钟表运转的奥秘
Tick Tock . Tick Tock . The sounds of clocks and timepieces surround me . I’m standing inside the Willard House & Clock Museum in North Grafton, Massachusetts .
Level 4: Emerging Scholars (Age 14–16, Grades 9–10)
Tick Tock . Tick Tock . The sounds of clocks and timepieces surround me . I’m standing inside the Willard House & Clock Museum in North Grafton, Massachusetts .
The rule of law demands that similar cases have similar outcomes. Otherwise, the law won’t be equitable and fair. And the public won’t accept arbitrary court rulings that lack sound reasoning. So, lawyers use reasoning when they urge juries and judges to rule for their clients. And judges must use logic to explain their decisions.
法庭控、辩中的逻辑推理 Continue reading »
Amanda was three years old and had no interest in learning to use the bathroom. Her father, Steven Levitt, decided to try something new. He told his daughter, “Amanda, every time you go pee pee in the potty, I’m going to give you M&Ms. Okay?” Amanda loved M&Ms. At first, the plan seemed to be working perfectly. Amanda started going to the bathroom to pee. Levitt was very pleased with himself. But just a few days later, things changed. A few minutes after Amanda went to the bathroom, she said she had to go again! Every few minutes, she wanted to try to pee – just so she could get her candy reward. This wasn’t what Levitt had in mind at all.
为什么我们要关注经济学 Continue reading »
When you think of software development, you probably think first of a person writing code. In fact, for any important piece of software, there will be many people involved and only some are developers.
一款软件是如何开发出来的 Continue reading »
People have always looked into the sky and tried to explain what they saw. Some early civilizations created fantastic stories to explain the patterns above us. Our modern scientific understanding shows the truth is more extraordinary than any of these tales. Some small dots of light in the sky are actually enormous objects called galaxies, made up of billions of stars, some so far away that it took billions of years for the light to reach us. These galaxies are shaped, not by the exploits of gods, but by a whole range of incredible objects, like black holes in space from which nothing can ever escape.
As a small child, did you build forts out of branches or snow? Or use the building block to create your first architectural work? If you did, you had to think like an architect. An architect is someone who transforms space with buildings, gardens, and other structures . But they don’t do this merely for practical purposes . Architects are artists. Instead of paint or clay, they work with structures and spaces to express important ideas or evoke human emotion. Architects are also scientists and engineers who study the world and find ways to solve problems and create order. Architects might even question existing ways of thinking to move civilization forward.
面对建筑、体验建筑——像建筑师那样思考 Continue reading »
Flattened homes. Crumpled cars. Broken trees . Emergency shelters filled with shaken, distraught victims. This was what the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas looked like in the days after Hurricane Dorian struck in September 2019. “Everything is gone,” survivor Robert Cornea told CBS news . He and his wife had lived on the islands for more than fifty years. They lost everything they owned in the storm but escaped with their lives . Many others didn’t. Officially, seve nty people died , b ut some estimate that the actual number was in the hundreds. “People lost family members, they watched people slip away right out of their arms into the water,” June Russell, a fishing guide who lives in the Bahamas, told NBC news.
预测风暴——气旋与反气旋的科学研究和历史 Continue reading »
I didn’t set out to become a science writer. I wrote fantasy stories about magic portals and imaginary worlds all through grade school, high school, and college. But then I got an internship at a children’s magazine group, and all of their magazines were nonfiction. Toward the end of my internship, the science magazine’s editor wanted to profile a biometrics expert in one issue, and she asked me to do the interview. I agreed, but I was terrified. Would this person agree to talk to me? Would she know I’d never done this before? I knew nothing about biometrics . Would I sound stupid?
一名科普作家的写作经验 Continue reading »
An old adage holds that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The saying refers to the subjective nature of beauty. What one person finds beautiful might not appeal to someone else.