More computer related subjects to be introduced

by Ananda Kannangara

The Education Ministry has focused attention towards introducing more computer related English medium subjects from Grade Six onwards in schools in the country this year, under the proposed new education system.

Accordingly, school children from Grade Six will get an opportunity to study new computer related subjects until they finish their secondary school education at the GCE (AL) Examination.

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane told the Junior Observer that the objective of this move is to encourage the future generation in computer related education, considering the increasing local and foreign job opportunities.

He said under the 1000 school development programme which began during the early part of last year, most schools were equipped with modern computer laboratories comprising experienced teachers, so that students could easily access into the Information Technology (IT) era.

He said he also directed Zonal Education officers to conduct a survey and list out schools which lack basic facilities such as computer laboratories and experienced teachers, so that action could be taken to rectify this in the new year. Minister Gunawardane further said the Government's intention is to encourage at least 75 per cent of the students to follow science and commerce subjects along with IT and English as additional subjects, considering the fact that a large number of local and foreign employment opportunities are currently available in the job market.

The Minister advised students who are studying arts subjects also to follow IT and English courses as computer related jobs are available not only in the private sector, but also in the State sector.

Minister Gunawardane also called upon the children in the country to improve their English speaking ability as this is a necessary qualification to find jobs in both the private and state sector. He said when applicants go for job interviews, employers give preference to those who excel in English.

Best places to be born in 2013

What's the best place to be born in 2013? Switzerland. Though America may be the “land of opportunity,” Switzerland will be the best place to be born in 2013 according to a quality-of-life index from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The EIU, a sister company to The Economist magazine, determines quality of life based on surveys of the population covering 11 factors including wealth, crime, family life, trust in government and the stability of the economy. Income estimates for babies born in 2013 are based on projections for the year 2030, when those children will come of age.

The top ten best places to be born in 2013:

1. Switzerland
2. Australia
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Singapore
7. New Zealand
8. The Netherlands
9. Canada
10. Hong Kong

With its small but very stable economy, Switzerland comes in first, wealthy, healthy and trusting of its public institutions. The United States, “where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place,” the EIU explains. Feeling the effects of the European monetary crisis, “the largest European economies, France (26), Germany (tied with the U.S. for (16) and Britain (27), don't do particularly well.”

The quality-of-life index also reflects changes in the Middle East and North Africa, where “life expectancy continues to increase steadily and political freedoms have spread across the globe,” though Nigeria comes in as the worst place for a baby to be born in 2013.

Other interesting ratings include China, coming in at 49, and Russia, coming in at 72.Back in 1988, the United States was in the first place, with France in the second, and West Germany in the third. Zimbabwe was the last, with Iraq second to last and Iran third to last.

All said, the takeaway from the index seems to be that in today's world, a country's stability and trust in public institutions results in the best quality of life for its citizens.

Sun-like star may have habitable planet

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Hertfordshire recently discovered that Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars, may host five planets -- with one in the star's habitable zone.

At a distance of twelve light years and visible with the naked eye in the evening sky, Tau Ceti is the closest single star that has the same spectral classification as our Sun. Its five planets are estimated to have masses between two and six times the mass of Earth -- making it the lowest-mass planetary system yet detected. One of the planets lies in the habitable zone of the star and has a mass around five times that of Earth, making it the smallest planet found to be orbiting in the habitable zone of any Sun-like star.

The international team of astronomers, from the UK, Chile, the USA, and Australia, combined more than six-thousand observations from three different instruments and intensively modelled the data. Using new techniques, the team has found a method to detect signals half the size previously thought possible.

This greatly improves the sensitivity of searches for small planets and suggests that Tau Ceti is not a lone star but has a planetary system.

Mikko Tuomi, from the University of Hertfordshire and the first author of the paper, said: “We pioneered new data modelling techniques by adding artificial signals to the data and testing our recovery of the signals with a variety of different approaches.

This significantly improved our noise modelling techniques and increased our ability to find low mass planets.”

“We chose Tau Ceti for this noise modelling study because we had thought it contained no signals.

And as it is so bright and similar to our Sun it is an ideal benchmark system to test out our methods for the detection of small planets,” commented Hugh Jones from the University of Hertfordshire.

James Jenkins, Universidad de Chile and Visiting Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, explained: “Tau Ceti is one of our nearest cosmic neighbours and so bright that we may be able to study the atmospheres of these planets in the not too distant future.

Planetary systems found around nearby stars close to our Sun indicate that these systems are common in our Milky Way galaxy.”Over 800 planets have been discovered orbiting other worlds, but planets in orbit around the nearest Sun-like stars are particularly valuable.

Steve Vogt from University of California Santa Cruz said: “This discovery is in keeping with our emerging view that virtually every star has planets, and that the galaxy must have many such potentially habitable Earth-sized planets.

They are everywhere, even right next door! We are now beginning to understand that Nature seems to overwhelmingly prefer systems that have a multiple planets with orbits of less than one hundred days. This is quite unlike our own solar system where there is nothing with an orbit inside that of Mercury. So our solar system is, in some sense, a bit of a freak and not the most typical kind of system that Nature cooks up.”

“As we stare the night sky, it is worth contemplating that there may well be more planets out there than there are stars … some fraction of which may well be habitable,” remarked Chris Tinney from the University of New South Wales.

Science Daily