See what we've been up to

Maths and music have always had an enduring relationship: a romantic tale that has stood the test of time (or at least supposedly). Perhaps the most well known manifestation of this relationship is the ‘Mozart effect’, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to most: simply play Mozart to your child when young, and they’ll grow to be a talented mathematician whose intelligence knows no bounds.

Is it all music to parents’ ears?

Proponents of this theory will tell you that this is no mere supposition, but that it is in fact backed by science: a study published by Nature found that children who had been played music by Mozart became more intelligent and better mathematicians than children from a control group. Perhaps that’s why, in 1988, Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the U.S., requested that money from the state budget be set aside so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. But Mozart’s powers seem to be not only confined to homo sapiens. In fact, Sergio Della Sala, psychologist and author of the book Mind Myths, after visiting a mozzarella farm in Italy, proclaimed that buffalos that were played Mozart three times a day produced better milk. Incredible!

So, as someone who has no natural mathematical or musical ability, I thought it would be interesting to investigate this from an impartial perspective.

Is a little bit of Mooooozart too much to ask for?

While being able to increase your child’s intelligence by playing Mozart might be an appealing prospect to parents looking for a simple way to increase their child’s intellectual horsepower, it might just have been blown out of proportion: studies relating music and mathematics abound. Students who are “musically trained have been observed to have higher mathematics grades and standardised test scores, compared with students who have not studied music” according to Scientific American. Of course, this link can be explained by the fact that students who can afford to learn musical instruments might also be able to afford better schooling and grow up in an environment with increased parental involvement and a larger focus around education. But research by Nadine Gaab and Jennifer Zuk (Associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Doctoral student at Harvard University respectively) also suggests that the link “may be driven by high-level cognitive-processing skills” that are “necessary for both subjects, such as executive functions, which allow individuals to adjust to changing task demands.” These “executive functions” are a “strong predictor of academic achievement, even more so than general intelligence.”

Perhaps all is not as good as it sounds

A study by Nature, however, found that “listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to manipulate shapes mentally, but the benefits are short-lived and it doesn’t make us more intelligent.” Perhaps, after all, Mozart wasn’t so amazing.

Another blow to the Mozart effect came in 2006, when a study involving 8,000 children was conducted. The group was split into two halves: one listened to ten minutes of Mozart’s String Quintet in D Major and the other listened to a sequence of three pop songs: Blur’s “Country House,” “Return of the Mack,” by Mark Morrison and PJ and Duncan’s “Stepping Stone”. After listening to the music, the children’s ability to predict paper shapes was measured. Surprisingly, those who listened to the pop music did better than those who listened to Mozart. So, when measuring cognitive performance, does the music genre or composer matter or is it simply the fact that one is listening to music? Apparently not. A simple bit of cognitive arousal (i.e. warming up your mind to make it more active) should do the trick. In which case, physical activity or a cup of joe should work equally well.

But does music train us to think more analytically?

While any sort of cognitive arousal might improve cognitive ability, perhaps listening to music can improve our analytical skills. On the surface, both share common themes. For example, both mathematics and music deal with abstract structures. Therefore, becoming good at one might suggest becoming better at the other. But many subjects involve abstract structures. Take linguistics, for example. One must understand grammar and syntax, two abstract structures. So why is there no conception that linguistics and mathematical ability are interlinked?

Upon further examination, there are a few more characteristics that music and mathematics share. For example have all come across those dreaded questions in aptitude assessments, where we are asked to solve pointless problems such as “Finger is to hand, as toe is to X?” Meant to test logic and reasoning, this sort of logic is central to not only mathematics but also music. For example, the second phrase of Eine kleine Nachtmusik, is an answer to the first. In this case, one could see a similar question asked regarding the first and second phrases. Music and mathematics, therefore, are both full of puzzles.

What has been proven about the musical mathematician?

As we have seen, although there are many theories, one thing is for sure: playing a musical instrument does increase IQ. While simply playing music to your child might not have an effect on their intelligence and mathematical prowess, learning to play an instrument can. In fact, Jessica Grahn, a cognitive scientist at Western University in London, Ontario, found that “a year of piano lessons, combined with regular practice can increase IQ by as much as three points” (next time your child doesn’t want to practice the piano, remind them of this one fact!). That said, listening to music from an early age can foster a life-long love of music. In turn, this can translate into a desire to play an instrument and increased IQ.

What are your thoughts? Let us know here, we’d love to hear them!

Want to try EasyA for yourself? Download the app now!

Sometimes the science and maths we learn at school can seem unrelated to the real world, but one of the best parts of STEM is that it is constantly shaping the world and solving issues that affect us all. Nuclear fusion is just one example of an area currently being researched which has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry.

We are constantly looking for more sustainable alternatives to burning fossil fuels which would be able to keep up with worldwide energy demands. While there were hopes that greenhouse gas emissions would be greatly reduced as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns, the drop has not been as large as people had hoped and it is far from a sustainable solution. Although wind and solar energy are options, reports from BP and “Resources for the Future” have found that by 2040, these will only make up roughly 30% of global energy. While this is, of course, better than nothing, there is still a long way to go. Nuclear fusion is a promising opportunity, to which the government allocated £220 million in 2019.

Nuclear fusion is different to nuclear fission (the process used in nuclear power plants today) and is considered safer. Essentially, nuclear fission involves splitting atomic nuclei, while fusion (the process powering the sun) combines smaller atomic nuclei to form heavier nuclei. Both processes release huge amounts of energy due to the decrease in mass between the products and the reactants. Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2 illustrates how mass and energy are intrinsically linked and in fusion and fission, the products of the reaction weigh less than the reactants. This mass has not been lost; it has been converted to energy.

An advantage of fusion over fission is that there is no risk of a radioactive meltdown, since if it goes wrong, instead of a runaway reaction, fusion simply does not produce any energy. Fear of radioactive meltdown is a major reason for the reluctance to build more nuclear power plants, and that is why fusion could provide a better alternative. Additionally, while both processes produce radioactive waste, fusion produces less waste, and the waste that is produced has a much shorter half-life.

Fusion is also highly fuel efficient: for the same fuel mass, fusion would produce nearly 4 million times the energy produced by burning coal and four times the energy produced by nuclear fission. As for the fuels required for fusion, they are more readily available then those used in fission. Although several combinations of light elements are viable fuels, reacting deuterium (a hydrogen isotope with one proton and one neutron) and tritium (a hydrogen isotope with one proton and two neutrons) is the most effective. Deuterium can be easily extracted from seawater and, although tritium is very rare, it can be generated in the fusion reaction itself by using lithium. In the reaction between deuterium and tritium, a neutron is released:

If this neutron then reacts with Lithium-6 or Lithium-7, it splits the lithium into tritium and helium:

Lithium is therefore another part of the fuel needed for nuclear fusion and there are large stores of it on Earth. It must be admitted, however, that lithium is in high demand and mining it can harm the environment. Still, with massive fuel efficiency, no greenhouse gas emissions and no risk of nuclear meltdowns, achieving nuclear fusion would, on balance, be a game-changer for the environment.

Considering the above, fusion sounds like the perfect solution to our increasing demands for sustainable energy - so why haven’t we started using it yet? There is, it turns out, a slight issue – fusion requires temperatures around 100 million degrees Celsius to take place. This is due to the repulsive forces between the nuclei (since they are positively charged and like charges repel) which need to be overcome in order for the nuclei to come close enough to fuse. For fusion to take place the atoms need to have enough energy to collide and there need to be enough atoms in a given volume, which is why such high temperatures and pressures are required. Additionally, you need some way to confine the very dense hot hydrogen plasma (a gaseous mixture of ions and free electrons). There are currently two main methods being researched for achieving these conditions: magnetic confinement and inertial confinement.

The name “magnetic confinement” gives away the basics of how this method works. In the most common version (the tokamak), the plasma is confined in a doughnut-shaped chamber using magnetic and electric fields. Using a combination of microwaves, an induced electric current and accelerated particles the plasma is heated to the required temperature. Alternatively, the more recent idea of inertial confinement focuses lasers onto a tiny pellet of deuterium-tritium fuel, which is heated and compressed until fusion can take place. The national ignition facility in California is experimenting with this method using 192 laser beams!

Powering the world with nuclear fusion, however, is still quite far off from becoming a reality, since no one has successfully managed to use it to create a gain in energy (when more energy is generated than is used to power it). Fusion has even been jokingly dubbed the technology that is always 30 years away! There are, however, numerous promising companies attempting to tackle the problem and advances continue to be made. It’s a puzzle still to be solved!

What do you think of nuclear fusion? Let us know!

Want to try EasyA? Download the app now!

This is a question that students today find themselves asking more frequently than ever. It’s also one of the first questions students and parents ask us when beginning their journey into the world of university admissions.

We think the question can be distilled down to one simple concept: flexibility.

In general, the U.S. system provides students with more flexibility. Whether this is a positive or negative ultimately depends on the student and their interests. For those interested in a variety of different subjects, the U.S. might be a better option. However, for those who know exactly what they want to study, the U.K. is probably a more practical choice. Of course, there is more to the story as we’ll see below.

1. In-depth vs wide-ranging study

Perhaps the largest different between the Ivy Leagues and Oxbridge is the course of study. In the U.S., students receive a far more generalised education: students can take all sorts of classes ranging from Zulu to The Science of Harry Potter in their first two years, before deciding in what they would like to major. In the U.K., however, students will find no such classes. Students specialise in one subject for the entirety of their undergraduate education, taking classes tied to their degree. In fact, most students must know what they want to study well before even applying to university, when they must choose the right a-levels for their desired course.

2. Length of study

The length of study is also considerably different. All courses in the U.S. are 4 years long, whereas in the U.K. they are mostly 3 years (although for those lucky enough, they can extend to 4 years). Depending on how much fun students anticipate having at university, 3 years might simply not be enough.

3. Method of study

The final and perhaps most important factor to consider when deciding between Oxbridge or Ivy are those related to the method of study. Whereas the Ivy Leagues conduct lessons in lecture halls, with little other contact with Professors, an Oxbridge education is centered around tutorials. These intimate tutorials are conducted either in small groups or 1-on-1, meaning that all aspects of one’s readings and essays are scrutinised in detail. The U.S. system is also much more geared towards teamwork. Most classes emphasise group projects and final grades are calculated based on input from peers. In the U.K., students largely work independently and grading is based on individual work.

Ultimately, whether it is Oxbridge or the Ivy League, students can’t go wrong with either option. Both provide the highest possible academic experience combined with the density of talented individuals not found anywhere else in the world. But as the authors of this post can admit, it is the people that make the experiences that ultimately make the university. With this in mind, we firmly believe that students will have the best 3 or 4 years of their lives no matter which side of the pond they choose to study.

What are your thoughts on Oxbridge vs Ivy League? Do you have a preference for one over the other? Let us know!

Want to try EasyA for yourself? Download the app now!

On Friday, schools across the UK closed for the foreseeable future. While that might have been music to students’ ears all over the country, the same could not be said for parents. If you’re like many of the parents we’ve been speaking to so far, you’re probably wondering what you’re going to do with your children now that they’re at home everyday. Who would’ve thought you could have too much of a good thing?

Fear not, we’ve got a few suggestions that’ll keep your family entertained and educated:

Virtual museum tours

Just because museums are shut, doesn’t mean that you can’t get cultured. Google Museum View allows anyone to take virtual tours of some of the world’s greatest museums and heritage sites. Whether it’s a quick trip to the Hazara Rampa Temple in New Delhi or the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Google makes all of this possible from the comfort of your own home.

https://artsandculture.google.com/project/streetviews

MOOCs

Why not take the time to explore interesting online courses in subjects you would have never otherwise studied? The Open University allows anyone to take lectures in a wide range of topics: a recent search reveals current courses on Postwar Abstract Painting, Buddhism and Modern Psychology and even Pandemics (how topical!). These online courses are a great way for the whole family to learn together and spend time discovering something completely new. No matter where your interests lie, an intellectual feast awaits!

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses/full-catalogue

Check out Mars

Ever wondered what the surface of Mars is like? This web app allows you to explore the surface of Mars. Yes, that’s all it does. It’s also got a little video that explains the history of Martial exploration. Nice!

https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/

Duolingo

Why not take this opportunity to learn a new language? Duolingo is a free app that helps its users learn a new language. Whether it’s Arabic, Chinese or Portuguese, your children will be well on their way to becoming bilingual in no time!

www.duolingo.com

EasyA

Just because a tutor can’t come to your home or your local tutoring centers are closed, doesn’t mean your child can’t get the help they need. EasyA offers unlimited, on-demand 1:1 tutoring for your child so that they can get all the support they need, even when they don’t have access to their tutors or teachers. Students simply take photos of their questions and EasyA connects them with tutors who can help. It’s the only 100% fool-proof way to make sure your child can get help and learn while not exposing them to any risk of the coronavirus.

Sound too good to be true? Download the app now to see for yourself.

Now that you’ve seen how much you can learn (and do) online, don’t forget to leave your home every once in a while when the coronavirus is over!

Check out the video below for even more tips on how you and your children can learn without ever leaving your home.

What other ways do you plan to keep your child learning throughout these uncertain times? Let us know!

The Parthenon Marbles, or Elgin Marbles, are a collection of roughly half of the marble sculptures which were originally a part of the frieze around the inside of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, carved by Pheidias, depicting a battle between centaurs and a legendary people known as the Lapith at the marriage-feast of Pirithous. They immortalise moments of great heroism and are a celebration of humanity within the most sacred space. After Lord Elgin removed the sculptures in the early 1800s, he sold them to the British government, who gave them to the British Museum in 1817, where they have stayed since.

The debate surrounding the return of the Parthenon Marbles has raged for over 200 years, and contemporary British public opinion has varied. At the time, although Lord Byron condemned Lord Elgin’s actions as vandalism, lamenting ‘Dull is the eye that will not weep to see| Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed| By British hands’, most people supported Lord Elgin as safeguarding the epitome of Western culture. However, a YouGov poll in 2017 showed that 55% thought that the marbles should be returned, and only 21% that they should remain in Britain.

The dispute received particular attention from the media when, in 2015, Amal Clooney called for the return of the marbles. She was acting as a legal advisor to the Greek government, recommending that they take legal action in the International Court of Justice to reclaim the marbles. However, the Greek government chose not to take legal action, out of concern that a negative ICJ decision might lose the fight to reclaim the marbles for ever.

In 2018, the Greek Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou asked for dialogue with Britain over the Parthenon Sculptures, probing for a possible quid pro quo for giving Theresa May consent to deliver Brexit. Notably, Jeremy Corbyn pledged that any government led by him would return the ‘stolen’ marbles to Greece.

On the one hand, the Parthenon Marbles represent a central part of Greek cultural heritage, and they are the most prominent link between modern Athenians and the greatness of their ancient ancestors, representing the cultural identity of millions of Greek people. They should also be returned in accordance with the intentions of the sculptor: to be fully appreciated, they should be reunited and viewed in their original intended location, offering an unrivalled additional insight. With the new Acropolis Museum designed closely to mirror the original experience of visiting the Parthenon, and its geographical proximity to the Acropolis (only 300 metres), this would provide a viewing experience most similar to Pheidias’ wish. Additionally, since the 2008 recession, Greece has endured crippling debt and high unemployment rates. As tourism is a large feature of their economy, repatriating the marbles could help Greece to grow their economy, leading to greater long-term stability.

However, at the time Greece was not looking after the marbles and so if Lord Elgin had not removed and preserved them, they could have been lost forever, and so the British Museum should keep them as a result of having maintained them for centuries. Moreover, there are more annual visitors to the British Museum than Athens, allowing maximal exposure for these historic sculptures. There is also the idea of this being a slippery slope – if we do not dissociate the past from the present, many of the principal museums globally would be emptied, removing the opportunity for education on a wide range of cultures that they provide, and we will be forever apologising for actions which took place in very different political and social climates. In addition, there is the argument that Greece is striving to establish a national identity through cultivating a specific cultural identity based on antiquity, but ancient Greece and modern Greece cannot be considered the same owing to the political, social and economic changes that have occurred since. This argument can be illuminated by considering similar examples: the Pergamon Altar in Turkey is now housed in the purpose-built Pergamon Museum in Berlin, but there is no similar argument for its repatriation, as modern-day Turkey has forged an alternative identity separate to the ancient Greek values that ancient Turkey comprised.

My own view is that it is imperative that such a focal point of Greek heritage is repatriated and while the Parthenon Marbles are in the British Museum, their presence serves as a physical reminder of imperialism: even their naming as the 'Elgin Marbles' shows the Anglocentric culture in which they were taken.

What do you think of the repatriation debate? Let us know!

Want to try EasyA? Download the app now!

The internet has had a profound impact on almost every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s online shopping on Amazon, getting a cheap ride in minutes with Uber or making free international calls with Skype, a life without the internet and the inventions it has afforded is simply unthinkable.

However, while the above could be considered luxuries, the internet has also had a huge impact on education, one of the most important factors to achieving a more equitable world. In fact, it is hard to overstate the importance of education today.

Education is the theme of the United Nations’ fourth Sustainable Development Goal, which seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Across the world, education is seen as one of the keys to eradicating poverty and can have a huge impact on infant mortality rates. Knowing that a child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5 or that teaching students in low-income countries basic reading skills can lift 171 million people out of poverty shows the very tangible benefits of education.

Fortunately, the internet is making education more accessible globally, allowing those who otherwise would not receive an education, to learn and chart their paths towards a brighter future.

We highlight a few ways the internet is becoming a force for good below:

Accessibility

One of the largest barriers to education in rural areas is the lack of easily accessible schools. In many cases, even if students are lucky enough to be enrolled in a school, they must walk miles just to get there. The internet allows students to learn without having to travel huge distances to schools. This means time spent commuting, is spent learning.

‍

High quality education

The internet allows any student, no matter where in the world they are, to access lectures given by the top academics in the world. Whether it’s a professor at Harvard giving a lecture on “Pseudorandomness in Computer Science” or a lecturer at Cambridge University holding a seminar on “The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia”, a student anywhere in the world can watch all of these and more online.

No need for classrooms

The internet provides the flexibility for students to learn from wherever they have an internet connection. This means dedicated classrooms are no longer needed. In rural areas, this is extremely important, as it means resources can be devoted to teaching and providing internet access, not building.

Multimedia

Whereas conventional classroom-based teaching relies on a teacher lecturing at the front of a classroom and handing out physical worksheets, the internet allows for a far more interactive learning experience.

Using a range of different learning media has been proven to improve educational outcomes for students, which the internet makes easy. Whether it’s interactive videos, flashcards or quizzes, the internet allows teachers to interact with students in fun and engaging ways.

Affordable

Online education is a far more affordable alternative to classroom-based learning. MOOCs (including Udacity, Khan Academy and many others) allow students to take classes from top professors for a far more affordable fee. YouTube, which contains a plethora of lectures and other educational videos, even allows students to learn for free.

Scalability

Teaching online means educators don’t have to worry about class sizes or having too many students in their classroom at any one time. Even in classrooms at some of the top educational institutions, overcrowding can be a problem; I remember one class at Wharton, where students would have to apply to get in and even then students were sitting in the aisles! The internet allows educators to stream, record and broadcast their lectures to many millions of students across the globe.

However, while the above highlights some of the benefits the internet brings to learning, it is worth remembering that over half the world’s population has never used the internet before. Only until we start getting internet access into the hands of the remaining 50% will its effects be truly felt.

Let us know your thoughts on the internet and its impact on education here.

Want to try EasyA for yourself? Download the app now!