【推荐2】Researchers from Purdue University have developed a simple printing process that changes any paper or cardboard packaging into a keyboard, keypad or other easy-to-use human machine interfaces(界面). The technology makes use of a special coating that’s resistant to liquids and dust, which allows multiple circuit (电路) layers to be printed on top of the paper without any dirt between the layers. On the other side of the paper, standard ink printing can then be used to point out where the buttons are, and what they represent. When the printed parts of the paper get pressed, they’re able to send signals over Bluetooth to another device—a laptop, for example. You’ve then got a lightweight, foldable keyboard that can be taken anywhere and easily wiped clean when needed.

Researcher Ramses Martinez says this is the first time that a self-powered paper-based electronic device has been displayed. Also, the technology allows the construction of vertical pressure sensors that don’t require an outer battery thanks to their ability to harvest energy from the tap of a finger. The technology can be used together with conventional printing processes. It could be accomplished easily and rapidly to turn cardboard packaging or paper into smart packaging or a smart human-machine interface.

The technology is great. It’s good for the environment because the paper can be simply recycled again. These paper devices are cheap to produce as well—less than $0.25 each, according to the researchers. Potential uses include smart packaging, or where temporary input devices are required.

“I expect this technology to help the user interact with food packaging—checking whether the food is safe to be consumed, or allowing users to sign the package that arrives at home by dragging their fingers over the box to properly identify themselves as the owner of the package.” says Martinez. “Additionally, our group showed that simple paper sheets from a notebook can be transformed into music player interfaces for users to choose songs and play them.”

【推荐3】Imagine a team of humans and robots working together to process online orders. Real-life workers strategically positioned among their automated coworkers who are moving intelligently back and forth in a warehouse (仓库) space, picking items for shipping to the customer.

This could become a reality sooner or later thanks to researchers at the University of Missouri, who are working to speed up the online delivery process by developing a software model designed to make transport robots smarter.

“The robotic technology already exists,” said Sharan Srinivas, who specializes in data analytics and operations research. “Our goal is to best apply this technology through efficient planning. To do this, we’re asking questions like ‘given a list of items to pick, how do you optimize (优化) the route plan for the human pickers and robots?’ or ‘how many items should a robot pick in a given tour?’ Likewise, we have a similar set of questions for the human worker. The most challenging part is optimizing the collaboration plan between the human pickers and robots.”

Currently, a lot of human effort and labor costs are involved with fulfilling online orders. To help optimize this process, robotic companies have already developed cooperative robots, also known as cobots or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), to work in a warehouse or distribution center. AMRs are equipped with sensors and cameras to help them navigate (确定方向) around a controlled space like a warehouse.

Srinivas said, “The robot is intelligent, so if it’s instructed to go to a particular location, it can navigate the warehous and not hit any workers or other obstacles along the way. AMRs are not designed to replace human workers, but instead can work cooperatively alongside them to help increase the efficiency of the order fulfillment process.”

“The one drawback is that these robots do not have good grasping abilities,” said Srinivas. “But humans are good at grasping items, so we are trying to balance the strength of both resources.”

【推荐1】Each year, the world loses about 10 million hectares of forest — an area about the size of Iceland — because of cutting down trees. At that rate, some scientists predict the world’s forests could disappear in 100 to 200 years. To handle it, now researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have pioneered a technique to generate wood-like plant materials in a lab. This makes it possible to “grow” a wooden product without cutting down trees.

In the lab, the researchers first take cells from the leaves of a young plant. These cells are cultured in liquid medium for two days, then moved to another medium which contains nutrients and two different hormones (激素). By adjusting the hormone levels, the researchers can tune the physical and mechanical qualities of the cells. Next, the researchers use a 3D printer to shape the cell-based material, and let the shaped material grow in the dark for three months. Finally, the researchers dehydrate (使脱水) the material, and then evaluate its qualities.

They found that lower hormone levels lead to plant materials with more rounded, open cells of lower density (密度), while higher hormone levels contribute to the growth of plant materials with smaller but denser cell structures. Lower or higher density of cell structures makes the plant materials softer or more rigid, helping the materials grow with different wood-like characteristics. What’s more, it’s to be noted that the research process is about 100 times faster than the time it takes for a tree to grow to maturity!

Research of this kind is ground-breaking. “This work demonstrates the great power of a technology,” says lead researcher, Jeffrey Berenstain. “The real opportunity here is to be at its best with what you use and how you use it. This technology can be tuned to meet the requirements you give about shapes, sizes, rigidity, and forms. It enables us to ‘grow’any wooden product in a way that traditional agricultural methods can’t achieve.”

【推荐2】Scientists say only enlarging the world’s nature reserve to help protect plants and animals may be useless. The main reason is that levels of human activity are rising in and around the nature reserves. In fact, recognizing spaces as protected areas is not reducing human activity there.

The researchers found that a lack of money to pay for land conservation（保护）is affecting conservation efforts. And it is a lack of communication between people who live in protected natural areas and outsiders. About 17 percent of the world is within protected areas, including the national parks, nature reserves and wilderness areas. Protected areas are important for supporting environments with many different kinds of plants and animals.

The researchers again found increasing human activity in most protected areas in every country. However, they said that human activity appeared to be more of a problem in nations with fewer roads and lower life standards on the Human Development Index（指数）. The index uses information about life length, education and earnings to grade countries on human development.

Across the northern Australia, protected areas often proved effective at slowing human activity when compared with unprotected areas. But in South America, Southeast Asia and African countries, pressure from human activity inside protected areas was higher.

Experts say governments need to provide fund support to help protected areas. Simply recognizing a place as a protected area can’t be the beginning and the end of a conservation effort. Working with local people to take efforts is also important. If they’re not partners in the protected areas, then wildlife conservation is much more difficult.

【推荐3】Feelings often run high where insects are concerned, with many people even sick when seeing them, let alone touch or swallow them. And yet insects present a huge nutritional opportunity as an increasing global population seeks more sources of food and feed.

Insects have generally high levels of animal protein and key micro nutrients with lower environmental foot prints than traditional alternatives, and they can be raised on leftovers. But cultural, social and economic problems remain, reports an article published today in Nutrition Bulletin.

“Insects present a nutritional opportunity, but it is unclear how their nutritional quality is influenced by what they are fed,” says Darja Dobermann, a researcher at the University of Nottingham. “In ideal conditions, insects have a smaller environmental impact than most traditional western forms of animal protein; less known is how to raise insect production while maintaining these environmental benefits.”

“Studies overall show that insects could make valuable economic and nutritional contributions to the food or feed systems, but there are no clear regulations in place to bring insects into such supply systems without them turning into a more expensive version of poultry (家禽) for food,” says Dobermann.

The article highlights how insects have been a source of food for hundreds of years in more than 100countries with over 2,000 species that can be eaten; in central Africa, up to 50% of dietary protein has come from insects, with their market value higher than many alternative sources of animal protein.

Insects need to be large enough to make the effort of catching them worthwhile and easy to locate, preferably in predictably large quantities. They are consumed at various life stages, as raw, fried, boiled, roasted or ground food.

【推荐1】We all know that water is tasteless. But it happens from time to time: you pick up the bottle of water you didn’t finish yesterday, and it tastes strange. Most often, you tend to drop the bottle in the trash bin, believing that the water has gone bad. But is it true?

According to Time, of course not, taste has little to do with quality of water.

According to Time, when water is exposed to the air for 12 hours, CO2 interacts with the H2O in the water, and the pH value lowers slightly. As a result, the water has a different taste.

“But it’s most likely safe to drink,” Norwegian expert Truls Krogh told Science Nordic. “If the water is covered and of good quality to start with, in principle it can last a thousand years. That’s because when water is fresh, it contains little organic matter. As long as water is held in clean glasses or bottles, no pollutants will enter it to harm our health.”

People in countries like the US, the UK and Australia usually drink tap water. According to Time, if tap water is drunk within six months, the chlorine(氯气)in the water will be enough to kill any bacteria and keep it safe to drink.

However, there are also some exceptions. If you accidentally put your fingers into water or store water in unclean containers day after day, microorganism (微生物) will enter the water.

With the help v of surrounding temperature, and sunlight streaming through windows, these microorganisms multiply quickly. Sooner or later, the water will be in the charge of the unfriendly bacteria. And if you drink the water too often, then you’re more likely to be ill.

And what about water in plastic bottles? Heat and plastic are a bad combination, US researcher Kellogg Schwab stresses. When plastic bottles are used at high temperatures, they produce a chemical called BPA.BPA is something that affects hormones (荷尔蒙) and research has tentatively linked it to “several health damage, including heart disease and cancer”, Time reported.

Schwab suggests replacing disposable (一次性的) plastic bottles with the refillable containers made of metal or glass to deal with BPA.