Taiwanese students won two gold and two silver medals at the International Biology Olympiad 2009 that concluded in Japan on Saturday.
Lee Yi-chun (李易駿) from National Changhua Senior High School and Kuo Yu-chi (郭育奇) from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School each won a gold, while Wu Po-fan (吳柏帆) from Taipei Municipal Chenggong High School and Chang Jui-che (張睿哲) from National Taichung First Senior High School each took a silver.
Among the 221 students from 56 countries who took part in the contest, 23 won gold medals, 46 won silvers and 66 took bronzes.
Lee, who will be entering university soon, attributed his success in the contest to the training he received in special biology programs in his first two years in senior high school.
Kuo, who is about to go into his junior year, said his interest in biology was sparked by his exposure to a molecular biology class in his first year.
He said he was pleased with his performance in the competition, not to mention the opportunity to make contact with foreign students with similar interests.
One of the second-place winners, Wu, who has already been accepted to National Taiwan University, said he has been interested in nature, especially animals, since he was a young child.
The other silver medalist, Chang, a junior, said he has been taking advanced science and mathematics classes at school and has a special interest in biology.
The competition began on July 12 and each contestant was tested in practical and theoretical areas in seven different categories.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS