Nowadays, more and more college students have no problem walking into a classroom and opening their laptops. Others may spend an entire study period with a smartphone in hand. Some people argue that the increasing use of technology can have many helpful effects on society. But a recent research suggests that using technology during class time may harm college students' ability to remember and process the subject material.

Arnold Glass, a professor in Rutgers University in New Jersey4, and a student researcher investigated the issue of divided student attention. The study involved 118 Rutgers students who were taking the same level college class. The students were permitted to use any electronic device during half of their daily class periods. During the other half, no one was allowed to use any technology.

The researchers found that the average daily quiz results showed no evidence of harmful effects from the use of technology. However, the average results of the larger tests and final exam showed that all the students performed poorly when they were permitted to use technology in the classroom. Glass argues that it shows the use of electronic devices in the classroom prevents students from processing information. When the students hear what the professor is saying, they might be buying things online or reading unrelated emails at the same time. And that, Glass says, makes it harder for the information to enter their long term memory. Even though the students know what the professor said at that time, they no longer remember it a week later because they missed the opportunity.

However, Lauren Margulieux, an assistant professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta argues that there are times when classroom use of technology is unavoidable. So, he says, educators need to consider that something other than technology is distracting students.

In fact, a special software program has been created. Students can use the program, which engages students more with the class material on their personal devices during a given class. It can also be used to observe student activity and prevent them from opening unrelated pages and programs.

The problem of robocalls has become so bad that we refuse to pick up calls from numbers we don’t know. Nearly half of the calls we receive are scams (欺诈). We’ve realized the severity of the problem by supporting and developing a group of tools, apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately, it’s too little. By the time these “solutions” become widely available, scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future, it’s not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you’re hearing is actually real.

That’s because there are many powerful voice manipulation (处理) technologies to be available. A company showed a new voice technology able to produce a convincing human-sounding voice able to speak to a receptionist and book a reservation without detection.

These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision. A decade of data disclosure of personal information has led to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother’s name, and far more. Armed with this knowledge, they’re able to cheat the targeted people. This means, for example, that a scammer could call you from what looks to be a familiar number and talk to you with a voice sounding exactly like your bank teller’s, misleading you to “confirm” your address and card number. Scammers follow money, so companies will be the worst hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone, and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies may weaken that gradually.

We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications — using apps like WeChat and Alipay, which can be tied to your identity.

The gene is often called the building block of life, because it is the smallest unit to carry information from one generation to another. Scientists working in the field of genetics are able to understand how one generation inherits important characteristics from the previous generation. But we are able to understand much more than merely why a particular family has a large number of red—haired children. We are also able to discover whether an individual is likely to live a long life, or suffer from particular diseases. This is called predictive genetics and the benefits of such research are many.

This description of the genetic code of the human being has long been the goal of scientists. Doctors are interested in this research, because of the possibility it would provide for treating long term illnesses. The treatment to those diseases could be greatly improved by early identification. There is also the possibility that an understanding of changes in gene order could be used to cure disease. Some researchers believe, for example, that genetic changes are responsible for many common diseases.

While no one doubts the advantages of gene mapping, it is also true that there is a dark side to all these knowledge. As with all scientific advances, the possibility exists that knowledge would be used to violate basic human rights. For example, you might be denied a job or a chance to move up in the company, because your genetic map indicates that you have a high probability of contracting a certain disease. The possibility that these would be used as a reason not to hire an employee or promote within the company is what worries people.

Many experts believe that the only way to address the risk is to pass national laws that prohibit discrimination. Such laws would forbid employers from failing to promote an employee or from dismissing an employee from the company merely because of genetic makeup. It’s clear that such laws will not remove genetic discrimination entirely, but they would greatly reduce such practices.