【推荐1】A New Jersey high schooler, Selina Zhang is no stranger to the spotted lanternfly (斑衣蜡蝉). The now 18-year-old first noticed it when visiting a market near her hometown of Annandale in primary school. It jumped from a plant to a plant to feed on their sap (汁液), affecting over 70 species. In its wake, the plants became stressed, which increased their chances of falling ill and being attacked.

“As I got older, I wanted to take concrete action,” says Zhang. “So I’ve built ArTreeficial, a solar -powered, self-cleaning and artificial -intelligence-driven tree that attracts the spotted lanternfly and removes it using an electric shock.”

On top of conducting an extensive literature review of existing researches, Zhang carefully observed the spotted lanternflies in the wild for weeks, tracking how they grew over time and how they travelled over unfamiliar structures. She took over 500 photos of them, which she logged in a personal database.

Zhang wanted to create a tree-like structure that copied the tree of heaven, a known host plant of the spotted lanternfly, as the primary lure (诱饵) for her trap. So, she uprooted the umbrella from her family’s yard and got to work. First, she used ultrasound to give off a smell made from the essence of the tree of heaven from ArTreeficial’s trunk to attract them. Second, she designed a double-layered electric net for the tree, which would use machine learning to shock spotted lanternflies once they landed on the tree. Then, Zhang used her database of photos to inform and program her AI model.

Zhang’s net s are divided into multiple squares going up and down the structure. When a spotted lanternfly steps on the inner net, the Al model operates. Electricity courses through that particular section, while the rest remain inactive, and the insect is attacked.

Julie Urban, a spotted lanternfly expert at Pennsylvania State University, says that Zhang’s AI approach is incredibly innovative and could be useful in multiple environments.

【推荐2】When both of Marcus Edwards’ kidneys (肾) failed, he was put on a list of people in desperate need of finding a donor (捐献者). Until he could find one, he had to rely on dialysis (透析), a treatment that would give him around five years of support. Marcus had to experience this time-consuming process five days a week for three hours at a time.

In the middle of his health issues, Marcus relied heavily on his wife and kids who, one day, surprised him with tickets to a Chicago Bears game. The whole trip had already been planned out, too—all he had to do was go and have fun! While there, they came across an area with posters, markers, and other things that fans could use to make a sign for the game. When Marcus noticed, he immediately came up with a brilliant idea.

He decided to use this as an opportunity to let people across the country know he was in search of a kidney! His sign never made it on television like he’d hoped, but it did catch the eye of a woman sitting near them in the stadium. She asked if she could take a photo of Marcus with the sign so she could share it online, and he happily agreed.

When Marcus woke up the next day, he was hoping to find that at least one person had reached out. Instead, he discovered that his phone was absolutely blowing up with hundreds of calls! Then, after narrowing it down even more, the donor they chose was Jennifer Michel.

【推荐1】When Mr. Andrews left university, he got a good job in a big oil company, but after he had been there for a few years, he decided that he would like a change. He also wanted to get a more important position(职务) so that he could get more money, and perhaps also do more interesting work, so he put an advertisement in several newspapers, saying what experience he had had, describing the kind of job he had at that time and the kind he would like to have. One of the answers he received was from another man who was looking for a job too. This man wrote to him, sir, when you get a new job, please be kind enough to give my name and address to your present boss, as I have been trying to find a position like yours for a long time.

Once when I was young and had a loose tooth, I asked my father, a dentist, to look at it. “It needs to be pulled,” he told me. I closed my eyes, scared of the experience. I was still waiting for him to pull it when I heard my father say, “I’m done.” I opened my eyes and saw my tooth in his tissue-covered hand. I hadn’t felt anything, and there was just a bit of blood on the tissues. I thought my father was a magician.

The next day at school I told a friend about my father’s remarkable skills. When I explained that the process hadn’t hurt, my friend called me a liar. He said that when his tooth was pulled, it had hurt a lot. I talked to my father about this and there was not a single mystery left after my father’s explanation. My tooth had been ready to be pulled, while my friend’s had not. 

“I’m going to be a dentist,” I declared. I wanted to follow in the professional footsteps of my father, my uncle and grandmother. My father supported my ambition, honoring my interest in his profession even when I was young. 

I was the only kid I knew who was excited about going to the dentist. I was amazed as my father operated machines and leaned over patients’ mouths with a tiny mirror fastened on his head. Once, when my dad was cleaning my mother’s teeth, he let me suction the saliva (用管子吸唾液) from her mouth. That was the first time I saw the inside of a human mouth close-up. I stared at the structure of my mom’s teeth, paying close attention and dreaming that one day I would see the same image as a dentist. 

Years later, the dream of a child has not decreased but actually grown firmer. As time passed, I realized that hard work and effort are necessary to be a dentist, which made my ambition even stronger.