Sofia Pan RuoFan

Same Field, Big Difference: Defining Chinese and Western Medicine

By Sofia Pan, G9 A friend of my mother’s from Germany once shared a remarkable story: after her father was diagnosed with leg paralysis, conventional treatments failed to rehabilitate him until he visited a Chinese medicine doctor, who restored his mobility through acupuncture. Yet, when I suffered a strained leg, …

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The Bug That Outsmarted Science: The Truth About Modern Bed Bugs

By Sofia Pan, Grade 9 In the 1950s, humanity nearly eradicated bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) with heavy-duty chemicals like DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). For decades, they felt like an archaic myth from the nursery rhyme, “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” But by the 2000s, they launched an …

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Where Do We Come From — The Formation of the Universe 

By Sofia Pan, G8  Every culture throughout human history has crafted an origin story to explain how the cosmos came to be—from primordial oceans churning life into existence to divine architects sculpting order out of chaos. Yet modern astrophysics and cosmology have uncovered an even more poetic and mathematically astonishing …

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How the Piano Turns People into Albert Einstein 

By: Sofia Pan, Grade 9 According to family accounts, whenever Albert Einstein found himself stuck on a complex mathematical or scientific problem, he would abruptly get up from his desk and walk towards the piano. He would play for a short while, and then suddenly, his face would light up. …

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The Science of Passion

By Sofia Pan, G8 Have you ever fallen in love with doing something? It can be dancing, singing, playing chess, or even listening to podcasts. You might think the reason that you’re so into doing the activity is that you have the genes or because the activity has some magic …

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Agentic AI: The Rise of Technology That Actually Do Things

By Sofia Pan, Grade 8 You’ve probably used ChatGPT to help with homework or asked Siri to set a timer. But what if the AI didn’t just suggest—what if it actually did things on its own? That’s the promise of Agentic AI, and it might just change everything. Traditional AI …

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All About Microwaves: The Invisible Symphony on Your Kitchen Counter

By Sofia Pan, G8 In 1945, an engineer named Percy Spencer was standing next to an active military radarmachine when he noticed a bizarre sensation in his pocket. His chocolate candy bar hadcompletely melted into a warm, gooey mess. Instead of getting annoyed, Spencer gotcurious. He placed a handful of …

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Key to Soaring in Thunder: Meet the Faraday Cage

By Sofia Pan, G8 It is estimated that over 70 aircraft are struck by lightning every day worldwide, yet news andpodcasts aren’t overwhelmed with news of plane accidents. In fact, the plane is the safestplace for you to be in during a storm. To uncover the reason, you’ll have to …

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