【推荐1】Are you interested in hi-tech products? Here are some that you might find at the market now.

CX-1

Tired of dragging your bag through busy airports? Then you might want to consider CX-1. The smart suitcase uses facial recognizing software to follow its owner as he/she is checking in or heading to the gate. Though CX-1 can only move at a speed of up to seven miles per hour, a tiny tool enables owners to keep track of the suitcase’s location. Happily, it has been sold on the market.

Aibo

Sony’s latest version of the Aibo robotic dog is almost as fun as the real thing — but much less work. The pet dog can recognize its owner, obey several commands, and even recall the behavior that pleases its master the most. Aibo can also learn new tricks, take photographs, and over time, develop its own unique personality.

Forpheus

Forpheus, an “athletic” robot developed by Japanese technology company Omron. It teaches users how to play ping-pong. The 10-feet-tall machine uses a camera and artificial intelligence to track the ball’s speed and can predict the ball’s direction correctly. The smart Forpheus can also quickly test its player’s abilities and adjust the playing level, making the game fun.

Black Box VR

Though many people determine to go to the gym once a week, few reach their goal. Black Box VR wants to change that by turning hard exercise into fun video games. Using it, gym users will find themselves fighting enemies, including big creatures — all while getting exercise.

【推荐2】For eight-year-old Toby, who is deaf, watching films or TV can sometimes be a bit pointless, because so many of them don’t have sign language versions (手语版本). “We have subtitles (字幕) but it goes too fast.” his dad said. But now, Toby has some help thanks to an app developed by a 17-year-old student, Mariella Satow, who created a signing app called SignUp.

She got the idea when she was teaching herself American Sign Language(ASL)--one of hundreds of sign languages used across the world. Mariella wanted to watch TV shows to help her learn, and she was disappointed to discover there is only few signed versions. It’s taken a year for Mariella to develop the technology, with lots of help from ASL teachers and the deaf community.

The app is available in the US as a browser extension with an interpreter (翻译) appearing in a box once the film starts playing. It only works on Disney Plus films at the moment, because that’s where Mariella thought she could help the most deaf children.

Deaf people in the UK face many of the same barriers (障碍) when it comes to cinema and TV. “A 27-year-old girl Stacey says she has learned British Sign Language (BSL), and is comfortable using subtitles when watching TV shows and films. But she feels having an interpreter would make things “more inclusive”. Stacey and Toby aren’t the only people to be welcoming Mariella’s app. It’s now got thousands of users.

Stacey says a UK version of an app like SignUp would make films and TV “more accessible” for the deaf community. Mariella is up for the challenge-and hopes to make a British Sign Language version of her app for other streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. “There are more than 300 sign languages used worldwide, so it’ll take a long time to get all of those versions out,” she says.

【推荐3】In 2019, the world generated 54.6 million tons of e-waste. However, just 17.4 percent of it was formally collected and recycled. Since 2014, the amount of e-waste recycled has grown by 1.8 million tons—a relatively small amount, considering that the amount of e-waste generated increased by 9.2 million tons in the same period.

Global reserves of some elements, such as platinum, are supposed to be fully used up within 15 years if the proportion of recycled stocks entering production doesn’t increase. E-waste and EV batteries are currently recycled through processes called pyrometallurgy (火法冶金术) and hydrometallurgy (湿法冶金术). However, they involve burning temperatures with a high energy demand and deep carbon footprint, and poisonous chemicals which are harmful to the environment. Alternatives are therefore being sought.

A team of scientists from the University of Coventry are extending one such alternative. They have been using non-poisonous bacteria to oxidize and recover the precious metals—a process known as “bioleaching”. They have shown that copper is widely recoverable from e-waste, and that all metals present in EV batteries can be recovered by using microbes (微生物). If extended, bioleaching facilities would mean that manufacturers of EV batteries and other electronic goods would be able to recover metals locally, relying less on costly exports to recycling centers abroad.

“At present, a key limitation for e-waste recycling is the lack of certification detailing the types and amounts of metals contained in electronic goods. But with an efficient recycling process appearing, manufacturers have the motivation to use more recycled material in their products, which will change the very design of electronics goods. It’s about closing the loop of a product’s life cycle,” said the leader of the Bioleaching Research Group, Sebastien Farnaud.

Ultimately, bioleaching technology is born out of the idea of creating a truly circular process for the things that we consume. We need to shift from a mindset and economy where we see waste as an end product, to one where there isn’t even a start or an end at all.

【推荐2】As birth order is clearly one of the many factors that affect personality development, we should pay much attention to it. Big brothers and sisters usually develop leadership early in life, giving orders to later children like their parents. The danger is that if the older child takes that role to an extreme (极端), he or she can become an overbearing adult.

Studies of nearly 300 people have found that firstborns are usually the most strongly motivated toward achievements. This is mainly the result of parental expectations. Research also suggests that firstborn children generally become more conservative (保守的) than other children because they receive most of the parental orders and rules. Used to caring for others, they are more likely to move toward such leadership professions as teaching and politics. Less social and flexible because they become used to acting alone in the very early years, they may have difficulty making close friends.

By contrast, the researchers say later children are more likely to be more relaxed and sociable than the eldest child because their parents are more relaxed. However, later children are often less ambitious (雄心壮志的) and may be uncomfortable making decisions for others, and will seek work that fits their needs. This may help explain why younger children prefer the creative fields such as music, art, and writing. Later children may make good sellers because persuasion may have been the only tool they had to deal with older children. Younger children tend to remain forever “the baby” enjoyable to be around, but at times too dependent on others.

【推荐3】A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as farmer or laborer of some sort.

This attitude toward manual (体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward; furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily got from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.