【推荐2】During the pandemic, millions of people replaced their large open-plan offices with their living rooms. Now, some companies say their employees need never come back in.

Brynn Harrington, Vice President of Facebook, said, “Facebook believes that remote work is the future. We want to be able to give our employees choice to live and build lives in places that they love, and we want to increase our ability to hire from places around the world, not just places where we currently have offices.”

Not everyone approves of working from home. Some people are eager to get back into the office. Facebook estimates that more than half of its staff could work remotely in the coming years, but it insists the move is not about saving costs. And it says it’s committed to keeping its offices open.

Other tech giants such as Microsoft and Twitter have also indicated staff could stay remote — even after lockdowns ease. On Wall Street, they seem less enthusiastic about the idea. The boss of Goldman Sachs rejected working from home as a new normal — labelling it an “aberration” instead. There are also fears that it could create more inequality.

For many companies, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle — with workers dividing their time between office and home.

Tushar Agarwal from Hubble said, “The office does have a future. We believe the future is hybrid (混合). We believe the future is flexible. The demand for flexible workspace has just gone through the roof. Just in the month of March, we’re back to about sixty to seventy percent of pre-Covid levels, and actually huge amounts of companies that are demanding flexible space used to be in traditional rent space, so now people want more and more flexibility than ever before.”

One thing’s clear — the world of work will look very different to how it did before this crisis.

【推荐1】①Since the first Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei reached the space with Shenzhou V, we have continued the Chinese Flying Dream to new chapters. On the evening of November 29, Shenzhou XV was successfully launched (发射) from Jiuquan Center. Shenzhou XV is of great meaning for Chinese space work and made some great achievements (成就) that were never seen before.

②The first was the huge number of jobs Shenzhou XV’s astronauts will finish. They will do more than 40 science experiments in fields such as air medicine, and air technology, which is amazing in humans’ space history.

③With the arrival of Shenzhou XV, Tiangong Space Station has finally developed into its largest size weighing around 100,000 kg. It is one of the largest buildings that humans have ever built in space.

④The space station is made up of 5 different parts. The Tianhe module (舱) is working in the center of the station. The Wentian and Mengtian modules are on the left and right sides of Tianhe. The Shenzhou spaceships are on the top of the station. The last one, the Tianzhou V is under the Tianhe module.

⑤The astronauts of Shenzhou XV are also different from the past. Usually, the new groups of astronauts were sent into space after the early ones went back to the Earth. But this time, the two groups of astronauts met in the space. Worldwide, there are now a total of 13 astronauts in space. So, for the time being, China is the country with most people in the space.

⑥The other thing about them is the age of the Shenzhou XV’s astronauts-is the-oldest of history (over 53). Among them, 56-years-old Deng Qingming was one of the earliest 14 astronauts in China. He served as a backup astronaut four times and watched his teammates fly again and again, but he never gave up the dream to fly. Now he made it, although it takes some time.

⑦The launch of Shenzhou-15 is a historic moment for Chinese space-exploring plan. Chinese-people wilt always let imagination about the sky run wild.

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【推荐3】136 types of seeds, including crops, forest vegetation, flowers, and microorganisms will be carried on board the Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft to start their space breeding journey. These seeds will contribute to the advancement of China’s agricultural science and technology and enhance food security, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced on Wednesday in a statement.

The seeds were selected through a four-month application and review process and have been chosen from 53 institutions across the country. The project, conducted by manned spaceflight, is of a public welfare nature and does not charge any carrying fees. It has been 36 years since China’s first space seed breeding effort in 1987, the country has sent the seeds of hundreds of plant species into space on dozens of retrievable satellites (返回式卫星) and Shenzhou spaceships. Nearly 1,000 new species have been created, of which 200 have displayed outstanding performances, according to media reports.

Space seed breeding uses cosmic radiation (宇宙辐射) to mutate the genes of seeds sent into space, in order to create new species for greater variety. “Space peppers and watermelons” commonly found in supermarkets in China are successful varieties of space breeding. China ranks first in the world in the number of cultivated varieties and the range of popularization and application of space breeding. The area under cultivation for grains, vegetables, fruits and other plants developed by space seed breeding has surpassed 4 million hectares, and generated economic benefits of over 200 billion yuan ($30.51 billion), media earlier reported.

The seeds need further improvement, especially in disease resistance, through conventional breeding methods and space breeding, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Space breeding involves exposing seeds and strains to cosmic radiation and microgravity during a spaceflight mission to mutate their genes.

China’s space seed breeding level also reflects the nation’s advancing aerospace technology, Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. And he added, “There are only a few countries in the world with mature aerospace technology, and China’s level of space seed breeding technology is world-class.”