Итоги конкурса, или Пакуй вещи в Великобританию, победитель!

Создание пенициллина и Web, исследования о мини-юбках, мемах и даже о пеленании детей, как причине русского менталитета… Мы столько нового узнали о британских ученых, вы даже не представляете! Но обо всем по порядку. 🙂

Как проходил отбор: уникальность, качество, грамотность

Всего на конкурс было представлено более 600 работ (кстати, огромное количество из них поступило в последние минуты действия конкурса). Нам предстояло проверить их на оригинальность, грамотность, соответствие теме и уникальность, чтобы работа не состояла из кусков англоязычных научных статей и википедий (а такие эссе были). В результате первого отборочного тура мы выбрали 100 лучших работ.

После было отобрано 12 работ, которые мы направили нашим партнерам Centre of English Studies для определения победителя.

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Поздравляем и завидуем!

Итак, 1 место и приз – поездка на 2 недели в Великобританию на обучение в один из 6 языковых центров CES с оплаченным перелетом и проживанием – Анастасия Сидорович. Работу Анастасии как лучшую определил лично директор сети школ CES.

Love comes with years passing by.

Great Britain has always been famous for scientific discoveries in different spheres of life. The names of such great British scientists as Thomas Willis, Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, and Alexander Fleming will eternally remain in the historic records for their unrivalled contribution to the world science. However, many British researchers also deal with quite practical and universally relevant experiments. These include the issue of love at first sight, which seems particularly exciting being both a thing any of us can face and a power that can overthrow the history of entire nations.

Have you ever lost your head over love to another person? It’s been many times that famous and influential people from different parts of our world were willing to sacrifice their position in society, wealth and reputation for the sake of the person with whom they met one day and wanted to stay forever. The only King of England, Edward III, voluntarily abdicated the throne for a married American woman Wallis Simpson; well-educated Romy Schneider left everything behind and went to Paris following cynical and cruel Alain Delon – these are just a few of many passionate and touching, heartbreaking and joyful, but great love stories confirming the mysterious power of love at first sight. However, does such love actually exist or is it an ordinary chemical reaction? Let’s review some interesting facts stated by the British scientists.

The image of a future partner is formed in early childhood but is instinctively pursued throughout our lives. If this complex ball of sensual impressions coincides with the feelings of another person, we feel vibrant emotions messaging that love has come. There appears an instant feeling that people know each other for a long time. Moreover, a person convinces himself of the correctness of choice to the soulmate. Person’s mind always adjusts memories to the current emotional state, and being overwhelmed with strong feelings anyone tends to believe that such emotions existed from the first moments even if that was not the case.

So, the British scientists definitely concluded that love at first sight has nothing in common with real feelings. This revelation urges us to be careful entering into new relations and avoid making illusions before truly getting to know the other person. Following this little advice could save thousands of men and women from making harsh decisions and ruining their lives.

2 место – Анна Смирнова.

Born in East Ayrshire, Lochfield, Scotland,
A farmer’s third and youngest child,
He was, perhaps, doomed to grow into
An outstanding mastermind.
Who could have thought that some years later
Newspapers’ captions will be saying,
“Sir Fleming A., a British scientist
Comes up with mankind’s true escape”?
***
Though, first things first – it all got started
In 1914 – dreadful times!
The War broke out, and Fleming laboured
In one of hospitals in France.
He witnessed deaths of many soldiers
And hence was eager to invent
A chemical that would heal people
And block the pain they underwent.
There was a reason – he’d discovered
That antesiptic agents used
Just worsened patients’ condition
Or led to death if were abused.
Back home he still kept up the efforts
To find a cure, but failed so rough;
Discovered lysozyme, a medicine,
Alas – not powerful enough.
It had no effect on the microbes
That posed a threat to human cells;
But Fleming worked – and, very fairly,
Eventually reached success.
On Monday, after his vacation,
Back at his place of work he found
A Petri dish he’d left discarded
With some bacteria in one.
He gave the mould a careful study.
“That’s funny!” – uttered he a phrase;
He found that it produced the substance
That killed, in fact, all pathogens.
He would then muse, make up a title
And under it is still well known
The first antibiotic treatment;
It’s penicillin that was born.
It would save millions of people
And all the lives that otherwise
Would have been lost due to infections
Without any compromise.
***
It might, of course, be called good fortune
However, though, with that in mind
One can’t deny the contributions
And, surely, all the work behind.
It marked a turning point when doctors
Would get a tool that could at last
Cure all their patients of diseases
They had considered deadly once.
For over more than seven decades
It has been commonly applied;
I do believe that such a breakthrough
Deserves to be the UK’s pride.
Not merely a scientific country –
A homeland of amazing brains:
Crick, Winston, Hardy, Fleming, Turing…
The greatest lives. The greatest names.

3 место – Александр Остудин.

Science. What is hidden under the academic definition of this word? Is it just “a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge”? I do not think so. It is a way of struggle against eternality, a beam of light in the infinite darkness of unconsciousness. Science was given us as one of the most important parts of divine benefaction for humanity, a possibility for the bravest to discover something lying beyond our perception. And while British seafarers and pathfinders were conquering mysterious lands far away from their homes, British scientists along with them extended the frontiers of people’s comprehension for the prosperity of their Empire and the whole civilization. Theoretical investigations, as well as revolutionary inventions, created in the British scholarly tradition, have influenced all spheres of life. Steam engine, first antibiotic, Turing machine – each of them started a new era in the evolution of our society. Global researches and general laws, serving as lighthouses in the endless sea of knowledge, were also formed by the British scientists: Newton’s law of universal gravitation, Darwin’s “Origin of Species”, Maxwell and Faraday works on electrodynamics, Rutherford foundation of nuclear theory. 

I would like to tell you more about Ernest Rutherford. His works about magnetic fields and the structure of atom permitted to predict properties of materials and discover alfa- and beta-rays in 1898. A “father of nuclear physics” created a new branch in science, opened a door into a world of atomic energy by his experiments with radioactive transmutations in 1904 and formed a law of exponential decay. It’s impossible to underestimate the significance and progressiveness of his ideas, which have changed the basic principles of the Universe and inspired further researchers. What is impressive for me, his notable students were my compatriots, famous Russian physicists Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa and Yulii Borisovich Khariton. Later implementation of their own conceptions, as well as developing ideas of their teacher, provided world a first nuclear power plant in 1954 and a nuclear shield as a guarantee of peace on the planet. And this is a source of personal inspiration for me. As a young Russian scientist, my desire is to get in touch with British scientific legacy and convenient scholarly society for creating a breakthrough, which will not only improve people’s life, but also show them a future worth living, a future, that seems to be a dream today. 

Анна и Александр получают в качестве приза аккаунт Lingualeo Premium на 3 года! Ребята-победители, сотрудник Lingualeo уже выслал вам промокоды в личном сообщении в социальных сетях (Анне – в Facebook, Александру – во Вконтакте). Так что проверьте “личку”!

До новых встреч и конкурсов!

Спасибо вам всем за чудесные работы! За вдохновение и знания, которые вы нам подарили!
И спасибо британским ученым. 🙂