What the researchers studied. Who is the profession of a researcher: a description of the profession, what you need to know about the profession. Russian researchers in Antarctica

In this article we will remember what contributions African researchers made to the development of geography. And their discoveries completely changed the idea of the Dark Continent.

First explorations of Africa

The first known trip around was made back in 600 BC. e. explorers of Ancient Egypt on the orders of Pharaoh Necho. The pioneers of Africa circumnavigated the continent and discovered previously unexplored lands.

And in the Middle Ages, this part of the world began to attract serious interest from Europe, which conducted active trade with the Turks, who resold Chinese and Indian goods at huge prices. This prompted European sailors to try to find their own route to India and China in order to eliminate the mediation of the Turks.

African explorers appeared, and their discoveries significantly influenced world history. The first expedition was organized by the Portuguese Prince Henry. During the first voyages, sailors discovered Cape Boyador, which is located on the west coast of Africa. The researchers decided that this was the southern point of the mainland. Modern scientists believe that the Portuguese were simply afraid of the dark-skinned aborigines. Europeans believed that the sun hung so low over the new land that the locals were burned black.

The Portuguese king Juan II equipped a new expedition, led by Bartolomeo Diaz, and in 1487 the Cape of Good Hope was discovered - the real southern point of the mainland. This discovery helped Europeans pave the way to the eastern countries. In 1497-1499 Vasco Da Gama was the first to reach India and return to Portugal.

The “African Researchers” table below will help you systematize your knowledge.

After this discovery, Europeans poured into Africa. In the 16th century, the slave trade began, and by the 17th, most of the territories of the black continent were captured and colonized. Only Liberia and Ethiopia retained their freedom. In the 19th century, active exploration of Africa began.

David Livingston

The scientist also explored Lake Ngami, described the Bushmen, Bakalahari and Makololo tribes, and also discovered Lake Dilolo, the western drain of which feeds the Congo, and the eastern drain feeds the Zambezi. In 1855, a huge waterfall was discovered, which was named after the British Queen Victoria. Livingston became very ill and disappeared for some time. He was discovered by explorer Henry Morton Stanley, and together they explored Lake Tanganyika.

The researcher devoted most of his life to Africa, was a missionary and humanist, and tried to stop the slave trade. The scientist died during one of the expeditions.

Mungo Park

Mungo Park undertook two expeditions to the Dark Continent. His goal was to explore western Africa, mainly its interior, its origins and Sinegal. Also a desirable goal was to establish the exact location of the city of Timbuktu, which Europeans had only heard about from local residents until that moment.

The expedition was sponsored by Joseph Banks, who participated in James Cook's first voyage. The budget was quite modest - only 200 pounds.

The first expedition was undertaken in 1795. It began at the mouth of the Gambia, where there were already English settlements. From one of them, the researcher and three assistants went up the Gambia. In Pisania he was forced to stop for 2 months because he fell ill with malaria.

He later traveled further up the Gambia and its tributary, the Neriko, along the southern border of the Sahara, where he was captured. A few months later, the scientist managed to escape and reach the Niger River. Here he made a discovery - Niger is not the source of Gambia and Senegal, although before this the Europeans believed that it was divided. The researcher travels around Niger for some time, but falls ill again and returns to the mouth of the Gambia.

The second expedition was better equipped and involved 40 people. The goal was to explore the Niger River. However, the trip was unsuccessful. Due to illness and clashes with local residents, only 11 people were able to reach Bamako alive. Park continued the expedition, but before sailing he sent all his notes with an assistant. African explorers are not always able to return home from dangerous places. Park died near the city of Busa while fleeing from local residents.

Henry Morton Stanley

English explorer of Africa Henry Morton Stanley is a famous traveler and journalist. He went in search of the missing Livingstone, accompanied by a detachment of natives, and found him seriously ill at Ujiji. Stanley brought medicine with him, and Livingston soon began to recover. Together they explored the northern coast of Tanganyika. In 1872 he returned to Zanzibar and wrote the famous book How I Found Livingstone. In 1875, accompanied by a large group, the scientist reached Lake Ukerewe.

In 1876, with a force of 2,000 men, equipped by the king of Uganda, Henry Morton Stanley made a great journey, corrected the map of Lake Tanganyika, discovered Lake Albert-Edouard, reached Nyangwe, explored the Lualabe River and completed the expedition at the mouth of the river. Thus, he crossed the mainland with east to west. The scientist described the journey in the book “Across the Dark Continent.”

Vasily Junker

Russian explorers of Africa made a great contribution to the study of the Black Continent. Vasily Junker is considered one of the largest explorers of the Upper Nile and the northern part of the Congo Basin. He began his journey in Tunisia, where he studied Arabic. The scientist chose equatorial and eastern Africa as the object of the study. Traveled along the rivers Baraka, Sobat, Rol, Jut, Tonji. Visited the countries of Mitta and Kalika.

Junker not only collected a rare collection of flora and fauna. His cartographic research was accurate, he compiled the first map of the upper Nile, the scientist also described the flora and fauna, especially great apes, and discovered an unknown animal - the six-winged bird. The ethnographic data collected by Juncker is also valuable. He compiled dictionaries of black tribes and collected a rich ethnographic collection.

Egor Kovalevsky

African explorers arrived on the continent at the invitation of local authorities. Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky was asked to come to Egypt by the local viceroy. The scientist conducted various geological studies in northeast Africa and discovered alluvial gold deposits. He was one of the first to indicate the position of the source of the White Nile, explored in detail and compiled a map of the large territory of Sudan and Abyssinia, and described the life of the peoples of Africa.

Alexander Eliseev

Alexander Vasilyevich Eliseev spent several years on the continent, from 1881 to 1893. He explored northern and northeastern Africa. He described in detail the population and nature of Tunisia, the Red Sea coast and the lower Nile.

Nikolay Vavilov

Soviet explorers of Africa often visited the Dark Continent, but Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov stands out most among them. In 1926, he made a most important expedition for science. He explored Algeria, the Biskra oasis in the Sahara desert, the mountainous region of Kabylia, Morocco, Tunisia, Somalia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The botanist was primarily interested in the centers of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted a lot of time to Ethiopia, where he collected more than six thousand specimens of cultivated plants and found about 250 species of wheat. In addition, a lot of information was obtained about wild flora.

Nikolai Vavilov traveled all over the world, researching and collecting plants. He wrote the book “Five Continents” about his travels.

As a researcher, who is he, what should he know and what are the features of the profession?

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What you need to know about the profession

Those who want to become a researcher should know that these are specialists engaged in scientific research. As a result of their work, the world will learn about new interesting discoveries, which are subsequently used for both life and industrial purposes.

In this case, the research itself consists of the following processes:

the study of the development of scientific thought or knowledge;
conducting a systematic investigation. The main task of which is to establish certain facts.

Moreover, the conduct within the framework of scientific research consists of:

developing a plan for a specific learning process;
conducting a scientific experiment;
carrying out conceptualization and testing of existing theory;
drawing up reports and reports related to the received scientific information.

In what areas can researchers work?

Since modern science has a lot of directions, research activities will also have their own areas of activity. Thus, specialists can be both theoreticians and practitioners.

In addition, the researchers:

study various documents;
carry out various experiments or observations.

All processes take place in strict compliance with existing rules and assigned tasks. In addition, certain principles that operate in the scientific community are taken into account. In some cases, information presented in the scientific works of previous researchers working in the same direction can be used.

All the results of the scientific work being carried out should be known and how they should be registered correctly. For this purpose, scientific works or articles in special journals, abstracts, and monograms are written. In some cases, it may be possible to obtain a patent for what has been done.

The status of a researcher directly depends on the number of published scientific works in special publications. This also affects the receipt and, even more so, the improvement of one’s academic degree.

Any scientific and research activity involves conducting various types of research.

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They can be divided into:

basic research. It is carried out in order to obtain new knowledge and develop options for its application;
applied research. It is carried out with the aim of finding, interpreting and developing various methods, as well as systems related to the improvement of human knowledge. Most often, this type of research is carried out with the aim of studying the features of the scientific study of both our planet and the Universe as a whole.

What should researchers be like?

To achieve the task, research is more engaged in science.

It is for this reason that he must:

have an excellent understanding of your field of activity;
be as literate as possible;
have a healthy curiosity;
high level of intelligence;
have logical thinking;
be distinguished by perseverance;
have intelligence;
have a good memory.

Now you know the features of the specialty researcher, who it is, what it should know and be able to do.

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Discovered in 1901 in the hold of an ancient shipwreck was later named the world's first computer.

After decades of research into the 2,000-year-old device, scientists have finally shed new light on this mysterious invention. It turns out that this mechanism was most likely used not only to solve astronomical issues.

The Antikythera mechanism is rightfully considered one of the most amazing and important archaeological discoveries in the entire history of this area. It not only gives a clear picture of the technological and engineering levels of the ancient Greeks, but also speaks of the enormous strides they made in astronomy.

This bizarre device, consisting of bronze gears and displays similar to clocks, was used to predict lunar and solar eclipses, calculating the position of the Sun, Moon and other planets.

The device was non-programmable (in the modern sense), but is considered by many archaeologists and other scientists to be the world's first analog computer. The mechanism dates back to about 60 (other sources say 100) BC, and nothing like it will appear for at least the next thousand years.

Since its discovery at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, scientists have been racking their brains and trying to understand its purpose. Unfortunately, no user instructions have survived, but many historical books mention similar devices bit by bit. So scientists had to literally gut (but very gently) the device to understand its meaning.

Recently, at an event held at the Katerina Laskarides Historical Foundation Library in Athens, an international group of researchers announced the results of a multi-year study of a technological relic.

This analysis largely showed and proved what we already know about the Antikythera mechanism, but new, no less surprising details also appeared.

Scientists already have a pretty good understanding of the purpose of most of the physical parts of the machine, so the main goal of the study was to find out more about its intended function. The researchers' eyes were drawn to the tiny inscriptions on the 82 surviving fragments of the mechanism.

Some words were only 1.2 millimeters long. They were applied to the internal parts of the coating and were visible from both the front and back of the device. In order to examine these inscriptions, scientists used the most advanced technologies, including X-ray scanning.

“The goal of earlier research was to understand how the mechanism works. And it should be noted that the scientists coped with this task very successfully,” comments one of the members of the new research team, Mike Edmunds, professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University.

“It should be noted that we did not immediately realize that the modern methods we used in the new study would allow us to make much better sense of the texts printed both on the outside and inside the mechanism.”

In total, the researchers have now read about 3,500 letters of explanatory text printed on the device.

“Now we have the text in ancient Greek. And the picture becomes much clearer,” adds another member of the research team, Alexander Jones, a historian at New York University.

“This is a fantastic amount of information for us because it comes from a period about which we know very little. We know little about ancient Greek astronomy at the time and almost nothing about the technologies that were used. Unless, of course, we take into account this mechanism itself. So these tiny texts are really meaningful to us,” says Jones.

The researchers explain that the machine was a kind of pedagogical device of philosophers. The new analysis confirmed that the mechanism showed the location of the planets, the Sun and the Moon in the sky.

But despite its obvious astronomical purpose, it turns out that the machine was also used to predict the future. Scientists expressed such suspicions soon after they discovered a mark on the mechanism that related to and explained the color of the upcoming eclipse.

“To be honest, we're not exactly sure how to interpret this yet, but it all seems to suggest that the color of the eclipse was some kind of sign or omen,” Edmunds explains.

“Certain colors were probably much preferred over others. And if we understand this correctly, then we have before us one of the very first devices that has something in common not only with astronomy, but also with astrology.”

However, scientists clarify that the main purpose of using the device was still astronomical, not astrological. This is a kind of ancient analogue of a book or a modern tablet.

“The mechanism was not a research tool. Something that astronomers could use to make calculations. Astrologers were also unlikely to use it for forecasting. This device was most likely used to teach people about space and our place in it,” Jones adds.

“It’s like a very ancient book of astronomy that relates the movements of the sky and planets to the lives of the ancient Greeks and their environment.”

According to other findings from the researchers, it appears that the device was most likely assembled on the island of Rhodes and may not have been the only one of its kind. Some explanations in the text hint that there were at least two people who were involved in assembling this mechanism. In addition, several other people were most likely involved in assembling the gears.

“We concluded that the device was more likely the work of an entire small workshop than of one person,” Edmunds concludes.

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Publications

Scientific researchers publish their work in:

journals of scientific publications;
collective works that bring together journal articles or studies around a given topic, coordinated by one or more researchers named by the publishers;
monographs on the research topic.

Researchers

A researcher is a person who contributes to the acquisition of new knowledge.

Financing

Funding plays an important role in scientific research. Scientific research is mainly funded by the state, but private individuals and organizations are also involved in this.

Research institutions

research institute

A scientific research institute is an institution engaged in research in the field of science and technology, the development of research and development, and a type of institute. Typically, institutes have an abbreviation assigned to them.

Scientific ethics

Scientific ethics is a set of moral principles that scientists adhere to in scientific activities, and which ensure the functioning of science.

Robert Merton, in his works on the sociology of science, created four moral principles:

1.Collectivism - research results must be open to the scientific community.
2. Universalism - the assessment of any scientific idea or hypothesis should depend only on its content and compliance with the technical standards of scientific activity, and not on the social characteristics of its author, for example, his status.
3. Disinterestedness - when publishing scientific results, the researcher should not seek to obtain any personal benefit other than the satisfaction of solving the problem.
4. Organized skepticism - researchers must be critical of both their own ideas and the ideas put forward by their colleagues.

There are also two more principles: the intrinsic value of truth and the value of novelty.

A scientist must follow the principles of scientific ethics in order to successfully engage in scientific research. In science, the principle is proclaimed as an ideal that in the face of truth all researchers are equal, that no past merits are taken into account when it comes to scientific evidence.

An equally important principle of scientific ethos is the requirement of scientific honesty when presenting research results. A scientist may make mistakes, but has no right to falsify the results; he can repeat an already made discovery, but has no right to plagiarize. References, as a prerequisite for the preparation of a scientific monograph and article, are intended to record the authorship of certain ideas and scientific texts, and to ensure a clear selection of what is already known in science and new results.

This moral principle is actually violated. Different scientific communities may impose different severity of sanctions for violating the ethical principles of science.

A decrease in the “quality of knowledge” with a violation of the ethics of science leads to junk science, the ideologization of science, and the emergence of scientists in the media.

Glaciology

The science that studies the patterns of existence and development of glacial formations on the earth's surface is called glaciology.

People of great fortitude and great courage went to the glaciers. Their lives, often cut short by the “white death,” became a high example for many generations. These are the lives of Nansen and Amundsen, Sedov and Rusanov, Mawson and Wegener...

Glaciologists

There is no glacial region on Earth where you cannot find glaciologists: they can be seen on snowy plains and in the mountains Antarctica, on the ice sheet Greenland, on mountain glaciers Himalayas, Pamirs, Caucasus, on the slopes of the amazing ice domes of the Arctic archipelagos...

Almost 90 years ago Ivan Vasilievich Mushketov The Don Cossack, who became the youngest professor at the Mining Institute, climbed the Zeravshan glacier. It was, essentially, the first Russian glaciological expedition. Mushketov, who is rightly considered the father of Russian geological school, stood at the cradle of Russian glaciology.

Glaciology developed at the “junction” of a number of sciences; elements are closely intertwined in it geography and geophysics, mineralogy and petrography, tectonics and climatology. A glaciologist must know a lot in order to understand the diversity of connections and interactions between a glacier and its environment. He must be a very broad specialist.

Working and living conditions of expeditions

Nowadays, ice researchers are armed with technical developments that help them work and live in conditions, hostile to life. But these achievements may not always be applicable, for various reasons.. Glaciologists often work in small teams of five, three, or even two people: they carry all scientific equipment along the glacier on sledges, which they harness like barge haulers, live in tents, cook food on a primus stove... For such expeditions the ice world has not become kinder. Its frosts and hurricanes are just as fierce, the polar nights are just as long and dark, the cracks of the glaciers are just as treacherous and deep as 20, 50, 100 years ago...

You need considerable physical and mental endurance. A scientist who finds himself on a glacier has to do the work of a loader, porter, cook, stoker, mechanic, weather observer, surveyor, drilling foreman, janitor, digger, and even a sewer man. You need to be able to provide first aid to people and technical assistance to devices and mechanisms.

But perhaps more important than all this is the ability to live for a long time in a small group, in conditions where, in the words of Richard Byrd, “the discontent born in one person can infect an entire expedition with the same speed with which ripples spread across the water.” stone thrown at her..."

Glaciologists live among nature that does not accept life, fenced off from it only by the thin walls of the tent. One must constantly be on the alert, be prepared for the unexpected, the unforeseen, and always maintain the ability to work. Regularly, several times a day, at strictly defined times, it is necessary to carry out observations using various instruments, monitor the accumulation and melting of ice, changes in its structure, measure the speed of ice movement, study the distribution of ice temperature in depth...

Observations on the glacier

The glaciological team must fulfill a set of necessary observations on the glacier, despite the fact that the weather is not always favorable for this. Glaciers make their own weather. It doesn’t matter to them whether they are in a hot tropical zone or in the eternally cold Arctic - the weather on all Earth is approximately the same. In winter, these are frosts reaching 40-50° (up to 80°), furious blizzards that erase the boundary between the sky and the “firmament of the earth.” In summer there is snow turning into a jelly-like mass, the same as in winter, hopeless snowstorms and even fog...

Fog- the most frequent guest of glaciologists, and in the summer it becomes the true master of glaciers. Often these are simply stratus clouds that have sunk below the glacier and swallowed it up. Sometimes the fog holds the glacier in its tenacious embrace for a whole week and is accompanied by the wind, which deposits heavy and dense, like metal, plates of icy frost on all objects rising above the surface of the snow, on their windward edges. There is something inspiring a superstitious feeling in the senseless persistence with which fog and wind build up sheets of ice on ski poles, on the walls of tents, on antenna wires, on instruments. Peeling off this frost is not only difficult, but also useless. Very soon the frost is restored. Only with a change in the weather, when the fog disappears, do the heavy ice fields collapse with a roar.

Colors of the ice world

When the fog clears, ice explorers feel joyful. A beautiful world of colors opens up before him, from which he was fenced off for several days by a multi-kilometer wall of fog. They are amazing colors of the ice world.

The rays of the sun paint the snow, sky, clouds, and bare rocks protruding from under the ice - nunataks - in the most delicate tones. It is impossible to take your eyes off these fantastic paintings. But such days are rare; they should be used for route work, for performing snow and temperature surveys, for drilling work and for deep excavation of ice and firn.

Summer in the Arctic

In summer work in the Arctic very comfortably. The 24-hour polar day makes it possible to use days without fog one hundred percent. It is much worse in the mountains of southern latitudes - there you always need to return to camp before dark.

Walking on a glacier is not an easy task. In the summer, when it is free of snow, walking through it is like solving a puzzle. The fact is that the stresses created in the body of the glacier during movement break it up into a tangled network cracks. A glaciologist needs to quickly and accurately find a passage between black crack gaps, often 10-20 meters wide. A mistake can be costly. Suddenly, thick fog will flood the glacier, a snowstorm will begin - then getting out of the ice labyrinth will become much more difficult. It's summer...

Cracks are especially dangerous in winter or early spring, when the white snow shroud covering the glacier treacherously hides the danger. Chasms 50-100 meters deep are not visible from the surface; they are hidden under thin snow bridges.

But an ice researcher cannot avoid going out to the glacier at this time - after all, it is necessary to determine the supply of fallen snow before melting begins. And he goes skiing, carrying in his backpack a snow density meter and a portable resistance bridge for determining the temperature in the well with semiconductor thermometers; a set of duralumin rods for drilling is dragged along the sastrugi from behind... Usually the route along such a snowy “plain” ends happily. But still there are cases...

Glacier expeditions

With the first rays of the spring sun, glaciologists gather in expeditions. On ships, helicopters, with pack caravans and on foot, they penetrate far and near glaciers, as if in a fantastic time machine they are descending into the depths of millennia, into the Ice Age of the Earth. Their observations provide material for

development of the physical theory of the glacier,
studies of the interaction of glaciation and climate,
constructing a scientifically based forecast of glacier advance,
human use of glaciers.

Far to the north lies the “mouth”. But ice explorers have also reached there, and there you can meet people living on the ice in order to reveal the secrets of the nature of the ice world. However, many years passed before glaciologists were able to create their own scientific laboratory on these islands closest to the pole. These were the years when completely different people, with completely different goals, approached the borders of the icy world. Dozens, even hundreds of people visited these islands before interest was awakened in the dead icy cliffs and snowy plains that define these countries.

Seekers of profit, fame, and adventure succeeded each other before scientists came here, seekers of only truth. But those who came before them paved the way for them. It was very difficult. Therefore everyone ice explorer Before entering “the walls” of his natural laboratory, he mentally repeats the path that people of previous generations have taken.