【推荐1】Google’s new artificial intelligence can defeat both humans and other AIs. Fortunately, the only war zone where it fights and wins is the ancient board game Go(围棋).

AlphaGo Zero, developed by Google—owned DeepMind, is the latest AI program. The original AlphaGo defeated Go master Lee Sedol last year, and Alphago Master, an updated version, went on to win 60 games against top human players. What’s different about AlphaGo Zero is that it became potentially the world’s best Go player with any help from humans.

The program AlphaGo Zero started off knowing only the basic rules and then played millions of games against itself in just a few days. After almost five million games played against itself, AlphaGo Zero could outplay humans and the original AlphaGo. After 40 days, it was capable of beating AlphaGo Master.

The program learned the strategies humans accumulated over thousands of years in a matter of weeks and also developed nontraditional strategies and moves that beat the techniques of the human masters, leaving them astonished. “At each stage of the game, it seems to gain a bit here and lose a bit there, but somehow it ends up slightly ahead, as if by magic,” said Andrew Jackson of the American Go Association

DeepMind says it has plans for the technology behind AlphaGo Zero beyond just defeating all over an ancient game board. “In the end, we want to apply these breakthroughs to helping solve all sorts of pressing real world problems like designing new materials,” said Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, in a statement.

That sounds great, but just as a precaution, let’s take the advice of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking and keep any super—fast learning AI away from the nuclear launch codes for now.

【推荐2】Folk tales have saddled (使承担) the moon with major responsibilities: moods, increases in crime and even mental disorders are blamed on the moon. But could the “lunar effect” disturb sleep?

Scientists have long understood that human activity is affected by light, including sunlight, moonlight and artificial light. But a recent study suggests our ability to sleep is clearly affected by the lunar cycle, even when considering artificial sources of light.

Using wrist monitors, researchers tracked sleep patterns in 98 individuals living in three local communities in Argentina over the course of two months. One rural community had no electricity access, a second rural community had limited access to electricity, while a third community was located in an urban setting and had full access to electricity.

In each community, the peak(峰值) of participants sleeping less and staying up later occurred three to five days before full moon nights, and the opposite occurred on the nights before the new moon, the authors found.

Unsurprisingly, data showed the “'lunar phase effect” on sleep appeared to be stronger the more limited access to electricity was.

“The result strongly suggests that human sleep is synchronized (同步) with lunar phase,” the researchers wrote in the journal ScienceAdoances.

De la Iglesia added: “We humans tend to believe that we managed to control nature, and the use of artificial light is a great example of that. But it turns out that there are some forces of nature that we cannot get away from.”

Derk-Jan Dijk, a professor of sleep and physiology and the director of a sleep research centre at the University of Surrey, described the study as exciting but noted that the researchers had not deal with internal influences such as body clocks that could affect sleep patterns.

【推荐2】One of the tallest wooden buildings in Europe, a 98m timber (木材)mixture skyscraper, is to rise in Berlin.

The 29-storey WoHo tower, to be designed by a firm of Norwegian architects, is intended to be a “light-house project” for low-carbon construction, towering over Potsdamer Platz and the Landwehr Canal.

Its core, including lifts and a staircase, is to be built around concrete structure but the rest of the building, including flats, offices, cafes and a kindergarten, will be fashioned down wooden beams (横梁)and panels.

“As Norwegians, we are used to working a lot with timber,” Nicolai Riise, CEO of the Mad Architects' Practice said.

“The thing about timber is that its carbon footprint is close to zero and that it's a fantastic material to build with. If you look at this in a broader way, it's one of the ways we are going to be able to beat the climate crisis.”

Wooden skyscrapers, once regarded as a pipe dream, have become realistic with the coming of cross-laminated (交叉叠合)building techniques and more flexible planning laws. Because these structures' parts are fit with care, they can be far lighter than their concrete equivalents (同等物)and are thought to be relatively resistant to fire. A cubic meter of wood can also take an estimated ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Larger wooden structures are planned elsewhere. London is examining blueprints for a 300-meter Oakwood Tower. A project in Tokyo could rise to 350m.

【推荐2】The word "barbecue" comes from the Caribbean word "barbacoa", which originally wasn't a way of cooking food, but the name of a wooden structure used by Taino Indians to smoke their food. It was recorded that the first barbecue as a diet consisted of some sort of fish, creatures from the sea obviously being plentiful in the Caribbean. Besides used for cooking, the structure of sticks could also be used as an area for sleeping, storage, and a shelter.

Spanish explorers took the word "barbacoa" back to Spain, where it appeared in print for the first time in 1526.At first,"barbacoa"still referred to the structure in which food was cooked, but later people started using it to refer to the process of cooking food in a barbacoa and the cooked food itself.

It was in A New Voyage Round the World written by William Dampier, published in 1697 that the word firstly appeared in print in English. It referred to the structure as a place for sleeping. By 1733, "barbecue began to mean asocial gathering when meat was grilled. About two decades later, in 1755, the word"barbecue"was entered into Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.

Today, there are different spellings as well as meanings for "barbecue". Many people use"barbeque,"BBQ", "Bar-B-Que, and other forms. The"official "spelling is generally considered to be "barbecue"with the letter"c, similar to the original. While people may debate over what should be the correct spelling or what exactly constitutes barbecue,there is one thing we all agree on: a barbecue is definitely no longer a shelter or a sleeping structure!

President George Washington himself was a big fan of barbecue. He wrote in his diary about going to a barbecue in 1769("Went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night ), and hosting one in 1773("a Barbicue of my own giving at Accatinck"). Barbecue competitions have been taking place since at least 1959. The first one seemed to have taken place in Hawaii, just a few months after it became a state, but was only for men. 25 men competed for the grand prize of $10.000.

【推荐3】Yawning (哈欠) sends out certain messages—either “Oh, this movie is boring” or I probably need to get some sleep”. But did you know that a yawn can also help your brain to cool down when it is so overheated?

A new study, led by a research team of Princeton University, has indicated (表明) that yawning could be the brain’s natural way of regulating temperature. People yawn more often when the temperature outdoors is lower than their body temperature but are less likely to yawn when it is hotter outdoors, according to Sciencedaily.com.

The research team did an experiment on 160 people, 80 in summer and 80 in winter, to examine how often they yawned at different air temperatures. The study found that people yawned more often in winter than in summer. Scientists say that when the air temperature is lower outside the body, there is heat exchange between the overheated brain and the cool air. But when the air temperature is higher than or equal to the body, people are less likely to yawn because the hot air they breathe in will make the brain even hotter.

When people yawn, their jaw is also stretched, which increases blood flow and may also help cool the brain.

The study showed that the amount someone yawned could be related to the amount of time they spent outside. The longer they spent outside in summer, the less they yawn. Nearly 40 percent of participants yawned within their first five minutes outside, but after that the percentage was reduced to less than 10 percent.

However, the result was the opposite in winter. The number of people who yawned increased when they spent more than five minutes outdoors. But the change was only slight compared to summertime.

According to Gallup, this is the first report to show that yawning frequencies (频率) change depending on season. This could help us to understand better the way our brains work. It may also help us understand the reason why frequent yawning can sometimes be a sign of brain disease.

【推荐1】A mind-reading chip that lets you control a computer by just thinking has been made public at a conference in China. Named Brain Talker, the chip could be used to control computers, smart phones and other devices, its creators say. It has been jointly developed by Tianjin University and China Electronics Corporation.

This kind of brain-computer interface (接口) is designed to let a person control a computer, a smartphone or other electronic devices using his/her brainwaves alone-without needing any forms of verbal orders, movements, or button pressing. Brain interfaces would not only allow for the faster operation of various technologies, but also be used to assist people with disabilities, for example by letting an individual drive an electric wheelchair just by thinking.

“Brain-computer interfaces hold a promising future,” said Dong Ming. "The Brain Talker chip advances brain-computer interface technology, allowing it to become more portable, wearable and accessible to the general public.

The brain decoding (解码) chip works by picking out minor neural (神经) electrical signals in the brain and rapidly translating them into a form that the computer can understand. “This brain-computer chip has the ability to identify minor neural electrical signals and decode their information efficiently, which can greatly enhance the speed and accuracy of brain-computer interfaces，” said Dr. Dong.

Recent technology advances have allowed researchers to develop the Brain Talker chip, so it is smaller and operates faster, more precisely and with greater efficiency than existing brain-computer interfaces. Although it is not clear exactly how the device will be worn, most brain-computer interface devices are worn on the outside of the body, rather than being fixed directly into the users’ brain. Cheng Longlong, a data scientist, said that the research team will attempt to improve the performance of the Brain Talker. One day brain-computer codec chips will contribute to medical treatment, education, self-discipline, security as well as games and entertainment.

【推荐3】I had the special right to teach a Sunday school class at my church. We talked about the importance of setting goals. I asked the children to explain what they could do when frustration sets in. We talked about reaching for the stars and pushing through when the going gets tough. Some goals are easy to reach while others remain a challenge.

Twelve-year-old Marcus explained that we should think about how far we have come when a goal is hard to reach. He may be only twelve, but he has gained the knowledge of the ages at a young age. We then entered into a discussion about how we can help one another. Ask proper questions and children will amaze you with the depth of their knowledge and experience.

Dr. Wayne Dyer authored several books for children. I used one of his books as a key point of discussion for the class. We picked out key words that could be introduced to children and to teens. The words were goals, determination, devotion and perseverance. Class activities centered around these words that would produce hope and success in their lives.

Our culture does little to encourage these traits. Children are fascinated by electronics, digital devices, and electronic means of communication which do not encourage the development of delayed gratification. It was heartening to be able to talk about these traits in a Sunday school situation. At age seventy-three, I became the student and they were the teachers. What a joy!

It gives me a lot of pleasure to help young people push through difficulties on their way of gaining knowledge. These are skills that will help them find success and hope. Young people are our future. It pays to invest in them.