The smallest mass of the North Pole's ice during summer reached an all-time low in September 2011. The last estimations were recorded 30 years ago, in 1972. It now covers only 1.63 million square miles, Europe's size basically.
Each year, sea ice melts around the edges in summer and reforms in winter. But because of global warming (which is a consequence of pollution), the ice melts much faster than it solidifies. As a result, sea ice is gradually decreasing!
If temperature on Earth continues to rise, the North Pole could disappear completely during summer! The last time such a phenomenon happened was 125,000 years ago in the Arctic! That was an eternity ago!
Not to mention that when the North Pole's ice melts, the water makes its way back into the ocean. If it keeps on melting, there could be a 12-inch sea level rise.
If this happens, various polar species (penguins, polar bears, etc.) might go extinct and some countries might even be submerged by water.
Wouldn't that be a disaster?

Internet is a huge space where people from all over the world gather.
It is a very interesting tool but beware, you should know how to use it! First, you must be careful and should know in real life the people you communicate with, not to mention you must never give your personal information (phone number, address, etc.).
You should also be respectful of the friends you chat with on the Internet. Some people tend to think that since the person is not right in front of them when they're having a conversation, they can allow themselves to do and say hurtful things without expecting any consequence.
Unfortunately, incidents of this kind happen more often than you might think and studies have shown that a teenager in four has already argued with a friend during a conversation on the internet. Some of them even had a fight! That's a shame...
Internet should strengthen friendships not the opposite. You should simply behave yourself and adopt a positive attitude towards other people. Don't you agree?

Do you know what gluten is? It is a substance that is found in many foods such as bread, biscuits, pasta, some ready-made foods, etc. Now, did you know that some people are intolerant to gluten? That is to say, when they eat it, their body reacts negatively. Even if they vary from one person to another, several symptoms were indeed detected in patients.
But those who suffer from gluten intolerance will generally have digestive problems, stomach, back or joint aches, bloating, muscle cramps, numbness of the limbs. They might be in low spirits or even suffer from depression.
It is a disease that should not be taken lightly because even if it seems less serious than other conditions, it is very hard for some patients to deal with it. Sometimes, it even becomes unbearable.
There is no medication to treat gluten intolerance; you just have to make sure you do not eat foods that contain gluten, which is rather difficult since it is present in many of them.
Fortunately, gluten-free foods can be found on the market today, and gluten-intolerant people can now eat gluten-free pasta safely.

A sound alternative, isn't it?

"If you cannot fight jellyfish ... eat them!" That is what UN food and agriculture experts told us.

Jellyfish are actually causing more and more trouble worldwide and especially in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Jellyfish invade our seas because there is an overfishing of their main predators (tuna and turtles), which allows them to reproduce in larger quantities.

So why not eat jellyfish? Chinese and Japanese people already do. Jellyfish are often prepared in salads; they are crispy and filled with protein and have a salty taste. Beware though, jellyfish are like mushrooms; not all of them are edible.

It is also possible to use them in cosmetics. There is in fact a kind of long-lived jellyfish which could be used in cosmetics for anti-aging treatments.

Isn't it better to eat than be bitten by jellyfish?
Have you ever eaten jellyfish? Would you enjoy a salad of jellyfish?

We have already seen marble, bronze or wood sculptures. However, a few years ago, we've witnessed another style of sculpture that is less known: Lego sculpture! Yes, it does exist! Nathan Sawaya, a full-fledged American artist, makes of Lego sculpture his very job. The 38-year-old artist played with Lego bricks for the first time when he was only a child. Then, he worked for the Lego Company during six months and decided to become a "Lego artist". Even the company recognized Sawaya as a Lego professional! His sculptures depict men, women, animals, food, crayons, dinosaurs, and much, much more! Today, he sells some of his works and exhibits others in various museums in the United States. His exhibition "The Art of the Brick" was a success.
Being a big kid turned out to be quite rewarding, don't you think?

Did you know that the notion of time can vary from one individual to another?
When you're at school for example, you may have the feeling that time passes very slowly, that the clock hands are frozen and that class will never end. Similarly, when you're doing something you love, time flies and you would like it to last longer.
Do you know what causes this difference in perception?
Scientists met last month to discuss the matter and agreed to say that, one thing is for sure; each one of us perceives time at different rates.
According to these scientists, chronobiology and age could be involved. For example, your grandparents, who have a slower heart rate than yours, feel that hours go by faster.
Emotions can also give you this impression and accelerate the pace of time. When playing with your best friends, time goes faster than when you're bored, alone at home!
What about you? Do you ever feel like time goes on more or less quickly?

Alex Rawlings is only 20 years old and already speaks 11 languages fluently!
A contest was held to see who spoke more languages in England.
Alex won with 11 languages at hand: English, German, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Dutch, French, Afrikaans, Hebrew, Catalan and Italian. And he's only 20!
He learned to speak Greek, English and French since he was a child and then traveled extensively.
He spent eight months in Russia and now knows the language very well.
Alex is currently studying German and Russian at the University of Oxford.
According to the student, learning languages is a playful and pleasurable activity above all. To succeed, he memorizes song lyrics.
However, Greek remains his favorite language. In fact, it is the first language he acquired thanks to his mother's Greek origins.
Now, he would like to learn Arabic, Serbian and Polish. Learning these languages should not be too hard, he says, not as hard as Russian.
Which one of you speaks more languages?

February 6, 2012, Dana Jackson, resident of a nursing home in Bowling Street, Kentucky, United States, remarried at the age of a hundred years!
Dana met her husband Bill Strauss, 87, when she first visited the home, two years before their marriage.
Bill said that he fell in love with Dana at first sight.
The centennial bride did not think she would remarry but Bill, she says, is such a good person.
A few hours before the event, she was full of vitality. "I feel I am only fifty, not a hundred," she says.
For the record, Dana has been married three times. The first time was at the age of 15, that is to say 85 years ago! Bill has been married once and for 55 years.
The ceremony took place at the Rosewood medical center. Dana wore a long white dress and a wedding veil.
Reverend Hohman, who presided over the ceremony, told the guests that they will probably never witness such a wedding again.

The Civil Drone was presented to the aviation professionals as well as to the visitors of the Paris Air Show (International Air Show) which was held on the 17th and lasted until the 23rd of last June.

These machines are a bit similar to flying robots because they are remotely controlled from ground level and are therefore unmanned aircraft. They are smaller and lighter than an airplane and are inexpensive to build. These machines are very useful for military and civilian missions.

Drones were first used in the army to conduct military missions in countries where there were conflicts. Drones have recently been integrated in the civilian sector by firefighters to watch out for forest fires, by farmers to accurately measure their land, and by journalist reporters who are interested in taking pictures of inaccessible areas. To give you an example of its outstanding performance, a drone can detect a milk carton at an altitude of 11 miles!

Do you know the flip-flop brand FishFlops? Well, it is a brand of flip-flops created by an American 15-year old! Her name is Madison Robinson. She enjoys fishing, swimming, drawing and going to the beach. Madison started to draw shoes with sea creatures at the age of 8; that is when FishFlops came to being.

Today, Madison owns more than 30 stores. Over 2 year, she received more than 60,000 orders and earned more than a million dollars. She also donated money to needy children (orphans, soldiers' children, hospitalized children, etc.).

Madison's brand also allows her to raise public awareness of the protection of oceans and marine fauna, a cause to which she is committed.
After an interview, Madison Robinson conveyed her message to the youth worldwide. "Believe in yourself and in your projects. Trust and be open to others. Exchange. Be patient. You will need it all to fulfill your dreams."

Cyberactivism is an online means of expression that aims at defending a specific cause. The word "cyber" refers to anything that is internet-related. Cyberactivists are therefore people who defend their ideas on the Internet or use it to reach a larger number of people for that purpose.

Cyberactivism allows a person defending a certain cause to start an online petition and bring together people from all over the world to share their concern. For example, you can sign petitions for chalk to be reused in schools, for the protection of wolves, or against the repression of demonstrations in Turkey!

Cyberactivism is a genuine democratic tool as it allows people all around the world to express and share their opinions. This is also why websites that provide online petitions are banned in countries where citizens do not have the right to express themselves freely.
What cause do you defend? Would you like to organize petitions for certain causes?

We would like to welcome Croatia to the European Union!

Croatia is the 28th member state of the European Union since the 1st of July. Thousands of people gathered in the main city square in Zagreb (capital of Croatia) to celebrate Croatia's joining of the European Union.
How can a European country become a member of the European Union?
It took 10 years for Croatia to become a member state of the European Union. Why?

First, there are certain basic conditions to abide by in order to be eligible. These conditions consist in being located in Europe and meeting the European Union's values as far as freedom, democracy and human rights are concerned.

If an application is accepted by the European Union, the country receives financial assistance to improve its economic and political situation.

Croatia submitted its application for membership in 2003 and was granted the status of candidate in 2004.

Discussions are then held between the candidate country and the European Union to study the submitted application at length.

Given that it will abide by the laws of the European Union, the candidate country becomes officially a member of the Union as long as its policies and economy are stable. Croatia had to solve issues of corruption that prevailed in the country.

If the accession to the European Union is granted, an accession treaty is signed and approved by the candidate country and all the member state countries, without exception. Then, the country officially becomes a member of the European Union.

There are now five countries on the European Union list of candidates: Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Iceland.

Nota Bene: The European Union exists since 1945.

David Gallo, an American scientist, shares with us a journey into the depths of the ocean in order to explain the wealth of our planet and the importance of its biodiversity.
The underwater world is still unknown to man because it is difficult to reach. However, with submarines and special cameras, scientists have been able to explore the deep ocean.
Oceans cover 75% of the surface of the Earth. In other words, oceans can tell the story of our planet's evolution so that we can better understand and protect it.

Click here to see the explanation given by the scientist. What is your opinion?

Holiday departures mean inevitable traffic jams. You've probably been in one or more traffic jams on your way to your holiday destination but do you know how they form?

Traffic jams are a matter of supply and demand: supply is the number of cars that a road can accommodate and demand is the trips that drivers want to do at a specific time and place. Therefore, if 8000 cars pile up at the same time on a highway that can accommodate only 6000, there's a traffic jam. These jams usually occur after work hours (when everyone goes back home), on weekends and holiday departures but also when there has been an accident. Have you been in a traffic jam this summer?

Carmelo Flores Laura would be the oldest man in the world! This man is indeed 123 years. He lives in Bolivia (South America) in a small village situated more than 4,000 meters above sea level.

He was born on the 16th of July 1890. He has recently celebrated his 123th birthday for the Guinness Book of Records and the world to see. The big book of world records will make this man's record official after verification. The Guinness Book editors would like to find the birth certificate of Carmelo, but it is almost impossible to find a birth certificate from 1890 in Bolivia. Another idea came to their mind; they thought of determining his age using his teeth! It is indeed possible to determine the average age of a person using his teeth. Unfortunately, the man did not have any teeth left!

Until the Guinness Book of Records agrees to validate the record of the world's oldest man, Carmelos Laura Flores looks at the entire world getting agitated around him, keeps eating his coca leaves and continues his simple and quiet life in his village.

If the record is made official, it would outscore the record of the French Jeanne Calment who lived 122 years.

Following a survey conducted on grassland butterflies in 19 European countries, the European Environment Agency stated that half of these butterflies have disappeared from European grasslands over the last 20 years.

Did you know that butterflies live only a few weeks or even days? Their lives are brief but essential. Birds, foxes and spiders love feeding on butterflies. Like bees, butterflies carry pollen between fruit trees and plants and so contribute to their life. The abundance of butterflies and bees is a sign of a healthy and rich natural biodiversity.

Why do you think they're disappearing? Butterflies, like their friends the bees, undergo environmental changes brought about by man. The countryside witnesses an increase in urban constructions (roads, residential areas, etc.) which reduces the butterflies' living space. Moreover, huge fields have replaced the small pieces of land that used to enjoy considerable biodiversity. In addition, these huge fields are treated with chemicals that are a major cause of the disappearance of butterflies as well as bees.

However, the decline of the butterfly and bee populations is worrying but not alarming. Their number not only remains high, but butterflies and bees are likely to migrate to the city where the use of chemicals is less important.

Don't tell any more lies, would the fairy warn Pinocchio, your nose will grow again! Researchers at the University of Granada in Spain have discovered that even though our nose doesn’t grow anyways, it could still betray our lies.

To make such a discovery, they used thermography. This technique uses special cameras that measure body heat.

Thus, they found out that when there is mental effort involved, the patient's facial temperature would decrease.

Conversely, when the patient is anxious, that temperature would increase.
And when the patient was asked to lie, only his nose heated up, becoming red and slightly swollen.

According to the conclusions drawn, the insular cortex (the cerebral region responsible of our consciousness and control of body temperature) would trigger this physical reaction.

It is not very different from Pinocchio's growing nose. Italian author Carlo Collodi was not so far from the truth when he wrote the story of Pinocchio in 1878!

Have you ever heard of light pollution? Light pollution is due to too powerful or misaligned street lights.

The night is not dark as you might believe because then, almost all cities of the world are lit by street lights, advertising signs, illuminated display cases, offices and car parks.
In less than twenty years, we have almost doubled our street lights from 5.52 million to 9.2 million!

This pollution that prevents us from enjoying a starry sky also causes energy waste (unnecessary street lights) and disrupts the sleep of animals and plants but also that of human beings.

In Norway, a funny game replaced the famous Angry Birds. Surprisingly enough, this one is a math game loved by kids!

It is the story of a desperate professor whose students do not like math. So he created a simple and effective game which allows 5-year old children to solve 5th grade math problems! It's called Dragon Box.

It can be downloaded on mobile phones and tablets. The game is divided into five worlds, each containing 20 levels. It has maps of the world showing small friendly monsters. Dragon Box is simple: the screen is divided in two. There is a box on one side and different maps on both. To complete a level, you must isolate the box on one side, and simplify the map to the maximum on the other. Throughout the levels, new elements appear and the little monsters transform into numbers and equations. The game is all the rage in Norwegian schools.

Do you know Dragon Box? If not, it's your turn!

Squinting won't be enough to see this masterpiece.

Students at the Georgia Institute of Technology based in Atlanta have recreated the Mona Lisa. But in order to see it, you will need a microscope! This invention is not just a fantasy but a scientific research and experimentation to develop electronic microscopic.
The mini redo of Leonardo Da Vinci's 1517 painting is a third of the width of a human hair. Amazing right?! Did you know this was even possible to reproduce an art work in such a small dimension?
What do you think about that?

Everyone has already seen a chimpanzee in pictures or on TV, but do you know that this species is in danger?

Chimpanzees live in the forests and grasslands of 21 African countries. In 1960, there were a million chimpanzees in the wild.

Today, only 200,000 remain. They are sometimes hunted by leopards and lions, but their greatest threat is us human beings. In 20 years, if nothing is done to protect them, they would be extinct in 10 of these countries because of hunting, disease and habitat loss.

The chimpanzee is a very funny and intelligent animal: it makes faces, cries, walks on his fists and swings around, but it is also an animal that knows how to use tools (a stone to crack a nut) and that experiences emotions such as anger or sadness.

In Disneynature's movie Chimpanzee that was released on the 20th of February, you can learn more about this animal through the story of the little orphan chimp named Oscar. Hopefully, this film will awaken the desire to protect chimpanzees in the countries where they are endangered.

We have already talked about it almost a year ago and we're bringing it up today as 3D printers are getting more and more attention. Do you know how a 3D printer works?

First, you have to connect the printer to your computer and then send it a file containing the blueprint of an object you want to create. Instead of putting ink cartridges in your machine, you put in the plastic that will melt and become liquid.

The 3D printer then springs into action! It injects each drop of plastic exactly according to the blueprint you sent. The stacked plastic takes the shape of your object and becomes solid. A few minutes later, your three-dimensional object is ready, hence the name "3D printer".

Only companies could afford the very high costs when such printers were first available. Today, it is affordable to buy a personal 3D printer for the price of a television.

They are still quite expensive (around $550) but they will gradually be affordable for common use. This new machine will certainly revolutionize our lives and especially our way of making objects. You'll be able to give free rein to your imagination to create objects while selecting the color and quantity of your choice.

Today, the creation of consumer-targeted objects is still limited but the 3D printer will soon design wood or metal materials for a variety of purposes. What object do you want to make?

Singing along with the lyrics? Who would have thought of such a simple invention?

Who do you think invented karaoke?

It was Daisuke Inoue!

In 1969, Daisuke Inoue, a Japanese businessman, former salesman of pancakes and drum player, was invited by a company to play music at a convention. Unable to make it to the venue, he decided to make a machine he could use to sing live without backup and karaoke, which literally means "empty orchestra", was born. Karaoke then conquered all of Japan, as well as the United States and Europe. It is now rooted in modern Japanese traditions; every bar has karaoke. You can sing in public or book a private room for an evening to sing with friends. Have you ever tried karaoke with friends or family?

For 18 years, Surfrider Foundation Europe struggles daily to ensure that aquatic waste on shores be recognized as a real pollutant that has to be seriously considered as an issue in the protection of the environment.

You may have noticed that there was waste on the beach instead of in the garbage pail, on your last sea holidays. These wastes include toxic products that affect nature. That is why environmental organizations speak of sea pollution. In addition, sea animals may die because they take bottles or plastic bags for the fish they feed on.

The bags you find most often in stores are made of plastic that is itself made from oil. Oil is a natural (produced by nature) raw material consisting of toxic elements. Therefore, it is important not to dispose of plastic waste in your natural environment.

What could be done to solve this problem? Have you ever encountered this issue on a beach?

Have you ever heard of Google Glass?

Google Glass is a pair of glasses (designed by the American company Google) that can be connected to a smartphone.

These glasses have a small glass screen that allows you to have access to information when connected to a smartphone. You will therefore be able to make phone calls, read messages, take pictures or videos of everything you can see via voice command; that is by saying "take a picture" or "record a video" for example. But that's not all! Google Glass will also guide you by GPS, search the web, find information about your flights and instantly translate sentences into any target language.

The idea is that you will constantly have some kind of computer with you. You can take videos of a whole day spent in an amusement park or have a look at the prices of your friends' clothes.

Many people wonder whether an invention that can shoot and record everything while being constantly connected to the Internet will positively affect users' lives, for the issue of privacy may be raised here.

We know that there are rules and laws that regulate the use of mobile phones while driving or in cinemas for example, and that each user must learn how to use this new technology.

Do you think this is a good invention? Would you try this gadget?

This telescope is located in South America, in the desert of Chile, over 5000 meters in altitude.

A telescope is used for space observation and is generally much more powerful than a refracting telescope. A radio telescope such as Alma is a very special telescope. It is able to observe invisible signals –called radio waves –that are emitted by stars.

Alma has 66 antennas capable of performing very difficult tasks in space. They can detect invisible signals from extremely distant stars. These are called radio waves, hence the name of the radio telescope. It's like when you turn on the radio to listen to music; it emits radio waves. But with this telescope, it is as if you had an astronomical machine with an extremely sharp eye. It can then study these waves which will give information about the composition of some stars and other very distant galaxies.

With Alma, it is possible to go back in time to the beginning of the universe. True story!

The light emitted by distant stars takes years to cross space and reach us as it travels at the speed of light (300,000 km/s).

When you see one of these stars, it therefore looks as it was, very long ago.
With Alma, scientists hope to learn a lot about the formation of the universe!

After mobile phones and laptops comes the portable room!

The Swiss architect and designer of the greenhouse Antonio Scarponi and artist Roberto de Luca created a 4 m² hotel room that fits into a suitcase! This invention will certainly appeal to adventurous people!

The concept is simple: a transportable trunk that transforms into a 4 m² room containing all the comfort you may need: a bed, a desk, a closet, a lamp and a curtain for privacy.

This idea was born after noticing that there were plenty of abandoned urban sites (warehouses, factories, buildings, etc.) that could be used temporarily by travelers.

It is possible to come up with innovative ideas to improve the environment!

As you can see, creativity may be a way to solve daily life problems. What would you invent to improve your environment?

Do you think it is not enough or too much to buy something?

A video posted on an American website shows how much food we can buy with $5. Here are the results of the experiment: $5 will buy you a little more than 4 pounds of bananas in France. Not bad, right? But France is far behind countries like Ethiopia, Africa, where the same amount of money can buy you a little more than 24 pounds!
It is nowhere else in the world but in Afghanistan (Asia) where you can buy 11 pounds of the world's first food grain, rice, for only $5. What is most surprising is that in Japan, Asia, you can only get less than 2 pounds of rice for $5, even though Japan is a country that produces and consumes a lot of rice. If you like eggs, it is best to go to China where $5 will buy you 57 of them against only 15 in Sweden, Europe.

A website proposed the idea of offering its services for only five dollars. $5 is an amount of money that may represent or buy much depending on the country.
People from around the world offer services like translating texts from English to Japanese or being your guide in Disneyland or painting your portrait in their own artistic style. As you can see, there can be no limit to the kind of services you can buy or sell for only $5.

In a few years, our clothes will change color according to our mood and light up in the dark while protecting us from pollution! In other words, we will wear smart clothes just like we use Smartphones now.
Researchers are also willing to work with other materials to try and make our future clothes; these will include wood, feathers or even red wine.
Today, different examples can give us an idea of what could such special garments of the future look like: a fluorescent dress fitted with tactile sensors that measure pressure, sweating, breathing rate or emotions for example. Depending on the mood of the wearer, the lights will turn pink, green or blue.

Another photo-catalytic dress will be able to block pollution by storing the air around and processing it to make it healthier.
Yet another dress will be made of micro-sized pieces of wood: we will no longer need cotton!
The "light bag" comes along to light up when you open it. How practical!
Last but not least, the photo-luminescent jacket stores light during the day and reproduces it when night falls. How useful would it be to be visible for drivers at night?
There will also be lots of new fabrics to be used for furnishings, sports and construction! If you had a smart garment, what would you want it to do for you?

An American student has created an ingenious invention: a device that can charge your Smartphone instantly.

18-year old Eashare Khare was ranked second last Friday in the competition organized by the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and won $50,000. This competition allowed her to make her invention known and market it so that it becomes accessible to Smartphone users.

Considering that it takes several hours to charge a Smartphone, the invention of the young student turned out to be revolutionary in the world of technology since it is hand-held and fits under the battery of a mobile phone. In only 30 seconds, it will be fully charged. She also explained that her invention will be useful with electric cars’ batteries.
With the money won in the contest, she intends to finance her university education to come up with more scientific inventions. Great, isn't it?

Movement Maker is a movement which brings together millions of people around the world to create new ideas and self-made tools. For example, Craft Nights is a concept that allows you to learn how to make jewelry and wallets. It also teaches you how to apply makeup among other things. Museums and libraries were inspired by this movement. The former set up creation sections and the latter organized book clubs.
Within the same context of creativity and innovation, two men have created a system that can turn any object into a keyboard by connecting the alligator clips of that system to the object of which you intended to divert the proper use. This system is called "Makey Makey" (Make + Key).Using this system, you can create a musical staircase by connecting the Makey Makey to the steps of your staircase with alligator clips, or a joystick with candy by connecting the clips to the Makey Makey.Watch this video for more information.

The enchanting garden of Ninfa is composed of plants and flowers from all around the world, of waterfalls, ancient ruins and birds of all kinds. Situated around 60 miles to the south of Rome, Ninfa welcomes 55,000 visitors each year from late March to November and only word of mouth brought about such a success.
The garden of Ninfa invites its visitors to a walk through history and nature. In fact, it has been described as "the world's most romantic garden" since the late nineteenth century when the Italian Caetani family bought some land that has long been abandoned in the town of Cisterna di Latina.
The garden of Ninfa is reflective of the Caetani family. The mother, being of English origins, passed on her knowledge of the English garden, the son –a musician –brought together the music of streams, rivers and nightingales, the daughter –a painter –planted the garden's borders with plants blooming from April to November. Valuing the environment was the family's principle.
Ninfa is the offspring of nature and man, a cultural symbiosis where every artist can find inspiration.
The Caetani family has also never used chemicals and has always let insects and insectivorous birds live naturally. The garden of Ninfa is therefore healthy, beautiful and full of life.

From Saturday to Tuesday, it was the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II!

What's a jubilee?
Jubilee is a celebration of an event. This can be a wedding anniversary, a period of reign or the anniversary of the founding of an institution.

Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60 years of rule, the "Diamond Jubilee".

The festivities began with a horse race. The Queen loves horses since her childhood and has its own stable! The next day, all dressed in white, Queen Elizabeth II came down the Thames surrounded by an impressive procession. To end the four-day festival, a big show took place in front of the Buckingham Palace, with Kylie Minogue, Elton John, Robbie Williams and Paul McCartney!

A memorable birthday that the English did not miss: they were one million in the streets of London!

Little muse, have you looked at the Diamond Jubilee on TV?

Don’t just print on simple papers! A new kind of machine will be available very soon: a 3D printer!
Amazing, right?

How does this machine work?
Indeed, liquid resin is used. During the processus, this component will harden thanks to the focused laser beam creating a solid polymer.


A printer made for children only?
Actually, there is now a little 3D printer dedicated to kids.
This unique machine called Origo 3D is currently a prototype.
However, it will be less expensive than its big sister designed for adults.

Therefore, thanks to this printer and a simplified software, kids will be able to create their own toys!
The creation will take approximately 1 hour depending on the complexity and the size of the object (it cannot be bigger than a cup of coffee).

The two creators, Artur Tchoukanov and Joris Peelings, would like to put the product on the market in the next 18 months to come.

Then, you will have to spend almost 600 euros to buy this one-of-a-kind printer.
In comparison, a standard 3D printer designed for adults will be sold between 1000 and 1500 euros!

If you could get this machine, what would you like to make?

Alex Rawlings entered the Collins Livemocha Most Multilingual Student in Britain competition last june and recently won the title.
Indeed, he can speak 11 languages fluently: English, German, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Dutch, French, afrikaans, Hebrew, catalan and Italian!

The originality is that he is only 20 years old!
He has been speaking Greek, English and the French since he was a child, he then travelled a lot. For example, he spent eight months in Russia and now knows the language very well.

Alex is currently studying German and Russian at the University of Oxford.
According to the student, learning languages is fun and to him it’s like a game. To succeed, he memorizes lyrics.

His favorite spoken language however remains Greek.
Actually it’s the one he loves the most as he’s been speaking Greek since childhood thanks to his mother who has Greek origins.

Alex now wants to learn more languages such as Arabic, Serbian and Polish. According to him, it shouldn’t be harder than learning Russian.

What about you? Do you speak any languages?

Little muse, do you know what gluten is?
It’s a product that is found in some food, such as bread, biscuits, pasta, and even some prepared dishes, etc.

Did you know that some people are intolerant to gluten?
It means that when they eat something that contains gluten, their body reacts badly.

Indeed, some major symptoms have been noticed.

Generally speaking, people who suffer from this kind of intolerance have digestion issues, belly and articulations pain, ballooning, muscular cramps, numbness, and they can also get melancholic, or, even worse, depressed.
It’s a disease that should not be taken lightly and, even if it seems less terrible than others, it’s hard to live with it because there are no medicines.

There is not much to do about this, gluten intolerants just have to be careful because they can’t eat anything with gluten or they will get sick immediately. Luckily, nowadays, it’s possible to buy unusual food, such as gluten-free pasta, and it makes life easier for these people. A good alternative!

Have you ever heard of anyone intolerant to gluten?

Here we are, little muses! It is the end of the year, and Christmas is coming, with its sharing, its good atmosphere, its celebrations and its presents! But do you know where it comes from? It is a Christian holiday which celebrates Jesus’ birth on December 25th.
A long time ago, Christmas wasn’t about getting presents, but it was about sharing one’s meal with others and helping poor people. However, it has been more than a century now that people, mainly children, get presents, thanks to Santa Claus, who is in charge of bringing them, on his magic sleigh, pulled by his reindeers.
So yes, we love Christmas, because we have a good time with family, because we get presents, because the atmosphere is just magic and because it is one of the year’s best moments! But let’s keep in mind that it still is a religious holiday and that even here in France, everybody doesn’t celebrate it. Every country and every religion has its own traditions, and that is what makes this world a beautiful one and give us the chance to learn new things every day.

What do you think of this day?
And by the way, Merry Christmas!!

Little muses, you may have already heard of robots, those computers to which we sometimes give a human appearance and which can achieve tasks we give them to do. Well, it seems that from now on, a robot will be able to save in it's memory a task it achieved before and do it again by itself later, without anybody to tell it!
In fact, Japanese researchers created a robot named Hiro, which can, for the first time, think before acting! That means it can learn a task, remember it and repeat it!
Day by day, robots get closer to humans, isn’t it impressive?!

Many people are lucky enough to live under a roof and to have food to eat. But we often forget that there is another world on earth, the malnutrition world (one suffers from malnutrition when they don't get the right amount of food to be healthy; it happens a lot in Africa and in South Asia) : According to studies, 1 billion people suffers from it, that is to say one person above seven, and 24 000 people die of hunger everyday, or one person every four seconds! Malnutrition is the first cause of mortality of the world. These numbers are just shocking !
And yet, the Earth's food ressources are enough to feed everybody! But the problem is they are not well-spread : richer countries produce a lot of them and poorer ones not enough, because of their lack of money.
A lot of associations try to help people from malnutrition, but it is still not enough compared to the number of victims.
What do you think about that?

The Internet is a big place where you can find quite everybody and everything.
It is a very interesting tool, but remain careful: You have to know how to use it! First, you should know people you talk to on the Internet in your real life and you should never give your personal information to someone (phone number, address, etc.).
Moreover, when you chat with your friends on the Internet, you have to stay polite and respectful. In fact, some people think they can behave differently on the Internet because the person they are talking to is not in front of them. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior happens a lot: Studies showed that one young person above four has already argued with their friends after having talked on the Internet. Some people even fought after that! What a pity!
The Internet should strengthen friendships and not destroy them! To strengthen your friendships, you only have to behave positively with your friends and other people. Don’t you agree?

Recently, British scientists discovered something incredible: Far away from the earth, there is a very special planet, which is 5 times bigger than the earth (its diameter is 64000 kilometers long!) !! And you know what? It is a huge drifting diamond! Scientists say it might be the heart of an old star that turned into a precious stone.
That can make you all dream, but still, you have to know that this planet is situated 4000 light years away, which means it is far far away!
Cool, isn't it?

Have you ever heard of Machu Picchu, that old Inca city located in Peru? It was created in the 15th century, at an altitude of 2500 meters, and about 100 people used to live there. It has only been 100 years since the moment Hiram Bingham, an American archeologist, found it and all of its treasures (containers, vases, decoration items…), and placed them in a United-States University.
Since then, Peru tried to take its treasures back, because they are part of their culture, their past and their heritage, but hadn’t been able to do so until now. In fact, this year, Peru will finally be able to take its Inca treasures back and exhibit them in a museum.
We will then be able to admire them!

Halloween is a contraction of All-Hallows-Even, referring to the day before November 1st.
In the past, it was a religious holiday that celebrated the dead and the harvest, and that is why the colors used for this holiday are black and orange.
The habit of wearing a costume on this day comes from an old Celtic tradition in which people were wearing frightening costumes in order to scare demons and evil spirits away.
Nowadays, and since the beginning of the 20th century, children from the US, Canada and the United Kingdom dress up and ring their neighborhood doorbells saying “Trick or treat”.
Halloween’s main symbol is a pumpkin. You can dig a hole in it and make it funny by giving it a face aspect. Then, you can put a candle in its center and enlighten your home, making it scary.
What are you going to be dressed like tonight?
Have fun little muses!

About a month ago, a strange and funny museum opened on the Mexican coast. It was created by Jason deCaires Taylor, an artist who learned scuba-diving when he was living in Malaysia. The museum's principle is simple: All of Jason's statues are exhibited...underwater!

Jason's statues are handmade; he creates them in his studio. Then, he molds them with a special waterproof cement. Before putting them underwater, he sticks some corals (aquatic plants) on them in order to give the statues the beautiful colors of the oceanic flora.

If one day, little muses, you happen to sail off the Mexican coast, it is quite easy to visit this suprising museum: all you have to do is put on a diving mask, a pair of flippers and a snorkel. Then, you can discover Jason's secrets under the sea.

An outstanding museum, don't you think?

These huge blocks of ice that are found in the very cold regions of the world may well be used to give water to drought victims! In order to do this, from 2012, an iceberg weighing 30 million tonnes will be pulled from Greenland to the Canary Islands, next to Morocco. A crazy challenge that scientists say they are ready to meet. If successful, it will provide 30 billion litres of water, equivalent to the annual consumption of a city of 555,000 inhabitants!
Everything needs to be thought of: transportation, changes in temperature, ocean currents, etc. This is a true technological challenge as it will be the largest object ever transported by sea!
Originally, this project had already been imagined 35 years ago by a Saudi prince who, concerned at the lack of fresh water in his country, wanted to build up reserves. He had to give up because he did not have the means to see the idea through.
Today, it seems more feasible and could even be used to fight against the reduction of fresh water caused by global warming! This will be one to follow.

Have you ever heard of Claude Monet, the painter who has such an individual style? This artist gave special attention to light. For him, the representation of reality is not about a multitude of details, but about a certain luminosity in the painting. For that, he painted with small touches of colour to reproduce as best he could shadows and reflections. This made his works very realistic!
Between October and January 2010, more than 92,000 people packed into the Grand Palais in Paris to admire 170 paintings by the artist. A record! Only the exhibition on Tutankhamen, a famous Egyptian pharaoh, has ever done better, with 1.2 million visitors in 1967! But did you know that when he started, Monet was not so famous? In 1874, when he showed a small painting of the Seine at sunrise, an art critic mocked him. This critic invented the term "impressionism" to describe the artist's work because he considered it too modern.
Since that time, the impressionist movement has become one of the most popular with the public. Monet is even the favourite painter of the Americans and the Japanese!

For several years, honeybees have been victims of a strange disease and have been disappearing before our very eyes! Some of them even die while they are gathering pollen from flowers.
Researchers worldwide are trying to understand the reasons behind this mysterious phenomenon. According to them, it is the fault of pesticides. These toxic products, used to protect fruit and vegetables from insects or disease, leave traces on pollen and act as a poison to bees. Additionally, with the expansion of cities, plants are less numerous and the bees no longer have enough food.
Experts have also discovered that the disease has been spreading via pollen from one insect to another: if a sick bee leaves its droppings on a flower, it then contaminates all the other bees who gather pollen from that flower!
In the long run, this could become a real problem for the environment! This is because bees contribute to the survival of plants and fruit by carrying pollen from one flower to another. If they disappear, there might be fewer plants in the world! Rest assured, today there are nearly 20,000 bee species worldwide. So there is still time to protect them!

This is the crazy challenge taken on by a group of Japanese scientists. Using cloning technology, it would indeed be possible to bring this species, which disappeared over 4,000 years ago, back to life! But how will they do it?
The adventure could start using the cells of a frozen specimen. Mini-Muses, remember the amazing features of cells (see Museweek 9th December). They are the ones that contain all of our genetic information: eye colour, hair type, etc. The cold preserved this highly valuable data. Scientists are hoping to be able to "mix" them with the cells of a live elephant to get an egg. The egg would then be placed in the body of an elephant who, after 600 days of gestation (almost 2 years!), could give birth to a baby mammoth! For this animal, which is twice as big as an elephant, to survive, they would need to recreate its original habitat and find something to feed him!
Response in 6 years.

An American dog named Chaser underwent intensive training for 3 years and managed to memorise nearly 1022 words! To achieve this extraordinary result, every day for 3 hours scientists asked the animal to fetch a plastic ball, a teddy bear or a Frisbee. It took a lot of effort and patience to teach this dog to recognise these objects, and even rank them according to their shape! Unheard of! Even if we already knew that man's best friend was capable of understanding orders like "sit" or "lie down", it seemed unlikely that it could have a memory equivalent to that of a 3 year old child!
Today, numerous studies have shown that other animals show signs of intelligence. Did you know, for example, that elephants or even dolphins can recognise themselves in a mirror, that parrots can have a conversation, or that some apes are able to make tools? Amazing isn't it?

Kathryn Gray is the name of the young Canadian who discovered this star! It was while looking at images taken by a telescope with her father, an amateur astronomer, that the little girl spotted the supernova.
A supernova is a very very old star that explodes when it reaches the end of its life. The heat it gives off is so intense that it becomes hundreds of times brighter than usual. It is this very bright light that makes it visible on images taken from afar through a telescope.
In the photos, only a tiny white dot was visible. This could have been the passage of an asteroid or a comet but the girl and her father checked several hours later and were able to confirm that it was a supernova.
Although these findings are very frequent, they allow astronomers to better understand the Universe. At 10, Kathryn is the youngest person to have found this phenomenon!
Mini-muses, imagine that you had discovered a star or even a planet! That would be amazing, wouldn't it?

This strange animal that you can see in the photo is none other than Koreaceratops, a species of dinosaur that lived on Earth 103 million years ago! Its bones were recently discovered during excavations in South Korea, a country located between China and Japan.
No bigger than a man, the animal was 1m 67cm tall and weighed between 27 and 45 kilos. So different to the Tyrannosaurus, the predator with sharp teeth!
An excellent hunter, the Koreaceratops was very agile; its tail fan allowed it to move very quickly in water.
Other kinds of dinosaur also used to populate our planet and their disappearance remains a mystery to this day. Scientists think that their extinction may be a result of one of a range of different phenomena: a meteorite, abrupt climate change or the eruption of a volcano. Even now, nothing has been proven.

Cells are microscopic elements found in all living beings: humans, animals but also plants! Their role is vital, they contribute to the development of our body but also determine our genetic identity card (DNA). Cells decide the color of our eyes, our size... For over 10 years, researchers around the world have been very interested in a certain type of cell: stem cells. They have a rather surprising property, which is their ability to make all kinds of organs (kidney, lung ...) unlike the ‘classical’ cells '. This discovery represents a breakthrough for medicine but also gives hope to patients because it means, for instance, a person whose liver no longer works can potentially be cured! Doctors would just have to make them another liver with stem cells! 
Wouldn't that be fantastic?

Recently, 271 new works from the famous Picasso were found in a rather unusual place. For several years, the artist's electrician had been keeping these treasures ... in his garage! These drawings and gouaches, dating from 1900 to 1932, show the beginning of the artist's work and represent a great discovery in the history of art. 
Picasso was an artist of « Cubist » influence. He drew the characters and objects in a very geometric way and his creativity and innovative style were surprising at the time. Originally from Spain, the painter inspired himself from the world in which he lived, notably the 2nd World War and the Spanish war which greatly influenced him. One of his most famous paintings, "Guernica" depicts the bombing of a Spanish village of the same name.

Picasso was also a very careful man who organised all his projects very strictly. This is why his family cannot understand how these works were found in the electrician's garage! They believe, the painter would never have left such a large quantity of works to someone without leaving a message or signature. Mystery ...

Did you know that the bluefin tuna are an endangered species? Victims of overfishing, their numbers have dropped by 80% since the 70s! These fish are widely used for making sushi and sashimi, Japanese dishes with rice and it is true that in the last few years Japanese restaurants have continued to grow worldwide. Secondly, Japan is the largest exporter of bluefin tuna in the world as it buys more than 80% of catches in the Mediterranean Sea! Overfishing of this species also has implications on the food chain because these fish are the main predators of jellyfish. Currently, they proliferate off the Mediterranean Sea and there are not enough bluefin tuna to eliminate them, which consequently disrupts the aquatic world. For years, agencies protecting the environment and animals, such as Greenpeace and WWF, have been alerting the various institutions and encouraging all countries to reduce the capture of these fish in order to regulate this phenomenon.

You may be familiar with Facebook, the social network restricted to people under the age of 13 which allows you to keep in touch with friends and even find old classmates? 
Originally, this site was designed for students at Harvard’University in the United States but has quickly spread worldwide. 
However, beware if you are under the age of 13 because Facebook was not designed for children. The website is not secured, and neither is access to your personal data (photos, personal info ...), unless you know all the techniques to personalize your account, which are very complicated! 

Other more targeted social networks like Museworld.net, offer community events (messages, chat, reviews, comments ...) but also fun activities (mini-games, quizzes, coloring, creating cartoons, club shows, jokes ...) and interesting things to read (news, views, ...) especially for you!

La Sagrada Familia, a huge cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, has been under construction for around 128 years! Designed by the Catalan artist Antonio Gaudi, it never ceases to fascinate the thousands of tourists each year who admire its wonderfully unique architecture. At the time, Gaudi had installed on-site workshops and trained the artisans himself. A very thorough man, he even added on arrows over 100 meters high, and enrollment patterns invisible to the naked eye! Unfortunately, as the victim of a cable car accident, he died in 1926 leaving his work unfinished. 
Despite this tragedy, the construction continues however, there are to be more disruptions. The studios/workshops burnt down in 1936 and a lengthy restoration of the sketches and models (maquettes) was necessary before the work could continue. 
In addition, information on how Gaudi was to solve some of the enormous technical problems related to the building are missing. Financial funds are also needed for its construction. 
According to Jordi Fauli, one of the present architects, if donations continue to be regular, the entire structure could be completed in 2026, 100 years after Gaudi's death. 
Do you know Barcelona and have you ever heard this story?

An interesting study was published in an English magazine. Researchers have identified a link between exercise and the reduction of cold symptoms. Indeed, individuals who exercise regularly are less affected by this virus! More surprisingly,to believe that one is healthy counts a lot for actually being in good health. Feeling fit and exercising could reduce the risk of getting ill by 50%! But how can this be possible? When we do sports, our immune system is stimulated which allows our body to be stronger against microbes. The more this stimulation is repeated, the more it benefits us. You do not need to be a famous athlete, a daily workout of 20 minutes is sufficient to improve the resistance of our body! So get ready and take out your trainers!

Who has never taken antibiotics during the cold winter season? An antibiotic is a molecule that destroys or blocks the growth of bacterias. Scientists who recently met in Boston (USA) for the annual conference of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) demonstrated that antibiotics work well, if we do not take too many of them! Indeed, microbes are able to transform themselves and to resist the molecules if they are too often in contact with them. As a conclusion, do not give germs opportunity to become super-resistant to antibiotics and do not take too many of them! And above all, make sure you consult your doctor before taking any antibiotic medicine!

Do you know that for the first time in 15 years the number of starving people worldwide has decreased?
 There are now nearly 925 million people who suffer from malnutrition, 108 million less than in 2009! Another encouraging statistic tells us that poverty has also declined, from 46% of world population in 1990 to 25% today. 
This is mainly due to some Asian countries which are experiencing strong growth as starvation decreases but despite positive results, too many people continue to suffer from starvation. To meet the target of the Millennium Summit to halve the number of starving people worldwide by 2015, the number of people would have to be reduced by 500 million within 5 years.... There is still a lot of work to do but it can be done!