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035: Current News for Kids – 13

Nov 08, 2020

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Hello all, We start our news with the unmissable news of Joe Biden being elected as the President of the United states. We have a quick look at 3 other countries which have gone through their elections in the recent past – Tanzania, Georgia and Ivory Coast. We listen more about the exciting news of how AI is helping us detect asymptomatic covid-19 affected people being detected with just their cough. TO compliment this, a little scientist may have found a way to stop Covid-19… We move on to see how China launched its first 6G test satellite and delve further into what all the buzz about 5G and 6G is… Major weather incidents never fail to make it to my fortnightly news and this time, it’s the Tropical Storm Eta pounding Cuba and Florida We end with 2 wonderful news… one in the deep ocean and one in space. Its regarding a really tall skyscraper size coral tower that has been discovered near the Great barrier reet in Pacific ocean and that our moon has been confirmed have water in the most familiar molecular form. We’ve also announced this month’s competition as ‘Best from Waste’. Please do send in your entries. I hope you enjoy listening

Transcripts

SEASON-3

EPISODE-035 CURRENT NEWS FOR KIDS-13

[0.01] {Background Music}

[0.08] Siyona: Hello All, hope you are all doing very well. Welcome to my podcast, little mind chats. Minds are little, not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona.

[0.18] In today’s news episode, we have some very interesting news from around the world. While there’s a common topic that’s making news across the world. Nope not Covid alone. It’s the US Elections!

[0.30] Joe Biden, who is the Democratic Party leader has won the elections to become the 46th president of the United States.

[0.39] People in the United States voted for their next leader on November 3rd. There are two main political parties in the US: The Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has chosen Donald Trump to represent it and the Democratic Party has chosen Joe Biden.

[1.00] There are 538 electoral votes available and whoever wins a majority of at least 270 will be declared president. Joe Biden won 290 of these electoral votes.

[1.18]

[1.22] The electoral college was introduced by the founders of the US to avoid states with a larger population being unfairly represented.

[1.34] Each of the 50 states in the US and Washington DC is given a set number of electors (at least three each), roughly proportionate* to its size and number of congressional districts.

[1.50] The elected president Joe Biden will be inaugurated* on Wednesday January 20th, 2021

[1.58] But it’s not just in US that elections are big news. There are at least 3 other countries who have recently had elections. Like in Tanzania, its president, John Magufuli, has been re-elected to a second five-year term, taking over 84% of the vote in Wednesday’s election. Tundu Lissu, Mr. Magufuli’s most serious opponent, took 13% of the vote.

[2.31] In Georgia, Georgian Dream (GD), the ruling party in the country of Georgia, says it won Saturday’s elections for parliament, taking 48% of the vote. The result seems to give GD its third straight election win, meaning Giorgi Gakharia will remain as prime minister.

[2.54] And finally, in Ivory Coast, President Alassane Ouattara has a large lead in the early voting results from Saturday’s Ivory Coast’s election.

[3.07] Mr. Ouattara, 78, is hoping for a third term as president – something the country’s constitution doesn’t allow.

[3.19] New AI Can Detect Covid-19 From a Cough

[3.24] We’ve all heard to a lot of news about Covid-19 off late. Many people who catch the virus clearly show symptoms of being ill, like having a fever or a dry cough. But many others show no signs at all. These people are “asymptomatic “.

[3.42] The good news is that the scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have developed a method of telling whether someone has the coronavirus, simply from their cough or the way they speak even if they are asymptomatic. That’s pretty amazing!!

[4.03] To accomplish this, the scientists turned on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) method known as “Deep Learning”.

[4.12] When the scientists tested their AI model, they found that it was able to identify 98.5% of all the cases where the person coughing had Covid-19. Even more impressive was the fact that it identified 100% of the asymptomatic people.

[4.34] While Detecting is one thing, Stopping Covid is a completely new challenge.

[4.43]

[4.50] 14-year-old Anika Chebrolu. The youngster from Frisco, Texas, was named the winner of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in a virtual event held on October 12 – 13, 2020, for her ground-breaking research that could lead to a cure for the coronavirus.

[5.12] Anika, who had been in eighth grade at the time of entry, had initially intended to research a compound that could bind the common flu virus protein and prevent the affliction from spreading. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she and her 3M mentor — Dr. Mahfuza Ali — decided to focus their efforts on identifying a molecule that could encompass the so-called “spike protein” that coronavirus uses to invade human cells. Restraining the viral protein could potentially stop its entry into the cells and stop the spread of the infectious disease.

[5.58] That’s very inspiring Anika. You’ve just proved how age doesn’t matter when you’re determined to help.

[6.06]

[6.13] China has successfully launched what has been described as “the world’s first 6G satellite” into space to test the technology. It involves use of high-frequency terahertz waves. 6G could be many times faster than 5G.

[6.30] But what are these 5G and 6G?

[6.33] Have you had an experience where you were using your parent’s phone to watch a YouTube video and it stopped suddenly waiting for rest of the video to load up? That happens because of the latency or low speed of the wireless networks.

[6.49] Currently 5G, or 5th generation of wireless networks is yet to be implemented across the world. 5G promises to bring faster speeds and lower latency, that is the time it takes data to move back and forth–meaning the apps and services you use, like video chat and mobile gaming, will be so much quicker. Networks will be about 20 times faster than 4G networks on average, meaning you could download Avengers: Endgame in the time it takes Thanos to snap his fingers.

[7.25] But China has gone one more step further and is looking at testing 6G or 6th Generation of Wireless networks. Which is what this news is about. They’ve launched a satellite that could help test the 6G wireless technology.

[7.43]

[7.50] Hurricane Eta is currently a re-strengthening strong tropical storm over the Caribbean Sea that recently became the second most intense November hurricane on record. Tropical Storm Eta began to explosively intensify, reaching hurricane status on November 3.

[8.12] It is lashing the Caribbean with torrential rainfall and damaging winds as it approaches Cuba. Besides heavy rain, Eta is expected to bring dangerous storm surge to coastal areas of Florida.

[8.27] Oh my, I hope all our friends in the Caribbean are safe in this situation.

[8.34] Here’s a wonderous news.

[8.38] Undersea Skyscraper Found at Great Barrier Reef. Scientists mapping the bottom of the sea around Australia have discovered an underwater coral tower near the Great Barrier Reef that’s taller than New York’s Empire State Building.

[8.55] It’s the tallest underwater structure discovered in over 120 years. The Great Barrier Reef in the Pacific Ocean is the largest coral reef in the world. It runs for over 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometres) off the northeast coast of Australia. The reef is home to thousands of different forms of underwater life.

[9.19] The researchers who discovered the reef were on a year-long trip aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research ship Falkor. They were working to map the sea floor around Australia. The scientists used a special underwater robot called Sebastian to help them explore and develop 3D maps.

[9.42] In late October, as part of their exploration, the team came across the tower. It’s known as a “detached reef”, as its structure isn’t attached to the Great Barrier Reef, but rises on its own from the sea floor.

[9.57] I wish I will be able to visit this underwater wonder someday.

[10.03] And finally,

[10.09] The presence of ice in the permanently shadowed craters around the Moon’s poles has been known for some time. However, researchers had been unsure if the hydration detected on the satellite’s sunlit side areas was “molecular” water (H2O), or hydroxyl (OH), On October 26, 2020, NASA confirmed that the liquid was indeed water.

[1.038] “We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, Director of Astrophysics at NASA. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”

[11.05] However, before you start packing your bags for our satellite, be warned that the water concentration is extremely low — about 100 to 412 parts per million. To be put it in perspective, the Sahara Desert has about 100 times more water! “This is not puddles of water but instead water molecules that are so spread apart that they do not form ice or liquid water,” said NASA researcher Casey Honniball, who led the study. Though not enough to sustain humans, the discovery is significant because water is a rare and precious resource in deep space.

[11.52] I hope you enjoyed and learnt a few new things from today’s news episode.

[11.58] Did you know that the waste we dispose day in and day out actually has a deep environmental impact? I’ve recently tried my hands on following what they taught me at school. Which is to re-use as much as we can. It turned out to be a lot of fun to make new things out of some waste things at home. I made lots of Halloween decorations, 3D glasses out of candy wrappers, planting saplings in egg tray and so many more…. That’s where I got the idea for this month’s competition

[12.33] Its….’Best out of Waste’.

[12.35] All you need to do is, collect a few things you might throw away, and create a new useful thing out of it. Make sure you send me a picture of it by Thursday, 26th November.

[12.48] I’m so looking forward to your entries. Please do follow me on Instagram, Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. Do visit my website, Littlemindchats.com. Send in your thoughts to siyona@littlemindchats.com.

[13.03] Thanks a ton for listening… Bye.