Translation peculiarities of scientific style. (45 min). В качестве примера научного текста приведем отрывок из знаменитой книги родоначальника кибернетики Норберта Винера (1894—1964) «Кибернетика

В качестве примера научного текста приведем отрывок из знаменитой книги родоначальника кибернетики Норберта Винера (1894—1964) «Кибернетика, или Управление и связь в жи­вотном и машине». Отрывок взят из раздела, в котором автор, показав, как в разные исторические эпохи развивалась мечта человечества об автоматическом механизме, подводит читателя к выводу о том, что в наше время исследование автоматов — из металла или из плоти — представляет собой отрасль техники связи и фундаментальными понятиями являются понятия сообщения, количества помех, или «шума», количества информа­ции, методов кодирования и т.д. Н. Винер доказывает, что автоматы и физиологические системы можно охватить одной теорией и что создавать автоматические механизмы надо по прин­ципам физиологических механизмов, т.е. исследуя принципы передачи информации и управления в живых организмах. Отрывок, следовательно, представляет для данной книги особый интерес. Вот этот текст:

Today we are coming to realize that the body is very far from a conservative system, and that its component parts work in an environment where the available power is much more limited than we have taken it to be. The electronic tube has shown us that a system with an outside source of energy, almost all of which is wasted, may be a very effective agency for performing desired operations, especially if it is worked at a low energy level. We are beginning to see that such important elements as the neurons, the atoms of the nervous complex of our body, do their work under much the same conditions as vacuum tubes, with their relatively small power supplied from outside by the circulation, and that the book-keeping which is most essential to describe their function is not one of energy. In short, the newer study of automata, whether in the metal or in the flesh, is a branch of communication engineering, and its cardinal notions are those of message, amount of disturbance or «noise» — a term taken over from the telephone engineer — quantity of information, coding technique, and so on.

In such a theory we deal with automata effectively coupled to the external world, not merely by their energy flow, their metabolism, but also by a flow of impressions, of incoming messages, and of the actions of the outgoing messages. The organs by which impressions are received are the equivalents of the human and animal sense organs. They comprise photoelectric cells and other receptors for light; radar systems receiving their own short Hertzian waves; Hydrogen-ion-potential recorders, which may be said to taste; thermometers; pressure gauges of various sorts; microphones and so on. The effectors may be electrical motors or solenoids or heating coils or other instruments of very diverse sorts. Between the receptor or sense organ and the effector stands an intermediate set of elements whose function is to recombine the incoming impressions into such form as to produce a desired type of response in the effectors. The information fed into this central control system will very often contain information concerning the functioning of the effectors themselves. These correspond among other things to the kinesthetic organs and other proprioceptors of the human system, for we too have organs which record the position of a joint or the rate of contraction of a muscle, etc. Moreover, the information received by the automaton need not be used at once but may be delayed or stored so as to become available at some future time. This is the analogue of

memory. Finally, as long as the automaton is running, its very rules of operation are susceptible to some change on the basis of the data which have passed through its receptors in the past, and this is not unlike the process of learning.

The machines of which we are now speaking are not the dream of a sensationalist nor the hope of some future time. They already exist as thermostats, automatic gyrocompass ship-steering systems, self-propelled missiles — especially those that seek their target — anti-aircraft fire-control systems, automatically-controlled oil-cracking stills, ultra rapid computing machines, and the like. They had begun to be used long before the war — indeed the very old steam-engine governor belongs among them — but the great mechanisation of the Second World War brought them into their own, and the need of handling the extremely dangerous energy of the atom will probably bring them to a still higher point of development. Scarcely a month passes but a new book appears on these so-called control mechanisms, or servo-mechanisms, and the present age is as truly the age of servo-mechanisms as the nineteenth century was the age of steam engine or the eighteenth century the age of the clock.

To sum up: the many automata of the present age are coupled to the outside world both for the reception of impressions and for the performance of actions. They contain sense organs, effectors and the equivalent of a nervous system to integrate the transfer of information from the one to the other. They lend themselves very well to the description in physiological terms.It is scarcely amiracle that they can be subsumed under one theory with the mechanisms of physiology.

4. Self-improvement work. (15 min) Translate paragraphs 1 and 2.

5.Homework. Translate paragraphs 3 and 4.

Basic literature:

1. Английский язык: учебник EnglishinDentistry: учебник для студентов стоматологических факультетов медицинских вузов / под ред. Л.Ю. Берзеговой.- М.: «ГЭОТАР-МЕДИА», 2008. – 272 с.

2. Английский язык: учебник/ И.Ю. Марковина, З.К. Максимова, М.Б. Вайнштейн; под общ. Ред. И.Ю. Марковиной. – 4-е изд., испр. и перераб. – МГЭОТАР-Медиа, 2010. – 368с.: ил.

Optional literature: Maslova A.M. Essential Medical English for Medical Students. Moscow, 2003.