2 . Big Thinkers Series

The 2022 Big Thinkers Series from New Scientist events features four online talks, covering a wide range of topics by world-class scientist speakers and experts. If you are curious about your planet or your universe, then this series is your place to hear the latest research.

Save £20 off the standard ticket price by purchasing a series ticket to all four talks in the Big Thinkers Series (available on-demand) or purchase single tickets for just £13 per lecture (available by early booking).

Reality+: From the Matrix to the Metaverse with David Chalmers

In this talk, philosopher David Chalmers argues that Metaverse-style virtual worlds experienced through headsets are also genuine and meaningful realities and we can live a meaningful life in VR.

What we don’t know about gravity with Claudia de Rham

We are all familiar with the concept of gravity. In this talk, Professor Claudia de Rham will explore how much we actually know about gravity and how much more there is left to uncover.

A Brief History of Timekeeping with Chad Orzel

From Stonehenge to atomic clocks, here is the 5, 000-year history of how science is used to mark time. Chad Orzel, the internationally bestselling author of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, offers us a witty journey through scientific theory and quirky (反常的) historical detail.

Physics at the End of the universe with Katie Mack

The Big Bang theory tells the story of the beginning of the universe for the last 13. 8 billion years. But how does the story end? Join astronomer Katie Mack as she shares what modern astrophysics tells us about the final fate of the universe.

4 . Nowadays social media influencers have powerful influence. The concept of an influencer —a person who inspires or guides the actions of others—has been around for centuries. Before social media, influencers were famous persons or politicians far away from our lives.    1    

    2     A study undertaken in the US, the UK and Spain found that young people spent 76% more time on social media in 2020 than in the previous year, partly due to physical isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an age when anyone can be an influencer, content creators use their content on social media to influence others around the world.     3     In China, we’re familiar with online platforms like Douyin and Bilibili, while overseas TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are often used. They post selfies in the latest fashion, livestream video game sessions or inspire others with motivational personal development advice. With their special knowledge or authority in specific subjects, they attract others in great numbers.

Because of this, young people can see themselves represented more directly online through influencers. This can be important for the development of an adolescent’s identity.

    4     “It can be really helpful for kids to see that they are going to be successful like their role models,” Ellen Selkie, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison, told the website Mashable.

    5     When fashion models talk about size inclusivity (包容性) on their social networking platforms, for example, it can develop a sense of community, which helps them shape their right attitude.

6 . Concerns have existed long about what’s gone wrong in modern societies. Many scholars explain growing gaps between the haves and the have-nots as partly a by-product of living in large, urban populations. The bigger the crowd, from this perspective, the greater the distance is between the wealthy and those left wanting.

In The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wengrow challenge the assumption that bigger societies surely produce a range of inequalities. Using examples from past societies, the pair also rejects the popular idea that social development occurred in stages.

Such stages, according to conventional wisdom, began with humans living in small hunter-gatherer bands where everyone was on equal footing. Then an agricultural revolution (变革) about 12, 000 years ago fueled population growth and the appearance of tribes (部落) and eventually states.

This assumption makes no sense to Graeber and Wengrow. Their research, which extends for 526 pages, paints a more hopeful picture of social life over the last 30, 000 to 40, 000 years. Hunter-gatherers have a long history of changing social systems from one season to the next, the authors write. About a century ago, researchers observed that native populations in North America and elsewhere often operated in small, mobile groups for part of the year and formed large, settled communities the rest of the year. For example, each winter, Canada’s Northwest Coast Kwakiutl hunter-gatherers built wooden structures while in summers, they separated, and fished along the coast in less formal social ranks.

Social flexibility and experimentation, rather than a revolutionary shift, also characterized ancient transitions (转变) to agriculture, Graeber and Wengrow write. Middle Eastern village sites now indicate that the domestication (驯化) of crops occurred on and off from around 12, 000 to 9, 000 years ago. Ancient Fertile Crescent communities regularly gave farming a go while still hunting, gathering, fishing, and trading. Early people were in no rush to treat land as private property or to form political systems headed by kings, the authors conclude.

8 . Do you know an outstanding educator? Nominate (提名) them today! Prizes up to $250 are available. The wining essays will be published in our magazine!

Just follow these simple steps to nominate your educator:

First create or log into your Teen Ink account and fill out a form. Then select “Submit Form” and you’re done! You must submit before May 11, 2022 and the winners will be announced on May 31, 2022.

Overall winner: Educator

• $250 Amazon gift card & Certificate & Copy of essay

Category winner: Educator

• $100 Amazon gift card & Certificate & Copy of essay

Overall winner: Nominator

• $50 Amazon gift card & Published in Teen Ink magazine

Category winner: Nominator

• $25 Amazon gift card & Published in Teen Ink magazine

Details

All submissions to the form will be uploaded to your account on our website and published online.

Remember our activity is designed for only middle school junior high or high school educators. You must be age 13-19 to have the right to nominate someone. Your essay must be typed uploaded and shouldn’t include any inappropriate content. At the same time, the nominator must have a Teen Ink account and is required to complete the nomination form.

Nomination category must be selected. All nominations will be considered for the overall winner regardless of category. And there are such categories as math, science, English, history/ social studies, creative arts and school support.

Before writing the essay, see our general submission guidelines for more essay information and remember to give examples with specific details and that the essay must be around 500 words.

9 . Dive into the classical world via the remains of an ancient merchant ship that dates all the way back to 5 BC as Greece is constructing its first underwater museum.

Some of Greece’s vast heritage of ancient shipwrecks are accessible to the public (divers and non-divers) for the first time ever in a series of underwater museums. The first opened on August 3, allowing visitors to explore the “Peristera shipwreck”, which has been at the bottom of the Aegean Sea for more than two thousand years after it sank in the 5th century BC near the northern Greek island of Alonissos. Since a fisherman discovered the ship in 1985, it has remained off-limits to the public but now visitors can explore it by sea or by virtual reality.

Researchers believe it’s the most important shipwreck from the classical era. It had been believed that a trading ship of that type didn’t exist until the Roman era some 400 years later. So when it was discovered years ago, it completely changed our understanding of shipbuilding in the ancient world.

Experts have yet to determine how or why it sank although there are some indications that a fire may have broken out. It’s believed that it was carrying 4, 000 vases of wine when it sank, most of which are still lying on the seabed, along with fishes and some little creatures who now call it home.

Greece had banned diving until 2004 or so, due to worries that undersea ancient heritage would be taken away but now the country is wholeheartedly hugging its rich underwater heritage. Access to the Peristera shipwreck is available through a new project that will create underwater museums across the Greek islands over the next two years. Divers will be able to tour the shipwreck with licensed guides and non-divers can feel like they’re underwater with virtual reality information centres on land.