The well-read teenager: brilliant classics for young adult readers

Love Twilight? Gothic romances have got your name written all over them! There are so many classic books that are perfect reads for teenagers, but a lot of them look unfortunately boring or daunting. Read this list and venture outside the YA bubble.

Go to a typical bookstore and have a look at the children's classics area. More often than not, there won't be much more than a few babyish fairy tales, maybe some Austen and a Dumas squeezed in.

But you shouldn't be afraid of venturing into the "adult" classics fiction; yes it may be stuffy-looking and the covers can be ugly, but there is a lot of fun, romance and sword-waggling to be had in classics. And think about it: a lot of the books you love and re-read were written thanks to the inspiration found in some of these books.

Don't let school reading put you off trying these fantastic authors:

If you like Skulduggery Pleasant, Andy Lane or the Rangers Apprentice series…

… give these classic adventure stories a go!

 

If you love fast-paced stories with a bit of mystery – like Skulduggery Pleasant or the Young Sherlock Holmes series – try the Sherlock Holmes books by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, or The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. The language may be classic, but there are jokes, romances and action bursting from the margins of all these.

How technology is set to transform India's fragmented education system

India has no strategy for technology in the classroom, but entrepreneurs and nonprofits are braving the odds in the sector.

In 2012, engineer Raghav Gajula moved to an east Delhi slum to work as a teacher at a private school for low-income families. Most of his students’ parents are labourers in local factories but have paid 300 Indian rupees a month, about £3, for their kids to attend a school with busy staff and no computer resources. Gajula, who found the teaching position through a Teach For India fellowship, spotted an opportunity. He lent the kids his laptop and started setting up mentoring sessions for them with his friends, via Skype.

Many of the slum kids come from the Bhagwanpur Khera neighborhood where one of the main landmarks is a toxic sewage drain. Yet Gajula's idea meant they were soon scheduling their own Skype sessions with their mentors, and talking about their ambitions in the arts and sports. Gajula now works with two activists on setting up a local after-school centre with the aim of expanding the mentoring programme. They have 25 students and five donated laptops, though they aren’t sure how the nonprofit centre is going to survive financially.

Gajula’s innovation could be transformative for India's fragmented education system, but there is no overarching strategy for how to incorporate these kinds of projects into the sprawling Indian school system. According to government estimates, there are about 254 million pupils in primary and secondary schools both in the private and public sector, but there’s no overall technology policy for schools. Internet penetration is around 12%, and average connection speeds are slow. 

Schools aren't using equipment
Recognising the increasing importance of technology in education and employment, the Indian government has a scheme that grants every public school district, regardless of the number of schools it contains, of Rs. 5m [£49,700] every year to invest in educational technology. Districts have to submit a proposal in order to be granted the funds. The government estimates that 22% of primary schools have a computer, but the reality is that many schools aren't using the equipment they have.

Mosquitoes, be gone!

Two teens find an extract from common seeds can kill mosquito larvae and also may repel the biting adult insects.

 

LOS ANGELES — Extracts from the seeds of a common plant can kill mosquito larvae, report two teen researchers. Smoke from a candle made with wax that includes the extracts also repels adult mosquitoes. The natural chemicals therefore show promise as an alternative to synthetic pesticides, the young scientists say.
The teens reported their findings here last week, at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, or Intel ISEF. The competition was created by Society for Science & the Public (which publishes Science News for Students) and is sponsored by Intel. Each year, Intel ISEF showcases some of the best high school science projects from around the globe.
Bixa orellana is a small tree or shrub found in many tropical regions in the Americas. Its bright red seeds already have many uses, says Ester Castro, 17. She’s an 11th-grader at Asuncion Rodriguez de Sala in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. Extracts from the seeds are a popular food coloring, she notes. Powdered seeds also are part of spice mixtures used in cooking.

Ester and classmate Keren Galarza, 16, wanted to see if chemicals in the seeds might repel mosquitoes. The seeds contain many compounds. Some of the chemicals are smelly, oily substances that float on water. These are called “volatile oils” because they contain aromatic substances that evaporate easily. Others compounds are part of a thick, sticky substance called resin. The red substance used as a food coloring is called bixin, after the plant. The liquid that’s left behind when all of these substances are removed contains a yellow coloring, called orellina.

Phonics education technique shown to have positive impact on literacy

New study is a vindication of the technique which teaches children to read using phonetic sounds rather than letters.

Children taught to read using phonics techniques have achieved "very high" results, according to new research, which cited the example of a seven-year-old boy able to read and spell to the level of a 13-year-old.

The results of the study, by the educational psychologist Marlynne Grant, are a vindication of the widespread introduction of synthetic or blended phonics in schools in England since 2010. The method teaches children to read by identifying and pronouncing sounds rather than individual letters.
The publication of the research comes as 500,000 year one children in state primary schools in England take the phonics screening check this week, a brief test to measure progress.

Teachers and unions initially resisted the use of the check, which followed the coalition's introduction of compulsory synthetic phonics to teach literacy in state schools. But since then, more teachers have embraced the method, which is supported by research in the UK and abroad.

The new study followed a group of 30 children who were taught using phonics for the first time in reception, and tracked their progress for three years, to the end of year two in primary school.

Top 10 desert island books for science fans

Some books require a lot of uninterrupted concentration. As I wrote recently in a review of Leonard Susskind’s Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum, it would be an ideal book to take along if you were banished to a desert island. After a few years of careful reading, and re-reading, you’d be a master of quantum mathematics. It would make you a better person.

But suppose you had already mastered quantum mechanics before being banished (or perhaps knowing quantum mechanics was why you got banished). You would want to pack a different difficult book. Not all books that demand serious sustained attention are worth the effort, of course, so you would need to choose carefully. Or pack more books. (Ideally, you could just load them on an e-reader, once Amazon starts selling a solar-powered version.)

In any event, I’ve compiled my list of favorites for desert island reading. They’re not necessarily the best books I’ve ever read, but they all offer substantial intellectual reward if you give them your undivided attention without competition from television or Twitter.

10. The Joy of x (Strogatz, 2012)

Not hard to read at all, but the best survey of the basic ideas of mathematics, and an excellent preparation for reading the more technical stuff. 306 pages.

9. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Newton, 1687)

This one’s one of the hardest books in history to read, but you have to remember that it probably wasn’t very easy to write, either. Having never been banished to a desert island, I have so far just read passages here and there. Even if you can’t get through the whole thing, though, you should be sure to read the “rules for reasoning in philosophy” in Book III. 626 pages.

Picasso and Einstein Got the Picture

Breakthroughs in science and art begin with an image.

Most of the big steps forward in science are made possible by visualization. Albert Einstein said he visualized the theory of relativity before he worked out the formula. Previous explanations of the universe made no aesthetic sense to him. He was mathematically and physically oriented. But he was driven by aesthetics.

Humans have an underlying desire to have things be aesthetically pleasing. We don’t like crummy figures. We have a built-in sense for proportion, for symmetry, for what feels right. As a scientist, there is a real feeling of joy when your vision is borne out by your research.

In that way scientists are like artists. There was a time when people talked about the “two cultures” of science and art. Don’t believe the demarcation for a minute. The two fields have one general principle: to interpret the world and reflect it. Scientists and artists have different buildings blocks. Artists use musical notes or paint and scientists rely on logic and measurements. But both have the same driving force: creativity. And the seed of that creativity is the visual image.

To consider how art and science interact, we should be aware of what happens in the brain when we perceive an image. Visual perception begins with the retina, a layer of brain tissue that lines the inner eye. The retina receives light and generates nerve signals within photoreceptor cells. These cells, divided into rods and cones and specialized for night and day vision, convert light into electrochemical signals through the action of light-sensitive molecules called photopigments. Different cone cells respond to red, green, and blue light, and enable us to perceive colors.

Air conditioning raising night-time temperatures in the US

Heat from cooling systems now raises some urban temperatures by more than 1C at night, reports Climate News Network.

Researchers in the US have identified a way in which city-dwellers are inadvertently stoking up the heat of the night – by installing air conditioners.

Because the cities are getting hotter as the climate changes, residents are increasingly investing in aircon systems − which discharge heat from offices and apartment blocks straight into the city air. And the vicious circle effect is that cities get still warmer, making air conditioning all the more attractive to residents.

According to scientists at Arizona State University, the air conditioning system is now having a measurable effect. During the days, the systems emit waste heat, but because the days are hot anyway, the difference is negligible. At night, heat from air conditioning systems now raises some urban temperatures by more than 1C, they report in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.

The team focused on the role of air conditioning systems in the metropolitan area of the city of Phoenix, which is in the Sonora desert in Arizona, and conditions in the summertime are harsh there anyway.

Ancient Roman Sanctuary Discovered in France

In Northern France’s Picardy region about 35 kilometers north of Paris in the city of Pont-Sainte-Maxence, archeologists have uncovered an ancient Roman sanctuary dating back to the second century, which has no equivalent in Roman Gaul.

 This sanctuary, which measures 70 meters by 105 meters, has two small pavilions in the back, of which only the foundations remain. In the center, the Cella, visitors could access a dramatic masonry platform via a front staircase.

Here in the heart of the sanctuary, the ancient Romans would have erected the statue of a deity. Archaeologists have discovered many elements of the artwork inside the sanctuary, including clashed spears and marble veneer.

The entrance to the sanctuary was a monumental façade measuring 10 meters high and 70 meters long, which made it an exceptional structure in Roman Gaul. This façade consists of thirteen to seventeen arches, above which the Romans surmounted an entablature and, exceptionally, a frieze that should include a dedication in bronze letters.

Why Dinosaurs Were Like Tuna, Great Whites, and Echidnas

Fifty years ago, dinosaurs lumbered across our screens like the slow-moving, shambling oafs they were thought to be. Now, they stride and sprint. They’re portrayed as active animals, often lithe and agile.

This popular makeover was inspired by a scientific one. Scientists used to believe that dinosaurs, like modern-day reptiles, were cold-blooded ectotherms. That doesn’t mean their blood was literally cold, but that they relied on the environment to heat their bodies. Many lines of evidence challenged this view, suggesting instead that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded endotherms like mammals and birds: they generated body heat by burning energy at a much greater rate than most reptiles.

This debate about dinosaur metabolism—were they ectotherms, endotherms or something in between?—is one of the longest-running in palaeontology. (“It feels like almost everyone working in dino palaeontology has weighed in on it at some point in their career,” says John Hutchinson.) Scientists have tried to address the issue by looking at the structure of their bones, the shape of their legs, the inferred anatomy of their lungs, the presence of insulating feathers, and the ratios of predators to prey. And some have tried to work out how quickly they grew.

Digital lighting goes organic

Research reveals a bright future for a new lighting technology.

 

Flick on a light at home and chances are a glass bulb or tube will start to glow. The two most common types of electric lights — incandescent and fluorescent — have worked pretty well for a long time. Make that too long: Both types are so last century.

Incandescent bulbs waste most of their energy. Regular and compact fluorescent tubes are more efficient. However, they contain toxic mercury. Now lighting engineers want us to imagine electric lighting beyond the bulb.
Picture sheets of electric lights that can bend or twist. Your bedroom could have glowing sculptures instead of lamps. A living room window might be transparent by day, then light up at night. The whole kitchen ceiling might glow. And whole walls could be covered with programmable lighting. A few taps on a control panel might change its brightness, color or pattern.

 

It’s all possible with organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. They are a new type of digital — or solid-state — lighting. Made from solid materials, they don’t require the vacuum now found in an incandescent bulb or the gas that’s encased within fluorescent tubes.