【推荐1】On Tuesday. Google announced a new feature (特点) for the Google Assistant. People can send reminders to friends and family on their phone or their Google Home equipment.

Google has named the new feature Assignable Reminders. Here’s how the new Assignable Reminders feature works with Google Assistant.

You start off by simply starting the Google Assistant by saying “Hey Google” or by whatever shortcut (快捷键) you have set on your phone. After this, you can tell Google Assistant to remind someone of something at a certain time.

This feature will also be feasible on the Google Home smart speaker, or a smart display which works with Google Assistant. The person receiving the reminder can also replay the reminder by asking Google Assistant to show them a list of all their reminders.

These reminders can only be sent to people who are already listed as family in your Google account (账户) or people who are linked (连接) and voice-matched to the same Google Home equipment.

Another feature built within Assignable Reminders is the ability to set reminders based on someone’s place. For example, you can set a reminder for friends to buy you something from a store as soon as they reach there.

Assignable Reminders will be put into use in the next few weeks in the U.S. , the U.K, and   Australia.

【推荐2】Wherever we go, we are surrounded by history. Across the globe, cultural heritage is passed down through the generations. It is in the buildings and structures around us. It is in the arts and artifacts (手工艺品) we treasure. It lives in the languages we speak and the stories we tell. But today, it is under attack as never before. Not only are the damages of time threatening our cultural heritage, but climate change, globalization and tourism are all exacting a heavy price. Technology is now the most important weapon in the battle. Here’s how technology is preserving our cultural heritage.

As you can imagine, creating the replicas (复制品) by 2D images is extremely time-consuming. Increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms (算法) allow millions of images to be stored in a matter of hours. AI will also make restoration and preservation of existing cultural heritage far easier and better than previous methods.

Virtual reality (VR) technology will play a leading role in preserving our cultural heritage in the coming years. Many of the most important sites and architecture are easily damaged. Human interaction with these locations is doing a great deal of harm. Wastes pile up everywhere, causing serious problems. As more cultural heritage sites and objects are digitally mapped and recorded, VR technology will increasingly become the way that people experience them. We’ll all finally be able to walk through places, look at (and touch) artifacts and works of art without ever seeing them with our own eyes.

Finally, our cultural heritage will be preserved by technology. Efforts in research, data sharing and project work will help promote and preserve the cultural heritage of countries all across the world.

【推荐3】Ever since mobile phones became widely used around the world, there have been concerns about how safe they are. All mobile phones give off a small amount of radiation when in use, which many believe could be a cause of cancer. However, two recently published studies tried to finally answer the question of whether using mobile phones actually brings a dangerous risk to humans.

Carried out by the US government, the studies exposed rats and mice to radiation over the course of two years. A small number of the rats were found to have developed heart tumors (肿瘤) as a direct result of the radiation exposure. However, John Bucher, one of the study’s authors, said that the animals were exposed to far more radiation than even the heaviest mobile phone user would usually be, reported The New York Times. Bucher also added that the findings didn’t make him want to change his or his family’s mobile phone usage habits.

Indeed, the US Food and Drug Administration said it believes that it has “not found enough evidence that there are negative health effects on humans” from mobile phone use. Although mobile phones do give off radiation, it’s a different type of radiation than that given off by dangerous sources.

High-energy radiation – such as that given off by nuclear waste – is known to be very dangerous to humans as it is able to damage our DNA, leading to cancer or even death. On the other hand, low-energy radiation – such as the one given off by mobile phones – is considered to be harmless.

We’re exposed to this all the time, as it’s given off by everyday objects like WiFi routers (路由器), televisions, and even bananas. Some argue that when it comes to human health, however, you can’t be more concerned, even if the risk is only small. For those people, an earphone is advised when they are making phone calls and the time spent using mobile phones can be limited.

But don’t worry: there’s no need to take bananas off the menu.

【推荐2】One of the most dangerous insects you need to watch out for during summer is mosquitoes. But no matter how you try to avoid them, some people naturally attract mosquitoes more than others.

One of the most important facts to remember is that mosquitoes track people down by smell and body odour(气味), according to Bart Knols, PhD, a biologist devoted to the study of mosquitoes. The carbon dioxide people breathe out, along with chemicals from the skin, creates an “odour plume” that mosquitoes can detect from up to almost 100 feet away. “Each person gives off more than 300 chemicals from the skin, more than 100 in breathing out,” Knols says.

The specific mixtures on the skin that mosquitoes respond to vary by species. The yellow fever mosquito and Asian tiger mosquito, for example, respond well to lactic acid from skin. African malaria mosquitoes respond to a mix of fatty acids, according to Knols. Your individual mixtures and smells determine how much of a mosquito attraction you are, depending on the mosquito species. The mix of chemicals you produce are only partly in your control. These chemicals depend on your genetic make-up, health condition, diet, skin pH, and so on. “Bacteria(细菌)on the skin break down the mixtures that we give off through our pores(毛孔), and these are the attractive smells,” Knols says. “So it is not actually we that attract mosquitoes, but the bacteria on our skin.”

Although this is a complex and partly understood phenomenon, Knols says that we do all have a unique smell. There are many folk stories about why some people are more or less attractive to mosquitoes. Some people falsely think the blood type is the cause, and others believe taking vitamin B or eating garlic makes people less attractive to mosquitoes—but Knols notes there’s no scientific data backing these claims.