【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-coloured 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 uses a 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 keeping with the moodiness that is the car’s main selling point, Pod expresses a form of road anger. If a driver brakes or swerves(急转弯) 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】A research project called Mineral has created robots that move around in farm fields. The project aims to use computers to help farmers grow more food in ways that are healthy for the environment.

With the number of people on earth getting bigger each year, more food needs to be grown in order to feed everyone. As weather patterns continue to change because of the climate crisis, this task is becoming even more difficult. Some experts say that to feed everyone, more food will need to be grown over the next 50 years than in the last 10,000 years. In the past, farmers tried to quickly increase the amount they produce, using methods that were not always healthy for the environment— more fields, fertilizers, and pesticides。

Instead, the focus of the Mineral project is on getting farms to produce more by improving conditions for each plant. Elliot Grant, who leads the project, says the goal is to “manage the plant instead of the plot.” Mineral’s team spent several years talking to farmers to see what problems they were having and how these problems might be fixed. That led to the creation of special robots, called “plant buggies”.

At first, the buggies were very simple. They were built on bicycles and took pictures with cell phones. Over time, they’ve been improved repeatedly. The plant buggies roll on four wheels and are high enough to glide(滑行) over rows of plants without hurting them. They’re covered in solar panels and have strong wheels, allowing them to roll through muddy fields. The robots can take detailed pictures of plants, track each plant’s location, and measure the plant’s size.

Before, farmers had information about the soil and the weather, but they couldn’t track every plant. Now, with Mineral’s robots, they can. By collecting lots of information like this, Mineral believes computers can help farmers make predictions about how their plants will grow. Studying each individual plant could end up saving time and money. For example, if robots can spot which plants have diseases, farmers can quickly get rid of these plants before they ruin the entire crop, allowing farmers to only fertilize and water the plants that truly need it.

【推荐2】Are you happy? If you aren’t you need to move near friends who are happy. A new study shows that happiness is infectious (易传染的) and can flow through social groups. And the closer you are to someone happy, the happier you’ll be.

The study was carried out by the Harvard Medical School. The researchers discovered that a person’s happiness depends on the happiness of those around them. They collected data on 5,000 adults between 1971 and 2003. Participants were asked to identify their relatives, close friends, place of residence and place of work. They were also asked questions about whether they enjoyed life, and whether they felt hopeful about the future.

The results were very interesting. The researchers found that those who had happy partners had an 8% higher chance of being happy too. And for those with happy children, this increases to 14%. And finally, those with a happy friend who lives less than half a kilometre away are 42% more likely to be happy. “Most important from our perspective is the recognition that people are m social networks, and that the health and well-being of one person affects the health and well-being of others,” one of the researchers explained. “It makes sense that if people around you are happy, that might have an impact on your own happiness.” So, in conclusion, the best thing is to have a happy friend who lives less than a kilometer away from you. Do you have one?

【推荐3】Cheese and red wine are basic diets over the festive period, and if you love red wine and cheese, a new study will come as music to your ears. Researchers from low a State University have revealed that drinking red wine and eating cheese can help to reduce cognitive decline.

In the study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,787 adults aged 46 to 77, and asked them to complete questionnaires about their food and alcohol consumption. The results showed that cheese was the most protective food against age-related cognitive problems, even into late life. Daily consumption of red wine was also shown to improve cognitive function, while weekly consumption of lamb was shown to improve long-term cognitive skills. However, over-consumption of salt was found to increase the risk of cognitive decline.

Dr. Auriel Willette, who led the study, said: “I was pleasantly surprised that our results suggest that appropriately eating cheese and drinking red wine daily are not just good for helping us cope with our current COVID-19 pandemic, but perhaps also dealing with an increasingly complex world. Although we considered whether this was just due to what rich people eat and drink, clinical trials at random are needed to determine if making easy changes in our diet could help our brains in significant ways.”

While the reason for the link remains unclear, the researchers believe that cheese and red wine may protect some people from the effects of Alzheimer's.

Brandon Klinedinst, an author of the study, added: “Depending on the genetic factors you carry, some individuals seem to be more protected from the effects of Alzheimer's, while others seem to be at greater risk. Perhaps the silver bullet we're looking for is improving how we eat. Knowing what that involves contributes to a better understanding of Alzheimer's and putting this disease in an opposite path.”