Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and

processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural

affairs, and economic productivity. It also includes specific types of abilities.

Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answers to

questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It means that a person

has the ability to describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena. Scientific literacy

entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular

press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions.

Scientific literacy implies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national

and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically

informed. A literate citizen should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific

information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it. Scientific

literacy also implies the capacity to pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence

and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately.

Right now 67 million children are missing out on their ight to an education. They can't go to school because they have to work to survive, because they are girls or even because there are no schools where they live.

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Ever had the feeling your past is slipping away? There’s a simple trick that should reinforce your recollections.

Have you ever seen or heard something amazing – a scene in a film, a joke or a song – only to forget it later on? Instead of the crystal clear images you wanted to recall, you’re instead left with scraps of images and mangled sentences, or more frustratingly still, nothing at all. Even monumental events, like meeting a film star, can sometimes fade surprisingly quickly.

There may be a disarmingly simple way to cement those memories, however. According to research by Chris Bird at the University of Sussex, all it requires is a few seconds of your time and a bit of imagination. Bird recently asked some students to lie in a brain scanner and view a series of short clips from YouTube (involving, for example, neighbors playing practical jokes on each other). Straight after some of the clips, they were given 40 seconds to replay the scene in their minds and describe it to themselves. For the others, they just moved onto a new video.

It turned out that simply describing the event to themselves massively improved their chances of remembering it accurately a week or so later: on average, they were able to remember twice as many details. Bird also found that his brain scans appeared to reflect the strength of the memory: when the activity during their descriptions closely mirrored the activation as they watched the video itself, the students seemed to have built particularly strong foundations for later recall.

That may, perhaps, be a sign of just how much effort and detail they were imagining as they described the scene. It could also be that it allowed the students to peg the events to other memories; one student compared a character in the clips to James Bond, for instance – instantly making him more memorable.

In other words, if you want to make sure something sticks in your mind, just take a minute or so to describe it to yourself, consciously and deliberately picking the most vivid details.

Bird can see how it might be particularly important in the courtroom. ―The findings have implications for any situation where accurate recall of an event is critical, such as witnessing an accident or crime,‖ he says. ―Memory for the event will be significantly improved if the witness rehearses the sequence of events as soon as possible afterwards.‖ But it could be equally helpful for anyone hoping to cling to something worth remembering.

Source: BBC

Dust blows across the path as women carry what possessions they have in flimsy blue bin bags. One calls out to a little boy on a bicycle but her words are lost in the sound of loud drilling and hammering.