Science is increasingly central to our lives — from its role in creating day-to-day objects such as the smartphones in our pockets, to the big challenges of tackling disease, addressing climate change and focusing on biodiversity loss.

Many of the changes that the discipline brings are hugely beneficial, but they often come with potential downsides that demand public debate. Will artificial intelligence take people’s jobs or destroy elections with false news? How fast can we practically achieve a net zero economy?

For the crucial public debate that is needed on all this to take place, we must have a scientifically literate population. But there is a divide between the scientifically minded and those who choose not to engage with science.

It saddens me that our culture now views science as difficult, which discourages many from taking an interest in it. A British Science Association (BSA) survey recently suggested that only around a third of 14- to 18-year-olds find scientists inspirational or consider the subject to be relevant to their lives.

In fact, science is interlinked with every aspect of our existence and people from all walks of life and of all ages should be able to access it easily. The invention of the printing press was crucial to the Enlightenment because it democratised (普及) knowledge. So, in this increasingly science-centred world, the same attention should be given to popular science writing as is given to other forms of literature.

The Royal Society Science Book Prize is the only one in the world to promote popular science writing. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, which was shortlisted (把……列入入围名单) for the prize in 1989, was written for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics and has since become a universally recognised text on the universe.

Democratising science has never been more important. There are so many scientific stories to be told that can help us better understand ourselves. A society equipped with a solid understanding of the issues of the day is a society more able to respond to them in a better way.

Taking photographs at a birthday or a wedding has become as natural as blowing out candles or cutting the cake. But our obsession (痴迷) with recording every detail of our happiest moments could be damaging our ability to remember them, according to a new research. A study has shown that taking pictures rather than concentrating fully on the events in front of us prevents memories taking hold.

Dr. Linda Henkel, from Fairfield University, Connecticut, described it as the “photo-taking impairment effect”. She said: “People so often pull out their cameras almost mindlessly to capture a moment, to the point where they are missing what is happening right in front of them. When people rely on technology to remember for them—counting on the camera to record the event and thus not needing to attend to it fully themselves—it can have a negative impact on how well they remember their experiences.”

Dr. Henkel and her team carried out an experiment in a museum, to learn if taking pictures of the exhibits was hindering(阻碍)the ability of visitors to remember what they had seen.

A group of university students were led on a tour at the Bellarmine Museum of Art at Fairfield University and were asked to either photograph or remember objects on display. The next day their memory was tested. The results showed that people were less accurate in recognizing the objects they had photographed than those they had only looked at. It was found that their memory for the details of the objects they had photographed was poorer.

Henkel’s lab is currently investigating whether the content of a photo, such as whether you are in it, affects later memory. She is also researching whether actively choosing what to photograph might influence what we remember.

Previous research suggests that reviewing photos we have taken does help us remember the objects, but only if we take the time.

“Research has suggested that the sheer volume and lack of organization of digital photos for personal memories discourages many people from accessing and recalling them. In order to remember, we have access and interact with the photos, rather than just collect them,” said Dr. Henkel.

Over the years, education technology has changed so greatly that it may be challenging to keep up with all the changes.

Online learning has changed a lot over the years. There was a time when learning mostly occurred when the students and the teachers were in the same place. Now, it is possible for a student in Kenya to attend classes in China, do their exams, pass and get their certificates Remember the days when, if you needed a textbook, you either had to go to the library or to buy a physical copy? Now, there are many books you can find online. With Open Educational Resources, it is possible to find digital versions of some resources like textbooks. You can save the money for something else.

Long gone are the days when some few individuals held most of the knowledge, and the rest learned from them. Now, thanks to the Internet, anyone can learn and teach.

Take blogs for example. With blogs, anyone can give an account of their activities and their opinions, and discuss places they have visited on their websites. Of course, there are drawbacks to the technological advancement. One of the main problems is that it is easy for someone to publish wrong information.

Artificial intelligence is changing many ways of the education industry, from teaching to administration. For example, Al can be used to monitor a student’s progress and give reports to the teachers. Teachers can use Al to analyze students’ records and results and give feedback. Some universities are even using AI to teach.

When it comes to education technology, it is clear that some technological advancements were not directly created for education but have made learning more accessible. For example, one may not consider social media as educational technology.

However, consider how many people who have similar ideas have been connected and shared information over social media with those who would not have met otherwise.

This adaptation of different technological tools from different fields is helping improve the quality of education for students everywhere.