【推荐1】Scientists say they have developed a system that uses machine learning to predict when and where lightning will strike. Researchers report the system is able to predict lightning strikes up to 30 minutes before they happen within a 30-kilometre radius.

Lightning is a strong burst of electricity in the atmosphere. Since it carries extremely powerful electric charge, it can be destructive and deadly. European researchers have estimated that between 6, 000 and 24, 000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year. For this reason, climate scientists have long sought to develop methods of predicting lightning.

The system tested in the experiments used a combination of data from weather stations and machine learning methods. The researchers developed a prediction model that was trained to recognise weather conditions that were likely to cause lightning.

The model was created with the data collected over a 12-year period from 12 Swiss weather stations in cities and mountain areas. The data, related to four main surface conditions: air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, was placed into a unique machine learning algorithm (算法) , which compared it to the records of lightning strikes. Researchers say the algorithm was then able to learn the conditions under which lightning would happen.

The researchers tested the system several times. They found that the system made predictions that proved correct almost 80 percent of the time. “It can now be used anywhere,” the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said in a statement.

The researchers plan to keep developing the technology in partnership with a European effort that aims to create a lightning protection programme. The effort is called the European Laser Lightning Rod project. Scientists working on the project are experimenting with the laser technology that could someday control lightning activity, transferring lightning charge from clouds to the ground. They hope that such technology can one day be used as protection against lightning strikes. Possible uses could be at stations, airports or places where crowds of people gather.

【推荐2】The fast spread of the virus has led most Chinese citizens to wear face masks in public to help reduce infections. The Beijing-based Hanwang Technology Ltd. says it has created a new facial recognition system that is the first to effectively identify people even if they are wearing masks.

China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence and facial recognition system. The new system is based on the existing technologies developed over the past 10 years.

“When wearing a mask, the recognition rate can reach about 95 percent, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” Hanwang’s vice president, Huang Lei, said. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5 percent. However, the new system struggles to identify people wearing both a mask and sunglasses. “In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough,” Huang said.

Hanwang is now selling two main kinds of products that use the technology. One performs “single channel” recognition and the other is a “multi-channel” recognition, which can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people “within a second”.

Huang said officials can use Hanwang’s technology to compare images with ministry (部门) records on individuals in order to identify and track people as they move about. The system can identify crime suspects (嫌疑人), terrorists or make reports or warnings, he added.

While some citizens have expressed doubt to such tools, more people seem to have accepted the methods as a way to deal with the current health emergency.

So far, Huang says most interest in the new system has come from within China. But he sees the interest likely expanding if the virus continues to spread and the use of face masks increases.

【推荐3】It's natural to think about what goes into producing the food in your daily lunch bag. But have you ever stopped to consider the production techniques behind the bag itself? At the center of it is a woman named Margaret Knight.

From her earliest years, Knight was a restless creator. In the article titled " The Evolution of the Grocery Bag", its writer mentions a few of her childhood projects. She was “famous for her kites", and "her sleds were the envy of the town’s boys.”

To support her mother, she took a job at a cotton factory when she was 12. That same year she invented a shuttle system which helped to prevent injury. At the time, she had no concept of patenting(得到……的专利权) her idea. What strengthened her place in history was her working experience at the Columbia Paper Bag Company. Here, instead of folding every paper bag by hand, Knight wondered if she might be able to make them cleanly and rapidly via an automated machine. The result was a working model of her elegant paper-folding machine. But this time: she wanted to go to the extra step and secure a patent on her creation, a brave move for a woman in the 19th century, when an extremely small percentage of patents were held by women.

Not only did Knight file for a patent, she bravely defended her owner ship of the bag machine idea. A man named Charles Annan said the creation was his own, arguing no woman could be able to design such a machine. Knight fought a legal battle against him and handed Anna a courtroom(法庭)defeat by presenting her detailed hand-drawn blueprints. Finally，Knight received her rightful patent in 1871.

After making the machine, she continued to invent many other things like a paper feeding machine and a skirt protector. Knight, at the age of seventy, worked twenty hours a day on 89th invention.