 Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. Today, Gregory Stockle tells us how Japan hopes to create more chances for women to enter science careers. Brian Lin presents this week's Science Report. Finally, we visit Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. But first, John Russell and I have this report. Across Europe, churches and other Christian religious buildings stand increasingly empty. These empty churches are being repurposed. That means they are being changed into other things, like hotels, sport-climbing businesses, and even dance places. Supporters say the changes remove the need for costly repairs and care of the buildings. Critics say such changes raise ethical concerns. Empty churches can be seen over much of Europe, from Germany to Italy, and many nations in between. But the empty churches really stand out in Flanders, in the northern part of Belgium. The area has some of the greatest cathedrals in Europe. But there are not enough people attending the churches. In 2018, the Pew Research Group released an opinion study of religion in Belgium. The study found that 83% of people said they had been raised as Christians. But only 55% still consider themselves to be Christians. And only 10% of Belgians still attend church regularly. Johann Boney is the Bishop of Antwerp. He is a top church leader in the city. He told the Associated Press about the issue, that is painful, I will not hide it. On the other hand, there is no return to the past possible. Mechelen is a town of 85,000 people just north of Brussels. It is the Roman Catholic center of Belgium. It has more than 20 churches. Mayor Bart Somers has been working for years to give many of the buildings a different purpose. In my city, we have a brewery in a church. We have a hotel in a church. We have a cultural center in a church. We have a library in a church. So we have a lot of new destinations for the churches, said Somers. Somers, a Flemish regional minister, is also involved in repurposing about 350 churches spread across the densely populated area of 6.7 million people. A famous repurposing project in Belgium was Martin's Patershof Hotel in Mechelen. The inside of the church was cleaned out to create rooms. We often hear that people come here to relax and enjoy the silence of its former identity, said hotel manager Emilie de Pretter. With its simple luxury, it offers time for thought and more. Since it is now a hotel, people might do many things in the former church. So you could say, ethically, is it a good idea to have a hotel in a church? I don't have so many hesitations, said Somers. I am more concerned about the actual architectural value. The design value is especially clear at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Brussels. These days, it is known as Maniac Padu Climbing Gym. The rock climbing wall is located near large, special colored windows known as stained glass windows. The stained glass brings a warm light to the venue when the sun goes through it, so we can really feel the presence of the remains of the church, said Cyril Butuk, the co-founder of the club. The altar is still in place, so we are surrounded by remains, and it reminds us where we actually are. Also in Brussels, the Spirito nightclub has taken over a former Anglican church and has an image of a priest kissing a nun as its logo. It is not exactly what Bishop Boney had in mind. Even if the Roman Catholic religion is declining, a sense of the sacred and a need for thought still exists in society, whether one is religious or not. The sense of peace coming from a church is hard to match. So, for Boney, there is no reason to turn churches into supermarkets or dance places. Boney thinks the most successful repurposing has been the handing over of churches to other Christian groups, such as Coptic or Eastern European churches. At his office, though, he can get tired just looking at the number of people coming to make deals for empty Roman Catholic buildings. His heart is heavy when a real estate agent shows up. They see possibilities and you cannot believe suddenly how pious they can become when a financial opportunity presents itself. Suddenly they are more devout than a nun, he said. Knowing the history of Christianity over hundreds of years, Boney considers the effects of time since the near future does not look bright. Every 300 years we nearly had to start again, he said. Something new, I'm sure, will happen, but it takes time. At the Hotel Martin's Patershof, there is even a condition that the church can reclaim the building if it is needed again, said de Prater. The hotel elements were built on steel beams and could be taken out. If the church at a certain point wants the building back, which holds a very small chance, probably, it is possible, de Prater said. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm John Russell. Yuna Kato is a third year student at one of Japan's top engineering universities. She is looking forward to a career in research, but fears it might be short lived if she has children. Kato says relatives have tried to move her away from studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, commonly called STEM. They are doing so on the belief that women in the STEM field are too busy to meet a partner or have a family. My grandmother and mother often tell me that there are non-STEM jobs out there if I want to raise children, she said. Kato has made it this far, but many females hoping to become engineers choose a different path due to social pressure. This creates many problems for Japan. In the information technology field alone, the country will be lacking 790,000 workers by 2030. That is largely due to a severe underrepresentation of women. The outcome experts warn is a decrease in innovation, productivity and competitiveness. That will be for a country that grew into the world's third largest economy on those strengths during the last century. It's very wasteful and a loss for the nation, said Yinuo Li. She is a Chinese educator with a doctorate in molecular biology and whose likeness has been used for a children's toy as a female model in STEM. Japan comes in last among wealthy nations with only 16% of female university students majoring in engineering, manufacturing and construction. And it has just one female scientist for every seven. That is even with Japanese girls testing second highest in the world in math and third in science, the organization for economic cooperation and development found. For the school year starting in 2024, about 12 universities, including the Tokyo Institute of Technology, will follow the government's call to introduce a set amount of placement for female STEM students. It is a big change for a country where an investigation in 2018 found a Tokyo Medical School had purposefully lowered women's entrance tests to favor men. School officials felt women were more likely to quit working after having children and would waste their education. Recently, the government created a video to show educators and other adults how unconscious bias pushes girls away from STEM studies. In one moment, an actor playing a school teacher tells a student she is good at math, even though she is a girl. This makes her feel unusual to be a female and good at math. In another, a mother pushes her daughter away from studying engineering since the field is mostly controlled by men. Working with private industries, the government's Gender Equality Bureau will hold more than 100 STEM workshops and events mainly targeting female students. Students in one event will learn from the car company Mazda's Sports Car Engineers. Other companies, including Mitsubishi and Toyota, are offering scholarships to female STEM students. Mitsubishi Human Resources official Minoru Taniura noted that women make up half of the population. Taniura added, if the makeup of engineers is not the same as the population, we'd fall behind in being able to offer what customers are looking for. I'm Gregory Stockle. Scientists say they have found new evidence of organic matter on Mars that could be linked to past life on the planet. The Perseverance Explorer, which is operated by the American Space Agency NASA, discovered the organic materials. The Explorer, or rover, has been collecting data on Mars since landing on the red planet in February 2021. The goal, or mission, of Perseverance is to collect Martian soil and rock material as part of a search for signs of ancient life. Scientists on Earth using the equipment on the rover examined this material as closely as possible. The collected soil and rocks are to be picked up in future missions and returned to Earth for examination. Researchers said the latest findings suggest the presence on the Martian surface of the same kinds of carbon signals that are linked to living organisms on Earth. The presence of carbon may suggest that biological life once existed on Mars, but the carbon material could also be related to non-biological processes. In the past, data from two other NASA explorers, the Phoenix Lander and the Curiosity rover, found evidence of organic carbon on the surface of Mars. But both of those discoveries were made with gas-based methods used for examining organic matter. The latest findings were made through a different method. This time, the research team used an instrument attached to Perseverance's robotic arm known as Sherlock. It uses cameras, spectrometers, and a laser to search for organic matter and minerals, NASA said. The instrument centers on materials that might have been changed by watery environments and could provide biological evidence of past life. One of the leaders of the latest research was Amy Williams, an astrobiologist and assistant professor at the University of Florida. She was one of the writers of a study that describes the latest findings in the publication Nature. The study suggests the new research method provided evidence of a more intricate, organic geochemical cycle on Mars than previously understood. Williams works on the Perseverance mission team. She said in a statement that the Sherlock instrument appears to have observed several kinds of organic carbon matter. She added that the discovery has implications for understanding the carbon cycle on Mars, as well as the possibility that the planet once supported life. Williams said Sherlock was very effective at mapping the positions of organic molecules and minerals on rock surfaces around an area of Mars called Gisero crater. Ashley Murphy was another writer of the study. She is a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona. Murphy said the Sherlock instrument produces the spatial resolution needed to observe important mineral-organic relationships to study possible biological signals. The big takeaway here is with Sherlock's grain-by-grain resolution, we can finally observe variation in organic preservation within the rocks on Mars. Murphy said. She added this is also one of the first reports of possible organics in Gisero crater. Scientists believe Gisero crater contains the remains of an ancient river system. NASA considers the area a good place to look for possible signs of past life. Scientists believe if life ever existed on Mars, it would have been present three to four billion years ago when water flowed freely on the planet. Williams suggested the latest findings mark important progress in the search for signs of ancient life forms on Mars. We are just now scratching the surface of the organic carbon story on Mars and it is an exciting time for Planetary Science. I'm Brian Lin. Brian Lin is here now to talk more about this week's science report. Thanks for joining me, Brian. Of course, Ashley. Thank you for having me. This week's report was about new evidence of organic matter on Mars. Scientists are excited because this evidence could be linked to past life on the planet. I know there have been some similar discoveries in the past, so what makes this one different? Yes, you are correct. NASA explorers on Mars have found some evidence in the past of this kind of material on the planet's surface, but this time researchers used a different method to identify the organic matter. And they say the new results suggest that a wide range of different organic compounds exist on Mars and the instrument used to discover the material was able to create a detailed map of organic molecules and minerals on rocky surfaces in the area. And what can you tell us about the area of Mars where the new evidence was discovered? So NASA's Perseverance rover collected the data and it is operating currently in an area called Jezero Crater just north of the Martian equator. This spot was identified because it is thought to contain the remains of a large ancient river system and NASA believes the best chance of finding evidence of past life on Mars is in those areas where water once existed. Okay, well, thanks for answering my questions, Brian, and thank you for being here. You're welcome. Thank you, Ashley. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Anna. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website learningenglish.boanews.com. On our National Park's journey, we explore a unique place where two deserts meet. The hot, harsh, rocky landscape is home to a rare and strange-looking tree. In fact, the park gets its name from this iconic plant. Welcome to Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California. The limbs of Joshua trees stretch and twist upward in all directions. At the end of each limb are sharply pointed green leaves. The plant looks like a large cactus and can grow over 12 meters tall. But as the National Park Service explains, Joshua trees are not really even trees. They are succulents that belong to the Yucca family. Succulents are desert plants that can hold a lot of water inside them. Joshua trees are not exactly beautiful. An early explorer to the area once described them as the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom. But park visitors are amazed by the wild-looking forests of Joshua trees. The Mormon religious group is said to have given the plant its name. Mormon settlers reportedly thought it looked like the Christian holy figure Joshua. His arms held out, guiding travelers to the promised land. Joshua trees thrive in the climate of the Mojave, one of two deserts within the park. The Mojave is a high desert. It is 900 meters above sea level. It is also relatively cool and wet. The Mojave Desert meets up here with the Colorado Desert. The Colorado is a lower desert. It makes up the eastern part of the National Park. Much of the park sits within the overlap of the two deserts. The overlap creates a diverse ecosystem where many plants and animals thrive. Within the park you can find bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, aguanas, and black-tailed jackrabbits. The park is also home to 250 kinds of birds, like the red-tailed hawk, the roadrunner, and the Scots' Oriole. After spring rainstorms, desert wildflowers burst to life in colorful display. The blooms on Joshua trees are bright white. Cacti produce bright purple, red, and orange wildflowers. The blooms last just a few weeks before the hot summer heat becomes too strong. Along with Joshua trees, large piles of rocks are another defining part of the park's landscape. The huge boulders sit stacked on top of each other. Roads and hiking trails lead visitors through paths of these boulders. Joshua Tree National Park is over 320,000 hectares. It has many hiking and walking trails, from long hikes that take all day to finish to short ones, like the Hidden Valley Trail. This trail takes you through an area that was once a place for cattle-stealing cowboys to hide out. The area's massive rock piles made for effective places to hide in the desert. These huge boulder piles and rock walls have made Joshua Tree National Park world famous for rock climbing and bouldering. The park has more than 8,000 climbing routes. John Hockhousler often comes to Joshua Tree to rock climb and enjoy nature. He makes the three-hour drive from Los Angeles, where he is a lawyer. When you see the park from down low, it's beautiful, but when you see the park from 150 to 200 feet up, it's amazing. Renate Ehrlich visited the National Park with Hockhousler. She is also a lawyer in Los Angeles. She had just tried rock climbing at Joshua Tree for the first time. We love it. We come here to walk on trails. Last time we were here, we rode jeeps, which was so much fun. And it's just a great place, a great outdoorsy place. It's a lot of character. I'm Katie Weaver and I'm Ashley Thompson. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson and I'm Dan Novak.