【推荐2】Recently, Londoners were treated to a new way in dining. Food Ink, “the world’s first 3D printing restaurant”, opened to a group of guests who dined on a nine-course meal prepared right before their eyes using 3D printers. Even the restaurant’s tables and chairs, cups and plates were created with 3D technology. With London just the beginning, Food Ink plans to bring its innovative restaurant format to a number of other cities around the globe.

Like other 3D applications, printing food is a process that builds layers upon layers of material on top of each other. Each layer is pushed through a print head to form an object with a desired shape, texture, size, and so forth. Unlike other 3D printing, which uses spools (线轴) to create objects out of plastic, food materials in 3D printing are inserted into a syringe (吸管) like container which are then pressed into the shape required. Any food ingredients that can be turned into a paste (糊状物) can be used in 3D food printing.

Fine dining is only one aspect of the food industry about to be revolutionized by 3D printing. Researchers have been exploring ways to use 3D printing to fight world hunger. Mass production of food using powdered nutritional ingredients could help feed a growing population. This is especially important with the world population projected to be 6.5 billion by 2030. The 3D-printed food would have the advantage of being produced cheaply and having a long shelf life.

The technology will enable consumers to quickly make meals with ingredients to suit their specific health needs. The Netherlands Organization for applied scientific research is turning to 3D printing to mash up (捣成糊状) peas, broccoli, and carrots to produce 3D-printed versions of the vegetables. These are easier to chew but hold their shape. The 3D-printed vegetables are being served throughout nursing homes in Germany. It seems that there is no end to the potential of 3D printing.

【推荐3】Researchers at North Carolina State University are proposing an additional white traffic light that will act as a sign to human drivers and passengers that they should follow the lead of self-driving vehicles moving through intersections (十字路口).

Driving is fundamentally changing. In the future, human drivers will be sharing the road with autonomous vehicles. The transition to autonomous vehicles is progressing with each passing year and humans are no longer the only ones sitting behind an automobile’s steering wheel. This makes it urgent for traffic lights with a fourth color to become a reality.

The white traffic light would be equipped with wireless Bluetooth technology and would engage when the number of autonomous vehicles driving on the road at any given time exceeds a certain threshold (阈值). Autonomous vehicles would be in communication with each other and with the traffic lights at intersections, within a certain range. Any human drivers in the mix would be informed to follow the lead of the vehicle in front of them via the white light: stop if it stops, continue if it continues.

In simulation models, autonomous vehicles were shown to improve traffic flow on their own. The higher the percentage of autonomous vehicles at an intersection, the faster the traffic moved, with improvements of about 40 to 99 percent in terms of total delay reductions possible. “The white light can be used to coordinate (协调) traffic in any situation involving autonomous vehicles and tells human drivers what’s going on, so that they know what they are supposed to do as they approach the intersection,” says civil engineer Ali Hajbabaie.

As an example, most recently, Tesla’s problematic full-self-driving vehicles have been at the forefront of public criticism after a car crashed into a fire truck. Consequently, the potential risks linked to autonomous driving are what made North Carolina State University researchers suggest adding a fourth color to traffic lights in the coming years.

【推荐1】The taste of champagne as we know it could change beyond recognition in the coming years. As global temperatures continue to rise, the climate crisis poses a threat to the production of wine.

The supply of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, among other popular wine-making grapes, are at risk. By 2050, about 85% of the lands that we grow good wine grapes on will no longer produce suitable wine grapes.

Grapes are susceptible to even the most subtle changes in weather. “Wine is kind of the canary (金丝雀) in the coal mine for climate change impacts on agriculture because so much of the character of wine is tied to the local climate.” said Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist. He published a paper in 2020 examining the effects of climate change on agriculture and how the diversity of grapes can increase their resilience to such changes.

He adds that scientists are “seeing pretty much all plants, including wine grapevines, start their lifecycle in the growing season earlier, and often finish up earlier. You basically ripen your fruit earlier and typically you harvest earlier. In the Champagne region of France, these changes can alter the distinctive personalities of grapes grown there. “If it matures too quickly, the ratio of acidity and sugar might be different.” Cook said.

A grape’s qualities are dependent on its environment. With a warming planet, it’s harder to produce grapes that make champagne taste sweeter and boozier (酒精浓度高的). “For instance, in a chardonnay grape, what you’re looking for in a cooler climate is generally an apple taste, whereas in a warmer climate the warmth can change the grapes qualities to be more like a tropical fruit, or even banana-like.” said Spiess.

One of the many ways farmers and winemakers are trying to alleviate the effects of climate change on grape production is site selection. “Places like Belgium and the Netherlands and Sweden, they’re experiencing positive effects of climate change as the planet is warming.” Spiess said. As different regions in the world experience the effects of climate change differently, they may start to have more ideal climate conditions for wine making.

The downside for those Swedish winemakers? If those champagne grapes aren’t grown in the Champagne region of France, you can’t call it champagne, which is a protected designation of origin.

So how do you say “bubbly” in Swedish?