【推荐1】Most of the guests who come on our trips have never been to Egypt before. We want to make everyone comfortable and at ease, but we do always get the same questions in advance of the trip. So here I will give you some travel tips.

What should I wear?

If you're lucky enough to visit Egypt between November and February, pack a sweater. You’ll need it - the desert gets rather cold at night. During the day, the temperature will be agreeable and comfortable. Any other time, pack as if you're going to Phoenix of Vegas in August. For the ladies, bathing suits are normal if there's a pool where you are going, but leave the string bikini at home it is a Muslim country, after all. Last, if you are planning on visiting any mosques (清真寺) or certain parts of upper Egypt, ladies will need to plan on bringing something that comes at least to the elbow(肘部), and no shorts for men or women in those areas.

What special things do I need to pack?

One of my favorite things in the world to bring to Egypt is an Evian water, a sprayer with a fine mist of Evian water. You may be able to find it in your local drug store. Spray a little on your face or head, and your body temperature will feel like it's dropped 10 or15 degrees. Other items include your camera, sun block and extra batteries .

What medical preparation do I need?

In a word: none!. The one thing you may come down with in Egypt is politely called ''Pharoah's Revenge''. The thing that gets rid of Pharoah's Revenge is a regionally produced medicine, and is available at every drugstore for $1 a box. Don't drink local water. Do drink bottled water, avoid the skins of fresh vegetables, and you’ll be fine.

【推荐2】When I was 18, determined not to spend my last teenage year stuck in a village, I took off with an Australian friend and we traveled around Europe for months. We stayed in the cheapest accommodation we could find and live on bread.

This was 1990, a time before mobile phones and the Internet, when the primary contact with home was the collection of mail from the post office. Before I left, Mom had made a money bag to wear around my neck. She’d also made me a sleeping sheet so I could avoid unclean bedding. She didn’t want me to go, and these gifts were her way of telling me to have a wonderful time.

It’s only now, as my 18-year-old daughter is preparing to leave on her own gap year trip, that I have understood what Mom felt.

Working many jobs and saving money, my daughter has researched where to stay, how to get around and what to do when she arrives. She seldom asks for my opinion and I don’t know whether I should back off or not. I want to be cool but not cold. I want to be like the perfect travel guide.

When she first mentioned gap year travel, I was encouraging, wanting her to have her own experiences that shape her. I didn’t let myself think too much about her not being here. Our house has already got smaller in size and soon it will just be me, my son and the cat. And I’m not quite ready for that.

But this trip is about her. This is not 1990 and I am not stuck at home waiting for a letter. I have promised not to upset her with messages, but at least I know she can contact me when she wants to.

【推荐3】Peru is an unbelievable destination for tourists. For me, traveling there changed the definition of “vacation”. Women dressed in colorful, woven clothes wandered the street. The food, however, was something I couldn’t get over. It was a huge culture shock for me to dine on alpaca pizza and have guinea pigs as a dish.

We spent the majority of the trip in a unique mountain city called Cusco. The hotel in Cusco was a pretty little place. The bedroom had three twin beds. Another interesting thing our hotel offered was coca tea. The tea leaves are the same leaves used for cocaine.

I thought that New York City had the worst traffic on the Earth until I visited Cusco. There were taxis everywhere, and local drivers ignored red lights. We would be completely stuck in traffic, yet oncoming cars seemed to believe they could magically drive through the middle of our taxi.

During the trip, we joined in several bus tours. One of them included a visit to a marketplace filled with foods and handmade goods. It was an amazing experience because the market was not jam-packed with tourists like every other place. The majority of the shoppers were Peruvian residents. We weaved in and out of streets, gazing at the beautifully handcrafted（手工制作的）rugs and ponchos. I wish I could have bought everything.

Also on the trip was a tour of a genuine village. The villagers there showed us their lifestyle. One of the women showed the boring process of making different products. Their only income was from the goods they sold. Another trick they showed us was using a bug as a lip stain. They would take a bug, press it, and spread the red blood on their lips. I was shocked when they explained that to us. After the tour was over, we were allowed to view their products. I departed with a soft pair of gloves that not only had the four normal finger holes, but also a thumb hole.

【推荐1】A joint research team recently have developed a new electronic skin that is similar to human skin in strength, durability and sensitivity. The skin or e-skin may play an important role in next-generation personalized medicine, soft robotics and artificial intelligence.

“The ideal e-skin will mimic(模仿) the many natural functions of human skin, such as sensing temperature and touch, accurately and in real time,” says leading researcher Yichen Cai. However, making suitably flexible electronics that can perform such delicate tasks while also used repeatedly is challenging, and each material involved must be carefully engineered.

Most e-skins are made by putting an active sensor on the surface that attaches to human skin. However, the connection between them is often too weak, which reduces the durability and sensitivity of the material; otherwise, if it is too strong, it won’t be flexible enough, making it more likely to break the circuit.

“The landscape of skin electronics keeps shifting at a remarkable pace,” says Cai. “The discovery of 2D sensors has accelerated efforts to turn these quite thin but strong materials into functional, durable artificial skins.”

The new man-made skin built by the researchers could sense objects from 20 centimeters away. It could further make a quick response when touched in less than one tenth of a second. “It is a striking achievement for an e-skin to maintain toughness after repeated use,” said Shen, “which mimics the softness and rapid recovery of human skin.”

This type of e-skin could monitor a range of biological information, such as changes in blood pressure, which can be detected from movements of arms and legs. This data can then be shared and stored on the cloud via Wi-Fi.

“One remaining problem to the widespread use of e-skins lies in mass production of high-resolution sensors,” adds group leader Vincent Tung, “however, the latest technology offers new promise.”

【推荐2】A new concept vehicle, Pod was introduced by Toyota and Sony at the Tokyo motor show. The car is intended as a four-wheeled friend. It aims to provide affection, sympathy and encouragement. Like a dog welcoming its master, the car sits up, wags its tail and acknowledges its owner’s presence using hydraulics(液压装置) and a multi-colored LED display panel(引擎) across the front.

While on the road, the car constantly monitors the driver’s mood with pulse and sweat sensors on the joystick(操纵杆). Cameras focused on the eyes keep watch for any sigh of drowsiness. If a driver appears to be losing his or her cool, Pod will display warnings, play soft music and blow cold air at the face. Drivers are shaken awake with loud music and a shaking chair.

To improve driving skills, pod compares acceleration, braking and steering with the best performance recorded by professionals. It uses this comparison to score drivers, offer advice and rank all Pod owners. Toyota claims that the car will eventually be able to learn its owner’s likes and dislikes by monitoring passenger conversations. If the car hears a favorite song being discussed, it will download the track from the Internet and play it without being asked. It will also recommend restaurants that might suit the driver’s taste and take photographs of passengers when they sound particularly happy.

In keep with the moodiness that is the car’s main selling point, Pod expresses a form of road anger. If a driver brakes or swerves(转向) suddenly, the LED panel shows an angry red and the tail rises at the back.

Anger is one of the car’s ten “emotional states”. Another is sadness --- a blue front with tear-shaped lights seemingly dropping from headlights --- which appears after a flat tire or when gas is low.

“We wanted to show that the cars can be cheerful and entertaining,” said Yasunori Sakamoto, part of the Toyota design team. Mr Sakamoto said Toyota has no plans to put Pod on the market. Sad, really.

【推荐3】To deal with a changing world, we have to change as well. Transforming land into farms removes forests and worsens climate change. But we need to grow more food to support a growing global population. What can we do?

Scientists have discovered that plants grow best under a certain type of light, which can be provided by red and blue LEDs. The combination of these lights at the right level makes a space look pink. Since “pinkhouses” supply their own light, they don’t need to have fragile glass walls and ceilings. And they can be set up anywhere, including places that don’t get the amount of light greenhouses need.

Since pinkhouses can pack food in huge columns, one of these farms doesn’t need a lot of land. Farmers can set up pinkhouses in cities. They completely control temperature and light, which can help some plants grow twice as well in pinkhouses as they do in traditional farming. Pinkhouses can allow for many more harvests per year since farming doesn’t have to stop in the winter.

Even though pinkhouses are a great way to grow crops, lighting and heating an indoor space is very expensive. It doesn’t make sense to grow foods that take up a lot of space or that we need to grow lots of, like wheat, rice, and corn, in a pinkhouse. We will still need to grow those crops in fields. We can start farming smarter.

Farmers will use satellite imagery to figure out exactly where to plant each crop. Think of a mixture of just the fight crops, rather than a rectangle of one type of plant. Sensors in the fields will measure the soil’s water level：temperature, and chemical content. They will even be able to detect insects and send out notifications to a smartphone app. Irrigation systems will be tied to weather forecasting programs, allowing very precise watering and care, all calculated to get the best plant growth and yield.

【推荐2】Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website Book Crossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

Members go on the website and register (注册) the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”

Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossing to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual. The website now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

【推荐3】For those concerned about wrinkles（皱纹）in the skin, it might be a solution: a newly-invented “second skin” that can make aged skin look more youthful.

The wearable film（薄膜）developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (（MIT）) has shown promise in a series of experiments where it was used to wrinkles, under-eye- bags and dry skin.

When used to the face or body, the thin film reduced the appearance of wrinkles and under-eye bags, and helped keep moisture （水分）in dry skin, thus making the skin look like younger.

It is designed to be applied in the morning and removed at night. The "second skin” remained unharmed against normal daily wear, and the stresses of exercise and swimming, without falling off.

“You can rub it from the comer and remove it. But it doesn't do that under normal daily wear. We don't want something that falls off," an MIT researcher said.

While normal make-up can cover imperfection on the skin, the new coating changes the way skin behaves by giving it the moisture of young skin. It was developed with help from two companies: Living Proof a make-up firm, and Olivo Labs, a medical company. With more work, they believe the “second skin"' will be used to cover birthmarks, to protect the face from UV rays, or to treat skin diseases or wounds.

The most impressive results came when the researchers used the film to under-eye bags. By pressing the loose skin, the film improved the appearance of the under-eye bags to a level that had only been achieved before with operations.