【推荐2】A schoolgirl has created a solar-powered backpack that filters (过滤) out air pollution after being inspired by her asthmatic (哮喘的) mother.

Eleanor Woods, 12, from High Burton, Huddersfield, a town in West Yorkshire, northern England, entered the “Backpack to the Future” competition after her mother put the application form in her room. She went on to win the award for her.

The “Backpack to the Future” competition was launched to change perception (认知), encourage more diversity within engineering and to show children how they could combine an interest in fashion with a career in science, technology, engineering or maths.

Powered by green energy from solar power and a dynamo- a machine that changes mechanical energy into electrical energy - the backpack filters polluted air before fanning out cleaner air nearby.

“I have an air filter at home because my mum has mild asthma. My Breathe Better Backpack is all about keeping my friends, family and classmates safe using an air filter. It looks cool and will help get kids outside and fight off colds,” Eleanor said.

The pandemic spurred on (刺激了) Eleanor’s awareness of how pollution affects a person’s health and the spread of diseases. Spending a lot of time with her asthmatic mum over several lockdowns gave the 12-year-old food for thought.

The schoolgirl added: “My generation is really aware of pollution, and we have lessons on it at school along with diseases spreading, and this is another reason I designed this, because it is getting much worse.”

The young designer said she is becoming increasingly aware of the pollution that surrounds her, as she lives on a main road. Eleanor said: “I walk to school, next to the road, and can taste the petrol when buses come through.”

Speaking after winning the competition, Eleanor said the impact of her backpack will be far-reaching. “If just a few people start using it, it could be really good for the planet,” she said.

【推荐3】Researchers at MIT and in China developed a simple, solar-powered water desalination (脱盐) system. They have made a breakthrough in getting fresh drinking water from sea water by using sunlight.

As the research paper published in Energy & Environmental Science explains, equipment applied in this system includes several layers of fiat evaporators (蒸发器) that turn water sources into fresh water through solar energy, as well as condensers (冷凝器) that cool the gas into the liquid. The authors of the paper are MIT students Lenan Zhang and Lin Zhao, Professor Evelyn Wang, and nine other researchers at MIT and at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

How the system uses each of the multiple stages to remove salt from the water is critical to its efficiency. The heat released per stage will be used by the next stage. In this way, the team’s device can convert (转换) the energy of sunlight into the energy of water evaporation with an efficiency of 385 percent.

The device can be considered as a multilayer solar still. The heat is absorbed by its flat panels and then transferred to make water evaporate. The vapor then cools down and turns into liquid water on the next panel. As the water is collected, the released heat is transferred to the next layer.

The team’s 10-stage system produces pure water. Its quality is above the city drinking water standards. It also has the highest yield compared to other similar systems, at a rate of nearly six cubic decimeter per hour for every square meter of the solar collecting area. The system is distinguished from some others by the fact that there is no accumulated salt to be got rid of. Most materials of the demonstration unit don’t cost much and are easy to get.

Further experiments will be carried out on the device to optimize the choices of materials and test its durability under realistic conditions. Researchers will also work on the design of the device to make it more consumer-friendly. It is expected that the system could finally help developing regions that are short of electricity supplies but rich in sea water and sunlight handle water crises.

【推荐1】Recently researchers at the University of Zurich are adding a new member to the drone ( 无人机） family. Unlike most drones whose application is to make selfies ( 自拍)or transport something, this drone was built with first aid workers and rescue efforts in mind. Disaster sites are rarely logical shapes and sizes. So having a drone that could change its shape and size to fit through tight spaces on the fly could prove extremely valuable.

As is often the case in experimental robotic projects, researchers met some technical setbacks ( 挫 折 )at the beginning. The airplane mode of the existing aircraft such as passenger planes，helicopters and the common drones couldn’t meet the demand of different environmental features.   Eventually, they   turned to   animals   for inspiration— specifically   how some   birds can fold their wings to fly through narrow passages.

What makes it distinguishing is that when faced with a narrow passage, it can change into   an H shape. Or it can shrink itself into an O shape, arms folded into its body. And if that wasn’t enough, it can also transform into a T shape, allowing an onboard camera mounted (镶嵌)on the central frame to get as close as possible to its focal object.

While the working concept model is impressive, the researchers aren't done with the folding drone yet. They want to improve the structure of the drone so that it can fully fold in three dimensions, offering even more shapes. And they want to create full auto-operation—a drone that looks at the shifting terrain(地形）in，for example, an apartment building partly destroyed by an earthquake and changes its shape to meet its current needs.

Researchers say their final goal is to give the drone a high-level instruction such as “enter that building, inspect every room and come back and let it figure out by itself how to do it”. Therefore, it’s reasonable to hope the new drone will play an important supporting role in   disaster rescue.

【推荐3】The human face is a remarkable piece of work. The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognise each other and is important to the formation of complex societies. So is the face’s ability to send emotional signals, whether through red cheeks or a false smile. People spend much of their waking lives reading faces, in the office and the courtroom as well as the bar and the bedroom, for signs of attraction, unfriendliness, trust and cheat. They also spend plenty of time trying to be in disguise.

Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track Christians’ attendance; in Britain, by shopkeepers to spot past thieves. This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it checks the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. Apple’s new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the home screen.

Set against human skills, such applications might develop gradually. Some breakthroughs, such as flight or the internet, obviously transform human abilities; facial recognition seems merely to encode them. Although faces are special to individuals, they are also public, so technology does not, at first sight, interrupt something that is private. And yet the ability to record, store and analyse images of faces cheaply, quickly and on a vast scale promises one day to bring about fundamental changes to ideas of privacy, fairness and trust.

The face is not just a name-tag. It displays a lot of other information-and machines can read that, too. Again, that promises benefits. Some firms are analyzing faces to provide diagnoses of rare genetic conditions or diseases.

【推荐2】The Land Under the Sea

Ten thousand years ago, as the last ice age ended, sea levels around the world were far lower than they are today. Much of the land under both the North Sea to the east of Britain and the English Channel which now separates France and Britain was part of a huge region of forests and grassy plains. Then the climate gradually became warmer and the water trapped in large masses of ice was released.

Now the development of advanced sonar (声呐) technology, known as bathymetry, is making it possible to study this flooded landscape in extraordinary detail. A special echo (回声) sounder is fixed to the bottom of a survey ship and it makes wide sweeps across the seabed. While previous technology has only been able to produce two-dimensional images, bathymetry can now use computers, satellite-positioning equipment and special software to create accurate and remarkably detailed maps. For the first time, an ancient riverbed jumps out of the three-dimensional image. The site of pre-historic settlements can now be pinpointed.

According to expert Linda Andrews, this technological development is of huge significance. “We now have the ability to map the seabed as accurately as we can map dry land,” she says.

Once bathymetric techniques have identified sites where people might have built their homes and villages, divers can be sent down to investigate further. Robot submarines (潜艇) can also be used, and researchers hope they will find stone tools and wood from houses as proof of human activity. The idea shared by many people in Britain of their country as a natural island kingdom will be challenged by the findings: Britain has been inhabited for about 500,000 years and much of this time it has been linked on and off to continental Europe. It remains to be seen how far this new awareness is taken on board, however.

In fact, the use of bathymetry will not be limited to the study of lost landscapes and ancient settlements. It will also be vital in finding ships that have been destroyed in accidents. In addition, commercial applications are a real possibility. Aggregates (骨材) for the construction industry are becoming increasingly expensive, and bathymetry can be used to identify suitable sites for digging for this material. Mapping the seabed will also identify places where rare plants and shellfish are living. Digging at such sites should be prevented, either to work for a profit or to make deeper waterways for massive container ships.