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Series of science speeches to make online debut today

"In the past, the speeches were held at fixed locations and ... some pupils who may have been interested in attending a speech may not have been able to do so."

Yang Hung-tun, National Science Council deputy minister

The National Science Council is publicizing a series of online speeches by renowned scientists today to encourage young students to take an interest in science, the arts, social sciences and humanities.

The council hopes more youth will develop an interest in the field of science, council Deputy Minister Yang Hung-tun (楊弘敦) said yesterday, adding that the speeches could also help improve general public knowledge and increase the nation's competitiveness internationally.

The program is a collaboration between the council, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) under the National Applied Research Laboratories and a number of institutions throughout the country, including the National Science and Technology Museum, National Cheng Kung University and National Taitung University, he said.

"Since 2001, the council has held the `Science Master Speech Series' at the Taipei Public Library to broaden the scope of science education and inform the general public," he said.

Given the success of the series, the council in 2003 launched an "Envision" speech series at National Taiwan University in Taipei and a "Sunday Reading Science Masters" series at the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung, he said.

Amid positive reviews, the council also began hosting a "Weekend Let's Go" series last year at Taichung's National Natural Science Museum, he said.

"In the past, the speeches were held at fixed locations and because of geographical constraints some pupils who may have been interested in attending a speech may not have been able to do so because of the long and expensive trip," he said.

As such, the council and the schools this year approached the NCHC to broadcast the science masters' talks online, he said.

"With real-time online broadcasts made possible by the NCHC, even people in rural areas can listen to the speeches and reap the benefits from their home or at school, at their convenience," Yang said, adding that the broadcasting service would eventually be extended to the "Weekend Let's Go" and "Envision" speeches.

The speeches can be accessed at science.nchc.org.tw/index.aspx. A Pentium 4 processor running or equivalent, speakers and a 2mb/s or above broadband connection are required.
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