【推荐1】Notpla, a London-based firm, makes a seaweed-based substitute (代替物) for single use plastic packaging. Although some of Notpla’s products are suitable to be eaten, they are designed to be dissolved (溶解) after usage. Made of seaweed instead of a conventional plastic coating, the company’s packaging is fully biodegradable and ideal for use as packaging for kitchen and bathroom supplies like coffee and toilet paper.

According to the United Nations, 331 million kilograms of plastic garbage is produced annually around the world. About 60% of the estimated 9.15 billion tons of plastic produced since the early 1950s has been taken to landfills.

Plastics harm the water, the air, and our bodies. Many experts agree that single-use plastics are unnecessary and dangerous. Some governments and towns in the United States have taken action. New York has banned most plastic shopping bags, while plastic straws have been banned in Miami Beach. Overseas, India stated in August that it plans to place a wide ban on single-use plastics this upcoming summer, with the European Union already implementing this ban.

Seaweed comes in a variety of species and can be harvested or farmed. Notpla uses plants that have been farmed. Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslie, the inventors of Notpla, initially considered seaweed as a solution to the world’s plastic problem for several reasons. Seaweed is plentiful and grows quickly. Additionally it doesn’t compete with land crops and is highly favored for its ability to remove some waste products like carbon from the atmosphere.

In cooperation with the online food ordering service Just Eat, the startup recently tested its product. Last year, the two companies handed out 30, 000 takeaway boxes at various UK restaurants. Plans are in the works to offer the boxes across Europe in 2022. Notpla’s team intends to replace single use plastic in the supply chain more generally as they scale. The company recognizes the difficulty of such a job, considering the volume of plastics consumed around the world.

【推荐1】Researchers at the University of Chicago have trained an artificial intelligence (AI) system to write fake reviews on Yelp, a website showing customers’ reviews on shopping or something else, and it’s pretty hard to tell them apart from a human review.

Their study, which will be pressed at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communication Security in October, aimed to stress how easily these systems can write reviews like humans and how damaging they can become if they're not mentioned properly.

Since many small businesses rely on online reviews to help grow and support their reputation, a future where someone—like a competitor or angry customer—could crazily fill their page with bad reviews written by a machine is pretty worrying.

And, according to the research team, the threat goes far beyond a bunch of fake reviews on Yelp. “In general, the threat is bigger,” Ben Y. Zhao, one of the authors of the study, said. “I think the threat towards society is large and it really misleads users and shakes our belief in what is real and what is not. I think that's going to be even more unimaginable.”

To test how believable these reviews came across, the researchers invited 40 volunteers and had AI generate(生成) five fake reviews for 40 actual restaurants. The volunteers were asked how useful they thought the reviews were and whether or not they thought they were fake. The AI reviews ranked as “effectively indistinguishable” from real reviews, according to the study. Further the fake reviews were given a 3.15 “usefulness” rating, compared to a 3.28 rating for human reviews.

【推荐2】Researchers are looking into new ways to generate efficient photovoltaic energy (光伏能源) and for this they have been inspired by the v-shaped posture of the Cabbage White butterfly (菜粉蝶).

Photovoltaic energy is the science behind solar power, where light is turned into electricity. It is a two-step process. Step one is a photoelectric effect, caused by sunlight. The second step is an electrochemical process, which generates an electric current.

To improve the collection of sunlight, a research group has been inspired by the resting posture of the Cabbage White butterfly. The species has a natural range across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. To many farmers, the butterflies are regarded as a pest; to others, they are pretty to look at. To one research group the butterflies are an inspiration.

The butterfly adopts a v-shape in order to heat up its flight muscles before taking off. By creating solar panels (太阳能电池板) in this formation, scientists think that the quantity of power that a solar panel can produce can be increased by around 50 percent.

The Cabbage White butterfly is different to many other butterflies in using the v-formation. On cloudy days butterflies need to wait to receive enough sunlight in order to fly. However, by using the v-posture, the Cabbage White butterfly is able to take in more energy more quickly than other butterflies. In addition, the butterfly can reflect sunlight from its wings, which allows its flight muscles to be warmed to an ideal temperature.

The new research was conducted at the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustain --ability Institute (ESI) and the Centre for Ecology and Conservation. Discussing the findings with Laboratory Manager magazine, lead researcher Professor Tapas Mallick stated: “Biomimicry (仿生学) in engineering is not new. However, this research shows pathways to develop low cost solar power that have not been done before.”

【推荐1】When you are choosing a college, a lot of factors will probably play into your decision: the school’s reputation, the classes offered and the professor in your major, to name a few. However, given the ever-increasing competitiveness of universities to attract more and more applicants, many schools now offer extra benefits to be enjoyed by all their students. Here are some of the fun “extras” offered by the school.

Taking advantage of the cold winter weather, Michigan Technological University sets itself apart with its on-campus ski resort, Mont Ripley, which is accessible and free for all students. Instead of hitting the campus gym, you'll be able to get your exercise outside on the slopes. When the pressure of school become too much, just head out for a day of free skiing and you'll be left feeling fully refreshed.

At the University of Missouri, you can enjoy one of the best campus recreational centers in the country. It features an “indoor beach" complete with a waterfall and a lazy river, as well as an inexpensive full-service spa. Even if you don't enjoy working out, Missouri's recreational center will give you a reason to go to the gym.

If you're a fan of museum, NYU is the perfect university for you. Not only will you be located in the heart of a city featuring some of the best museums in the world, but the university will provide you with access to many of them. You can take advantage of visiting museums anytime you want — which means you'll never be bored on the weekends.High Point University

If you see yourself quickly tired of dining-hall food — something that happens to almost all of us — High Point University has a great option: a private steakhouse for students. Besides the cheap steaks, the campus also offers ice cream from a campus ice-cream truck, a movie theater and a shopping center.

【推荐3】The word advertising refers to any kind of public announcement that brings products and services to the attention of people. Throughout history, advertising has been an effective way to promote(促进)the trading and selling of goods. In the Middle Ages, merchants employed "town criers" to read public messages aloud to promote their goods. When printing was invented in the fifteenth century, pages of advertisements(ads)could be printed easily and were either hung in public places or put in books.

By the end of the seventeenth century, when newspapers were beginning to be read by more people, printed materials became an important way to promote products and services. The London Gazette was the first newspaper to set aside a place just for advertising. This was so successful that by the end of the century several companies started businesses for the purpose of making newspaper ads for merchants.

Advertising spread quickly throughout the eighteenth century. Ad writers were starting to pay more attention to the design of the ad text. Everything, from clothes to drinks, was promoted with clever methods such as repetition of the firm's name or product, words organized in eyecatching patterns, the use of pretty pictures and expressions easy to remember.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, companies that were devoted to the production of ads came to be known as "advertising agencies(广告商)．"The agencies developed new ways to get people to think of themselves as members of a group. Throughout the twentieth century, advertising agencies promoted consumerism(消费主义)as a way of life, spreading the belief that people could be happy only if they bought the "right" products.