【推荐2】Is it amazing to generate electricity by getting moisture(水汽)from the air surrounding you? Such devices, called MEG, have already been created with some regular items such as a piece of fabric. However, the researchers found it quite challenging with balancing and maintaining moisture content between where it shouldn’t be and where it is required to be.

To fix this problem, the team led by Tan Swee Ching from National University of Singapore created a new MEG.

One part of the fabric in their device is coated with a special gel(凝胶). This is what they called the wet region. The special water-absorbing gel is able to take in more than six times its original weight. This is the very thing used to harvest moisture coming from the air around. The other end of this device is the dry region, which doesn’t have the gel. They specifically designed the fabric this way to make sure that the area stays dry and that the water is trapped only in the wet region.

The wet-dry regions ensure water is maintained just in the wet area, even if this device is left in an open damp environment fora month. This demonstrates how effective the device is when it comes to maintaining its stable electrical output.

The MEG device also has immediate potential applications, one of which is to make a portable power source. “With this unique structure, the electric performance of our MEG device is significantly improved in comparison with the previous ones, thus making it possible to power many common electronic devices, such as health monitors and wearable electronics,” Tan said.

“The invention can be massively produced because it’s easy for factories to get their hands on commercially available raw materials. When it is perfected, many people can finally get their hands on this small, yet powerful tool that they can easily and readily apply in the devices used for their daily use,” Tan added.

【推荐3】While waste within the convenience economy should certainly be solved, it is neither realistic nor sustainable to work towards the complete abandonment of plastics for packaging and other convenience items. Plastics play a crucial role in preserving products both physically and from the effects of water, oxygen and other things. Further, we cannot over-rely on recycling when we consider weak market interest in low-grade materials.

What we need is a strong focus on improving the sustainability of the plastics that we will continue to need. For these plastics, the clear goal should be to stop the use of oil. We must turn to materials based on natural, renewable resources and produce plastics that have minimal impact on the environment after multiple use. Several of these products are already available on the market, but the key to challenging the dominance of oil-based plastics is extending and developing the capacity and range of such products with new material science.

Industrial biotechnology is becoming a cornerstone of the bio-economy. It involves working with natural processes to extend biochemical pathways that can be used in manufacturing (制造业). It has the potential to improve how we manufacture materials and allow us to produce entirely new materials, at the same time protecting the environment and reducing costs.

At Biome Bio-plastics, for example, our industrial biotechnology development programme has already successfully produced bio-based chemicals at sufficient scale (规模) for industrial testing from lignin, the woody material in plants and other renewable carbon sources. Availability of these chemicals could-completely transform the bio-plastics market, creating natural polymers (聚合物) that can compete with oil-based polymers on both cost and functionality. We believe that our product can deliver important changes across the materials industry and provide a critical tool in the fight against plastic pollution.

【推荐1】Macaire Kverett, 14, and her 9-year-old brother, Camden, discovered a unique way to entertain themselves. When bored at home, they began to draw impressive, colorful and imaginary chalk art in their neighborhood. After they completed each chalk art mural (壁画), Camden would lie on the ground to become part of each adventure scene for photos. Their drawings soon grew into massive murals that attracted crowds of neighborhood onlookers. Neighbors would enthusiastically gather to view and take pictures of each new imaginary design.

Their imaginative art collaboration (合作) took their minds off world troubles and transported them to an exciting, imaginary world. Hie great adventures were brought to life through their chalk drawings, including Camden dancing in puddles, zip-lining and floating away with a bunch of balloons. The incredible drawings also had Gamden traveling to the Great Wall of China and Times Square.

Macaire enjoyed collaborating with her brother so much on the creative project that she continued it for 100 days.

“My brother and I talk about ideas a lot during dinner. He likes to ‘travel’ so it’s fun to take him to places,” Macaire explained.

Once they agree on a design, the process takes Macaire two to four hours for smaller drawings and up to six hours for larger murals.

They received such a positive response from their creative artwork that they shared their drawings on social media. Macaire then compiled the artwork into her first book, The World from Our Driveway. They have since published a second book, Cum and Hopper Travel the World.

【推荐2】Leymah Gbowee, ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, dreamed of peace and made it happen, founding a movement of women who brought peace and a female president to Liberia.

On the night of her high school graduation party, surrounded by family, neighbors, and friends, Leymah Gbowee imagined a bright future. She planned to study biology and chemistry in college and become a pediatrician. Instead, Gbowee writes in her autobiography (自传), Mighty Be Our Powers, within six months of that party in 1989, everything around her was gone — her country torn apart by civil war, her family broken, her plans abandoned. And Gbowee never became a doctor. Gbowee saw civilians murdered before her eyes. She fled with relatives from one shelter to another, often went hungry. Upon returning to Liberia in 1991, she saw a terrible sight: everyone had fled, leaving their homes to the fighters.

Yet her spirit wouldn’t die. She began studying under a UNICEF program. Finally, with her family’s help, she imagined a movement of women demanding peace in Liberia and made it happen. Traveling from village to village, Gbowee began organizing women and persuaded women of different cultures to unite; under her leadership, thousands of women were dressed all in white to symbolize peace. Gbowee writes: “We were silent before, but after so many of us have been killed, fallen with diseases, and lost our children and families, war has taught us that the future lies in saying no to violence and yes to peace!”

The women had reason to fear, but Gbowee had no choice. Then women could register to vote. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa’s first female president in 2005. Gbowee’s work was just beginning. She now travels around the world, meeting with everyone from presidents to CEOs to people living in tiny villages, fighting for women and girls.

【推荐3】Earth Day falls on April 22 each year to inform people about environmental problems and inspire them to act. It first came into being in 1970, followed in 1972 by World Environment Day. It has been celebrated ever since, slowly but surely picking up steam. Interestingly, it remained a grassroots affair for 20 years before spreading out to 140 countries in 1990. Now, it is celebrated around the world. Humans still face many challenges, such as climate change and plastic pollution. But we can all make a difference.

When Claire was in the seventh grade, she learned about plans to expand and modernize her middle school. As a follower of Earth Day, she wanted to help. Claire asked the school board to add solar panels to the project because, she explained, clean energy would contribute to a truly modern school, and help her school pursue sustainable development.

The board liked the idea but said it could contribute just $25,000, one-fifth of the cost. So Clarie turned to the community, looking for a solution. Her friends and neighbors shared her enthusiasm. Soon Claire organized a group of kids and adults, who set to work raising the rest. They wrote grant (拨款) requests, put on a talent show and asked for donations, even going door-to-door for them at Halloween. And they appealed to charitable foundations too. One donated more than half the cost!

After two years of hard work, the group paid for the solar panels, which now supply one-fourth of the school’s electricity needs, saving the district thousands of dollars. “My favorite part about this project was that one person could start something small and then the project could grow and have a big impact on the community,” Claire said “There are always going to be barriers and hard parts. When there’s a challenge presented to you, use it as a learning moment and an opportunity to overcome it.”

You can be a hero for the environment, so find out what can be recycled where you live.

【推荐3】Born in Brussels in 1916, Andrée de Jongh was nicknamed Little Cyclone early on by her father. Just 24 in 1940 when the Germans invaded, de Jongh was a commercial artist who packed up and volunteered with the Red Cross, and then joined the Resistance, risking everything to save Allied pilots and crew members shot down by the Germans and trapped behind enemy lines.

De Jongh found these men, and she hid them and fed them. And with her family’s and other resisters’ help, she got them clothes and identity papers. Then she led them on a 1,000­mile escape route through occupied Belgium and France into neutral Spain.

The route was called the Comet line, and this girl inspired not just the men she saved but also the men who heard about her.

The value of what she was doing went beyond the individuals she was saving. She gave hope to air crews in England before they took off.

Some 800 Allied troops and airmen survived the war because of Andrée de Jongh. Known as Dédée by those she rescued, she personally led 118 people over the mountains and into Spain. But the price she and all the other unknown heroes paid was enormous.

In January 1943, de Jongh was caught, and then sent to a concentration camp. Her father was caught and then shot to death. Her sister and her mother were imprisoned. Despite all the arrests and killings, the Comet line continued to be an escape route, right up until the Allies invaded Normandy.

Who we are as a nation, what we are, every freedom we have and celebrate this weekend, and all of our bounty, have been paid for by people like Andrée de Jongh—brave, good, caring and mostly forgotten people.