Mind Mapping

Throughhout human history, the world's cadre of engineers and scientists have been painting a very nice picture of a high-technology nirvana with constant breakthroughs in science and technology. One of the most recent and anticipated field of technology is in the area of mind mapping. This analysis of how our brains process information and thoughts is previously deemed impossible due to the complexity of our brains. However, with the functinal magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this virtually impossible dream can actually come true. Despite this great invention, several controveries, with regards to the ethical issues, have arose.
Let first discuss about the advantages of mind mapping. One of the most obvious pros is in the healthcare and medical arena. The ability to identify thoughts can actually lead us to find the causes for thought disorders disease and hence the cures for them. In addition, mind mapping can also contribute to the decline of the crime rates worldwide since the investigation department can easily differentiate lying and truth telling.
However, mind mapping is like a two-edged sword, thus some problems will bound to appear too. People will tend to feel a general sense of insecurity and fear due to the ability to see through their brain and know what they are thinking about. We must also be aware that unethical individuals, criminal networks and corrupt corporations will be able to ultilise the same mind mapping technology we have. This certainly be detrimental towards the peace of the society.
Therefore, there must be some solutions to prevent the unethical abuses of mind mapping. Certainly, all members of civil society need to be very vigilant and watch over those people involved in the research of mind mapping. It will be very important that scientists hold themselves up with integrity. Governent should play a part too by drafting laws and guildelines that control research and funding. Security devices like fingerprint technology can be installed too to prevent unauthorised people from getting hold of the confidential information.

Difficulites in Writing for Engineering Courses

There is a general misconception that engineering courses do not require any knowlegde of writing skills since scientific theories and equations form the bulk of our modules. This is rather myopic as it does require every individuals to present their ideas clearly and precise to his or her audience. However, since the writing for engineering is vastly different from the teachings of our previous educational institutions, i do encounter some difficulties along the way. The two main obstacles are ideas generation and the adoption of formal writing style.
First of all, since the primarily focus of writing in engineering is more inclined towards academic texts, therefore we must have substantial informations and backgrounds of different scientific terms and technological advancements to convince our readers. For instance, if someone barely has any knowledge about Carbon Capture and Storage, they will not be able to generate a precise and good essay. Therefore a sharp transition from national service to university has make this a difficulty for me as I am isolated from all forms of writing during that period. The fact that I hardly read newspapers has deterioriated this problem.
Next, will be the difficulty of adopting a formal style of writing. This is essential in both report writing and essay as the person whom we are addressing to is normally a professor. The usual practice is to avoid the usage of the first person, as it tends to be rather informal. Instead of writing "I measured the mass of calorimeter," try "The mass of calorimeter was measured." Sometimes this transition to passive verbs may be hard, especially when I try to vary the sentence structures to prevent my essay from getting too dull.
Solving all these difficulies maybe hard and it really require lots of efforts in it. One of the ways will be by constant readings on articles and by regular writing. The different sentence structures of writing can be achieved by analysing and exploring the different stragies that the professors presented their ideas to the reader on newspapers.

Summary on Carbon Trading and Sequestration

Environmental issues have always been a concern for everyone since its impacts can be very serious if not properly dealt with. Instead of using the more traditional ways of using threats to solve all these issues, more cost effective methods are been sought after nowadays.
A good illustration will be over the topic of the upsurge of carbon dioxide emissions. When present in excess, carbon dioxide tends to shift from its original aim of providing warmth to increasing global temperature. This is primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels as well as selfish acts of humans. In response to these, governments and environmental organizations have come out with numerous policies to control these emissions.
Two of these are carbon trading and carbon sequestration. For carbon sequestration, it basically means storing carbon dioxide through natural sinks or artificial means. The two main concerns cost and effectiveness of it, vary across different methods and location of storage. Terrestrial areas, underground geologic formation and ocean are three of the more ideal storage places. However, some questionable effectiveness and efficiency still exist in some of these places. Although all these methods are still in their mature stages, there are great chances that these technological breakthroughs can offer us solutions to curb the environmental problems.
Nevertheless, several positive measures have been carried out globally as well. Carbon trading is one such ways and it is effective in managing emissions as it enables sectors all around the world to trade with each other, preferably with those that can distribute their resources most cost effectively. Major corporations and private sectors have also gathered together to discuss and listen to projects pertaining to carbon emissions.
In conclusion, all these basic carbon storage methods are good while waiting for the upcoming of the more effective carbon sequestration policies.
(300 words)

Reference:
The Environmental Literacy Council- Carbon Trading and Sequestration (updated by Dawn Anderson and Megan Wertz). Retreived 21th September 2008 from source:
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1366.html

W5T2- Common Grammar Mistake

Having a good grasp in the basics of grammar is crucial in improving English. Although educational institutions have been imparting these to us since young, several errors still appear in our essays. One of the most common errors that I make would be the simple and progressive verb forms. For the simple tenses, they can be further separated into the present, past or future time frames. All these dicate complete actions that occur only for a very short interval. Generally, the simple past tense is used to express facts or habits that occur very frequently. For instance, ice melts at zero degrees celsius. Next, simple past usually has "-ed" added behind the main verb and it is used to show past events. As for the simple future tense, it can varies in two forms, either with "will" or "be and going to" (Berlitz grammar handbook, 2004). Both are used when we predict something will happen. Next, we move on to progressive tense and it consists of "be" and "-ing" to the main verb. Simple progressive tense talks about something that is happening now. As for past progressive, it differs from simple past as it is used to talk about a continuing action that stetches over a past interval. Lastly, the two forms of the future progressive are the same as its simple tense but with the addition of the auxiliary be and "-ing" to the verb. It is used to show actions that are continuing in the future. To end this, although this may look easy, it still require some time and effort to master it.

Exercises: (State whether the following sentences are used with the
correct verb forms.)
1) Mr Leong usually took the first bus from his house to Clementi.
2) Our physics tutor is going to give us a surprise test this Tuesday.
3) The government invests more on the area of education in the
next few years since the people are Singapore's main valuable
resources.
4) Sam reads his maths lecture notes when I saw him a moment ago.
5) Jonny is going on vacation with his family this coming December.

References: Berlitz grammar handbook, Fredrik Liljeblad (2004),
Simple and progressive verb forms, page 37. Retrieved on 14
September 2008

The idea about creating new technology that emcompasses every single one of us around the globe should be the primarily goal of engineers. Although engineers have come a long way from improving accessibility to the invention of computers and life-sciences, not all of these fruits of technology serve the whole world heaven on the plate. For instance, inventing a technology that enable space shuttles to fly to Mars and reducing cybercrimes don't really benefit the poor nations much since they are still struggling hard to meet their basic needs. This is especially true in a world that is still divided along the haves and haves-not. An American could be seen getting more obese each day whereas an African villager fighting hard to find clean potable water and food. Challenges like ensuring equitable distribution of clean water, diseases containment and tackling global warming should be the utmost priorities that engineers resolve first before shifting to others that affect only a certain group of people. With regards to the water issue, it is not because of insufficient water but more about water wastage in everyday living and uneven distribution to the whole world. Countries like Canada and China certainly have more water supplies than Africa. Although engineers have come out with ideas like water desalination plant and building of dam to increase clean water, these are costly and certainly not a viable choice for poor nations. They need to venture into something that can benefit the world as a whole. Similarly, ways to cure aids and cross-species diseases should be their focus too. In conclusion, modern engineers need to prioritise the challenges that the world is facing and work on those which affect everyone.