【推荐2】The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown, Ohio, for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another, employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.

The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse, even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. “We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,” explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.

One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light, about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by, is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn tree into self-powered street lamps.

In the future, the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off “switch” where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source—such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission.

Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.

【推荐1】Every year billions of pounds are spent on hair loss treatment. If we succeed in curing hair loss with 3D printed hair follicles (毛囊), it will be a huge revolution.

L’Oreal (欧莱雅), the cosmetics firm is partnering with a French bio-printing company called Poietis, which has developed a form of laser printing for cell-based objects. Poietis’ technique begins with the creation of a digital map that determines where living cells and other tissue components should be placed to create the desired biological structure. This involves how the cells are expected to grow over time. The file based on the digital map is then turned into instructions for the printing equipment, so that it can lay down tiny droplets (小滴) made out of the cell-based "bio ink" one layer at a time. The printing process involves bouncing (使反弹) a pulsing laser (脉冲激光器) off a mirror and through a lens, so that when it hits a ribbon (色带) containing the bio ink, a droplet of the matter falls into place. About 10,000 of these micro-droplets are created every second.

It typically takes about 10 minutes to print a piece of skin 1cm wide by 0.5mm thick. However, since hair follicles are complex and consist of 15 different cells in a structure, they may take longer.

Poietis is not the only company working on bio-printing, but most others use another way, which involves pushing a bio-ink through a nozzle (喷嘴), rather than lasers to build their tissue. Poietis suggests its technique puts less stress on the biological matter, meaning there is less risk of causing it damage.

Alopecia UK — a charity that provides support and advice about hair loss — has mixed feelings about the development. “It is encouraging to know that companies such as L’Oreal are investing in technology that may help those with hair loss in the future,” said spokeswoman Amy Johnson.

“However, we would suggest it’s still very early to be getting excited about what this potentially could mean for those with medical hair loss. At this point it is unclear as to whether this technology could benefit those with all types of hair loss.”

“Also, if this new technology does lead to a treatment option, given the high costs of existing hair transplant procedures, how many people will be able to realistically afford any new technological advances that may become available? As with any other research and development into processes that may be able to help those with hair loss, we watch with great interest.”

【推荐2】China's Yungang Grottoes(石窟) will complete the scanning of all the caves in five years，paving the way for the creation of digital versions that can withstand weathering and other real-world damage.

So far, the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Shanxi Province has completed three-dimensional scans of one-third of its Buddhist grottoes, according to the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute.“We are racing against time，”said Ning Bo, director of the institute’s digitalization office, “Weathering is like cancer to grottoes, eating away at the sculptures year by year. Few technologies can prevent such progressive damage.”

Using three-dimensional laser(激光) scanning and multiplanar(多平面) reconstruction, the institute is working to capture the shapes, colors and other fine details of the grottoes and create millimeter-level digital archives for future study and preservation. “We hope to preserve the grottoes in digital form as much as possible, so people in the future will still have access to the information even if the grottoes fade away.” Ning said, adding that the digitalization will also allow the public to “visit” the grottoes more easily on their computer screens.

The digitalization project, which began in 2003 at the grottoes, still faces challenges posed by the cave’s enormous sizes, complicated structures and exquisite sculptures, according to the institute. “The Yungang Grottoes were built into a mountain, and so our team is actually scanning structures as huge as a mountain. Besides, the inner structures vary wildly from exotic domes to traditional Chinese architecture.” said the director.

The Yungang Grottoes, located in the city of Datong, has 45 major caves and more than 59,000 stone statues. With a grotto complex stretching about 1 kilometer from east to west, it is one of the largest ancient grottoes in the country.

【推荐3】The International Consumer Electronics Show CES has changed in recent years because 2022 of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, an online version of the event was held for the first time. This year, the physical show returned to Las Vegas, Nevada. But the number of attendees decreased by about 70 percent. CES is produced by the Consumer Technology Association. It’s known as the place where many companies across the globe show their latest technology offerings. Here is a look at some of the top products presented at CES 2022.

AirSelfie camera

Electronics maker AirSelfie launched its latest self-flying camera designed to take “selfie” pictures. The new device, called Air Pix, is a small, light camera that flies through the air and takes high-quality photographs and videos. A video on the company’s website explains that Air Pix can fly, frame and take pictures all by itself before landing back on the user’s hand.

Labrador’s assistive robot

Robot maker Labrador announced the launch of its Retriever robot. The small, self-driving machine is designed to hold things and, as its name suggests, also retrieve (取回) things. The robot can be controlled by voice commands or from an app on a phone. It can also be programmed based on an exact map of a user’s home. The company says the Retriever is designed “to serve as an extra pair of hands and lighten the load of everyday tasks in the home”.

Self-driving tractor

American-based farm equipment producer John Deere presented a fully self-driving tractor. The company says the vehicle is equipped with six different cameras and a series of sensors to guide the tractor through the fields. Farmers can control the vehicle and see the tractor’s progress in real time through a mobile device. John Deere says the concept is to help farmers do more work with fewer tools and other people.

【推荐1】In 2018 measles ( 麻疹) infected almost 10 million people around the world and killed 420. Countries that achieved high vaccination（苗接种） rates or had formerly eradicated the disease also failed to have narrow escape .

Fortunately, apart from troublesome measles, many inspirational global health stories happened in the last decade, new viruses, vaccines, and treatments were discovered, once again showing the significance of science.

Huge progress was made in virus research. For instance, a kind of virus named Medusavirus, which can turn an amoeba, a kind of single-celled living creature, into a "stone", was identified by Japanese scientists. The virus has one of the largest and most complicated viral genomes(基因组) that have ever been found. Besides, a new virus, Alongshan virus, was discovered in a group of patients in Inner Mongolia. Researchers also found for the first time that an insect RNA virus, the Providence virus, was able to infect plants and mammalian cells, which indicated that plants could serve as hosts of human viruses.

We also saw improvement in treatments and vaccines. Ebola virus is good case in point. According to the Royal Free Hospital in Britain, the drug MIL77, which had been developed by Academy of Military Medical Sciences, an institution in China, jointly with some other companies, was adopted to treat a Briton infected with the disease and helped her recover from the deadly virus. This has indicated China's capability of offering an economical and practical drug fighting Ebola virus worldwide. Furthermore, the Chinese and British medical research teams have worked on genome sequencing of the virus, making it possible to develop drugs and vaccines that are more effective. Therefore, Ebola is no longer a death sentence.

Thanks to investment in global supervision transnational partnership, and scientific research, many new viruses, vaccines, and treatments were successfully discovered in the last decade. But the journey will continue and much more needs to be done. For example, we need to have a deeper understanding of bow climate change influences the spread of infectious diseases

【推荐3】Many young people are getting creative when it comes to incorporating (包含) their personal interests into their professions. Yi Cheng used to be an engineer at a State-owned company. In 2013, he changed his career path and became a scenario (场景) designer of escape room games, where one has to find secret clues and passwords within physical spaces in order to gain entry into the next room. It is a new entertainment activity for thrill seekers in China and has attracted a large number of young consumers.

Later, he founded his own escape room company – Second World. Now, the brand has eight sites nationwide with stable revenue. His favorite challenge is to design different suspenseful (悬疑的) scenes and passwords for entry to the various secret rooms.

During the May Day holiday break, spending on new types of entertainment increased rapidly. Booking volumes for escape room games in Shanghai surged 264 percent over the pre-holiday level, according to Meituan Dianping, an online consumption service provider.

In recent years, those born in the 1980s and 1990s have taken up 90 percent of the new jobs in China’s emerging services sector. The development of the internet economy, which refers to an economy that is based on the use of digital technologies to conduct business via the world wide web, is also broadening the ambitions and horizons of many young entrepreneurs in China.

One such entrepreneur is Ke Xuan, who turned her passion for design into a career. Noticing the rise of hanfu among young Chinese women, she took a class centered around hanfu hairstyles, makeup and clothing, and became a full-time stylist in 2018 – an industry worth over $141 million (1.09 billion yuan).

“My goal is that more people will be able to accept the traditional culture of hanfu. Sometimes I even wear it when I travel abroad. This shows the confidence of our culture,” she said.

Other groups of new professions, such as online restaurant decorators, pet photographers, and owners of bed-and-breakfast homestays, have sprung up (出现) alongside burgeoning (迅速发展的) industries and digital transformations in China.

Internet-based recruiting (雇佣) platform Meituan Dianping attributes this rise to the increased demand for personalization. Their report said, “The stereotype (刻板印象) of low education, low skills and low income that were associated with those in the service industry is being transformed in new ways.”

So, when considering what classes to take or what major to choose, remember the most lucrative (获利多的) and fun career could be based on your interests.