Science and technics

A history of an origin of silver is quite interesting. There is a word ”argenta” in Sanskrit, which means ”light” in English translation, and scientists believe that this word gave the name to the similarly-named chemical element– argentum.

Gold is one of the first metals to become known to mankind. In the Ancient Egypt, it was considered a part of Ra, the sun God. For this reason, the precious metal was accessible only to the pharaohs, their family members and the priests.

Throughout the summer, the higher school of Russia was shaken by scandals related to existing assessments of the quality of education. For example, the leaders of the 50 largest Russian universities appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a proposal to abolish the current system of state accreditation as ”outdated”. The discussion escalated even further with a beginning of the school year. In fact some universities began planning the complete rejection of traditional lectures and their replacement with online courses. First meeting of the working group involved in development of a new system of state accreditation and licensing of higher education institutions took place on October 10. ”Forpost” asked the Principal of Saint-Petersburg Mining University to comment on this issue. Under the leadership of Vladimir Litvinenko, the University got as high as number 16 in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings.

The Bologna process was a reason for a few adjustments made to the education systems of many countries. However, some European countries have succeeded in implementing the right to determine their own approach to the process of training future specialists, and Germany was not an exception. Carsten Drebenstedt, Director of Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, told “Forpost” about some specific features of school and university education in the country as well as about the consequences of switching to the two-level qualifications.

Copper is a metal, which first became known to mankind for several millennia BC. In nature, it is usually found in the form of nuggets or in the mineral composition. Copper colour range varies from grayish brown to goldish with pinky shade. Some other reddish shades are also possible.

Four German students became the participants of the International Summer School ”Geological tour of Crimea” organized by St. Petersburg Mining University.

Baryte is a mineral that belongs to sulphates, it has a granular structure and perfect cleavage. From Greek the mineral’s name is usually translated as “heavy”, and that is hardly surprising – this stone’s relative weight can be easily felt if one would take it into the hand.

Agate is a semitransparent silicon oxide, which has been known to humanity for over 6,000 years. The mineral itself is easily distinguishable from other stones, as is has specific embedded markings as well as it offers incredibly rich colour palette. Naturally there are more than 150 different variations of this stone: ocellar agate (resembles an eye in appearance), moss agate (its markings look similar to moss in its form), fortification agate (multicoloured pattern looks like the old castle ruins), landscape agate (nature images), magical or black agate as well as many others.

Amethyst is a precious kind of quartz deeply-saturated purple color. The mineral got its name from Ancient Greek language meaning “not drunk”.

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