy, and some proposed that these cold spots should align with supervoids that have few or no galaxies to provide a gravitational pull. Though it took several years to prove the existence of an alignment of a supervoid and cold spot, the emerging data might indicate the ways in which gravity works and affects the surrounding matter, to say the least in fact. Diving into the subject, the author recounts his actions to carry out his research and finally having the necessary equipment to assign distances to galaxies in comparison to Earth. In this discovery, he was not the only one to strive to prove the theory, as there were other people who equally contributed to the research. However, the author emphasizes that the theory is far from being proven, saying that alignment might just turn out to be a coincidence. The implications of this theory being proven, on the other hand, have the potential to turn the physics world upside down by paving the way for a new way of using general relativity in the context of physics and astronomy.

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Even Genius Needs a Benefactor

The emerging science in the past years has been the financial assistance of private companies and governments that have subsidized most, if not all, breakthroughs. For example, governments have been trying to enhance the general health of their populace. To that end, they are pouring money into the pockets of medical scientists. Likewise, private sector has been financing researchers so that they could find a new of making money from an invention. It should not be overlooked that some inventions have not been as lucrative as they assumed. Even though transistors were developed by one company, another made a huge amount of profit from it. The general public, on the other hand, believes that science should no longer be financed by governments. Instead, companies, in an effort to improve their brand and achieve another monetary success, will invest in it. This particular idea is naive. Not only does it include a simplistic perspective on the recent advances and their origin, but it does not also account for competitive environments. Einstein worked on the general relativity for years, completing it due to his fierce rivalry with another influential fellow scientist.

Advanced Words:

Altruistically - showing a selfless concern for the well-being of others

The End of Passwords

In the era of digital technology, we are required to remember passwords that are too long even to memorize. So far technologists have approached the issue by coming up with new ways that we will discuss. First of all, they created apps that store passwords, whenever you need one, they display your password. However, people without the tech knowledge are in the dark about this type of apps being available. Besides, they cost a monthly payment. Secondly, fingerprint technology is becoming ubiquitous in all kinds of telephones and gadgets, meaning that remembering passwords is not required anymore. What we have to do is just place our fingers on the right spot. Though, it is careful of you to set a backup password just in case. Face recognition is another asset that have been invented. You just need to show your face in its entirety to unlock your device. Some gadgets are not fooled by pictures due to their special features mentioned in the article. Lastly, voice authentication assists people to open their devices with their voices. This, in turn, facilitates the process of accessing. Two hurdles people have to confront are background noise and sore threat.

Advanced Words:

1. Hassle - irritating inconvenience

2. The masses - the ordinary people

3. Insurmountable - impossible to overcome

4. Roadblock - a hindrance or obstruction

5. Ubiquitous - present, appearing or found everywhere

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The Acupuncture Myth

After a journalist went through an operation in China, he wrote about the procedure, commenting on the use of needles to subsidize pain. Following this came the rush of enthusiasm from the USA into the method. In fact, the US has been pouring money into acupuncture research to find out how it actually works. However, to no avail, since not even one research has found a hint of evidence to prove that acupuncture plays an important role. Aside that, let's dive into the history of acupuncture. It was written off as a superstition back in the 1600s. It had been left unused by the end of the 1800s. In the twentieth centuries, the president of China encouraged the practice so that the government could show the population it was taking care of the public health. Since the renewed interested into the practice, research indicates that any type of pain caused by a pinch needles causes the body to release a type of liquid, which mollifies the pain. an increasing amount of financial subsistence is not to find out whether acupuncture works, but to determine the mechanism by which the pain is relieved.

Advanced Words:

1. Woeful - expressive of or causing sorrow or misery

2. Dearth - a scarcity or lack of something

3. Sham - a thing that is what it is purported to be

4. Contention - heated disagreement

5. Dismantle - take a machine or structure to pieces

6. Curb - restrain or keep in check

7. Foot the bill - pay the bill for something, typically when the amount is considered large or unreasonable

8. Recoil - suddenly spring or flinch back in fear, horror or disgust

9. wane - decrease in vigour or extent; become weaker

10. intractable - hard to control or deal with

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Genetic Resurrection - The New Allergy Shot

(Genetic Resurrection)
As of now, CRISPER, a gene-editing technology, has enabled numerous scientists wanting to bring back species to actually make their dream come true. It works on a basic rule: it takes DNA sequences of long-forgotten animals, such as mammoths, and then helps to create a clone of that animal. However, there are many applications of the technology that researchers, conservationists alike, can employ to save some endangered species, one of which is black-footed ferret. This specific animal was on the brink of extinction until officials took care of some in captive settings. Although they were few in number in the wild, several of them were kept in zoos and sanctuaries. Nevertheless, an issue emerged that could precipitate their dying out. Their genetic diversity has been lost, meaning that they are not able to stand up to some forms of viruses. To redress this, scientists used CRISPER to gather genes that are present in artifacts, and they inserted those genes in black-footed ferrets. As a consequence, their chances of survival increased exponentially, thereby preventing extinction.

(The New Allergy Shot)
Allergy is one of the most challenging issues, or say an illness, in our time, hindering many people from living life to the fullest. It is undeniably true that there have many medical treatments to cure or at least lessen the effect of allergies, but they carry a set of detrimental impacts with themselves that render full recovery impossible. Recently, a new approach has presented itself to the medical community, in which the proteins necessary to prevent allergies are concealed in nanoparticles, ensuring that they will accomplish their alleged functions. Before, injected proteins were assailed by the immune system, which did not allow them to go further. Applications of this method is being considered in other areas of pharmacy/drugs development.

Advanced Words:

1. Outlandish - looking or sounding bizarre or unfamiliar

2. As such - in the exact sense of the word

3. Bottleneck - a situation that causes delay in a process or system; congestion

4. Surrogate - a substitute. especially a person deputizing for another in a specific role or office

5. Desensitize - make less sensitive

6. Dampen - make less strong or intense

@bekhruzsblog

The Lesser Evil of E-Cigarettes

There is a general consensus among scientific community that traditional types of cigarettes are harmful and lethal to the one who smokes. In order that people quit smoking, professionals employ a wide variety of methods, such as complete detox. However, because they are difficult to carry out and requires a strong sense of determination, there have not been much success. In recent years, scientists realized that there has been an increasing number of e-cigarettes, which, in fact, surpassed traditional forms of cigarettes in terms of sales. The driving factors behind this trend are variety of applications and certainly its appeal. In view of this, they checked the contents of e-cigarettes, concluding that they are less harmful versions of cigarettes. In other words, they chose e-cigarettes as a benign substitute for a lethal one. it is worth noting that the true estimation of risk associated with e-cigarettes is still vague, and there are enough reasons why this is the case. Firstly, the number of substances and additives that are put into it hinders the analysis process, meaning that they carry different risk factors. Secondly, although they are safe to eat, when it comes to inhaling, they pose a serious threat. From all this, FDA has come up with regulations for sales of e-cigarettes, one of which is to sell it to only people above 18.

Advanced Words:

1. Take up - become interested or engaged in a pursuit

2. Inhale - breathe in

3. Be on par with - equal in importance or quality to

4. Pragmatic - dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations

@bekhruzsblog

Olympic Officials' concerns about "High T"

As a result of biological advances in recent years, it is possible to change humans' hormonal composition in a way that people can be stronger by an artificial means. So what are the implications of this new-found technology, or rather biological advancement, on the broader scope of society? One aspect of social system that is affected by this is competitions between athletes. Olympic officials are concerned about the illegal use of artificially nurtured testosterones, which raises the possibility of cheating. However, there is a hurdle to deal with: some people naturally have high levels of hormones, while others are fine with lower proportions, meaning that it is challenging to set a threshold with which officials can determine the probability of cheating in a given competitions. In contrast, an assigned biosignature of an isotope protein can be a good indicator of whether an athlete has used the chemicals to increase their hormones. Even so, setting a limit is a real option that might work out as a solution.

Advanced Words:

1. Ambiguity - the quality of being open to more than interpretation; inexactness

2. Bar - prevent or prohibit someone from doing something or from going somewhere

3. Synonymous - closely associated with or suggestive of something

4. Explicitly - in a clear and detailed manner, leaving no room for confusion or doubt

@bekhruzsblog

Resistance Is Futile

With the advent of technologies come updates and additional features that are supposed to enhance the functioning of a gadget along with new ways of exploiting it. Even so, people are conservative as to the changes, since they incur incremental payments and unintended effect of inconvenience. Critics have been having a contentious debate over this for over two decades, but the problem has not been resolved in the slightest. For instance, Apples, in 2016, removed the headphone jack, providing specially manufactured headphone with a two-inch adapter. What this meant was that the public was to purchase wireless headphones, triggering one of the most significant transitions in terms of technology from wired approaches to the wireless. In response to criticisms, they exposed the real reason why they removed the headphone jack was that, although it is small on the outside, internal microchip is relatively large, so removing it opened up a space for a stronger version of battery. Experts in this field contend that people are too nearsighted, meaning that they do not recall this kind of transitions that took place about a decade ago. The author himself corroborates this claim by epitomizing his experiences. As a concluding point, though people are against changes, mainly because changes imply unknown things would happen, resistance is futile.

Advanced Words:

1. Floppy - tending to flop or hang loosely

2. Follow suit - conform to another's actions

3. Blistering - extremely fast, forceful or impressive

4. Swat - to hit with a sharp slapping blow

5. Futile - incapable of producing any useful result, pointless

@bekhruzsblog

Misleading Medical Tests

In the past years, lab-produced tests have been usually ignored, since they would not provide any medically important information regarding a disease. But, predominantly due to the advent of technology along with accumulating medical data, lab researchers are trying to find an array of methods to follow an illness before symptoms are revealed. Consequently, there is now a ton of research methods that even FDA has begun to shape a set of standards which qualify those methods to be medically applicable. By giving you a different explanation, it has created a loophole that FDA should take care of so that people's lives are not lost because of misleading lab-produced medical tests. This tests look for abnormalities in human body and link them to a type of illness, say cancer. Although their validity has not been proven, naive patients take them into consideration. Another specifically pressing matter is that, largely due to the diversity of such tests, FDA does not have the resources to verify every last test available, so thus suggests people to be wary of such lab-produced tests.

Advanced Words:

1. Quirk - a peculiar aspect of a person's character or behaviour

2. Smear - coat or mark something messily or carelessly with a greasy or sticky substance

3. Discretion - the freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation

4. Vet - make a careful examination of something

5. Purport - appear to be or do something, especially falsely

@bekhruzsblog