【推荐1】As many as five billion people, particularly in Africa and South Asia, are likely to face shortages of food and clean water in the coming decades. Hundreds of millions more could face increased risks of severe coastal storms, according to the first-ever model examining how nature and humans can survive together. “I hope no one is shocked that billions of people could be affected by 2050,” says Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, lead author of the paper Global Modeling Of Nature’s Contributions To People published in Science, who is an ecologist at Stanford University.

Nature sees a frightening sight. Human activity has resulted in the severe change of more than 75 percent of Earth’s land areas and 66 percent of the oceans, putting a million species (物种) at risk of being wiped out, according to the first-ever Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Human well-being is dependent upon nature’s contributions, also known as ecosystem services. The new model looked at three of nature’s contributions or services: providing clean water, coastal protection, or crop pollination (授粉). The model shows that the future declines in those services will hit people in Africa and South Asia hardest because they are more directly dependent on nature, says Chaplin-Kramer in an interview. Wealthier countries can buffer the effects on them through imports of food and other basic things that help their people and economy.

We have got a “deeply worrying picture of the social burdens of losing nature,” writes Patricia Balvanera, an ecologist at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in an accompanying article in Science. “What’s really scary is that the model only looked at three of the 18 contributions to human well-being we’ve identified,” says Balvanera in an interview.

【推荐2】For over a decade, Zubin Kanga, a pianist, composer and technologist, has changed the limits of the forms of musical performances. He has both organized and performed shows that have pushed barriers, with motion sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), live-generated 3D visuals and virtual reality among the technological advancements used to unlock new possibilities of music and performances.

Kanga’s approach to employing cutting-edge technology was first informed by the relative limitations of his chosen instrument. “The piano is a very accurate technology,” he says. “From the early 20th century till now it hasn’t really changed at all. It’s an amazing instrument, but it does have certain limitations in terms of the types of sound you can create.”

One of the early works is Steel on Bone, composed by Kanga himself. He performs the piece using MiMU multi-sensor gloves. “I can put up one finger, and that’ll produce a particular sound,” Kanga explains. “And then I can control that sound just by moving my wrist through the air — I can do that with lots of different gestures.”

“For Steel on Bone, I’m actually playing inside the piano with these steel knitting (编织) needles, and getting all these interesting effects on the strings. Then I’m using samples of them. Sometimes I’m using live delays and operating them. The sound can change depending on how my hands are moving. It allows me to make a very theatrical piece, and people can see this immediate connection between how I’m moving — these very big, almost conductor-like gestures through the air — and the way the sound is changing,” said Kanga.

This is just the start, and Kanga goes on to be enthused with the use of motion sensors to make music, the possibilities that AI offers composers as a tool, and how virtual reality could transform performances and more.

【推荐3】Named after the “quest (探索) for heavenly truth”, Tianwen 1, China's first Mars probe (探测器), has given us breathtaking images of the red planet.

These are the first close-up images of Mars' surface taken by China, which were made public by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on March 4, this year. The probe shot high-definition pictures while traveling in Mars' orbit. Craters (撞击坑), mountain ridges (山脊) and sand dunes (沙丘) can clearly be seen. CNSA estimated that the largest crater in the image could be about 620 meters in diameter (直径).

The pictures were taken at different distances from Mars. The two black-and-white images were taken by the high-resolution (高分辨率的) camera on Tianwen 1 when the probe was about 330-350 kilometers above the Martian surface. As for the color image, it was taken by Tianwen 1’s medium-resolution camera.

It is the shooting modes that determine if the images are black-and-white or colored. The high-resolution camera can take both color and panchromatic (全色的) images. Panchromatic images, which are black and white, are the clearest, containing the largest amount of data for scientific study. The medium-resolution camera, although featuring automatic exposure and remote control, can only produce lesser clear images. Scientists combined the panchromatic and color images, obtaining a clear and beautiful color image.

Tianwen 1 was launched on July 23^rd, 2020 and landed on Mars on May 15^th, 2021. The success of Tianwen 1 mission makes China another nation after the U.S. and the Soviet Union to land on Mars. Now China is among the leading countries in planetary exploration by virtue of advanced technology and Chinese spaceflight spirit.

【推荐3】After 11 years，China has finally completed its Tiangong space station with the docking (对接) its Mengtian lab module, establishing the Tiangong as the second operational space station apart from the US-led, multinational International Space Station (ISS).

On November 1, the Mengtian lab module, the third and final part of its Tiangong space station docked with the core Tianhe module 13 hours after being launched. Next, the Tianhe and Mengtian modules will dock with the Wentian lab module, completing Tiangong’s T-shaped basic structure. The 17.88-meter-long, 23-ton Mengtian module is the heaviest operational single-cabin active spacecraft in orbit. Mengtian consists of a workcabin, a cargo airlock cabin, a payload cabin and resource cabin. In addition, it has eight scientific experiment cabinets and 37 extravehicul. installation options, enabling more in-cabin and out-cabin experiments in a microgravity environment Mengtian also carries the world’s first space atomic clock system, consisting of a hydrogen clock, rubidium clock and an optical clock. It is the world’s most accurate time and frequency system, but to support fundamental physics research.

One of the more ambitious aims of China’s space program is to position the country as a leading provider of space-based international public goods and services, such as planetary defense. Last month, Asia Times reported about China’s plans to conduct its first asteroid deflection test in 2025 or 2026. China has also taken pioneering steps in Marsexploration. A good example is the completion of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission, which has provided medium and high-resolution photos of the planet’s surface. China has also stated that it is willing to share scientific data from its Tianwen-l mission at an appropriate time and that scientists are welcome to apply for research over the data.

Moreover, China has also announced plans to send men to the moon, paving the potential way for its future settlement and economic use. And China and Russia plan to establish a permanent moon base by 2027. The proposed permanent moon base, the International Lunar Research Station(ILRS), is seen as an experimental complex designed for multiple scientific activities.

The Tiangong is open to all UN member states,with nine projects involving 17 countries including Kenya, Russia, Mexico, Japan, and Peru, alongside 23 entities selected among the first batch of scientific experiments to be carried on board the station. Reflecting China’s open-door space policy, the Tiangong is designed to be “inclusive” and adaptable for foreign astronauts.