【推荐2】Made out of thin air

The world has experienced a lot of extreme weather this year due to climate change, which carbon emissions are believed to be most responsible for.     1    

Meat made from air

It is hard to imagine that food consisting of protein could be produced from CO2, but that is exactly what Solar Foods is working on. To create the protein, the company uses renewable energy to split water cells into hydrogen and oxygen.     2     This is fed to microbes(微生物), which in turn create an eatable food, according to science website Futurism. This process makes alternative protein 100 times more climate- friendly than other sources of protein, the company said.

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What about wearing a pair of shoes made of carbon emissions? On Running, a Swiss sports shoe brand, is trying to make foam(泡沫) for its shoed from captured carbon. In November, it announced it was teaming up with US-based company LanzaTech to make ethanol(乙醇) out of waste CO2, which would otherwise be burned, releasing CO2. On Running hopes to produce its first pair of shoes made wholly from carbon sometime next yeat.     4    

Turning CO2 into perfume

What is the smell of a perfume made from CO2? New York-based startup Air Company is selling perfume made from CO2. Perfume has an alcohol base. When mixed with a bit of water and fragrance(芳香) oil, it becomes perfume. Ethanol is widely used in perfume production because it has a neutral smell. This means you only smell the oil.     5     And with the addition of water and fragrance oil, you get perfume made mainly from air.

【推荐3】In order to learn about advanced scientific technology and ideas for combating desertification, Rezaali Pakzad left the Iranian capital Teheran, in 2018, to study in Northwest China’s Gansu Province.

He is a 27-year-old doctoral student at Lanzhou University, focusing on soil desertification control. In his view, Iran, like other arid and semiarid countries, faces environmental problems such as desertification. When he did field surveys and research in Minqin county, Gansu, he found that the local desertification characteristics were very similar to those of his hometown.

“Minqin is between two deserts. From being “about to disappear” to being gradually green, from being ravaged by “sand devils” to being covered by vast green plants, the scientific and effective prevention and control methods of the Chinese government have greatly changed the county, and made me see the hope of improving the ecology in my hometown,” he says.

He believes that China has certainly contributed to the global effort to combat desertification, and that the Chinese contribution is worth learning from. China has developed advanced technology models, such as quicksand fixation and vegetation restoration, and protective forest systems along major transport routes, which have introduced more green to deserts.

Already among the top nations in the world in the field of combating desertification, China has shared its experience with other countries, carried out international exchanges and cooperation, and contributed to global desertification control, he says.

He believes he has made progress during his five years of living and studying in China. By learning more about the Chinese language and culture, he has adapted to life in China and enjoyed the help and sincere concern of his teachers, classmates and friends here.

He hopes to achieve a lot, at a high level, in his research field and to contribute to international exchanges and cooperation in desertification control. “I want to be an ‘ecological messenger’ by spreading green ideas,” he says.

【推荐1】Thanks to the pandemic, more people are or have been working from home. Multiple studies and surveys have shown that many would like to carry on doing so, even as the threat from COVID-19 fades. However, new research carried out in the USA suggests that in-person teams tend to perform better in creativity at certain tasks than those working through videoconferencing software.

The initial study involved 602 participants, including university students and staff. With half the pairs sitting face-to-face in one room, and half using videoconferencing software, subjects were asked to come up with novel uses for a product. The researchers found that the in-person teams generated a greater number and wider range of ideas than the virtual teams. But when it came to their ability to pick the ‘best’ idea rated by comparing the creativity scores of the ideas they chose with the scores of those picked by the judges, there was little difference between the two groups.

To make sure the study wasn’t specific to any given population group, the tests were then conducted again, with 1,490 engineers working for a large company from five other countries. For this second set of tests, participants were asked to come up with new product ideas for their real-life employer. Using a variety of methods, the researchers found that people in the in-person group looked around the room and talked with each other more, whereas those using videoconferencing software took it in turns to speak and kept their eyes on the screen. These things negatively connected to idea generation.

“This new research was an important first step. But this is a single study and the effects are somewhat small, amounting to a difference in one or two ideas between the groups. How much impact this has would depend on the company itself. ” said Dr. Jay Olson, who studies ways to measure creativity.

【推荐3】People who suffer from motion sickness have a long list of activities they are afraid of, and often avoid altogether. This includes long-distance airplane travel, road-trips, and even certain movies and video games. However, if the French company Boarding Ring has its way, motion sickness sufferers will soon have nothing to worry about, provided they are willing to wear the strange-looking Boarding Glasses!

Also called seasickness or carsickness, motion sickness is believed to be the result of the brain receiving mixed signals from the sensory systems, which include the eyes, inner ear, muscles, and joints. For example, when you are looking at your phone on a moving bus, your inner ear notices the motion but your eyes, focused on the screen, thinks you are not moving.

Boarding Glasses try to reduce motion sickness symptoms by “recreating the horizon” so that all the user’s senses send the same message. Though that sounds complex, the science behind the eyewear is surprisingly simple. The frames, made of two round lenses on the front and two on the side, are hollow and partially filled with a blue liquid. Any movement in the vehicle causes the liquid to run around the eyes. This allows the eyes to sense the motion and send the correct signal to the brain. Antoine Jeannin, CEO of Boarding Ring, says, “Your eyes always get the reality of the movement and get a signal that is consistent with the balance system perception.”

According to the company, Boarding Glasses, invented by Jeannin’s father, have been tested by French Navy personnel. The CEO says that over 95 percent of the users reported feeling better after wearing them. People who don’t like the glasses’ appearance will be excited to know that they are only required to be worn for a short period of time. According to Jeannin, “You put the glasses on at the first sign of sickness, leave them on for 10 or 12 minutes, and then take them off. Usually, this cures you of the sickness for the rest of the journey.” The best part is that since Boarding Glasses have no lenses, a single pair can be shared among a group of friends, or even an entire family!