Item 6 ----- A Summary of "Provide Energy From Fusion"

It is amazing to see that the lithium contained in the battery of a laptop could supply a household electricity for 15 years if it is used as fusion reaction material.

Fusion is the energy source for the sun. However, compared to the sun, producing power from fusion here on Earth is much more challenging. According to energy conversion theory, a tiny amount of mass is lost, transformed into energy as quantified by Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2. This tiny mass can supply a huge amount of energy. Lithium is more abundant than lead or tin in the Earth’s crust, and even more lithium is available from seawater. The problem now is how to control a fusion reaction. Humans can already control a small scale. Scientists are trying to enlarge the scale. It is said a major demonstration of fusion’s potential will soon be built in southern France. Called ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), the test facility is a joint research project of the United States, the European Union, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea, and India. ITER will be the first fusion experiment to produce a long pulse of energy release on a large scale. Another challenge is to find proper materials to provide a long-run reaction environment for fusion reaction. A extremely high temperature is needed just before the fusion reaction is activated. In addition to these problems, people also worry about the safety of fusion reaction. As described in the article, if strong plants can be built and the processes are operated safely it will surely be safe.

Generally speaking, this article suggests that providing energy by fusion is a potential method to solve energy problem human beings are facing today.

Item 5

Recently, a series of researches have shown that humans' mind can be read using computational modeling technology. This technology uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect and locate brain activity when a person thinks about a specific word. The computational model enables a computer to correctly determine what word a research subject is thinking about by analyzing brain scan data. Some scientists have made predictions that this kind of technology may have applications in the study of autism, disorders of thought such as paranoid schizophrenia, and semantic dementias such as Pick's disease.

However, at the same time, many people think mapping the brain is unethical. As we all know, there are always two sides to everything. We should make full use of the advantages of it and avoid using disadvantages. Let's take a look at the possible reasons why people think mapping the brain is unmoral. Firstly, some people may think it would cause unexpected results if such technologies are used illegally. Who can tell whether it is legal or not to take the brain images of Nancy? Of course, it is illegal if she was forced to do that. Nevertheless, if the governments carry out specific principles to rule these actions it will be better. Secondly, it considered as unethical behavior to test on real person applying new uncertain technologies. Science is a process of trial and error. In order to develop new technologies to cure diseases to save more lives human beings must pay something for them. If there are people who volunteer to be tested on scientists could do that. Even though some experiments might be dangerous, those who are tested are honorable. All in all, we should make good use of advantages of these technologies. We believe that what the new technologies bring to us are benefits rather than disasters.

Item 4

I feel it difficult in several aspects when writing in engineering classes. Firstly, the most difficult is the first step after having decided the topic, which is to determine the main direction of the whole essay. What is the content that is going to be included in the article? At first, I did know how to decide so that I kept thinking until an idea came to my mind accidentally. Obviously, this is not a smart way. It always wastes a lot of time. A nice way to solve this difficulty is brain storming which is writing down any idea that comes to my mind. This helps me continue to think and then gives me a chance to choose the best idea from the notes. In addition to this difficulty, I find it hard to choose exact vocabularies to express my opinions. I charged this upon my lack of vocabulary. Actually, that is not the exclusive reason. Reading widely can help to improve the ability of learning and using vocabularies. I also learned some vocabularies from the book Focusing on Vocabulary. However, knowing the meaning of these vocabularies does not mean knowing how to use these vocabularies. To learn to use them I should firstly remember their basic meanings so that when I meet them later in certain articles I recognize how to use it in certain situations. Lastly, I have difficulty in writing the conclusion of an essay. Generally, I copied down some sentences in the first paragraph and then paste them to the last paragraph. This is because I did not know how to rephrase sentences. If I could paraphrase these topic sentences in the last segment it would look better.