【推荐1】Experts believe that the best time to teach kids language skills is when they are babies. Most of the time the task is easily accomplished with parents reading or talking to their babies. However, in some cases that is not possible due to busy work schedules or when kids are born deaf. Now, an adorable blue-eyed robot, a human avatar, and some high-tech neuroscience may be able to assist parents with this important developmental task.

The Robot AVatar thermal-Enhanced system, or RAVE, is the brainchild of a team of researchers led by Laura-Ann Petitto, an educational neuroscientist, at Washington, DC's Gallaudet University. The learning process begins when the robot's camera, which is focused on the baby's face, detects tiny changes in his/her body temperature. This, combined with the baby's facial expression, causes the robot to turn its head and guide the baby's attention to a computer screen, on which a human avatar starts to communicate with the baby, much like what a parent would do. For example, if the baby points towards the screen, the avatar might respond, "Are you pointing to me?" and follow that up with a nursery rhyme, fairy tale, or some essential social communication, all in American Sign Language（ASL）. The "conversation" continues until the kid loses interest.

The researchers, who have been testing the system for three years, found that babies as young as 6 to 8 months old began to move their hands in a rhythm similar to ASL after interacting with RAVE for just a few minutes. Petitto says natural language, whether communicated through speech or sign, activates the same parts of the brain and believes the rhythmic motions prove that the babies are learning the essential elements of communication.

What sets this technique apart from other methods, such as showing educational videos or television shows, is its interactive nature and real-time response to the baby's actions. The researchers say that while it is too early to determine the system's long-term influence on baby communication, the initial response has been very encouraging. Next, they plan to introduce an avatar that can both sign and speak to babies.

【推荐2】Interspecies was once a technical term used in science to describe how one species got along with another. Now it is a word of more consequence: it arouses the new connections between humans and non-humans that are being made possible by technology. In Ways of Being, James Bridle, a British artist and technology writer, explores what this means for understanding the many non-human intelligences on Earth.

Mr Bridle makes clear that three kinds of minds are now interacting: human, non-human and machine. Using artificial intelligence (AI), machines will in future have the capability to interpose (使介入) themselves as translators between humans and other biological life forms.

It is true that profit is the main motive for advances in AI; as yet nature does not get much of a look in, and non-human intelligences go unexplored outside zoology departments. Computing is currently as focused on humans as ever, even as climate change and biodiversity-loss suggest it should devote much greater attention to other species.

The first step towards an interspecies future, Mr Bridle argues, is showing more appreciation for other forms of intelligence. To some extent, this is already happening. For example, through films and other sources many people now know that octopuses (章鱼) have an advanced and strange intelligence. The next step, Mr Bridle declares, is recognizing that people live in a “more than human” world. Other intelligences have developed from a common evolutionary base, and they overlap (重叠) in ways that science is just beginning to discover.

Ways of Being would have benefited from sharper editing. Yet, in making clear the patience, imagination and humility (谦卑) required to better know and protect other forms of intelligence on Earth, he has made an admirable contribution to the dawning interspecies age.

【推荐1】In a natural disaster — a hurricane, flood, volcanic eruption, or other catastrophes (灾难) — minutes and even seconds of warning can make the difference between life and death. Because of this, scientists are working to use the latest technological advances to predict when and where disasters will happen. They are also studying how to analyse and communicate this information in the best way once it is obtained.

On September 29,1998. Hurricane Georges made landfall (登陆) Biloxi, Mississippi, after damaging several islands of the Caribbean badly with rains and winds up to 160 km per hour. Few people lost their lives along the Gulf Coast of the United States.

This was a very different outcome (结果) from 1900, when a powerful Gulf Coast hurricane had made an unexpected direct hit on Galveston, Texas, killing at least 6,000 people.

Vastly improved hurricane warnings explain the different circumstances (状况) at either end of the 20th century — residents of Galveston had no advance warning that a storm was approaching, while residents of Biloxi had been warned days in advance, allowing for safety precautions (预防措施).

While people in Biloxi were thankful for the advance warning, some residents of New Orleans, Louisiana were less satisfied. A day before Hurricane Georges made landfall, forecasters were predicting that the hurricane had a good chance of striking New Orleans. Because much of New Orleans lies below sea level, the city is at risk from flooding. Emergency management officials must begin evacuations (疏散) well before a storm strikes.

But evacuation costs money: Businesses close, tourists leave, and citizens take precautionary measures. The mayor of New Orleans estimated that his city’s preparation for Georges cost more than 50 million. After Georges missed New Orleans, some residents questioned the value of the hurricane forecasts in the face of such high costs.

The different views on the early warnings for Hurricane Georges show some of the complexities related to predicting disasters. Disaster prediction is a process of providing scientific information to the government officials and other decision makers who must respond to those predictions.

【推荐2】In this digital age, people measure their popularity by the number of “likes” and followers they get on social media. But as it turns out, people are happier when their friends are of high quality rather than huge quantity.

Scientists from the University of Leeds in the UK studied data from two online surveys of nearly 1,500 people. Those who took the survey gave details about their age, social interactions, and how satisfied they were with their social lives. The researchers found that those who had a small number of close friends generally tended to be happier than those who had a large number of superficial (关系浅表的) friends.

“Loneliness has less to do with the number of friends you have, and more to do with how you feel about your friends,” said Bruine de Bruin, one of the researchers.

He found that older people tended to have smaller social circles than young people, but the people in these circles tended to be closer to them. He also found that younger people tended to have larger social circles that were made up of “peripheral(次要的) others”— people who are not their true friends, but just the ones they know. These people had no influence on their happiness.

The results of the study show that the opinion society has about old people being sad and lonely might not be accurate.

“The research shows that older adults’ smaller networks don’t decrease their social satisfaction and happiness. In fact, older adults tend to report a better sense of well-being than younger adults,” said Bruine de Bruin.