NSPC 2018 to focus on ASEAN

Integration – DepED
ASEAN integration is expected to be the central topic of young aspiring campus journalists
competing in different categories of the NSPC

Rappler.com
Published 4:11 PM, October 03, 2017
Updated 4:16 PM, October 03, 2017

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MANILA, Philippines – The most awaited theme is finally out.

The official theme of the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) 2018 is “Embracing
ASEAN Integration: Campus journalists' role in advancing inclusive education”.

Mark Bercando of the Department of Education's (DepED) Bureau of Curriculum Development

confirmed to Rappler that the 2018 NSPC will acknowledge the vital role of the campus
journalist in promoting comprehensive education for all.

ASEAN (or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Integration aims to build a successful
and more united ASEAN that has concrete effects on the lives of individuals.
Ten Southeast Asian countries – the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore,
Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam – want to improve the lives of their citizens.
ASEAN integration makes it quicker to achieve these goals by working together, rather than
individually. (READ: Why you should care about ASEAN integration)

A 2015 study of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Labor Organization
(ILO) projected that ASEAN integration will generate about 14 million jobs from 2010 to 2025.
(READ: PH needs to boost skills training to gain from ASEAN integration)

Asean integration is expected to be the central topic of young aspiring campus journalists
competing in their different categories.

Dubbed the Olympics of Campus Journalism, NSPC is set to gather the best student-journalists
in the country. The 2018 leg of the DepED-led program will be held in Dumaguete City on
Februray 19-23. (READ: #NSPC2017: A thousand stories of hard work, hope, and excellence)
– Rappler.com

The year 2017 has catapulted us into a science-fiction future, from human cell
regeneration for growing organs, to banishing genetic disease through breakthrough
gene-editing techniques and recycling orbital rockets — and it’s only August at the time
of writing. A lot has happened in the last eight months; scientific breakthroughs have
made our lives safer, easier and more enjoyable. And the scientific community is only
getting started.

Researchers and scientists around the globe have worked tirelessly to bring us this
future, so it’s worthwhile to take a step back and applaud their tremendous efforts. The
world of tomorrow is being shaped as you read this, so let’s have a look at ten of the
biggest stories in science of this year, so far.
Scientists Successfully Edited the First Human Embryo Ever in
The U.S.

Image Source: Getty Images

Jul 27, 2017: Researchers in Portland, Oregon have achieved a significant breakthrough
in gene-editing technology. Taking advantage of the revolutionary gene- editing
technique, CRISPR, a gene linked to heart conditions was successfully “deleted” from a
human embryo.

Read the full story here.

Scientists Have Finally Created Metallic Hydrogen

 Image Source: Harvard University

January 27, 2017: For the first time in the wold, scientists created metallic hydrogen by
applying almost five million atmospheres of pressure to liquid hydrogen. That’s about
five million times the pressure we experience at sea level, and 4,500 times that at the
bottom of the ocean. It is the first time a state of hydrogen has existed in a metallic state
on Earth. In its metallic state, hydrogen could act as a genuine superconductor and
could revolutionize everything from energy storage to rocketry.

Read the full story here.

Scientists Discovered an Alien Planet That’s The Best
Candidate for Life As We Know It

Image Source: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

On April 19 this year scientists at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research
(ESO) found the best candidate for extraterrestrial life so far. The super-Earth named
LHS 1140b was found in the habitable zone of a dim star 40 light-years away from
Earth. It receives about half as much sunlight from its star, LHS 1140, as the Earth does
from the Sun.

“This is the most exciting exoplanet I’ve seen in the past decade,” author Jason
Dittmann of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in an ESO press
release. “We could hardly hope for a better target to perform one of the biggest quests in
science — searching for evidence of life beyond Earth.”

Read the full story here.

A World First CRISPR Trial Will
Edit Genes Inside the Human
Body
 Image Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National
Institutes of Health

June 1, 2017: In one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of 2017, scientists used the
gene-editing technology CRISPR (the most accessible gene-editing technique so
far) inside the human body for the very first time. A new human trial aimed to remove
the human papillomavirus (HPV) by applying a gel that carries the necessary DNA
coding to the cervixes of 60 women to disable the tumor growth mechanism.

Read the full story here.

Breakthrough Initiative Will Grow Organs and Regenerate
Human Tissue

Image Source: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

May 1, 2017: Major strides have been made in the field of regenerative medicine. The
Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is currently leading projects to speed
up the development of artificially growing human tissue and even organs in a lab to help
patients worldwide. These new initiatives may one day repair nerve damage and even
grow entire limbs and organs.

Read the full story here.

DeepMind Has Taught an AI to Do Something Quite
Remarkable

Image Source: DeepMind/YouTube

July 11, 2017: Google’s artificial intelligence subsidiary DeepMind published a paper
illustrating the way they are teaching AI computer agents to navigate complex
environments. It may look funny to us, but it’s a big step forward for autonomous AI
movement.

Read the full story here.

SpaceX’s Historic Launch Proves Recycled Rockets Are the
Future of Space Exploration

March 30, 2017: SpaceX made space launch history in March by successfully
relaunching and re-landing a used Falcon 9 rocket booster via rocket descent. This is the
stuff of old-school scifi. Already having been the cheapest orbital rocket system, this
breakthrough brought the affordability down even more — a saving of more than $18
million per launch.
Read the full story here.

This Fluid-Filled Bag Lets Lambs Develop Outside the Womb.

Humans Are Next.

Image Source: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

April 26, 2017: Physicians at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have managed to
imitate a woman’s uterus using a synthetic device in order to prevent mortality and
disease of prematurely born children younger than 37 weeks.

Read the full story here.

A New Breakthrough in Quantum Computing is Set to
Transform Our World

Image Source: Getty Images

July 28, 2017: A 51-qubit quantum computer was unveiled to the world at the 2017
International Conference on Quantum Technologies in Moscow, paving the way for a
number of new possible applications of the technology.
Read the full story here.

Google’s AlphaGo Proves Its Mettle Against a Team of Five

Image Source: AlphaGo/Deep Mind

May 29, 2017: After beating a human in the Computer Go game in 2016, Alphabet Inc.’s
Google DeepMind computer took on five more of the world’s best human professional
Go players and defeated them in earnest.

Read the full story here.

We’ve seen it for ourselves; whatever negativity 2017 might bring the world, this year
has been one incredible leap after the other — and it’s still Summer.