Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday called on young scientists to make the world a better place at the opening ceremony of the Fourth International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) in Taipei.
In an age of globalization, scientists should "break through the walls" of their labs and "join the international team across oceans and continents to better the lives of humankind," she said.
Lu said that scientific discoveries should aim to tackle challenges such as global warming, disease and poverty.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The IJSO, which tests students' knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and earth sciences, is the only international science competition targeted at teenagers under 16 years old.
The competition was initiated in 2004 to instill students with a lifelong passion for science, to inspire them to choose scientific careers and to form a global network for young scientists early in their careers so they could collaborate with one another in the future, Masno Ginting, IJSO's Indonesian founder and first president, said.
This year's event is being cohosted by the Ministry of Education and National Science Council and has 204 participants from 39 countries including Taiwan, the UK, Germany, Russia and Indonesia.
Each team will take a three hour theoretical test and a multiple choice test, and undertake a four hour experimental examination, IJSO president and National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) professor Yeh Ming-Chang (葉名倉) said.
The tests were written by professors from National Taiwan University, National Tsing-hua University and NTNU, and will be given to participants in their native languages, Yeh said, adding that evaluations will be done by an international panel of judges.
The youngest participant this year is 13-year-old Joris Dolderer from Germany, who qualified for last year's competition but was turned down because he was too young, Dolderer's teacher told the media.
Taiwan's representatives include Taipei's Jianguo High School sophomore Yang Chen (楊震), Taipei's Chin-hwa Junior High School 9th-grader Ku Po-yun (辜柏耘), Taipei County's Yong-ho Junior High School ninth-grader Chen Yu-an (陳昱安), Taichung Municipal Chu-jen Junior High School ninth-grader Huang Chao-wei (黃朝煒) and Tainan Jian-sing Junior High School ninth-grader Yang Hung-yu (楊泓翊).
The team began preparations for the competition in June.
"What we feel most pressured about isn't the competition, but how we can establish good relationships with representatives from other countries," Ku said.
Lu encouraged Ku's team to bring Taiwan's impressive record since 2004 -- five golds and one silver each year -- to a new level.
She said that though there were only a limited number of medals, the experience would be a big step for all participants in their scientific lives.
"Some of you may go on and invent `the next big thing,' others will make the discovery of the century," Lu said, adding, "No matter what the future brings you, I urge you all to retain a sense of discovery, love for humankind and the drive to better the world with scientific breakthroughs and progress."
The Olympiad ends on Monday.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its