【推荐2】A large body of evidence shows that exercise strengthens our brains. In studies, active people generally have more gray matter. Gray matter is made up of the brain’s essential, working neurons(神经元). Fit people also tend to have healthier white matter, which supports and connects neurons. Partly as a consequence of these, exercise is strongly linked with lower risks of dementia(痴呆) and other memory problems with age.

But exercise may increase exposure to air pollution and previous studies have shown the opposite effects of air pollution on the brain. So, what happens then?

Some researchers looked at thousands of middle-aged adults from the UK Bio-bank. The researchers characterized their physical activity patterns depending on the amount of physical activity collected from the devices researchers asked them to wear. They then evaluated air pollution levels where the people lived, asked the participants to complete brain scans, and finally, compared them. Researchers found that exercise was linked to excellent brain health for people in areas with little air pollution. But the beneficial associations almost disappeared for exercisers living in areas with even moderate(中度的) air pollution. They had less gray matter and more unhealthy white matter than people living and exercising away from pollution, even if their workouts were similar.

Extending these findings in a follow-up study, the same scientists found that the more people exercised, the less likely they were to develop dementia over time—provided their local air was clear. When it was moderately polluted, though, they had an increased long-term risk of dementia, whether they exercised or not.

These studies increase the urgency for developing more-effective regulations related to air quality. Public policy could be used to address people’s exposure to air pollution during exercise. For example, since a great amount of air pollution comes from traffic, promoting running or bicycling along paths far from heavy traffic may be more beneficial.

【推荐3】For decades, different variations of home workouts are regarded as the solution to busy lifestyles. In 1982, there was actress Jane Fonda’s popular VHS aerobic (有氧的) routines, the fitness expert Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo workouts in the 1990s, backbreaking P90X training that took off and more casual Nintendo Wii Fit routines of the same age.

More recently, design and advancements in technology have offered expanded and personalized training options, while reducing the large footprint of most home gyms. In 2018, former ballet dancer Brynn Putnam released Mirror, a fitness system that allows users to follow along with virtual personal trainers in classes including yoga (瑜伽).

That same year, entrepreneur Aly Orady launched Tonal, an AI-powered wall-mounted screen that focuses more on strength training. It features an exercise bench and resistance system that uses electromagnetism (电磁) to imitate weight machines. This month, entrepreneur Trent Ward and designer Yves Behar are uncovering their design for a mirror fitness system, Forme. Forme is reflective like Putnam’s design, uses machine learning to improve workouts like Tonal, and offers attachments including ankle belts, rope handles and a heart rate monitor. When not in use, the two arms that form the resistance system fold behind it and the display screen disappears, turning Forme into a simple full-length mirror.

Interest in home exercise has particularly spiked in recent weeks around the world as physical gyms have temporarily closed. Home workout apps have seen a significant increase in downloads, and trendy brands like Peloton have rolled out free virtual workouts for everyone stuck indoors. One French athlete who was kept away from others chose to run an entire marathon on his 23-foot balcony.

But beyond the new restrictions affecting daily workout routines, Ward and Behar are tapping into the same concerns that have made every home workout appealing: the ability to save time and sweat in the privacy of one’s home. In an age of personal metrics (衡量标准)—where one can measure their heart rate and sleep cycles with smart watches and train for marathons with AI smart sneakers — Ward and Behar want to improve exercise through machine learning. Forme evaluates performance and adjusts weights accordingly.

【推荐2】On 30 January, thousands gathered in Derry, in Northern Ireland, to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when 13 people were killed and at least 14 were hurt by the British Army.

Bloody Sunday took place on Sunday 30 January, 1972. Over 10, 000 people had gathered in Derry for a civil rights march to give everyone equal treatment. People were marching because the UK Government wanted to introduce a law that would mean people could be held in prison for a long time without the reason being tested by a court to see if it was true. The change was meant to stop violence at the time.

The whole of Ireland used to be part of the UK. However, in 1921, an agreement between the Irish and UK governments led to Ireland splitting into two regions. The south became the Republic of Ireland, while Northern Ireland stayed in the UK. In Northern Ireland there was unrest because some people wanted to be part of the UK, while some wanted to join Ireland. This led to a period of violence from 1968 to 1998 known as the Troubles, when around 3, 700 people died. For much of the Troubles, the British Army had lots of soldiers based in Northern Ireland.

The march started peacefully that day but later skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and the army. Some people started throwing stones at soldiers. The army moved in to arrest them and soldiers fired their guns, killing 13 people and injuring 14 people.

Thousands of people marched through Derry. The Irish prime minister Micheal Martin laid a wreath (花圈) at a memorial in Derry and spoke to relatives of the victims. At a special event at the city’s Millennium Forum Theatre, the victims’ names were read out and a silence was held at the moment the first person was shot 50 years ago. The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, said, “Derry stands as a guiding light of hope and justice.”

【推荐1】In the past few years, Sam Altman, the father of ChatGPT, has become the hottest face in the world of AI. Many industry leaders, AI researchers see ChatGPT as a basic technological change, as meaningful as the creation of the web browser or the iPhone.

Some believe it will deliver a utopia (乌托邦) where everyone has all the time and money ever needed. Others believe it could destroy humanity. Still others spend much of their time arguing that the technology is never as powerful as everyone says it is.

Mr Altman, a slim, 37-year-old investor from the suburbs of St. Louis, sits calmly in the middle of it all. As chief executive (总经理) of OpenAI, he hopes to balance the many possibilities as he moves this strange and powerful technology into the future.

He believes that artificial intelligence will happen one way or another, that it will do wonderful things that even he can’t yet imagine and that we can find ways of making up the harm it may cause. It’s an attitude that mirrors Mr Altman’s own track. His life has been a fairly steady climb towards greater success and wealth, driven by an effective set of personal skills. It makes sense that he believes that the good thing will happen rather than the bad.

He is not necessarily motivated by money. Mr Altman’s wealth is not well recorded. But he said he holds no stock (股票) in OpenAI. The only money he stands to make from the company is a yearly salary.

Georgeann Kepchar, who taught Advanced Placement computer science course, saw Mr Altman as one of her most talented computer science students—and one with a rare knack for pushing people in new directions. “He had creativity and vision, combined with the ambition and force of personality to make others be willing to work with him on putting his ideas into action,” she said.

【推荐2】Farming is destroying the planet, but there could be a much more environmentally friendly way to feed ourselves: using renewable energy to turn carbon dioxide into food. “This is becoming a reality,” says Pasi Vainikka at Solar Foods, a company that is building the first commercial-scale factory that will be able to make food directly from CO2.

There can be no doubt that immediate attention to find greener ways to grow food is required. Conventional agriculture, including organic farming, causes damage to the environment in many ways. It requires a lot of land, leading to habitat loss and deforestation. It is also the source of a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and releases other pollutants. It isn’t very efficient, either. Crops typically transform less than 1 percent of light energy into usable biomass (生物量).

Instead, Solar Foods plans to avoid photosynthesis (光合作用) altogether, and grow bacteria that use hydrogen as their source of energy. At the factory, renewable electricity will be used to split water to produce hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen will be added to large containers, where the bacteria grow, along with CO2 and ammonia (氨气). The end result will be a yellow powder called Solein.

Solein is made of bacterial cells and is up to 70 percent protein. It can be used as an ingredient in all kinds of foods. “We are aiming at replacing animal-sourced proteins, which we think have the highest environmental impact,” says Vainikka.

Compared with plant crops, Solein will use 100 times less water per kilogram of protein produced, 20 times less land and emit a fifth as much CO2, according to Solar Foods. There are other benefits, too: factories could be situated anywhere in the world and production won’t be affected by weather conditions.

“With Solar Foods and other companies scaling up their systems, this is truly beginning a new era of agriculture,” says Dorian Leger at Connectomix Bio in Germany. “I think these trends are exciting and will help bend the carbon curve as well as lead to improved global food supply security.”

【推荐3】You might think a computer would be a fair judge, but a new study from MIT finds it might be better for you to leave yourself in the hands of humans. AI won’t let people off easily when they break the rule!

This study, conducted by a team at MIT, examined how AI would interpret perceived violations (违反) of a given code. They discovered the most effective data for AI training is normative data, where humans determine whether a rule has been violated. However, data used to train machine-learning models are typically labeled descriptively — meaning people label the factual features of a situation, and AI determines whether a code has been broken.

The team gathered images of dogs that could potentially violate an apartment rule banning aggressive animals. Labelers were then asked to provide normative and descriptive responses. The descriptive team wasn’t informed about the policy on dogs, and was asked to identify whether elements, such as the dog’s aggression, were present. Their responses helped to form judgments. If a user said the photo described an aggressive dog, the policy was considered to be violated. On the other hand, the normative group was informed about the rule and was asked to determine whether each image violated the rule.

Participants were 20 percent more likely to identify a violation using the descriptive method. If the descriptive data on dog behavior had been used to program an AI model, it would be more likely to issue severe punishment. These inaccuracies could be a real-world concern. For instance, if a descriptive model is used to predict whether a person may commit the same crime more than once, it may result in longer criminal sentences.

The researchers advocate for increased data transparency (透明性) to understand how data is collected. And their future work is to investigate the impact of having experts, such as lawyers and doctors, participate in data entry to see if it will lead to the same result. “Generally, normative decisions tend to be more lenient (宽容的),” says lead author Aparna Balagopalan. “Perhaps the way people think about violations differs from how they think about descriptive data.”

【推荐3】Beijing World Hotel

BAUHAUS

Here we opened an excellent German bar. Guests will feel the atmosphere of a bar in Berlin, enjoy real German beers and meals. Nightly live band performance from 21:00 hours onwards.

Location: Ground Level, West Wing Building, Beijing World Trade Center

Operating hours: 12:00 to 03:00 hours Sun.—Thu.; 12:00 to 05:00 hours Fri.—Sat.

LOST HORIZON

You are the star at the Lost Horizon room. Over 7,000 selections of Mandarin» Japanese» Cantonese. Korean, Taiwanese and English songs are all for your singing pleasure.

GOURMET

It is so simple to prepare a great meal at home now that you can buy the best meats, milk products, wines, breads, cakes and more... all under one roof.

Location: Basement 1, Beijing World Trade Center

Operating hours: 19:00 to 21:00 hours

GAMEROOM

Immerse yourself in a stress-free world of arcade games, simulators and attractions at GameRoom. You'll find exciting games both classic and cutting edge where you can challenge your friends and test your own skill. And we provide you with 25 high-definition TVs. Our sports bar is also there, which is the perfect place to watch the big game.

When you need a break, our restaurant on the same level features a wide selection of delicious food.

When you're looking for a break from the ordinary, visit GameRoom and let the fun begin!

Location: Top level, East Wing Building, Beijing World Trade Center

Operating hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week