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News HOW WE STUDENTS SEE IT Religion vs. Science…or not?! Paolo Guardabasso

Liceo Scientifco “E. Boggio Lera”, Catania, Italy

I don’t believe in God and I think that science is better than religion at answering questions of men. However, since the appearance of men on Earth, we have needed many answers in order to explain what we first considered inexplicable and these answers often came from religion. Nowadays there are still so many religious scientists and vice versa. But there are also many church men who disapprove of some aspects and some progress coming from science. Little by little scientists have found the answers nearly for all Man’s questions, but some mysteries, like the origin RELIGION VS SCIENCE of the universe or the end of the world still remain unsolved. In the past, some crimes were committed in the name of God. During the Crusades, for example, the European armies, screaming God wants it!, slaughtered entire communities of Arabs. A big problem is that the power of the Church has grown over the centuries and this, as always happens in such cases, has brought about many historical tragedies, like the oppression against the heretics or witch-hunting, that have nothing in common with the doctrine of Jesus. At the end of the 15th century, also thanks to the invention of the press, in Europe a new phenomenon started, called Humanism which is a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism. Humanism is composed of a variety of more specific philosophical systems, and is also incorporated into some religious schools of EINSTEIN OR JESUS? thought. This current was based also on

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TIME’S COVER

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

the acquaintance of the work of many ancient authors like Cicero, Virgil, Tacitus, Titus Livius, who were witnesses of the humanitas in the classic age of the Roman Empire. Someone says that when science finds the answers to all the questions about men, Religion will disappear. In my opinion, this can never happen because God is not only a source of answers but also a sort of friend, brother and father for a large part of people all over the world. However I think the best thing that men should have in this period of wars, is something to believe in, of any kind it might be. Iconography www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~jrmead/wired_science_religion.jpg www.radicalcenter.net/images/pagemaster/vsjesuseinstein.jpg www.csicop.org/si/2002-03/science-religion.jpg http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1992/1101921228_400.jpg

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History of Science and Technology

European Pupils Magazine

History of Nuclear Weapon The first nuclear weapons were created in the United States, by an international team including many displaced émigré scientists from central Europe with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada, during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. While the first weapons were developed primarily out of fear that Nazi Germany would develop them first, they were eventually used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The Soviet Union developed and tested their first nuclear weapon in 1949, based partially on information obtained from Soviet espionage in the United States. Both the U.S. and USSR would go on to develop weapons powered by nuclear fusion (hydrogen bombs) by the mid1950s. With the invention of reliable rocketry during the 1960s, it became possible for nuclear weapons to be delivered anywhere in the world on a very short notice, and the two Cold War superpowers adopted a strategy of deterrence to maintain a shaky peace.

FAT-MAN

Nuclear weapons were symbols of military and national power, and nuclear testing was often used both to test new designs as well as to send political messages. Other nations also developed nuclear weapons during this time, including the United Kingdom, France, and China. These five members of the "nuclear club" agreed to attempt to limit the spread of nuclear proliferation to other nations, though at least three other countries (India, South Africa, Pakistan, and most likely Israel) developed nuclear arms during this time. At the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, the Russian Federation inherited the weapons of the former USSR, and along with the U.S., pledged to reduce their stockpile for increased international safety. Nuclear proliferation has continued, though, with Pakistan testing their first weapons in 1998, and North Korea performing a test in 2006. In January 2005, Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to selling nuclear technology and information of nuclear weapons to Iran, Libya, and North KoASSEMBLY METHODS rea in a massive, international proliferation ring. On October 9, 2006, North Korea claimed it had conducted an underground nuclear test, though the very small apparent yield of the blast has led many to conclude that it was not fully successful (see 2006 North Korean nuclear test). Nuclear weapons have been at the heart of many national and international political disputes and have played a major part in popular culture since their dramatic public debut in the 1940s and have usually symbolized the ultimate ability of mankind to utilize the strength of nature for destruction. There have been (at least) four major false alarms, the most recent in 1995, that almost resulted in the U.S. or USSR/Russia launching its weapons in retaliation for a supposed attack. Additionally, during the ATOMIC Cold War the U.S. and USSR came close to nuclear warfare several times, most notably during the CuEXPLOSION ban Missile Crisis. As of 2005, there are estimated to be at least 29,000 nuclear weapons held by at least eight countries, 96 percent of them in the possession of the United States and Russia.

Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon Iconography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nagasakibomb.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fat_man.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fission_bomb_assembly_methods.svg

Found for you by Giulio Scalia Liceo Scientifico “E. Boggio Lera” Catania, Italy

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