【推荐2】Towards the end of the 1985 sci-fi classic Back to the Future, the inventor Doc Brown announces “where we’re going, we don’t need roads as the car lifts into the air”. While flying cars aren’t yet filling our skies, many are in development. In October the Chinese XPeng X2 successfully completed the first public test flight of its two-seater flying car in Dubai.

The XPeng X2 lifts vertically off the ground using eight propellers (螺旋桨), without the need for a runway, and is therefore suitable for built-up city areas. The vehicle, designed to carry two passengers, is fully electric and its makers say it can rise through the air at around two meters per second and then reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. The XPeng X2 is equipped with AI automation — it can be set to self-drive. It learns how to avoid traffic, buildings and people. It does not produce any carbon dioxide emissions during flight and is a step forward in the pursuit of urban green transportation. It is suitable for future low-altitude city flights and is perfect for short-distance city journeys such as sightseeing and medical transportation.

Although the test flight lasted just 90 seconds, according to Dr. Liu, chief aviation specialist at Xpeng Aeroht, the technology is close to being ready for public use, but regulations on flying cars are still some way off. Liu believes that people will be able to use flying cars within limited regulated spaces in just five years. This lines up pretty well with the Chinese government’s plan to put flying taxis on the market by 2025. The self-driving function presents further difficulties with regulation and also throws into question public acceptance. Many people are worried about the safety issues around self-driving cars on the ground, let alone vehicles that are flying around above their heads. However, Peng says it is safer for its flying car to be self-driving than to be driven by a human.

There are lots of flying cars in development now around the world and many of them actually fly, like Opener’s “BlackFly”, SkyDriver’s “SD-03’’and Klein Vision’s “AirCar” — which made a successful 35-minute test flight between two cities in Slovakia in 2021.

【推荐3】“Walkability” linked to reduced hospital costs and admissions

​Neighborhoods designed to encourage people to walk to and from the shops and public transport will help reduce hospital costs and admissions linked to residents, new Canberra research shows.

The research project, from the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute, has revealed a relationship between a suburb’s “walkability score” and a reduction in both hospital costs and admissions and added to the growing debate surrounding the role of “social determinants” in health outcomes.

Coauthors Dr. Yan Yu and Vincent Learnihan studied ACT Health data from 30,690 hospital admissions across 88 of the ACT’s suburbs, and then matched them against each suburb’s “walkability score”. That score is a measure of how easy it is to get around a particular suburb, including the number of interconnected streets, footpaths and the presence of shops, public transport stops, restaurants and services within walking distance of each other.

Dr. Yu said the study showed that those suburbs rated as “walkable”—with a walkability score of 20 units or more—were linked to a 12.1 per cent lower hospital cost for those residents and a 12.5 per cent lower rate of hospital admissions.

She said the admissions data they focused on included cancers, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases and diabetes.

But the research also showed that in Canberra, some 80 per cent of all the city’s suburbs were still “car-dependent”, which Mr. Learnihan said showed more needed to be done to help encourage Canberrans to walk, ride and use public transport.

While Mr. Learnihan commended the ACT government’s existing “active travel” programs, he said the study showed that wider and better funded initiatives to improve the “walkability” of new and existing suburbs could help save on health costs and improve Canberrans’ quality of life.

Dr. Yu said such changes could be as simple as improving footpaths and bike paths, increasing public transport access and improving local shops.

【推荐2】Nightmares(噩梦) are considered to be common among young children with incidence reducing as they grow older. They occur in the second half of sleep during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep: Those who have experienced them will be familiar with the feeling of waking suddenly with a sense of fear and worry.

Night terrors, a sleep disorder, differ from nightmares and occur during deep sleep (non-REM) cycles in the first half of the night. A night terror is often characterized by a loud scream and the individual sitting upright in a panicked state, though unaware of any of the action. The violent and rapid move of the body and limbs(四肢) are witnessed in more extreme cases. Children wake, up in the morning unaware of their, activity throughout the night.

Professor Dieter Wolke explained, “We certainly don’t want to worry parents with this news; three in every four children experience nightmares at this young age. However nightmares continuing longer than that period or night terrors that continue into adolescence can be an early indicator of something more significant in later life.”

A group of children are assessed six times between the ages of two and nine. The possibility of experiencing psychotic(精神病的) experiences in adolescence increased with the incidence of nightmares. Those who only reported one period of repeated nightmares saw a 16% rise, whereas those who reported three or more sustained periods of nightmares throughout the study saw a 56% increase in risk.

In contrast, problems with falling asleep or night waking had no relationship to later psychotic experiences.

Dr Helen Fisher, of King’s College London, added, “The best advice is to try to maintain a lifestyle that promotes healthy sleep hygiene (卫生) for your child, by creating an environment that allows for the best possible quality of sleep. Diet is a key part of this, such as avoiding sugary drinks before bed, but at that young age we’d always recommend removing any affecting stimuli(刺激) from the bedroom—be it television, video games or otherwise. That’s the most practical change you can make.

【推荐3】After schools moved online a year ago because of COVID-19, Jonte Lee, a teacher in Washington, DC. was determined to make his chemistry labs interactive and accessible. He figured the way to do so was to connect to the students on social platforms.

As a result, Lee has been livestreaming (网络直播) his lessons on Instagram and Facebook, inspiring students to follow along at home. Lee’s principal suggested he livestream a lab last April. “Our thought behind it was students know how to use Instagram and Facebook,” Lee said,

Realizing that most of his students would not have access to lab equipment when they had online lessons, Lee largely uses items that can be found in most kitchens. “And if there’s something a student doesn’t have, I don’t mind shipping it to the student,” he said.

Since beginning his lessons, Lee has heard from viewers across the country about how his classes have improved their experience of attending online school. One woman told Lee she had been worried about supervising her grandchildren’s classes at home. “She was like, ‘I know nothing about science, what’s going to happen?’ and then she came across my page,” said Lee. “Stories like that really touch my heart.”

Lee also has bought and delivered backpacks, school supplies, and even Amazon Fire tablets to each of his students. Lee poured his summer school teaching salary into the endeavor, calling is an “incredible experience”. Lee’s favorite lesson described how to make ice cream in three different ways, because of how engaged his students were even after the livestream ended.

Lee plans to continue posting videos even after students go back to school in person. “As a public school teacher, I have no intention to be famous or make money. I simply want to give back to all the taxpayers that fund my salary,” said Lee. “This allowed me to be a community teacher, and not a teacher that is bound by the four walls in my classroom.”