VietExplorer2026

From the center of Si Ma Cai district, tourists travel about 3 km to Nan San commune to contemplate the picturesque scenes of terraced fields in a lush valley and the ancient earthen houses of the Nung people, which have stood for several dozen years to a hundred years.  Then Xuan Van, a local, says that before building a new house, the Nung people must choose a place that support production and living conditions.  “According to the Nung’s custom, the direction of the main door must suit the age of the house’s owner. We choose an appropriate day and hour to break the ground. At a chosen time, we put a mould used to make earthen walls on the land and butcher a chicken and a pig to inform the land spirits of our construction. I say: ‘Today is a good day. My surname is Then. I will break the ground to build a house. I pray the land...

Photo: IPA The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 is about making difficult processes easier, describes the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. “This year’s Prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” says Johan Åqvist, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal have laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry – click chemistry – in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Carolyn Bertozzi has taken click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilizing it in living organisms. The crown jewel of click chemistry Photo: Photo: Nils Meilvang Around the year 2000, Barry Sharpless coined the concept of click chemistry, which is a form of simple and reliable chemistry, where reactions occur quickly and unwanted by-products are avoided. Shortly afterward, Morte...