Pisay student feted in The New York Times' writing tilt
A Grade 11 student from the Philippine Science High School (PSHS)– Main Campus has emerged as one of the top winners of the The Learning Network’s second annual STEM Writing Contest organized by The New York Times.
The PSHS extended its felicitations to Natalia Araña for winning The New York Times’ STEM writing contest.
"The Philippine Science High School System congratulates Natalia Araña, Grade 11 student at the Philippine Science High School – Main Campus, for emerging as one of the top 11 winners of The Learning Network’s second annual STEM Writing Contest organized by The New York Times,” read the PSHS’s post on Facebook.
Araña’s essay, “Mycowood Violins: A Different Kind of Time Machine” was declared as winning piece among the 3,741 entries. It was published in The New York Times on April 29.
The essay zeroes in on the works of Dr. Francis W.M.R. Schwarze as leading scientist in the area of wood decay fungi.
It delves on how Schwarze from the Empa Applied Wood Materials Lab recreated the effects of the cold temperature on wood by using white rot fungi.
"For three months, Dr. Schwarze let these decomposers feast on the wood until its cells shrunk, letting the timber reach its optimal density without largely affecting the speed of sound travel through the material. The result? A higher radiation ratio that made the newly created “mycowood” one step closer to the resonance wood used by Stradivari — close enough, in fact, that most listeners in a blind test mistook a fungi-treated violin for the original Stradivarius!,” the 16-year old Araña said in her essay.
She said Schwarze’s developed technology "could provide musicians with accessible instruments made from high quality wood, even when the original material is lost to the past.”
Araña noted that only a few hundred of million-dollar Stradivarius violins are still in existence. The violins were made over 250 years ago by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari, she wrote.
“We have tried to replicate many things taken away by climate change, from the exquisite wood of the Stradivarius to the beautiful landscapes of nature. Although we can’t recover everything, researchers like Dr. Schwarze are continuing to find ways to restore the past as we carry on our battle for a more sustainable future,”Araña said in her award-winning essay.