Letture Bevilacqua

Question 1

What’s NASA?

Answer 1

Since its founding in 1958 has been advancing scientific knowledge and our understanding of Earth and Space.

Question 2

What’s SOFIA?

Answer 2

SOFIA is an unusual telescope which was built on a boing 747 instead of being built on the ground.

Question 3

How does SOFIA works?

Answer 3

In order to overcome light pollution and clouds, SOFIA flies above the lower atmosphere.

Question 4

What did SOFIA discover?

Answer 4

It discovered water on the Moon in form of ice.

Question 5

How did the world react to this discovery?

Answer 5

Thanks to the discovery of water on the moon, both Nasa and private organizations such as Space X plan on establishing colonies on it. Shipping goods to the moon is very expensive so it’d be cheaper to drink moon water.

Question 6

How does space exploration help mankind?

Answer 6

Data shows that investing in science improves people’s prosperity and health. Also by exploring the Cosmos we can discover how life began on Earth.

Question 7

Pale Blue Dot?

Answer 7

1990 Vogue Space probe took a picture of the Earth while floating in the vastness of Cosmos, Earth was a tiny blue dot.

Question 8

What was the reaction to Pale Blue Dot?

Answer 8

It made people realize how small we are compared to the vastness of space therefore we must cherish and protect our only home.

Question 9

Who is Boyan Slat?

Answer 9

Boyan Slat is a Dutch boy who, while swimming in the Greek sea during a vacation noticed that there was more plastic than fish. Scientists say that 2050 there’ll be more plastic than fish in the sea.

Question 10

How do plastic move throughout the world?

Answer 10

It floats down the rivers or it’s carried by the winds but most of the plastic found in the ocean is carried by currents and stop where currents meet forming great garbage patches. The biggest one is three times bigger than France.

Question 11

How did he decide to clean the Ocean?

Answer 11

He imagined a boat with two long arms able to catch all the floating plastic by taking advantage of ocean currents.

Question 12

What’s the Ocean Clean Up?

Answer 12

Boyan started a company called Ocean Clean up which raised 2 Million dollars. They carried up many tests and studied how to collect the most of plastic.

Question 13

What’s system 001?

Answer 13

System 001 is a U shaped barrier which will sale through the big plastic patch. The barrier is 3 metres deep allowing to catch all the floating plastic without trapping fish. It’s autonomous and the plastic will be recycled so that the project can pay for itself.

Question 14

What does cloning mean?

Answer 14

It’s an umbrella term used by scientists to indicate various processes for the duplication of biological matter.
The copied material, which has the same DNA as the original, is referred to as clone.

Question 15

What do people think of when they hear about cloning?

Answer 15

People usually think about horror monsters or armies of superhuman soldiers

Question 16

Who’s the most famous clone?

Answer 16

Scottish sheep named Dolly

Question 17

What are the downsides of cloning?

Answer 17

Many cloned animals have died during birth, many have died after birth because of severe illnesses or would die during pregnancy.

Question 18

What happened to Dolly?

Answer 18

She was the only cloned mammal to make it out alive, thought she died very young because of a degenerative disease

Question 19

What are the advantages of cloning?

Answer 19

Cloning can help preserve endangered species but it doesn’t help with the lack of genetic diversity and loss of habitat. It’s also very expensive compared to conventional techniques.

Question 20

What’s therapeutic cloning?

Answer 20

Therapeutic cloning is a procedure used to harvest steam cells that can be used to study disease development and to treat diseases. Scientists hope one day to be able to replaced degenerative or damaged issues or organs

Question 21

Why are steam cells important?

Answer 21

Steam cells are important because they can be used to generate any kind of specialized cell in the human body.

Question 22

what’s the goal of therapeutic cloning?

Answer 22

Produce an healthy copy of a person’s tissue or organ for transplant. By doing so there would be no waiting list and the supply would be unlimited. There would be no danger of rejection and patients wouldn’t have to take immunosuppresants because they have the same DNA as the sick person

Question 23

What’s reproductive cloning?

Answer 23

Reproductive cloning creates copies of whole animals , it generates an animal which has the same DNA as an existing animal.

Question 24

What are the downsides of reproductive cloning?

Answer 24

It has the potential of generating severe genetic defects therefore this procedure is illegal in many countries because it could create the twin of an existing person.

Question 25

When did interest in crime and horror stories began?

Answer 25

It began at the end of the 19th century, news of crime and murder were really popular among victorian readers. It was at this time that the figure of the detective was born as well as the creation of the first police forces.

Question 26

Was racism an issue at the end of the 20th century?

Answer 26

Many immigrants at the end of the 20th century moved to England, xenophobia was a common issue back then. Irrational fear towards foreigners was shown in novels such as Dracula where Transylvania is invaded by creatures of the night

Question 27

Which genre was born at the end of the 20th century?

Answer 27

Thanks to scientific discoveries and technology a new genre was born: science fiction.

Question 28

Why was London considered the perfect crime scene?

Answer 28

Victorian London was considered the perfect crime scene thanks to its social situation, especially in the East End of London violence and alcoholism were pretty common as well as crime, prostitution and poverty.

Question 29

Who is Jack The Ripper?

Answer 29

In 1888 several women, mostly prostitutes, were killed in Whitechapel, their throats were cut and their internal organs were removed. Because of the way the poor women were mutilated, experts assumed Jack had some surgical knowledge.

Question 30

What did the Illustrated Police News report?

Answer 30

It reported the various phases of the investigations from law court to pictures of the murdered women.