Readable, teachable news.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Do you think you know more about science than your parents do? You could be right.
At a big science fair in England last November, 2,000 moms and dads were asked what sort of questions their kids had about science, and how they answer them.
Most of the parents said they found it hard to answer their children’s questions. A few of them said they think their kids know more about science than they do.
Stephen Hawking turned 70 on Jan. 8.
Cosmologists – scientists like Hawking who study the origins of the universe – gathered in Cambridge, UK, to pay tribute to him.
Hawking was a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge for 30 years. He retired from that job in 2009. He still works for Cambridge, in cosmology research.
Hawking is a mathematical genius, who changed the way scientists think about the universe.
The famous Manchester United soccer team has waited two years to sign Charlie Jackson to the team.
That’s because he was only three years old—they waited until he was five.
Coaches at United say that Jackson is going to be a superstar player.
Even at three years of age, he impressed talent scouts with his ability to handle and control the ball.
The body of Alan Billis, who died of cancer recently will be the first one in the modern world to be mummified like the ancient Egyptians were.
While he was terminally ill with lung cancer, Billis—a taxi driver in the UK—signed up for the procedure.
Dr. Stephen Buckley is a scientist who has been working for nearly 20 years to figure out how to mummify bodies in the same way Egyptian bodies like Tutankhamun’s were preserved.
His process was filmed for a television documentary on Britain’s Channel Four TV station.
Wide-spread riots broke out in London, England last week.
People ran into the streets, breaking store windows and stealing merchandise (known as “looting”), and setting fires to buildings and cars.
Hundreds of people have been arrested and at least five people died in the riots.
There are many different reasons people joined the riots.
Some people looted because they thought they could get away with it in the crowds.
Some rioted because everyone else around them was doing it or they considered it fun.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Will and Kate) are coming to Canada this week.
There is certain etiquette–things you should and should not do–in dealing with, and speaking to, royalty.
Etiquette is a type of “manners.”
It can also be called “protocol” in the case of the royals.
For instance, protocol demands that Will and Kate be addressed as “Your Royal Highness,” followed by “sir” or “ma’am.”
Men can then bow from the neck and ladies can curtsy to the royals.
Over the years there have been plenty of “breaches of protocol” — mistakes that people have made around royalty.
Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has finally revealed some of what Pottermore.com will have on it.
But it will be a bit difficult to understand exactly what will be on the new website until it’s fully up and running and that won’t be until October for most people.
One million lucky Harry Potter fans will be able to test the Pottermore site in a sneak preview starting on July 31, Harry’s birthday.
In a YouTube announcement and during a media conference in London, England, Rowling revealed that Pottermore will:
•Include more information and “back story” on some of the Harry Potter characters including Professor McGonagall (her childhood, ministry career, early heartbreak and her long friendship with Dumbledore), and how Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon met (at work, apparently).
•Include more than 18,000 words about Harry Potter and the characters, written by Rowling.
•Include a Pottermore shop where you can buy Harry Potter ebooks (digital books).
Britain’s newest royal couple is coming to Canada this summer.
Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – also known as Will and Kate – recently got married in a very high-profile ceremony in England.
Now they are taking their first official royal tour as newlyweds, and they’ve chosen Canada as their destination.
While Will has been here twice before (in 1991 and 1998) it will be Kate’s first time visiting Canada.
If you took a university math exam, how do you think you’d do?
Paula and Peter Imafidon are nine-year-old twins. They live in England, and last year they became the youngest people to ever pass Cambridge University’s advanced mathematics exam.
A reporter asked them how hard they had to work in order to pass the exam. Paula said she treats math like a game, so it’s not really “work” to her.
Peter said the exam had some questions that “may seem difficult but are very easy once you get in the swing of it.” Of course, Peter is speaking as someone to whom math comes very easy—the questions are very tough, especially for kids their age.
The family’s other children, Anne-Marie, Christiana and Samantha are also exceptionally good at math.
Jane Austen wrote some very famous novels in the early 1800s. Pride and Prejudice is perhaps her best-known book.
Although she published just six novels, she has millions of fans all over the world. They adore her novels about romance and society.
An extremely rare manuscript of an unfinished novel, written in Jane Austen’s own handwriting, is going to be sold in England.
There are 68 pages, part of a novel called The Watsons. Jane Austen never finished it, possibly because her father died. She wrote the pages in 1804, when she was 29 years old.
Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was not published until 1811.
The Watsons pages are written in her neat and tiny handwriting with many edits in the margins. The manuscript was divided by Austen into 11 booklets.
