【推荐1】Known as “ships of the desert”, camels have long been used for transport across the sands. However, for people in the United Arab Emirates (阿拉伯联合酋长国), camels are also beauty pageant contestants (选美比赛选手).

They have strict criteria (标准) to judge a camel’s beauty, including the size of its head, the length of its neck and whether its mouth can cover its teeth. Not every camel is blessed with (赐予) pretty lips or a long neck, so locals have turned to cloning.

Reproductive Biotechnology Center in Dubai, UAE, is the only clone facility in the Gulf, according to CCTV. “We have so much demand for cloning camels that we are not able to keep up,” the center’s scientific director, Nisar Wani, told AFP.

“We are now producing plenty, maybe more than 10 to 20 babies every year. This year we had 28 pregnancies (怀孕) so far; last year, we had 20,” Wani said.

“Beauty queens” are the most popular order. Clients will pay between $54,500 to $109,000 (about 350,533 to 701,066 yuan) to duplicate (复制) a camel. “The price of the camel is determined according to its beauty, health and how well-known the breed (品种) is,” Saud al-Otaibi, who runs a camel auction (拍卖) in Kuwait, told AFP.

Beauty pageants are not the only driver of the camel cloning industry. Many customers want to reproduce camels that produce large amounts of milk. “We have cloned some camels that produce more than 35 liters of milk a day,” Wani told AFP. “Normal camels produce an average of 5 liters a day.”

On April 8, 2009, Dubai claimed the world’s first cloned camel, Injaz. From the minute Injaz was born, there was no going back.

The center is producing “racing champions, high milk-producing animals ... and winners of beauty contests”, added Wani.

Cloning animals comes with concerns. Some scientists worry that continued use of this technology could lead species to extinction via “genetic bottleneck (种群遗传瓶颈效应)”, which happens when species lack genetic diversity .Cloning is also costly and incredibly hard to get right–up to 90 percent of attempts to clone animals end in failure, according to Wired, a US magazine.

【推荐2】Noise created by humans, such as car traffic, quieted by about 30% between late March 2020, when Governor Greg Abbott closed schools and restaurants across Texas, and early May, according to the analysis by researchers at Southern Methodist University.

“There was quite a big change in some areas," said Stephen Arrowsmith, a seismologist (地震学家) at SMU, who took on the project with a class of undergraduate and graduate students. Arrowsmith and his students looked at data from a dozen seismometers (地震仪) across North Texas. Seismometers are used to detect earthquakes, but they are sensitive to just about everything that makes the ground vibrate, such as strong winds, ocean waves, construction and traffic.

The idea of using seismometers to track urban noise first gained popularity last March when Belgian seismologist Thomas Lecocq posted some of his urban noise data from Brussels on Twitter. Lecocq, of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, received such an overwhelming response from scientists that he launched the group "Lockdown Seismology" on the Slack communications platform.

"It's where bored seismologists around the world are collaborating," Arrowsmith joked. Lecocq wrote in an email to The Dallas Morning News that he wanted to document the noise levels to show how small changes in personal behavior can make an international impact. Cities have seen a wide range of noise reductions ranging from 20% to 90% during last year, Lecocq said.

Arrowsmith hopes his findings will contribute to a growing list of creative ways in which researchers are using seismometers. In his spring seismology course, Arrowsmith teaches students how seismic stations can help, investigators solve crimes, like terrorist bombings, aid scientists in tracking nuclear tests pr assist inspectors investigating accidents, like chemical plant blasts. One potential application of his research is to better understand the shallow layers of Earth beneath cities. "That could be useful in places where there's a real seismic hazard, like San Francisco or Los Angeles," he said, "where just knowing what that shallow structure is tells you a lot about how it would respond in a big earthquake."

Recently, researchers have begun using seismic stations to track storms over the ocean because large waves register on the instruments too.

【推荐1】Agriculture may feed the world, but it is also contributing to environmental problems. Agriculture production uses about 70% of the Earth's fresh water and makes up about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. But it doesn't have to. Farming is moving inside, and farmers aren't exactly what they used to be.

Take for example Grover and Phil, two robots, or farmers of the future, working at Iron Ox, a farm tech company in Silicon Valley, planning to set up farms around the country in or- der to grow crops closer to consumers in a greener way. “We have different robots that are looking after the plants. They can check and scan them for issues, and change the amount of nutrients plants get and the amount of water they get, "explained Brandon Alexander, CEO of Iron Ox.

Iron Ox’s method is very different from what Alexander calls the“spray (喷洒) and pray” approach to agriculture on a Texas farm, where he grew up and more chemicals create more quantity at the expense of quality. “Besides, a lot of the water in field farming gets just washed out and never actually reaches the plants. And when 70% of your fresh water is going into farming, only 10% of that actually reaches the plants. It's just generating a lot of waste, ”he said. However, the indoor farming allows farmers to grow any crop at any time, regardless of climate change. It also uses hydroponics(无土栽培) , growing crops without soil so water goes directly to the roots.

“In the indoor farming industry today, even with all the investments into it, these investments are a drop in the bucket(桶) in spite of the great potential of this new industry,” he added.

Iron Ox is now magnifying its business in more states. Alexander says the company will produce about 100 times more produce over the next 18 months than it's currently producing to satisfy greater needs.

【推荐2】At the core of ever-evolving technology industry, there are a few key individuals who have left a deeper mark and changed the lives of many, giving them motivation and the will to persevere to the end.

·Sunder Pichai–– the current CEO of Google

Sunder Pichai was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. However, his story never fails to remind all that with determination and hard work, one can beat the odds. During his time as CEO, Pichai led the launch of Google Chrome, Google Drive and Google Maps, which are features that have revolutionized modern lifestyle.

·Steve Jobs –– the late CEO of Apple

The life of Steve Jobs can be compared to that of a rollercoaster. He was fired from the company that he co-founded   (known as Apple now), then he went on to start up two other successful companies, before returning to Apple, where he created the iPhone, a most significant invention of this century.

·Elon Musk—the founder of Spacex and Tesla

Elon Musk used to be a major shareholder in PayPal and was also its CEO but was dismissed due to disagreements with the company leaders. He left PayPal and went on to establish Spacex and Tesla, both of which turned out to be successful companies. Currently, he has set his sights on ways to reduce global warming, including keeping a lookout for new sources of renewable energy, and has an exciting ambition to establish a human colony in Mars.

·Sal Khan—the pioneer of online education provider

He may not be as famous, but his contribution to education deserves as much credit. Using his website, anyone can have unlimited access to educational videos that teach just about anything for free without attending a formal course. In fact, it was not an easy process. There were a lot of dying moments when he was stressed out, but anyway he made it.