WEH Kanton

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Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:49:38 +0800
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Science and Education

Poles are reputed to be romantic, and romantics often look to the sky. This is probably why Poland is famous for its astronomers. Nicolaus Copernicus was among the most distinguished of all astronomers. He formulated a revolutionary theory of the heliocentric structure of our planetary system. Aleksander Wolszczan, a contemporary scientist and follower of Copernicus, discovered a planetary system outside a heliocentric system. The traditions of Polish science date back to the Middle Ages. In 1364 the first Polish university was founded, the second in Central Europe after Prague. This was the Cracow Academy, now called the Jagiellonian University.

In the 19th century Poland contributed to the development of sciences. In 1883 two Poles, Zygmunt Wroblewski and Karol Olszewski, liquified oxygen and nitrogen from the air. Maria Curie-Sklodowska won two Nobel Prizes, in 1903 in the field of physics, and in 1911 for chemistry. She was a co-founder of radiology and discoverer of polonium and radium. A pioneer of the oil industry in Europe, Ignacy Lukasiewicz was the constructor of an oil lamp.

A group of renowned Polish archeologists includes Kazimierz Michalowski, discoverer of the Faras frescoes in Egypt. Breaking of the secret Enigma code, a German communication system, was a great achievement of the group of Polish mathematicians cryptologists, graduates of the Poznan University, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski. In 1932 they started working for the Central Headquarters Code Office and after four months they broke the Enigma secret and were deciphering regularly secret messages sent by the Germans. Their research resulted in producing over a dozen copies of Enigma by the AVA Company in Warsaw in 1933.

The Warsaw-Lviv School of philosophy, a group of outstanding logicians and mathematicians with Kazimierz Twardowski at its centre, influenced works in their respective disciplines. Many Polish scientists also lived outside Poland. One of them was the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. In 1914-18 he carried out research in New Guinea and the Trobrianda Islands. Malinowski elaborated a functional method used in the study of culture. Pawel Edmund Strzelecki carried out research in Australia. Polish scientists, who were sent into exile to Siberia by the Russians in the 19th century, contributed to the discovery of natural resources in that part of the world. Benedykt Dybowski described the fauna of Lake Baykal , Aleksander Czekanowski worked on the geology of Siberia, Jan Czerski researched the mountain chains of the area beyond Lake Baykal. Polish emigrants also included renowned engineers and constructors: Ernest Malinowski, who supervised the construction of the highest railway track in the world, in Peru, 1872-76 and Ralph Modjewski who constructed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in the USA.

The Polish system of education is in the process of transformation aimed at meeting the booming educational needs of the transforming economy. The systems' three stages are six years of primary school and three years of gymnasium, followed by either professional training or colleges of general education with various specialisations; then universities, academies and high schools, which have tripled in number since 1990, numbering 310, with over 1.5 million students. Academic research is carried out at didactic and research units. Polish science is particularly successful in genetics, molecular biology and humanities.