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Leanne Fan won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge for inventing headphones that can detect and treat ear infections.

Leanne Fan, a 9th grader at Westview High School in San Diego, California, is America’s Top Young Scientist. Fan earned the title, along with a $25,000 prize, for winning the 2022 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Fan invented headphones that can detect and treat ear infections. 

Fan’s headphones detect ear infections using machine learning, which means they’re programmed to “learn” as they gather data, or information. After sending a sound into the wearer’s ear canal, the headphones can detect an infection based on the echo of the sound. The headphones then treat the infection using blue light, which is known to kill bacteria. Finally, the headphones can transmit music as they treat an infection, so it’s pleasant to wear them. Fan named her invention Finsen Headphones, after Niels Finsen, a scientist who in 1895 invented phototherapy, which is the use of light to treat certain diseases.

This photo of the Heart of the Phantom Galaxy was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Christopher Slayton recreated galaxies and much more.

An 18-year-old used the video game Minecraft to recreate the entire universe—or, at least, what’s known of it.

Christopher Slayton studied black holes, Saturn’s rings, and other parts of the universe for months in order to build his virtual universe. He started with Earth, using a globe to make sure the continents were in proportion with one another. Then, he worked his way out, building our solar system, our galaxy, and on and on. As he tackled the project, Slayton shared his progress on his YouTube channel, where he already had a record of some pretty bold Minecraft builds. 

Minecraft, which was developed in 2009, is a game that’s designed to let players build their own worlds—or universes, in Slayton’s case. Using building blocks made from different virtual materials, players can create just about anything they want. Some builds are inspired by fictional worlds from books and movies, while others, like Slayton’s, aim to be as realistic as possible. B. Reeja Jayan, a mechanical engineer, says Minecraft has few rules—and that’s a good thing.

“One of the advantages of using a game like Minecraft is it’s so flexible,” Jayan told the New York Times. “It’s so easy for a small child to learn to play the game, but at the same time it’s been adapted for teaching advanced scientific concepts.”

Slayton has been playing Minecraft for nine years, and he has no plans to stop. Next, he wants to explore other dimensions!

A museum in Massachusetts has returned some of the objects in its collection to their rightful owners—members of the Lakota Sioux. The objects were taken from the Lakota Sioux more than 100 years ago. 

On November 5, officials at the Founders Museum held a repatriation (return) ceremony with members of the Lakota Sioux who had traveled to Massachusetts to receive the artifacts. Some of the artifacts are connected to the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, in which the U.S. military killed between 250 and 300 members of the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota. 

Some of the objects that were returned to the Lakota Sioux are thought to have been stolen at the site of the massacre. Shortly after, a man named Frank Root, who ran a traveling show, made money showing the objects to the public. Root later donated the objects to the Founders Museum, which has had them ever since. 

Many of the people who attended the ceremony said their ancestors had passed the memories of Wounded Knee down to them. Knowing that museums were displaying objects stolen from their ancestors only added to their pain. That’s why return of the objects was extremely important.

Wendell Yellow Bull, a member of the Oglala Lakota, grew up hearing stories about his ancestor, Joseph Horn Cloud, who was at Wounded Knee. Yellow Bull told the Boston Globe that the return was “the beginning of healing.”

More U.S. schools are banning students from using cell phones at school. And while some people agree that phones and classrooms don’t mix, others say kids should be allowed access to their phones. 

School officials who have limited or banned cell phone use say phones distract students. Many schools have reported that students use their phones not only in hallways and lunchrooms but also in classrooms. And their concerns have only grown in recent years. School officials who are banning phones point out that students lost a lot of time in the classroom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, officials say, it’s important to focus and aim to get back on track. And many parents agree with them.

Among the parents who support a ban on cell phones in classrooms is Julia Wilburn, of Nashville, Tennessee. Wilburn is the mom of a seventh grader whose school doesn’t let him carry his phone during school hours. “I definitely feel like that’s taking the right approach,” Wilburn said.

But other parents say they want their kids to be able to reach them if necessary. And that means carrying a cell phone all day. 

“We used to get in touch with our kids when we wanted to,” Louise Boll told the Associated Press. Boll is president of the parent-teacher association at Forest Meadow Junior High in Dallas, Texas. Forest Meadow requires students to put their phones away during the day.

At the Brush School District in Colorado, parents spoke out against a ban on taking cell phones to school. After a community meeting, a compromise was reached. Now, students can take their phones to school, but the phones must be turned off and not in sight. 

“There’s not an intention to say cell phones are evil,” Bill Wilson, the district superintendent, told the Associated Press. “It’s a reset to say, ‘How do we manage this in a way that makes sense for everybody?’”

Bella Rasmussen has loved football since she was 3 years old. And for nearly as long, the senior at Laguna Beach High School in Laguna Beach, California, has dreamed of scoring a touchdown. On October 14, Rasmussen made her dream come true—twice. 

That night, Rasmussen became the first female high school football player in the state of California to score two touchdowns in a varsity game. Her touchdowns contributed to a 48–0 victory against the Godinez Grizzlies of Santa Ana, California.

“I’m looking at coach, I’m like, Nah, man, I got it. I can do it,” Rasmussen said in an interview with Today. “I’m saying this to myself over and over and over again. [Then] I’m in the end zone [where a player runs to score a touchdown]. And I remember I just stood up and I was like, “Did anybody see? This actually happened?”

That was the first touchdown. To be able to score a second one—in the same game—was unexpected, she said.

“I was in disbelief. [I thought] there’s no way that just happened,” Rasmussen told the Los Angeles Times. 

Rasmussen has been playing football at her high school for four years as a running back and defensive end. At 5 feet, 9 inches (175.3 centimeters) tall and 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms), she’s smaller than most of her teammates, who are all boys. Her opponents are bigger than she is, too. But she said her teammates had been encouraging her before the game, telling her they were sure she’d score a touchdown.

They knew she could reach the end zone, and so did she.

“To be able to do it was something I had been dreaming about since I was 6 years old,” Rasmussen told the Los Angeles Times. “I ran to my mom [and said], ‘I did it.’”

Every night at 7 p.m., a siren goes off in a village in India. The siren signals the start of the village’s nightly “digital detox,” a 90-minute period when residents are strongly encouraged to turn off their phones and TVs. 

Officials in the village of Mohityanche Vadgaon say they decided on the digital detox initiative because of concerns that people were too attached to their screens. Like almost everywhere, people in the village spend a lot of time watching TV and looking at their phones. During the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, the problem got worse among kids and teens. No longer able to attend school, students started attending classes online and spending more time on their phones. Adults got worried. 

“Surfing on the Internet—that is, multi-tasking—deprives students of their ability to concentrate for longer periods when they need to study,” Dr. J.R. Ram, a clinical psychiatrist, told Voice of America. “They get used to scrolling on social media, watching videos, and exchanging text messages during classes. Such a situation can have negative consequences on one’s cognition or thinking ability.”

Sure enough, teachers noticed that all that screen time was affecting students’ ability to concentrate. They took their concerns to Vijay Mohite, the sarpanch, or head of the village government. Mohite came up with the idea for the nightly digital detox period. 

It’s not only kids who are encouraged to stay off their phones for 90 minutes a night. Adults are supposed to follow the rules as well. Residents are encouraged to read, study, or just talk to each other, instead of scrolling. The period lasts until 8:30 p.m., when another siren signals that phones and TVs can be used again.

The idea has gone over so well that five other villages in India are taking similar steps.