【推荐1】The Netherlands doesn't disappoint when it comes to architectural wonders on the water, like, floating office buildings. Now a newly-built 3D-printed bridge that runs across a canal impresses the world.

Recently, an impressive 3D-printed bridge has been completed in Nijmegen, a Dutch city, in honor of the city earning the title of European Green Capital, adding a new landmark to this city. This new bridge broke the record as the largest 3D-printed bridge. The size of the bridge is 29 meters, sitting across the water. It is also the first 3D structure that is strong and safe enough for people to walk on.

According to an official, Alderman, "We are honored to receive this 3D-printed bridge. Nijmegen is a city of bridges where a great many attractive bridges of all types crossing rivers can be seen. This bridge is a wonderful complement. The bridge leads to connection: in the design and construction stage it connected the different partners, and from now on the bridge connects our residents. "

According to Salet, an experienced architect, "3D-printed structures are designed on a computer and then printed piece by piece. The printing of concrete costs less because the concrete printer only adds material where it actually supports the construction. We can also greatly increase the construction speed. In the future, we want to make concrete more sustainable and also reuse it. There is much more we can achieve in 3D-printed structures. I am also proud that the knowledge developed has found its way to the industry so quickly."

3D-printed construction marked a new era of architecture. As 3D printing construction technologies continue to advance, bridge-building architects and companies are becoming more ambitious with their designs. A 40-meter pedestrian footbridge in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games is in plan now.

【推荐2】The team, led by Michael T. Tolley, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, details its findings in the Feb 17, 2021 issue of the journal Science Robotics.

“This work represents a fundamental yet significant step towards fully-autonomous, electronics-free walking robots,” said Dylan Drotman, a Ph. D. student in Tolley’s research group and the paper’s first author.

Applications include low-cost robots for entertainment, such as toys, and robots that can operate in environments where electronics cannot function, such as MRI machines. Soft robots are of particular interest because they easily adapt to their environment and operate safely near humans.

Most soft robots are powered by air and are controlled by electronic circuits. But this approach requires complex components like circuit boards, valves (阀门) and pumps -often outside the robot’s body. These components, which make up the robot’s brains and nervous system, are typically large and expensive. By contrast, the UC San Diego robot is controlled by a light-weight, low-cost system of air-powered circuits, made up of tubes and soft valves, onboard the robot itself. The robot can walk on command or in response to signals it senses from the environment.

“With our approach, you could make a very complex robotic brain,” said Tolley, the study’s senior author. “Our focus here was to make the simplest air-powered nervous system needed to control walking.”

In the future, researchers want to improve the robot’s ways to walk so it can walk on natural field and uneven surfaces. This would allow the robot to navigate over a variety of obstacles (障碍). This would require a more complicated network of sensors and as a result a more complex air-powered system. The team will also look at how the technology could be used to create robots, which are in part controlled by air-powered circuits for some functions, such as walking.

【推荐1】The future of the city is here. Sidewalk Labs, a company owned by Alphabet, won a competition to design a neighborhood by Lake Ontario. The competition was held as a way to improve the buildings, public spaces, and transportation. In total, the planning phase should last one year.

The city of Toronto has promised $ 1.25 billion for roads, sidewalks, electricity, water, and so on. Sidewalk Labs has already put $ 50 million into the project. Doctoroff says he is not worried about money — profit can be made from the technology and development. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also says the project will bring well-paying jobs.

The neighborhood has already been given the name “Quayside”. It will include various   scientific technologies connected with environmental improvement such as heated sidewalk, bike paths to melt snow, self-driving buses, shared-ride taxi robots and narrower streets with fewer cars and more room for public spaces like parks. There will also be energy systems, changeable traffic lights, and continuous improvement through collecting and analyzing data from sensors (传感器) for monitoring traffic flow, noise levels, air quality, energy usage, travel patterns, and waste output.

As for construction, the buildings will be made of plastic instead of wood or steel, to make them more affordable and easier to change. Underground passages will be used for trash collection, package delivery, and maintenance (维护).

There are, of course, many concerns about the project. One concern is that making an expensive, hi-tech neighborhood won’t help with a housing crisis in Toronto. It is important for Quayside to be accessible to the elderly, the disabled, and people of diverse races and income levels.

Another concern is about data collection and residents’ privacy. In response, Doctoroff says the data collection will only be used to improve the quality of life in Quayside, privacy to be built into every aspect of the neighborhood.

New and unique, the futuristic neighborhood will no doubt have many issues. In spite of these, it will be interesting to see its evolution.

【推荐3】Do you remember being asked what you wanted to be when you grew up? No doubt the more imaginative your answer, the more approval you would get. But once we reach adolescence (青春期), there’s far less tolerance for answers like, “I’m going to be a marine biologist, circus clown and journalist!” Now the question translates as You are allowed one identity in this life, so which is it?

At university you need to choose a subject to major in, which leads to one specific degree, intended for one type of job. The message that you need to specialise is reinforced (强化) in many contexts. Career guidance books and counsellors give you tests to help you identify your dream job.

But what happens if you’re curious about several subjects, and there are many things you’d like to study? If you’re unable or unwilling to settle on a single career path, you might worry that you don’t have one true calling like everybody else and that, therefore, your life lacks purpose. As the saying goes, you’re a “jack of all trades, master of none”.

In reality, the ambitious young people of today are more interested in moving around and doing different things. In the modern workplace, people are working flexibly and the individual is in control of their professional life and in a position to make decision s about how, when and where they work. Rather than finding something and doing it forever, the new challenge is to find a way of working that works for you.

This new flexible workplace is one where generalists feel at ease. People who have a range of interests are suited to the modern workplace in two essential ways. Firstly, they are used to combining two or more fields and it is at the intersection (十字路口) between seemingly unrelated ideas that innovation often happens. Secondly, people who change roles frequently are less afraid of trying new things and stepping out of their comfort zones. They’re fast learners.