Ebooks don’t spell the end of literature

E-readers pose no threat to books — quite the opposite, they may just re-kindle a generation’s love for the written word

The other day I was on a train, reading a book. The young woman seated next to me was also reading a book. We were both enjoying classics of English literature — hers was a Charlotte Brontë novel. The only difference was that my book was made of paper, and hers of light on the screen of an e-reader.

Books are changing; but are the fundamentals of reading and writing? Seeing a reader gripped by digital Brontë made me aware that electronic books are giving literacy a new dimension. Many people like this new way of enjoying a book, and some may prefer it. Look at it this way: since the 1960s when transistor radios and — by the end of the decade — colour televisions transformed popular culture, every new technological advance has strengthened the appeal of the sort of media that rivals the book. Music and film, TV and video games: all have outshone books in technological glamour. Now, suddenly, here is a technological way to read a book. It’s kind of cool.

I don’t believe this technology will destroy the printed object; real books will never lose their charm. But people who see today’s new ways of reading as a threat are fantasising. Literacy has been under attack for decades, from all directions. Reading suffered its worst assault, perhaps, from television. My grandmother used to read all the time — in fact she was the village librarian — but you wouldn’t find many people in that same village today with the TV off, their heads in books. It is therefore surely arguable that e-readers are not the destroyers but the saviours of the book. A generation may return to the written word because of this technology.

Internet: <http://www.theguardian.com> (adapted).

Les routes intelligentes du Brabant

À Nuenen, un petit village prospère et verdoyant dans la province de Nord-Brabant, la piste cyclable qui coupe à travers les champs pour rejoindre un hameau voisin a, pendant le jour, un aspect très banal: un ruban mince et sinueux de béton gris mat. Mais au crépuscule, quelques scintillements bleus, verts ou blancs apparaissent çà et là sur le sol. Et à la 7 à la fois douce et puissante, qui semble venir de l’intérieur du béton. L’intensité lumineuse est suffisante pour que les promeneurs puissent marcher ou faire du vélo en toute sécurité, en ayant l’impression de flotter sur un arc de lumière. Les innombrables points lumineux sont agencés selon des motifs complexes – volutes, vagues, constellations…

Côté artistique, cette oeuvre spectaculaire a été imaginée par le designer néerlandais Daan Roosegaarde, qui aime se définir comme un « techno-poète » et s’est inspiré directement de La Nuit étoilée, le célèbre tableau de Vincent van Gogh. L’oeuvre de Roosegaard constitue une référence culturelle et touristique à l’histoire de Nuenen, où van Gogh a vécu et travaillé pendant trois ans, avant de partir pour la France : « Les voies de circulation sont des oeuvres importantes que nous léguons à nos descendants », explique Daan Roosegaarde. « Nous devons faire en sorte qu’elles soient belles, poétiques, tout en étant conçues pour affronter l’avenir.», il ajoute.

Yves Eudes. Internet :<www.lemonde.fr> (texte adapté).

Descifran las palabras de un pergamino calcinado por la erupción del Monte Vesubio, en Nápoles, Italia.

Científicos del Instituto de Microelectrónica y Microsistemas en Nápoles (Italia) han conseguido leer un antiguo pergamino carbonizado por la erupción del Vesubio hace casi 2.000 años. Los científicos pudieron escanear el papiro usando una versión de la tomografía computarizada de rayos X. Esta técnica es muy usada en medicina para ver las estructuras de tejidos blandos, como el cerebro, los pulmones o el pecho, y funciona mediante la detección del contraste de cómo los materiales refractan, en lugar de absorber los rayos X.

Los investigadores fueron capaces de descifrar un alfabeto de letras griegas, y palabras ocasionales. Creen probable que el texto sea una copia del escrito por el filósofo y poeta Filodemo (110 aC-40 aC), que se veía a sí mismo como el defensor de las enseñanzas de Epicuro, filósofo que vivió dos siglos antes y construyó un sistema de ética basado en una visión materialista del mundo.

“Los textos son muy importantes para nuestra comprensión de la filosofía helenística”, dice David Blank, un clasicista de la Universidad de California, Los Ángeles, y uno de los responsables del proyecto. Los investigadores esperan hacer nuevos progresos y creen posible que más papiros sigan ocultos en Herculano, por lo que animan a que continúen las excavaciones.

Internet: <www.abc.es> (con adaptaciones).

Ebooks don’t spell the end of literature

E-readers pose no threat to books — quite the opposite, they may just re-kindle a generation’s love for the written word

The other day I was on a train, reading a book. The young woman seated next to me was also reading a book. We were both enjoying classics of English literature — hers was a Charlotte Brontë novel. The only difference was that my book was made of paper, and hers of light on the screen of an e-reader.

Books are changing; but are the fundamentals of reading and writing? Seeing a reader gripped by digital Brontë made me aware that electronic books are giving literacy a new dimension. Many people like this new way of enjoying a book, and some may prefer it. Look at it this way: since the 1960s when transistor radios and — by the end of the decade — colour televisions transformed popular culture, every new technological advance has strengthened the appeal of the sort of media that rivals the book. Music and film, TV and video games: all have outshone books in technological glamour. Now, suddenly, here is a technological way to read a book. It’s kind of cool.

I don’t believe this technology will destroy the printed object; real books will never lose their charm. But people who see today’s new ways of reading as a threat are fantasising. Literacy has been under attack for decades, from all directions. Reading suffered its worst assault, perhaps, from television. My grandmother used to read all the time — in fact she was the village librarian — but you wouldn’t find many people in that same village today with the TV off, their heads in books. It is therefore surely arguable that e-readers are not the destroyers but the saviours of the book. A generation may return to the written word because of this technology.

Internet: <http://www.theguardian.com> (adapted).

Les routes intelligentes du Brabant

À Nuenen, un petit village prospère et verdoyant dans la province de Nord-Brabant, la piste cyclable qui coupe à travers les champs pour rejoindre un hameau voisin a, pendant le jour, un aspect très banal: un ruban mince et sinueux de béton gris mat. Mais au crépuscule, quelques scintillements bleus, verts ou blancs apparaissent çà et là sur le sol. Et à la 7 à la fois douce et puissante, qui semble venir de l’intérieur du béton. L’intensité lumineuse est suffisante pour que les promeneurs puissent marcher ou faire du vélo en toute sécurité, en ayant l’impression de flotter sur un arc de lumière. Les innombrables points lumineux sont agencés selon des motifs complexes – volutes, vagues, constellations…

Côté artistique, cette oeuvre spectaculaire a été imaginée par le designer néerlandais Daan Roosegaarde, qui aime se définir comme un « techno-poète » et s’est inspiré directement de La Nuit étoilée, le célèbre tableau de Vincent van Gogh. L’oeuvre de Roosegaard constitue une référence culturelle et touristique à l’histoire de Nuenen, où van Gogh a vécu et travaillé pendant trois ans, avant de partir pour la France : « Les voies de circulation sont des oeuvres importantes que nous léguons à nos descendants », explique Daan Roosegaarde. « Nous devons faire en sorte qu’elles soient belles, poétiques, tout en étant conçues pour affronter l’avenir.», il ajoute.

Yves Eudes. Internet :<www.lemonde.fr> (texte adapté).

Ebooks don’t spell the end of literature

E-readers pose no threat to books — quite the opposite, they may just re-kindle a generation’s love for the written word

The other day I was on a train, reading a book. The young woman seated next to me was also reading a book. We were both enjoying classics of English literature — hers was a Charlotte Brontë novel. The only difference was that my book was made of paper, and hers of light on the screen of an e-reader.

Books are changing; but are the fundamentals of reading and writing? Seeing a reader gripped by digital Brontë made me aware that electronic books are giving literacy a new dimension. Many people like this new way of enjoying a book, and some may prefer it. Look at it this way: since the 1960s when transistor radios and — by the end of the decade — colour televisions transformed popular culture, every new technological advance has strengthened the appeal of the sort of media that rivals the book. Music and film, TV and video games: all have outshone books in technological glamour. Now, suddenly, here is a technological way to read a book. It’s kind of cool.

I don’t believe this technology will destroy the printed object; real books will never lose their charm. But people who see today’s new ways of reading as a threat are fantasising. Literacy has been under attack for decades, from all directions. Reading suffered its worst assault, perhaps, from television. My grandmother used to read all the time — in fact she was the village librarian — but you wouldn’t find many people in that same village today with the TV off, their heads in books. It is therefore surely arguable that e-readers are not the destroyers but the saviours of the book. A generation may return to the written word because of this technology.

Internet: <http://www.theguardian.com> (adapted).

Descifran las palabras de un pergamino calcinado por la erupción del Monte Vesubio, en Nápoles, Italia.

Científicos del Instituto de Microelectrónica y Microsistemas en Nápoles (Italia) han conseguido leer un antiguo pergamino carbonizado por la erupción del Vesubio hace casi 2.000 años. Los científicos pudieron escanear el papiro usando una versión de la tomografía computarizada de rayos X. Esta técnica es muy usada en medicina para ver las estructuras de tejidos blandos, como el cerebro, los pulmones o el pecho, y funciona mediante la detección del contraste de cómo los materiales refractan, en lugar de absorber los rayos X.

Los investigadores fueron capaces de descifrar un alfabeto de letras griegas, y palabras ocasionales. Creen probable que el texto sea una copia del escrito por el filósofo y poeta Filodemo (110 aC-40 aC), que se veía a sí mismo como el defensor de las enseñanzas de Epicuro, filósofo que vivió dos siglos antes y construyó un sistema de ética basado en una visión materialista del mundo.

“Los textos son muy importantes para nuestra comprensión de la filosofía helenística”, dice David Blank, un clasicista de la Universidad de California, Los Ángeles, y uno de los responsables del proyecto. Los investigadores esperan hacer nuevos progresos y creen posible que más papiros sigan ocultos en Herculano, por lo que animan a que continúen las excavaciones.

Internet: <www.abc.es> (con adaptaciones).

Les routes intelligentes du Brabant

À Nuenen, un petit village prospère et verdoyant dans la province de Nord-Brabant, la piste cyclable qui coupe à travers les champs pour rejoindre un hameau voisin a, pendant le jour, un aspect très banal: un ruban mince et sinueux de béton gris mat. Mais au crépuscule, quelques scintillements bleus, verts ou blancs apparaissent çà et là sur le sol. Et à la 7 à la fois douce et puissante, qui semble venir de l’intérieur du béton. L’intensité lumineuse est suffisante pour que les promeneurs puissent marcher ou faire du vélo en toute sécurité, en ayant l’impression de flotter sur un arc de lumière. Les innombrables points lumineux sont agencés selon des motifs complexes – volutes, vagues, constellations…

Côté artistique, cette oeuvre spectaculaire a été imaginée par le designer néerlandais Daan Roosegaarde, qui aime se définir comme un « techno-poète » et s’est inspiré directement de La Nuit étoilée, le célèbre tableau de Vincent van Gogh. L’oeuvre de Roosegaard constitue une référence culturelle et touristique à l’histoire de Nuenen, où van Gogh a vécu et travaillé pendant trois ans, avant de partir pour la France : « Les voies de circulation sont des oeuvres importantes que nous léguons à nos descendants », explique Daan Roosegaarde. « Nous devons faire en sorte qu’elles soient belles, poétiques, tout en étant conçues pour affronter l’avenir.», il ajoute.

Yves Eudes. Internet :<www.lemonde.fr> (texte adapté).

Descifran las palabras de un pergamino calcinado por la erupción del Monte Vesubio, en Nápoles, Italia.

Científicos del Instituto de Microelectrónica y Microsistemas en Nápoles (Italia) han conseguido leer un antiguo pergamino carbonizado por la erupción del Vesubio hace casi 2.000 años. Los científicos pudieron escanear el papiro usando una versión de la tomografía computarizada de rayos X. Esta técnica es muy usada en medicina para ver las estructuras de tejidos blandos, como el cerebro, los pulmones o el pecho, y funciona mediante la detección del contraste de cómo los materiales refractan, en lugar de absorber los rayos X.

Los investigadores fueron capaces de descifrar un alfabeto de letras griegas, y palabras ocasionales. Creen probable que el texto sea una copia del escrito por el filósofo y poeta Filodemo (110 aC-40 aC), que se veía a sí mismo como el defensor de las enseñanzas de Epicuro, filósofo que vivió dos siglos antes y construyó un sistema de ética basado en una visión materialista del mundo.

“Los textos son muy importantes para nuestra comprensión de la filosofía helenística”, dice David Blank, un clasicista de la Universidad de California, Los Ángeles, y uno de los responsables del proyecto. Los investigadores esperan hacer nuevos progresos y creen posible que más papiros sigan ocultos en Herculano, por lo que animan a que continúen las excavaciones.

Internet: <www.abc.es> (con adaptaciones).

Ebooks don’t spell the end of literature

E-readers pose no threat to books — quite the opposite, they may just re-kindle a generation’s love for the written word

The other day I was on a train, reading a book. The young woman seated next to me was also reading a book. We were both enjoying classics of English literature — hers was a Charlotte Brontë novel. The only difference was that my book was made of paper, and hers of light on the screen of an e-reader.

Books are changing; but are the fundamentals of reading and writing? Seeing a reader gripped by digital Brontë made me aware that electronic books are giving literacy a new dimension. Many people like this new way of enjoying a book, and some may prefer it. Look at it this way: since the 1960s when transistor radios and — by the end of the decade — colour televisions transformed popular culture, every new technological advance has strengthened the appeal of the sort of media that rivals the book. Music and film, TV and video games: all have outshone books in technological glamour. Now, suddenly, here is a technological way to read a book. It’s kind of cool.

I don’t believe this technology will destroy the printed object; real books will never lose their charm. But people who see today’s new ways of reading as a threat are fantasising. Literacy has been under attack for decades, from all directions. Reading suffered its worst assault, perhaps, from television. My grandmother used to read all the time — in fact she was the village librarian — but you wouldn’t find many people in that same village today with the TV off, their heads in books. It is therefore surely arguable that e-readers are not the destroyers but the saviours of the book. A generation may return to the written word because of this technology.

Internet: <http://www.theguardian.com> (adapted).