Week 32 Summary Essay
In week thirty-two, the inventions I learned about were the polio vaccine, the intermodal container, the integrated circuit, and the laser. The inventors’ names were Jonas Salk, Malcom Mclean, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, and finally, Charles Townes. I will tell you which one of these was my favorite after I tell you a bit about these inventions.
The first thing I learned about this week was the polio vaccine. Jonas Salk invented it in 1955. The polio vaccine is simply a vaccine that is used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio). A vaccine is a little bit of a type of virus that is injected into a person or animal. When the virus is injected, the body can fight the virus before it can do any damage. So, the next time the virus enters the body, the body knows how to fight it and destroy it before it spreads. Before the polio vaccine, the virus was very dangerous to get. It was hard for families who had a family member with poliomyelitis, because it spread very quickly and easily. It was so hard to go through that when the polio vaccine came out, most people cried! Because of this invention, it is rare that people would get polio today.
The next lesson was about the intermodal container. It was invented by Malcom Mclean, who owned a truck company. He invented the intermodal container to ship his truck cargo across water. The intermodal container is a large container that is used for transportation on roads and across seas. Before this invention, it was difficult to transport large loads across distances, especially long distances. The cost of shipping fell, and we use intermodal containers to ship almost everything today.
The next lesson was about integrated circuits. It was invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. Jack Kilby invented and filed a patent for his invention in Texas, while in California, another man named Robert Noyce patented a similar, but more improved invention, but it was practically the same. Today, Kilby is known as the inventor of the integrated circuit, but Noyce improved it. An integrated circuit (also known as an IC, microchip, silicon chip, computer chip, or just a chip) is a piece of specially prepared silicon into which an electronic circuit is etched using photographic techniques. In other words, they are small, flat chips that are packed with transistors and are used in computers. They were first used in NASA’s Apollo computers, but they made their way into other, more popular computers, and now we use them every day today.
The final thing I learned about this week was the laser. Charles Townes, who was born in South Carolina in 1915, invented the laser and patented it in 1958. A laser is a beam of light that does not increase or decrease like other beams of light do. It uses special gases or crystals to make the light only a single color. Then mirrors are used to amplify (make stronger) that color of light and to make all the light travel in one direction, so it all stays in a narrow beam, which is sometimes called a collimated beam. Not long after the laser was invented, other companies started to make their own lasers. Lasers have measured the distance to the moon, and they are used all the time at grocery stores and in laser printers today as well as in many other areas.
My favorite invention I learned about this week was the laser. I like it because you can do so many cool experiments with it. There are also so many things that are made with lasers. For example, grocery scanners. Other examples would be laser printers, health care equipment, some toys, etc. This invention is used in so many industries that if I went on, I would have a really long list of inventions and industries. I wonder what inventions I am going to learn about next week.