UNIT 7

Reading
3-D is revolutionizing the way we make things in many aspects of our lives
such as food, medicine in the future with less expensive and simpler manufacturing
methods. Because 3-D printing enables easy adjustment, customized goods can be
made more quickly and cheaply than traditional manufacturing processes. Moreover,
3-D wastes much less money and material. Thanks to 3-D printers, which can
currently make skin cells, bones and even artificial body parts, the health and medicine
area may have significant improvements.
 
Ted-Talk
Sierra Leona is well-known for its decade-long rebel war in 1900, during which
entire villages were completely destroyed. Throughout this time, an estimated 8000
men, women and children suffered from amputation. Having witnessed people who
came over the devastation, David Senged figured out their prosthetic sockets were not
fit and brought pain to their parts. As a Ph.D student at the MIT Media Lab, he quickly
and cheaply designed custom prosthetic sockets that are more comfortable than
conventional prostheses. By using a 3-D printer, his team created a multi-material
prosthetic socket that relieves pressure on the patent’s anatomy where it is needed.
Senged’s hope and desire is that the tools and processes that their research group
develops can be used to provide highly functional prostheses to those in need.
 
UNIT 8
Reading
In the United States, being a kidult has become a contemporary fad that the
media has begun to romanticize. Rather than rushing into adulthood, 20-somethings
are being allowed more freedom to live like teens, at home with their parents, working
part-time, and socializing with their peers. Psychologist Meg Jay believes that this
tendency must come to a halt, since a generation of young adults is losing out on their
most formative years. She cites research to show that the decisions we make in our
twenties have long-term consequences, which is why 20-somethings need to move out
of dead-end employment and toxic relationships and start making decisions that will
set them up for success in the future. The majority of our life-defining occurrences will
have occurred before the age of 35, indicating that the twenties cannot be wasted or
spent coasting, but must be claimed and exploited as a decade for personal growth.

Ted-Talk
Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with patients in
their 20s. Psychologist Meg Jay discusses an "aha" experience she had when dealing
with a patient as a young counselor, which convinced her that the twenties are a much
more essential decade in our life than many young people now believe. Rather than
squandering that decade on aimless exploration and unproductive relationships, she
believes it should be spent on more focused personal growth and development that will
put us on the proper track to the life-defining events that lie ahead. Our 20s have a far
greater impact on our lives than many people realize, which is why that decade, not the
30s, should be utilized to figure out how to set yourself on the general road you want
to go as you enter the remainder of your life. To summarize, our 20s are the defining
decade of adulthood.

UNIT 9
Reading
Drones are slowly becoming part of our everyday lives, but many have
concerns about this technology. Once used only by the military for missions which
would be too dangerous for humans, drones can now be used to help in humanitarian
disasters as well as for gathering data for weather forecasts, mapping, conservation,
and to assist the work of farmers and law enforcement agencies. While drones have
many useful applications, there is concern that drones may be used to spy on civilians,
and that potential accidents make them too dangerous to use in everyday life.

Ted-Talk
Vijay Kumar, a roboticist, was the assistant director of robotics in the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the president. He
begins his presentation by demonstrating some of the technology's practical uses,
including how we conduct rescue operations during natural disasters, how we
construct things, and how we carry things. Kumar then goes further into how drones
are designed to move, including how they may be trained to fly in formation and hence
cooperate, similar to how ants do. He then demonstrates how drone technology has
progressed to the point where a drone can intuitively modify its navigation course
depending on the mapping it makes as it moves across space in real time. To sum up,
humans in risky and physically demanding circumstances might benefit greatly from
lightweight drones that operate independently.

UNIT 10
Reading
We are losing our ability to listen. We may believe that as we become older and
our brains mature, we become better listeners; however, research demonstrates that
this is not the case. We have a tendency to think about a lot of things at once, which
makes us terrible listeners. Because younger children are less readily distracted than
teens and adults, they remember more knowledge. Furthermore, contemporary
technology has decreased our attention spans by adding to the number of distractions
and interruptions we face.

Ted-Talk
Julian Treasure, a communications specialist, opens his presentation by
discussing three strategies we employ to filter out all of the sounds around us. He also
states unequivocally that our ability to listen as a species is in jeopardy. Part of the
reason for this is that contemporary technology interrupts us constantly, shortening our
attention span and making us impatient listeners. Furthermore, today's environment is
just louder than in previous generations, and we must filter out more stimuli in order to
listen deliberately. Treasure worries that we are on a perilous road; he claims that our
loss of listening abilities is forcing us to become less empathic individuals, which is
not good for the planet. He concludes off with a set of activities to help you become a
better listener. Learning to appreciate quiet and noises in a new manner, as well as
precise methods on how to be an attentive listener, are among the exercises. Julian
Treasure's concept is that in a fast-paced society when everyone is vying for attention,
"conscious listening" may be the only way to genuinely comprehend one another and
establish lasting connections.

UNIT 11
Reading
South Korea's woodlands have been designated as mental health healing zones.
The government is helping to subsidize the construction of "forest healing" facilities,
and there is even a university degree in the field. Nature is becoming medicalized in
this way because we spend far too little time in it, necessitating programs to teach us
about the benefits of being outside. Nature has been proved to alleviate stress, lower
blood pressure, and possibly help with heart disease and diabetes. It also makes us
happier by boosting our energy levels and allowing us to be more creative. Walking in
nature for less than an hour a day has been shown to increase our brain function and
happiness.

Ted-Talk
Gavin Pretor-Pinney is a science writer. His writing combines science with an
appreciation of the natural wonders around us. Pinney is captivated with clouds, and
he explains why they are often neglected natural phenomena. He advises us to take
advantage of them as a chance to calm down. Clouds are not only disregarded, but
they've also been associated with so many negative connotations in our language and
society that we see them as unwanted. Pretor Pinney provides images to explain the
many types of clouds while also discussing how cloudspotting might drive us to
embrace a pointless quest. Gavin Pretor-Pinney's idea worth spreading is that we may
all benefit by gazing up and appreciating the beauty of the clouds above us.

UNIT 12
Reading
Is there a distinction between whistleblowers who work for businesses and
those who work for the government? Perhaps, according to the author. Individuals who
stood up for what was right when they noticed corrupt and harmful activities occurring
at their workplaces are the first to be mentioned. When government personnel blow the
whistle, however, national security can be jeopardized, putting many individuals in
danger. The author concludes that whistleblowing is a complicated matter, and that
although some cases are obviously justifiable, others might be argued to create more
harm than benefit.

Ted-Talk
Margaret Hefternan is an entrepreneur, author, and former CEO of a number of
businesses. She researches how companies think, particularly how an all-too-common
conflict avoidance culture may lead companies and managers astray. Margaret
Heffernan begins with the story of Alice Stewart, a British doctor who found that X-
rays were causing cancer in children. Despite the fact that her discoveries were
rejected by the medical community for 25 years, she was confident in the accuracy of
her findings since she had a helpful colleague who worked tirelessly to disprove her.
Heffernan explains why such teamwork is so beneficial. Our work grows stronger in
the end when we are able to question one other and openly disagree. People who
identify a problem at work and speak up about it are frequently shunned and
stigmatized as troublemakers. We need to be more encouraging of those who bring up
instances of injustice, according to Heffernan, since they are the ones who help
companies improve. Margaret Hefternan's idea worth spreading is that if we want to
get the best outcomes at work, we must not be afraid to confront our coworkers and to
disagree with common knowledge.