【推荐1】Two very different movies were released on July 21 this summer in the West, bringing record numbers of people into cinemas as the “Barbenheimer (芭比海默)” trend took over social media.

Barbie and Oppenheimer have been huge hits around the world, with Barbie alone making over 1 billion US dollars just 17 days after release. This makes it Wamer Bros studio’s fastest movie to reach $1 billion and the film’s director, Greta Gerwig, the first-ever solo female filmmaker with a billion-dollar film.

Barbie and Oppenheimer are an interesting pair because of how different they are from one another. Barbie is about a famous toy coming to life and facing issues of sexism and finding her own identity. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer is a serious male-driven historical film about J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb. The release of these two huge, wildly different movies on the same day led to the creation of countless memes (表情包) under the Barbenheimer hashtag. Filmgoers have even gone to see both movies one right after the other, with some dressing up in pink for Barbie going on to see Oppenheimer as well.

Meanwhile, people have found some of the “Barbenheimer” memes disturbing. Atomic bombs killed many people and they think the memes made light of a very dark time in history. But the films have brought a healthy boost to cinema ticket sales around the world, helping an industry that has faced many challenges in recent years. The increasing popularity of streaming services and the COVID-19 pandemic have kept people out of cinemas. Now, the strikes from writers and actors over concerns of pay and about the use of artificial intelligence by film studios are also having an impact. Add to that a public tired of yearly big movies about superheroes and fast cars, as declining ticket sales suggest.

Described as a historic moment for the movie industry. “‘Barbenheimer’ will go down as one of the biggest and unexpected milestones in the history of cinema,” Paul Dergarabedian at Comscore told CNN.

【推荐3】Below is a list of popular movies, which are not only fun to watch, but they give us a lesson.

Booksmart

Booksmart stars (由……主演) Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever as two high school seniors who feel they haven’t experienced the typical (典型的) high school experience. So they attend different parties held by their classmates, but get into more trouble than they’ve experienced in their lives.

Stream Booksmart on Amazon $13. 99

Mean Girls

Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey, is regarded as one of the best teenage movies ever. The film stars Lindsay Lohan as Cady, a student from Africa. On her first day of school, Cady gets to know Regina George, the most popular girl in school. While she’s happy to be in the cool crowd at first, Cady realizes that popularity isn’t what she imagines.

Stream Mean Girls on Amazon $8. 99

She’s All That

She’s All That is taken from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. It was considered one of the best teenage movies in the 1990s and reached number one at the box office in its first week. The film stars Freddie Prize Jr. as Zach, a popular student who becomes unpopular when his cheerleader friend leaves him for a reality TV star.

Stream She’s All That on Amazon $15. 99

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, based on Steven Chbosky’s novel of the same name, is a coming-of-age film about a teenager named Charlie and his struggle with anxiety. The film, which is considered one of the best teenage movies ever, follows Charlie throughout his first year of high school.

Stream Perks of Being a Wallflower on Amazon $9.99

【推荐1】What if AI could interpret your imagination, turning images in your mind into reality? While that sounds like a detail in a science fiction, researchers have now accomplished exactly this. Researchers found that they could reconstruct highly accurate images from brain activity by using the popular stable diffusion (扩散) image generation model. The authors wrote that unlike previous studies, they didn’t need to train the AI models to create these images.

The researchers said that they first predicted a potential representation, which is a model of the image’s data, from fMRI (功能性磁共振成像) signals. Then, the model was processed and noise was added to it through the diffusion process. Finally, the researchers decoded (解码) text representations from fMRI signals and used them as input to produce a final constructed image.

The researchers wrote that a few studies have produced good reconstructions of images but it was only after training. This resulted in limitations because training complex models are challenging and there are not many samples to work with. Prior to this new study, no other researchers had tried using diffusion models for visual reconstruction.

In the past, we’ve seen other examples of how brainwaves and brain functions can create images. In 2014, a Shanghai - based artist Jody Xiong used sensors to connect sixteen people with disabilities to balloons of paint. The people would then use their thoughts to burst specific balloons and create their own paintings.

With the advancement of AI, more and more researchers have been testing the ways AI models can work with the human brain. In a January 2022 study, researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands trained an AI network on fMRI data from 1, 050 unique faces and converted the brain imaging results into actual images. The study found that the AI was able to perform reconstruction. In the latest study, the researchers found that current diffusion models can now achieve high-quality visual reconstruction.

【推荐2】My name is Arianna Traviglia and I’m a senior cultural and heritage researcher at the Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, Italy.

As head of the team, I encourage the development of new technologies to maintain and protect important archaeological (考古学的) findings. Right now, I am working in the field of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city which was destroyed and buried under 13 to 20 feet of ash and small rocks during a volcanic eruption in 79 AD. With the help of a robot, I try to carefully reconstruct (重建) the city’s 2,000-year-old broken frescoes (壁画). The project is called RePAIR.

There are thousands of fresco pieces in Pompeii, and it was nearly impossible for a human to reconstruct all the irregular pieces into big, meaningful paintings in the past. Technology now allows us to do it-the robot we use is running by artificial intelligence (AI). As it examines a piece, it searches a database for a match, and then sends the data back to its hands to fit matching pieces together, saving a lot of hours. Its soft human-like arms and hands allow it to hold and examine the easily broken pieces without damaging them. The technology is likely to allow many museums around the world to reconstruct large-scale broken frescoes or similar objects in the future.

In RePAIR, I’m studying the hyperspectral (高光谱的) images of the fresco pieces in storage and comparing them with the paintings on the walls of the House of the Painters at Work, part of a building in Pompeii. By comparing the resemblances in the images, we will be able to work out whether the broken pieces were from the same wall.

I studied history and archaeology in college. Archaeology helps us understand where we come from, and technology enriches that exploration. I’m glad I’m a translator of the two worlds. My mind runs wild when I think about the exciting Roman life that we are still missing because Pompeii’s frescoes were damaged and haven’t been reconstructed.

【推荐3】Joe Seaman-Graves is the city planner for the small town of Cohoes, New York. He was in search of a less costly way of providing electricity to the town. There was no extra land to build on. But Cohoes does have a nearly 6-hectare reservoir (水库).

Seaman-Graves learned that the town’s reservoir could hold enough solar panels (面板) to power all city buildings. And that would save the city more than $500,000 each year.

Floating solar panel projects have seen quick growth as a new form of clean energy in the United States and Asia. Floating solar panels are sought after not just for their clean power, but also because they save water by preventing evaporation (蒸发).

A recent study found that more than 6,000 cities in 124 countries could potentially produce all of their electricity demand using floating solar panels. It also found that the panels could spare the cities enough water each year to fill 40 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The idea of floating solar panels is simple: attach panels on structures that float on water. The panels serve as a cover that reduces evaporation to nearly zero. The water keeps the panels cool. This permits them to produce power more effectively than land-based panels, which lose efficiency when they get too hot.

One of the floating solar farms in the U.S. is the 4.8-megawatt project in Healdsburg, California. It was built by the company Ciel & Terre, which has built 270 projects in 30 countries. Floating solar panels cost 10 to 15 percent more than land solar ones at first. But the technology saves money in the long term. Deeper water can increase setup costs, and the technology cannot operate on fast-moving water, on the open ocean or on coastlines with very large waves.

Problems can come up if the solar panels cover too much of a water body’s surface. That could change the water temperature and harm underwater life. But Seaman-Graves said he believes his town’s floating solar panel project can serve as an example for other American cities.

【推荐1】Math class usually requires a pencil and a calculator. At Loveland High School, students also need a hammer and a hard hat. Every year, about 150 students sign up for “Geometry in Construction.” Students, usually seniors, learn math concepts in the classroom, and then use that knowledge to build a small home.

“We basically started this because we knew what was currently going on was not working for all kids," said teacher Scott Burke, one of the founders of the program. "We really felt like we needed to create a model that was a little bit different, something that not only helped kids in standardized testing, but also gave them employable skills as well."

It was a decade ago when Burke started teaching the program. The students’ first project was a small, one-bedroom cabin for a private buyer. Over time, Loveland High School started a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and built several homes for low-income families. For the first time this year, students built tiny homes that will help house locals who don't have a proper place to live in.

Loveland High School also offers courses to older students who have completed the geometry program. Senior Haley Hansen is now helping supervise （监管）the current construction site and learning management skills. Hansen, who said she first chose to study on the program to hopefully learn math in an easier way, grew to love it more than she imagined. "A big reason I stuck with this program is really because of the community aspect. I actually get to be a part of the community and feel like, as a high schooler, I am making an impact. Being able to help a family in need is something life-changing for me," said Hansen.

Now, Burke's teaching other schools how to build similar math classes. He said the Loveland Geometry in Construction team has trained about 425 schools around the country in how to copy the program. Some are building houses; others are building smaller projects like cabins.

【推荐3】It’s picking season at Christian Nachtwey’s organic orchard (果园) in western Germany and laborers are loading their vehicles with ripe apples. But Nachtwey’s farm is also obtaining a second harvest: Many of the apple trees grow beneath solar panels that have been producing electricity, while providing the fruit below with much-needed shade.

“The idea is simple,” said Nachtwey. “To protect the orchard, without reducing the available growing surface and in particular maintaining production. On top of that, there’s the solar electricity being generated on the same land.” Large-scale solar installations on farmland are becoming increasingly popular, as farmers seek to make the most of their land and establish a second source of revenue (收益).

Getting the right mix of crop and solar is hard, because modern fruit varieties are finely used to particular growing conditions. Any change can tip the balance, costing farmers revenue if their fruit is damaged, the wrong color or not as sweet as consumers like. That’s why Nachtwey is cooperating with researchers to test which apple varieties thrive under the solar roofs, and which types of solar roofs are best suited for the orchard. To compare the results, some trees are covered with a conventional net normally used to protect sensitive crops from hail (冰雹).

Juergen Zimmer, an expert with the agricultural services department of Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the apples grown under the solar roofs were slightly less sweet this year than those under the hail nets. But hardly any of the solar-shaded apples got damaged in the intense sunlight that hit the region on July 24 this year, while up to 18% of the uncovered fruit suffered sunburn that day, he said. “We need at least two to three full years to record all the weather conditions that might occur, and look at the output and color that the different varieties of tree produce,” said Zimmer.

Researchers hope the tests will show that tree fruit crops thrive under solar panels. This could help prevent renewable energy production from competing for precious land with agriculture — a growing concern for those seeking to tackle climate change and rising food prices.