BY HAFTU GEBREZGABHIER
An Ethiopian high school student Abel Asefa Danye was selected among thousands of contestants from all over the world in the 2022 Breakthrough Junior Challenge to demonstrate difficult math and science concepts in a video-supported explanation in one minute and thirty seconds. The video with the highest number of votes will be included in the final round of 16 entries.
Founded in 2015 by Julia and Yuri Milner, the Breakthrough Junior Challenge is an annual, global science video competition for high-school students. “The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is an annual competition that invites students, ages 13-18, to share their passion for math and science with the world. The challenge is co-sponsored by the Breakthrough Prize founders and the Khan Academy, and the winner is announced at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony.”
The Ethiopian high school pupil Abel has made to the list of 30 finalists in this scheme. This science video of Noise Cancellation project has made it to the Popular Vote of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
The goal is to honoring world-changing scientists, inspiring a knowledge culture, expanding our understanding of the Universe. Under it, it has several initiatives such as the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, Breakthrough Prize, Breakthrough Initiatives, Breakthrough Watch and Breakthrough Message.
“The Breakthrough Initiatives were founded by Yuri and Julia Milner as part of their Giving Pledge to support scientific programs and the communication of scientific ideas. They are a suite of space science programs investigating the fundamental questions of life in the Universe.
The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. The Prizes have been sponsored by the personal foundations established by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Jack Ma, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Laureates in the fields of Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics receive $3 million dollars each in prize money, and they attend a televised award ceremony designed to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists. They also engage in a day-long symposium of lectures and discussions.
The great physicist Enrico Fermi stated that the Universe is ancient and immense. Life, he reasoned, has had plenty of time to get started – and get smart. But we see no evidence of anything alive or intelligent in space. In the last five years, we have discovered that planets in the habitable zone of stars are common. Based on the numbers discovered so far, there are estimated to be billions more in our galaxy alone. Yet we are still in the dark about life. Are we really alone? Or are there others out there? “Only science can answer it.”
Breakthrough Listen is a $100 million program of astronomical observations and analysis, the most comprehensive ever undertaken in search of evidence of technological civilizations in the Universe. The partners with some of the world’s largest and most advanced telescopes, across five continents, to survey targets including one million nearby stars, the entire galactic plane and 100 nearby galaxies at a wide range of radio and optical frequency bands. Part of the Breakthrough Initiatives, Listen was launched by Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking in 2015, and is funded by the foundation established by Yuri and Julia Milner.
The Breakthrough Message is a $1 million competition to design a message representing Earth, life and humanity that could potentially be understood by another civilization. The aim is to encourage humanity to think together as one world, and to spark public debate about the ethics of sending messages beyond Earth.
In August 2016, a potentially habitable Earth-like planet was discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri – the Sun’s nearest neighbor. Based on the most recent astronomical data, it is likely that there are other such planets in our cosmic neighborhood. With technology now or soon available, it will be possible not only to find them, but to analyze whether they have atmospheres – and whether those atmospheres contain oxygen and other potential signatures of primitive life.
Breakthrough Watch is multi-million dollar Breakthrough Watch is an Earth- and space-based astronomical program aiming to identify and characterize Earth-sized, rocky planets around Alpha Centauri and other stars within 20 light years of Earth, in search of oxygen and other potential signatures of primitive life. The program is run by an international team of experts in exoplanet detection and imaging.
Part of the Breakthrough Initiatives, Watch also is funded by the foundation established by Yuri and Julia Milner.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2022
