低年级友好、每周都可拿奖!《纽约时报》夏季读写竞赛如何开始准备?

NYT系列写作竞赛一直以来备受瞩目,其获奖者往往成为藤校、JHU、UCB等顶尖学府的炙手可热人物,因此其含金量非常高。其中夏季读写竞赛每周都能参赛,对低年级同学来说相当友好,这意味着你的试错机会非常大!

比赛时间

2023年6月-8月期间,为期10周

每周一次,每人每周仅可提交一份作品,参赛学生可连续10周每周投稿。

如何准备这次夏季读写竞赛?

1.阅读往期的优秀获奖范文,分析它们的结构、文风、语言运用、论证方式等方面。通过比较和分析,找到其中的共性和特点,以便为自己的文本编写提供参考和灵感。

2.确定自己的文风和主题。根据自己的兴趣和特长,选择适合自己的文风和主题,以便能够更好地发挥自己的优势和创造性。

3.确定论点和寻找相应的例证和论据来支持自己的观点。在写作过程中,你需要有一个清晰的思路和逻辑,通过论证和例证来有效地表达自己的观点和立场。这需要一定的知识储备和思辨能力,因此需要提前做好充分的准备。

4.在完成文稿后,需要进行总结、修改和润色。通过反复的修改和润色,可以进一步提高文章的质量和可读性,并且消除语言上的瑕疵和错误。同时也需要注意字数控制,使文章的长度符合比赛要求。

扫码免费领取往届优秀获奖作品

咨询参赛注意事项+预约试听体验课

预约最新真题讲座、课程详情可添加下方顾问老师咨询

竞赛亮点

夏季开赛,十轮投稿,每周都有得奖机会

在这个竞赛中,你将有10次机会投稿,每次都有机会获得奖励。竞赛在夏季举办,这是一个完美的机会,利用假期投入你的创意和写作技巧。

报名免费,竞赛门槛低

报名参加这个竞赛完全免费,并且竞赛门槛低,不需要特别专业,完稿难度低,这是一个非常友好的写作竞赛,适合不同专业和学术背景的人士参加。

培养批判性思维

这个竞赛不仅仅是一个写作竞赛,它还可以帮助参赛者培养传媒专业所需的批判性思维。通过参加这个竞赛,你将学会如何分析和评估不同的信息来源,从而更好地为你未来的职业生涯做准备。

2023 NYT夏季读写竞赛火爆来袭!参赛规则&参赛时间详细说明!

纽约时报夏季读写竞赛是为初高中生提供的一项阅读与写作竞赛。该竞赛由纽约时报主办,其主要目的是鼓励学生们对纽约时报发表的文章进行评论,培养他们的批判性思维和对当前时事发表观点的能力。

参赛者需要提交一篇不超过1500字符(约250词)的文章,其内容必须围绕纽约时报在2023年发布的任意一篇文章展开,表达自己的观点和看法。这个过程不仅能够提升参赛者的写作和表达能力,同时也能让他们更加深入地了解纽约时报所刊载的内容,进一步拓展他们的知识面和视野。

适合学生

全球11-19岁在读初中、高中对该竞赛感兴趣的学生们均可参加。

美国、英国地区参赛的学生:年龄13~19岁

其他地区的参赛学生:年龄16~19岁

美国、英国地区11~12岁以及其他地区11~15岁的学生,须由家长帮助提交。

(纽约时报内部工作人员的直系亲属禁止参赛)

2023 NYT夏季读写竞赛

比赛时间:2023年6月9日-8月18日(仅供参考)

参赛对象:11-19岁中学生

参赛规则

每个参赛人可以在竞赛期间任意一周投稿。但是,每周每人只能提交一篇文章,且文章字数不得少于250-300个字。

学生应该每周从当年对应时间段的《纽约时报》文章中挑选出自己感兴趣的内容。这可以通过阅读新闻版面或通过搜索引擎来实现。

发布的答案不能超过1500个字符。如果你发现你的答案太短,你可以考虑增加一些具体的例子、分析和描述来支持你的主张。你可以引用相关的研究或数据来支持你的观点。

为了帮助评审委员会更好地了解你的文章,确保提供你选择的《纽约时报》上内容的完整链接或完整标题。这个链接应该可以带领读者直接跳转到你所引用的文章。

参赛内容提交后,可以选择生成你提交答案后的链接,以便证明自己已经成功参赛。如果你有任何疑问或需要帮助,可以随时联系我们的工作人员。

扫码免费领取往届优秀获奖作品

咨询参赛注意事项+预约试听体验课

预约最新真题讲座、课程详情可添加下方顾问老师咨询

竞赛奖项设置

竞赛开始的每周二,官网会公布上周获奖者名单及作品。

比赛总共10周,每周都有得奖机会

奖项分为winner (每周1位),runner-up和honorable mentions(每周若干位)

每周赢得竞赛的学生作品和姓名将被发表在纽约时报官网上

第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛获奖名单

 

14 岁那年,我登上了飞往波士顿的飞机,在新英格兰开始了我作为国际学生的学术生活……每次回家放假,一进屋,首先迎接​​我的总是一股暖暖的、令人安心的气味……它是干净床单的清新气味,我妈妈洗发水的草药气味,还有我们金毛猎犬的麝香气味,所有这些都汇聚成我所说的“家的气味”……从那以后,我意识到我的嗅觉是多么不可或缺——没有它,我将失去塑造我自我意识的人类经验的重要组成部分。

18 岁的 Siwen Cui 的这一个人启示变成了“鼻子知道什么:被低估的嗅觉”,这是我们第四届年度STEM 写作比赛的获奖论文之一。

参加我们比赛的许多学生是这样描述他们的主题的:他们看着周围的世界并开始感到好奇。人们想知道,音乐和天体物理学之间有什么联系?另一个人问道,世界上的塑料问题有什么解决方案?三分之一的人想知道,我应该为新闻中不断听到的火山担心到什么程度?

我们与Science News合作,邀请学生找到他们感兴趣的与 STEM 相关的问题、概念或问题,并用不超过 500 字的内容向普通观众解释。在我们收到的来自世界各地的 3,000 多篇学生论文中,我们选出了 10 篇优胜者、11 篇亚军和 23 篇荣誉奖。这些文章不仅帮助我们理解了一个有趣的科学或数学现象,而且让我们参与进来,让我们明白为什么我们应该关心它。

以下是公布的获奖论文;您可以通过以下链接阅读它们。我们希望他们的作品能激发您对周围世界的好奇心,并以这些年轻人所做的同样的探索和发现精神来对待它。

获奖者

按作者名字的字母顺序排列

Winners

Andrei Li, 18, Monarch Park Collegiate, Toronto, Ontario: “I Spy With My Little Muon: Peering Inside Pyramids With Cosmic Rays”

Catherine Ji, 14, New Trier High School, Wilmette, Ill.: “Whales and Cancer: A Deep Dive Into Cetacean Genes”

Daphne Zhu, 15, Lynbrook High School, San Jose, Calif.: “Pine Beetle Infestation: Epidemic of North America’s Forests”

Erica Frischauf, 16, Lakewood High School, Lakewood, Ohio: “Hearing Colors and Tasting Sounds: What Is Synesthesia?”

Judah Spiegel, 14, Albany High School, Albany, Calif.: “Computing Creativity: Can A.I. Produce Art?”

Justin Wang, 16, Alhambra High School, Alhambra, Calif.: “Nature’s Solution to Plastic Pollution: The Amazing Power of the Wax Worm”

Leah Li, 14, Milton Academy, Pearland, Texas: “Glass Frogs: Clearing the Mystery of Clotting”

Logan Ramanathan, 17, The Nueva School, Los Altos Hills, Calif.: “3-D Bioprinting: A Modern Day Prometheus”

Siwen Cui, 18, Kent School, Kent, Conn.: “What the Nose Knows: The Underappreciated Olfactory Sense”

Yejin (Jenny) Son, 17, Chadwick International School, Songdo, South Korea: “An Awakening of a Geological Giant: The Next Deadly Eruption of Mount Baekdu”

Runners-Up

Aaron Baxa, 18, Saint Peter High School, St. Peter, Minn.: “The Coyote’s Bad Rap”

Cyrus Fa’amafoe’, 18, Servite High School, Fullerton, Calif.: “From Dead Ends to Friends: Human Hair as a Sustainable Solution to Oil Spills”

Genevieve S. Topper-Kroog, 15, The Masters School, New York, N.Y.: “Bioremediation: The Sunflower’s Ability to Absorb Nuclear Waste”

Meadow Lam, 14, Bellaire High School, Houston: “The Secrets Behind a ‘Ha-ha-ha’: Laughter and Its Effects on the Human Body”

Oscar Johnson Kohler, 16, North Hollywood High School, Los Angeles: “Food for Thought: Glucose, Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Function”

Peggy Chen, 15, Green Hope High School, Cary, N.C.: “Vertical Forests: The Dystopian Jungles That Are Leading the Fight Against Climate Change”

Rachel Kim, 16, Ramapo High School, Franklin Lakes, N.J.: “Glass Frogs Become Transparent at Night. What’s Their Secret?”

Roselin Mota, 16, Jose Marti STEM Academy, Union City, N.J.: “Untangling the History of Curly Hair”

Salina Li, 16, Stuyvesant High School, New York, N.Y.: “Cordyceps: The Mind-Control Fungus?”

Sarah Behjet, 13, Saint Timothy Middle School, Farmington, Conn.: “The Naked Mole Rat: The Subterranean Sensation Shaking Up the Way We View Longevity”

Victoria Tan, 16, Jericho High School, Jericho, N.Y.: “The Cosmic Symphony: How Data Sonification Can Revolutionize Astronomy”

Honorable Mentions

Aaryan Doshi, 16, Monta Vista High School, Cupertino, Calif.: “Seeing the Unseen: How Hyperspectral Imaging Is Revolutionizing Precision Agriculture and Environment Protection”

Amy Zhou, 16, Eric Hamber Secondary School, Vancouver, British Columbia: “Hemp: A Pioneer Entangled in a Family Feud”

Audrielle Paige Esma, 15, Astra Nova School, Wildwood, Fla.: “When Things Go Sour: Sharp Flavors and Strange Behaviors”

Benjamin Li, 16, Millburn High School, Millburn, N.J.: “Black Box Algorithms: Exploring One of the Most Misunderstood Technologies”

Chloe Kim, 16, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.: “Feeling Rejected? Take a Tylenol (or Not…)”

Delia: “The End”

Eliza Olszewska, 18, River Dell High School, Oradell, N.J.: “Drop the Pounds and Starve Cancer?”

Gia Gupta, 16, Cherry Hill High School East, Cherry Hill, N.J.: “Plastic: A Caterpillar’s Next Meal?”

Hafsa Kanchwala, 16, The Baldwin School, Philadelphia: “Ukraine’s Environment May Be the Last to Recover After Putin’s ‘Ecocide’”

Jia Lakhamraju, 16, Singapore American School, Singapore: “Fresh Water in the Desert: Brought to You by Camel Nostrils and Beetle Shells”

Justine Tobes, 17, St. Thomas More Academy, Raleigh, N.C.: “Eco-Bricks: A Solution to the Plastic Epidemic of the Philippines”

Leah Wu, 14, Langley High School, Vienna, Va.: “Listen Up … in Your Mouth?”

Lily Rose Stasko, 17, Bishop Walsh School, Cumberland, Md.: “3-D Printing: The Organ Shortage Solution”

Liu Bohan, 17, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H.: “Raining Diamonds: Uranus and Neptune’s Unique Phenomenon”

Matviy Amchislavskiy, 15, The Governor’s Academy, Byfield, Mass.: “Medical Marvels: Xenobots Usher in a New Era of Medical Miracles”

Olivia Xu, 15, West-Windsor Plainsboro High School North, West Windsor Township, N.J.: “Water Bears in Space: The Neil Armstrong of Microorganisms”

Ontario Zeng, 17, Great Oak High School, Temecula, Calif.: “Life From Death: The Key Toward Longevity Tucked Away Within Cancer Cells”

Reagan Fan, 16, Yorba Linda High School, Yorba Linda, Calif.: “Crawling Batteries: How Crab Shells Will Replace Your Standard Battery”

Rosie Strickland, 17, Brien McMahon High School, Norwalk, Conn.: “Earth’s Old Growth Forests Need Our Protection — and We Need Them”

Sara Wang, 13, Astra Nova School, Henderson, Nev.: “3-D Printing: CORAL-ling Reef Degradation”

Saul Calderon, 16, Jose Marti STEM Academy, Union City, N.J.: “The Zombie Apocalypse Is Among Us! Say Hello to Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis”

Steven Xiao, 16, Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, Calif.: “The Artistic Frontier: A.I.-Generation”

Tony Silva, 17, The Governor’s Academy, Byfield, Mass.: “Is Blue Light Killing You? The Effects and Concerns of Blue Light From Technology”

An Awakening of a Geological Giant: The Next Deadly Eruption of Mount Baekdu

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是  Yejin (Jenny) Son 的作品。

位于朝鲜和中国边界的白头山,也称为白头山,在 1000 年前爆发,是人类历史上最猛烈的火山爆发之一。

这篇文章由来自韩国松岛查德威克国际学校的 17 岁的 Yejin (Jenny) Son 撰写,是 The Learning Network 第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

An Awakening of a Geological Giant: The Next Deadly Eruption of Mount Baekdu

In the summer of 1816, six inches of snow fell in the northeastern United States. People spent Independence Day seeking refuge inside fire-warmed churches. Meanwhile, across Europe, food prices skyrocketed, and riots spread like wildfire throughout city streets. Bakeries and markets went down in flames as people scoured the land for any scrap of food. While in Asia, a disruption of the monsoon contributed to a deadly outbreak of cholera that killed thousands of people. These bizarre events may appear entirely unrelated, but what if a single incident ties them all together?

A year earlier, Mount Tambora, situated in Indonesia, produced the largest volcanic eruption ever recorded. It ejected as much as 50 cubic kilometers of ash and gas into the atmosphere that darkened a million square kilometers of sky and blocked the sun from view. This led to the upheaval of atmospheric circulation patterns, causing what scientists now call the “Year Without Summer” in 1816. Perhaps most alarmingly, scientists state that a similar cataclysmic event could occur once again in the not-too-distant future.

On the border between China and North Korea lies an active volcano called Mount Baekdu, also known as Changbai in China, that undergoes a major eruption every 1,000 years. The last such eruption occurred in 946 when 45 megatons of sulfur dioxide were released into the atmosphere — 1.5 times the amount put out by the Tambora eruption. And as the date suggests, a millennium eruption is now overdue.

Scientists who have been monitoring the status of this sleeping giant detected around 3,000 earthquakes between the years 2002 to 2005; however, since 2006, seismic activity has dramatically decreased — a key signal that a volcanic eruption is imminent. Furthermore, a Russian satellite noticed a remarkable increase in surface temperature around the mountain, while the concentration of hydrogen and helium emissions also rose tenfold in 2006. “Mount Baekdu is almost like the calm before a storm right now,” said Yun Sung-Ho, a professor of earth science education at Busan National University.

The National Institute of Environmental Research of Korea has analyzed the potential power of Mount Baekdu and suggested that the global impact may be as devastating as the Mount Tambora explosion. Volcanic ash and gas could dim the sun, lowering the temperature in East Asia by 2 degrees for two months. Not only can the fallout of volcanic ash leave an indelible imprint on our skin, but it has far-reaching secondary damages on the economy and livelihoods, as witnessed in 1816.

Scientists state that cooperation among the international community is urgently needed to prepare for all possible outcomes. They suggest that an evacuation plan must be developed, and a close monitoring system must continue. In the face of this herculean giant’s unpredictable fury and destructive force, it reminds humans that studying volcanoes is not just a matter of scientific curiosity but a crucial discipline that holds the key to protecting our planet.

Works Cited

D’Arcy Wood, Gillen. “The Volcano That Changed the Course of History.” Slate, 9 April 2014.

Evans, Robert. “Blast From the Past.” Smithsonian Magazine, July 2002.

Jeong-Won, Heo. “North’s Analysts Worry About Paektu Eruption.” Korea JoongAng Daily, 6 June 2019.

Munger, Michael. “1816: ‘The Mighty Operations of Nature’: An Environmental History of the Year Without a Summer.” University of Oregon, 2012.

Oppenheimer, Clive. “Climatic, Environmental and Human Consequences of the Largest Known Historic Eruption: Tambora Volcano (Indonesia) 1815.” Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment, June 2003.

Park, Chang-Seok. “Mt. Baekdu Eruption’s Impact on North East Asia (25).” The Korea Times, 3 May 2012.

Park, Dae-gi. “If Mt. Baekdu Erupts, the Temperature in East Asia Will Drop by 2 Degrees.” KBS News, 31 Jan. 2011.

St. Fleur, Nicholas. “Only a Rumbling Volcano Could Make North Korea and the West Play Nice.” The New York Times, 9 Dec. 2016.

Volcano Hazards Program. “Be Ready for the Next Volcanic Event.” U.S. Geological Survey.

Voosen, Paul. “North Korea’s ‘Millennium Eruption’ Flooded the Skies With Sulfur, but Left Little Climate Trace.” Science, 30 Nov. 2016.

Wayman, Erin. “‘Tambora’ Links Volcano to the ‘Year Without a Summer.’” Science News, 13 July 2014.

Witze, Alexandra. “North Korea Lets Scientists Peer Inside Dangerous Volcano.” Nature, April 2016.

What the Nose Knows: The Underappreciated Olfactory Sense

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是 Siwen Cui 的作品。

冠状病毒大流行凸显了我们嗅觉的重要性

这篇来自康涅狄格州肯特 Kent学校的 Siwen Cui,18 岁的文章是学习网络第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

What the Nose Knows: The Underappreciated Olfactory Sense

Which would you rather give up, your sense of smell or your hair? In a survey of about 400 American adults, 37.9 percent of respondents chose to give up their smell. When asked which sense — smell, hearing or vision — they would rather lose, 84.6 percent of the respondents picked smell. These statistics “dramatically illustrate the negligible value people place on their sense of smell,” wrote the authors of this research.

From an evolutionary perspective, olfaction is the oldest sense. It was pivotal for locating food sources, potential mates and predators, all of which assured the survival of early organisms. As urban structures were built as shelters from the harsh environment, the importance of olfaction seemed to diminish, such that we appear justified in considering smell a somewhat dispensable function. Nonetheless, this ancient sense deserves more appreciation.

Our understanding of the sensation and perception of smell was incomplete until the discovery of olfactory receptors in 1991. Now we know that when we take a whiff of fresh-brewed coffee, odor molecules from the coffee travel through our nostrils and bind to olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity, which then fire nerve signals to the olfactory bulb, where the stimulus of coffee’s smell is processed and relayed to the brain. Here is a fascinating fact about olfaction: Unlike vision, hearing, taste or touch, olfactory signals do not travel to the brain’s integration center (the thalamus) but rather take a direct route from the olfactory bulb to the cortex.

What are the implications of this unique neural pathway? Since the thalamus is not involved in olfactory signal transmission, the brain registers certain smells without our conscious awareness. More intriguingly, the olfactory bulb is embedded in the limbic system, which houses the amygdala and hippocampus, responsible for memory formation and emotional information processing. These structural and functional features of the human brain endow the olfactory sense with an extraordinary connection to emotive autobiographical memories.

In 2006, Johan Willander and Maria Larsson, researchers at Stockholm University, tested the evocative power of verbal, visual and olfactory stimuli on 93 elderly volunteers. Their results indicated that “odor-evoked memories were associated with stronger feelings of being brought back in time,” sparking autobiographical memories from the more distant past with more potent emotional effects, wrote Dr. Larsson. The sense of smell vividly connects us with our past and constitutes a unique dimension of the recollections that shape our identities.

The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the profound emotional value of olfaction and the oxymoronic public dismissal of its importance. Anosmia — the loss of olfaction — is a common symptom of Covid-19 infections that can persist after a few weeks or years. Victims of this sensual deprivation reported feeling vulnerable and isolated from both their surroundings and their past. Because olfaction is so frequently considered a minor sense, we often underestimate the gravity of olfactory disorders. It is thus important for us to recognize the serious impairment of mental well-being that anosmia may induce. Let us cherish and appreciate what our noses know.

Works Cited

Angier, Natalie. “The Nose, an Emotional Time Machine.” The New York Times, 5 Aug. 2008.

Coelho, Daniel H., et al. “Quality of Life and Safety Impact of Covid-19 Associated Smell and Taste Disturbances.” American Journal of Otolaryngology, 22 March 2021.

Herz, Rachel S., and Martha R. Bajec. “Your Money or Your Sense of Smell? A Comparative Analysis of the Sensory and Psychological Value of Olfaction.” Brain Sciences, 23 Feb. 2022.

Jarvis, Brooke. “What Can Covid-19 Teach Us About the Mysteries of Smell?” The New York Times Magazine, 28 Jan. 2021.

Sanders, Laura. “Covid-19 Gave New Urgency to the Science of Restoring Smell.” Science News, 29 Aug. 2022.

Walsh, Colleen. “What the Nose Knows.” The Harvard Gazette, 27 Feb. 2020.

Willander, Johan, and Maria Larsson. “Smell Your Way Back to Childhood: Autobiographical Odor Memory.” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, April 2006.

3-D Bioprinting: A Modern Day Prometheus

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是 Logan Ramanathan 的作品。

一台 3-D 生物打印机用悬浮的人体细胞挤出“生物墨水”,以创建三层组织结构。

这篇来自加利福尼亚州洛斯阿尔托斯山 Nueva 学校的 17 岁的洛根·拉马纳坦 (Logan Ramanathan) 撰写的文章是学习网络第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

3-D Bioprinting: A Modern Day Prometheus

In Greek mythology, Prometheus, the god of fire, was tasked with creating the human — to shape the human body and its organs from mud. Now, through science, a version of Prometheus’s feat may be becoming a reality.

Fourteen hours after entering into surgery, 10-year-old Luke Massella awoke in Boston Children’s Hospital. Luke was born with a condition called spina bifida, a spinal disease that can cause wide-ranging health complications. By 10 years old, he had undergone over a dozen surgeries, and in 2001, a malfunctioning bladder led to kidney failure. Luke needed a new bladder; however, traditionally, this was not possible. Previously, bladder failure meant living with either an ostomy bag that collects urine outside the body or an internal pouch drained with a tube. Additionally, without a healthy bladder, Luke’s kidneys would never be able to heal.

“I was kind of facing the possibility I might have to do dialysis [blood purification via machine] for the rest of my life,” Luke said. “I wouldn’t be able to play sports, and have the normal kid life with my brother.” Dr. Anthony Atala, a pioneering pediatric urologist, had other ideas.

Using specialized 3-D printers and a small piece of Luke’s bladder, Dr. Atala’s team, over two months, was able to grow Luke a new bladder. The transplant surgery was an overwhelming success. To this day, Luke lives without complication; the first-ever case of a 3-D-printed organ transplant. By 2018, nine other patients had received similarly printed organ transplants.

Bioprinters work similarly to traditional 3-D printers; however, instead of depositing layers of plastic, they deliver layers of biomaterial which includes living cells. These living cells are grown from seed cells taken from the patient and cultivated to form a bioink. The printers follow instructions from detailed computer models of organs or other tissues that are often made specifically for a given patient. Thus, through the use of an MRI scan and harvested cells, printers can make a custom organ, providing a perfect match.

In the past decade, the bioprinting industry has rapidly developed to work on even more complicated tissues and organs. A team at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for example, recently achieved a breakthrough in the printing of human blood vessels.

According to Jennifer Lewis, a professor at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, in less than a decade, almost all organs could be printed, eliminating the need for transplant donors. With 17 Americans dying every day while waiting for organ transplants, bioprinting could become hugely impactful. Through new technology, hundreds of thousands of people would be able to receive lifesaving transplants which would have been otherwise impossible.

Through bioprinting, science is bringing mythology to life. This time, though, instead of titans shaping elements of the human body from mud, researchers and doctors are printing organs using high-tech equipment, ushering us into a healthier future.

Works Cited

Belton, Padraig. “A New Bladder Made From My Cells Gave Me My Life Back.” BBC News, 11 Sept. 2018.

Cartwright, Mark. “Prometheus.” World History Encyclopedia.

Fountain, Henry. “At the Printer, Living Tissue.” The New York Times, 11 Aug. 2013.

Khademhosseini, Ali. “3-D. Technology: Building a Better Blood Vessel Video and Transcript.” Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Lord, Brian. “Bladder Grown From 3-D. Bioprinted Tissue Continued to Function After 14 Years.” 3D Printing Industry, 12 Sept. 2018.

Rabin, Roni Caryn. “Doctors Transplant Ear of Human Cells, Made by 3-D Printer.” The New York Times, 2 June 2022.

Rogers, Kristen. “When We’ll Be Able to 3-D-Print Organs and Who Will Be Able to Afford Them.” CNN, 10 March 2023.

Rosen, Ellen. “A Possible Weapon Against the Pandemic: Printing Human Tissue.” The New York Times, 27 July 2020.

Tang, Jenny. “Organ Regeneration With 3-D Printing, and Future Applications.” Imperial Bioscience Review, 28 Jan. 2022.

Glass Frogs: Clearing the Mystery of Clotting

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是  Leah Li 的作品。


两只玻璃青蛙倒睡在一片叶子上,从叶子的上侧背光。这篇来自得克萨斯州皮尔兰米尔顿学院的 14 岁的莉亚·李 (Leah Li) 撰写的这篇文章是学习网络第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

Glass Frogs: Clearing the Mystery of Clotting

In a world where transparency is key, these amphibians wear their hearts on their sleeves. A quick glance at their translucent underbelly reveals the vital organ, pumping tirelessly among a network of bones and blood vessels seemingly suspended in a lump of gelatinous material. This odd sight is the glass frog, a creature whose extreme adaptation may be the key to preventing fatal blood clots in humans.

Jesse Delia, one of the researchers behind the discovery, was inspired while shooting images of glass frogs in Panama. When the frog fell asleep on the petri dish, the circulatory system, typically “red with red blood cells,” did something shocking: “It was colorless,” Carlos Taboada, a biologist at Duke University, said of the phenomenon. “It was insane. I had never seen anything like that.”

While transparency is not unique to glass frogs, most transparent organisms are aquatic due to the favorable reflection of light on water. The hemoglobin oxygen-transport system, responsible for an overwhelming majority of oxygen in blood, makes the red blood cells of vertebrates appear opaque, discouraging terrestrial creatures from adapting transparent camouflage. Against all odds, however, the glass frog became one of the few translucent terrestrial creatures.

To investigate how the glass frog did the impossible, Dr. Delia, Dr. Taboada and their colleagues monitored the transparency of 11 frogs during various activities such as sleeping, calling to mates and exercising. The study found that when asleep, the transparency of a glass frog increased by 34 to 61 percent compared to that of waking states. Using photoacoustic imaging, a technique that detects red blood cells, the team discovered that the liver stored a staggering 89 percent of the red blood cells in their body when sleeping, effectively hiding these opaque giveaways from the view of predators. This adaptation immediately seemed improbable — with so many cells packed into the small organ, how does the glass frog prevent clotting?

In humans, an abnormally high concentration of red blood cells increases the risk of blood clots, potentially deadly buildups of blood that block circulation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clotting kills 100,000 individuals annually and is the leading cause of death in pregnant or postpartum women and individuals with cancer (second to cancer itself), indicating the urgent need for the breakthrough that glass frogs may bring.

Currently, anticoagulants are used to prevent the blood from clotting, but — in the words of Richard White, an oncologist commenting on the study — scientists are hopeful that “[t]his seemingly basic observation about glass frogs leads to very clear implications for human health.” Through targeted research on the frog’s ability to contain dense concentrations of red blood cells without clotting, researchers hope to replicate the natural success of this amphibian to save the lives of millions.

While the glass frog certainly did not adapt the easiest camouflage, its unique ability to concentrate almost all of its red blood cells in the liver holds great potential for the future of anticoagulants. Glass frogs remind us that the greatest discoveries might be staring us in the eye — we just might be looking right through them.

Works Cited

Daniel, Ari. “The Astonishing Vanishing Act of the Glassfrog, Revealed.” NPR, 26 Dec. 2022.

“Erythrocytosis” Cleveland Clinic, 5 July 2022.

“Impact of Blood Clots on the United States.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9 June 2022.

Mueller, Benjamin, and Denise Grady. “AstraZeneca Vaccine and Blood Clots: What Is Known so Far.” The New York Times, 10 Apr. 2021.

Rhodes, Carl, et al. “Physiology, Oxygen Transport.” National Library of Medicine, 14 Nov. 2022.

Taboada, Carlos, et al. “Glassfrogs Conceal Blood in Their Liver to Maintain Transparency.” Science, 22 Dec. 2022.

Tamisiea, Jack. “Glass Frogs Become See-through by Hiding Their Blood.” Science, 22 Dec. 2022.

Nature’s Solution to Plastic Pollution: The Amazing Power of the Wax Worm

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是 Justin Wang 的作品。

科学家们发现,一种用作鱼饵的毛虫可能是分解塑料的关键。

加利福尼亚州  Alhambra 高中 16 岁的Justin Wang撰写的这篇文章是学习网络第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

Nature’s Solution to Plastic Pollution: The Amazing Power of the Wax Worm

Scientists hold their breath as they slowly cut open the belly of the world’s largest animal, the whale. What tumbles out is horrifying: thousands of pieces of plastic weighing a staggering 220 pounds. In the winter of 2019, a young sperm whale was found dead on Luskentyre Beach in Scotland. Scientists concluded that a combination of nylon fishing nets and plastic bags clogged up the digestive system and starved the poor whale to death. Heartbreaking scenes like these, not uncommon in recent years, are a direct result of our human carelessness.

Efforts have been made to reduce plastic waste through reusing and recycling, but they are not nearly enough. Luckily, a recent discovery has brought some relief to both scientists and environmentalists.

Meet Dr. Federica Bertocchini, a Spanish biologist doubling as an amateur beekeeper. While cleaning out her hives, she noticed hive-damaging worms eating the beeswax and started to remove them. After tossing the worms into a plastic bag, she spotted small holes in it. Dr. Bertocchini examined the holes, and realized that the worms were feasting away at the plastic! Her biologist instincts kicked in, spurring her to bring the worms into a lab.

The Galleria mellonella larvae, also known as the “wax worm,” can seemingly “eat” polyethylene, one of the longest-lasting plastics that is very simple to make but hard to break down. Subsequent tests revealed the capability of these worms to chemically dissolve plastic at an unprecedented rate. What gives this worm such an ability? It turns out that beeswax and plastic are both composed of long chains of carbon, which allows phenol oxidase enzymes in worm saliva to oxidize and destroy these polymers. But the worms don’t care about this technical jargon — to them, it’s just another tasty treat.

Instead of raising millions of baby worms and letting them wander leisurely through plastic paradise, a more practical solution would be to harvest and replicate these enzymes for plastic degradation. As the team’s discovery gathers attention, Dr. Bertocchini suggests that water-based enzyme solutions could be implemented by waste processing plants or at-home plastic waste kits, establishing a wider distribution of this game-changing technology. With the participation of families all around the world, a trickle can become a torrent. What’s left would only be natural components, such as ketones or alcohol, deemed safe for release or reuse in other processes.

Although using wax worm saliva to dissolve plastic might not be a widespread solution for decades to come, it shines a light on sustainable ways to reduce waste. Bio-recycling, which uses nature to make resources from waste, has gained recognition as more people realize the efficiency of these methods. These little worms seem to be acting as messengers, reminding us to live in harmony with nature.

Works Cited

Bromwich, Jonah Engel. “A Very Hungry Caterpillar Eats Plastic Bags, Researchers Say.” The New York Times, 27 April 2017.

Diaz, Johnny. “Dead Whale, 220 Pounds of Debris Inside, Is a ‘Grim Reminder’ of Ocean Trash.” The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2019.

McGrath, Matt. “‘Humble’ Worm Saliva Can Break Down Tough Plastic.” BBC News, 5 Oct. 2022.

Sanluis-Verdes, A., et al. “Wax Worm Saliva and the Enzymes Therein Are the Key to Polyethylene Degradation by Galleria mellonella.” Nature Communications, 4 Oct. 2022.

Computing Creativity: Can A.I. Produce Art?

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是  Judah Spiegel 的作品。

加利福尼亚州 Albany Albany 高中 14 岁的犹大·斯皮格尔 (Judah Spiegel) 撰写的这篇文章是学习网络第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

Computing Creativity: Can A.I. Produce Art?

In 1992, Edward de Bono argued that “creativity is the most important human resource of all.” But might computers have the capacity to be creative? Could artificial intelligence surpass us in even the most human of phenomena? These questions have moved to the forefront of society with the launch of ChatGPT and DALL-E, two powerful deep learning models capable of creating art, albeit heavily based on existing ideas.

The source of human creativity is a complex and heavily-debated topic. One theory supposes that creativity emerges from solving problems in new ways. The game designer Mark Rosewater explains that “if you use the same neural pathways, you get to the same answers, and with creativity, that’s not your goal.” But studies from the University of Virginia suggest humans most default to solving problems by building on known solutions, restricting originality.

Some neuroscientists propose another theory regarding creativity. Research from the University of Calgary reveals that when being creative, humans don’t use the same brain regions associated with thought and problem-solving, implying that creativity is primarily an unconscious process. According to this theory, the brain solves problems best when not directly focusing on them using the frontal lobe, instead letting the other parts of the brain take over.

A.I. cannot currently emulate the full complexity of the human mind. Do these deep learning networks even have the required components that we use when we are creative? Douglas Hofstadter, in his award-winning book “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid,” explains how “emergent phenomena,” such as creativity, correspond to connections between levels within mental systems. Similar connections could exist in artificial neural networks, even if the underlying mechanics differ. For example, modern artificial intelligence employs attention circuits that may cause it to behave similarly to the frontal lobe where most of the brain’s focusing tendencies come from.

The emergent nature of creativity opens the door for similar tendencies in machines, but they are tuned so carefully to replicate existing ideas that it may not be enough for true originality. Mr. Rosewater’s theory on creativity suggests that for A.I. to be creative, it should be able to solve problems in new ways, which is difficult because A.I. is based so heavily on already existing ideas. Alternatively, if creativity is an unconscious process as the University of Calgary research suggests, then it occurs mostly outside the frontal lobe and may not exist in machine learning networks. Either way, current A.I. probably lacks the capacity for genuine creativity and originality, but it can combine existing ideas in interesting ways. Is this true creativity? Maybe not, but it is close.

The question of machine creativity has repercussions in many areas, such as developing copyright law regarding A.I. works, considering A.I. submissions in art contests, and determining the use of ChatGPT as a tool for school assignments. Creativity may be, at least for now, an exclusively human trait. Computers are not yet starting revolutionary artistic movements, but they are already combining what exists into something new, challenging us to look deeper into our own creativity.

Works Cited

Cho, Kyunghyun, et al. “Describing Multimedia Content Using Attention-Based Encoder-Decoder Networks.” IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Nov. 2015.

Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books, 1999.

Kwon, Diana. “Our Brain Typically Overlooks This Brilliant Problem-Solving Strategy.” Scientific American, 7 April 2021.

O’Connor, Ryan. “How DALL-E 2 Actually Works.” Assembly AI, 19 April 2022.

Rosewater, Mark. “Twenty Years, Twenty Lessons.” Magic the Gathering, 30 May 2016.

Stevens, Alison Pearce. “Study Is First to Link Brainwaves to Certain Forms of Thought.” Science News Explores, 8 March 2021.

Hearing Colors and Tasting Sounds: What Is Synesthesia?

我们通过发表论文来表彰学生 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者。这是  Erica Frischauf 的作品。

这篇来自俄亥俄州莱克伍德莱克伍德高中的 16 岁的埃里卡·弗里肖夫 (Erica Frischauf) 撰写的文章是学习网络第四届年度 STEM 写作比赛的前 10 名获奖者之一,我们收到了 3,000 多份参赛作品。

Hearing Colors and Tasting Sounds: What Is Synesthesia?

We’re all well aware of how we use our senses on a daily basis: We might hear a dog barking, or taste a crisp apple. But what if hearing that dog barking also caused you to see the color blue? Or tasting that apple caused you to hear a subtle G sharp? This could be an everyday occurrence for someone with synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a complex brain condition that involves a mixing of the senses. When one sense is stimulated for a person with synesthesia (known as a “synesthete”) another sense may react. There are many different forms and types of this. Chromesthesia (the association of sounds with colors) and grapheme-color synesthesia (the association of letters, numbers, words and symbols with colors) are the most common, but there seems to be an almost endless number of variations.

For a while, it was thought that synesthesia was just a product of overactive imaginations, but recent studies have shown significant differences in the ways the synesthete brain operates compared to a “normal” one. Each one of our senses is connected to a specific part of the brain. By using magnetic resonance imaging, scientists were able to show that synesthetes with chromesthesia had large amounts of activity in the visual parts of their brain when receiving auditory stimuli — activity that was absent from non-synesthetes undergoing the same treatment. Synesthetes have also been found to have higher levels of white matter, which is responsible for communication between different parts of the brain.

So why is this? What causes some people to taste bananas when listening to classical music? The answer may lie within their genetic code. Nearly half of all synesthetes have reported that a close relative also shares the same condition, suggesting that it might be a genetic trait. One of the leading theories is that synesthesia is a result of a mutated “pruning” gene. As we develop, some of the unnecessary connections within our brains get “pruned” away. But a mutation in this process could leave some of these connections untouched, resulting in a cross-wiring of the brain.

One of the more recent focuses of research on synesthesia, though, has been how it may benefit those with the condition. Multiple studies have concluded that synesthetes have exceptional memories. Research has found that synesthetes may have subtly enhanced senses: Those with color-related variations are better at differentiating between similar colors, and those with touch-related variations have a more sensitive sense of touch. Furthermore, synesthesia seems to be more common in artists and poets, suggesting that it may enhance creativity too.

Looking toward the future, synesthesia may be helpful in curing diseases involved with our brains’ networking systems and aiding those experiencing cognitive decline. It’s already been shown that synesthesia can be induced through drug use, sensory deprivation and hypnosis. Further research into this could provide ways for us to strengthen deteriorating connections within the brain and improve failing memories. Synesthesia is opening the door for all kinds of neural discoveries!

Works Cited

Bascom, Nick. “Unraveling Synesthesia.” Science News, 22 Nov. 2011.

Bower, Bruce. “When Brains Wring Colors From Words.” Science News, 18 March 2002.

Choi, Charles Q. “Why It Pays to Taste Words and Hear Colors.” Live Science, 22 Nov. 2011.

Cullen, Jamie. “How We All Could Benefit From Synesthesia.” The Guardian, 26 April 2014.

Gaidos, Susan, and Laura Sanders. “The Colorful World of Synesthesia.” Science News, 22 May 2008.

Tierney, Wesley. “Is the Letter ‘A’ Red?” Arizona State University, Ask a Biologist, 14 May 2019.