【推荐1】Losing an arm means losing the ability to grab as well as a sense of touch. Scientists have been working on mind-controlled prostheses (义肢) and have successfully built a few to help patients regain their ability to grab. But regaining the sense of both has been quite a challenge—until now.

Seven years ago, a group of Swedish scientists created a new type of prosthesis, which has since been tried out on three patients to see how they perform in their daily lives. The study result was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to the study, this is the first time that people who have had an arm amputated have experienced the sense of touch using mind-controlled arm prostheses.

The new prosthesis is “neuromusculoskeltal”. As the name indicates, the prosthesis is connected directly to a person’s nerves, muscles and skeleton. The sense of touch becomes possible by stimulating nerves that used to be connected to the biological hand before the amputation.

When a patient grabs an object, for example, force sensors planted in the prosthetic thumb would measure contact and pressure. The collected information would then be transmitted to the patient’s nerves that lead to the brain. The patient would then be able to “feel” the characteristics of the object being touched and perceive its pressure against the prosthetic hand, which can be important when handing delicate objects—an egg, for example.

“The ability of the patients to discern (觉察) smaller changes in the intensity of sensations has improved,” Max Ortiz Catalan, associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the leader of the study, told Science Daily.

According to Catalan, the new study has shown that their prosthesis is qualified as a “clinically viable replacement for a lost arm”.

“The sensors are not the obstacle for restoring sensation,” Catalan added. “The challenge is creating neural interfaces (神经接口) that can seamlessly transmit large amounts of artificially collected information to the nervous system, in a way that the user can experience sensations naturally and effortlessly.”

And they did it.

With the development of prosthesis technology, people who suffer from limb loss will have a greater chance of getting their normal lives back.

【推荐2】The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max’s internals are nearly the same: With each, you get a 12 megapixel camera, better-sounding speakers and the ability to pack two SIM cards into one device for international travelers or people who have to turn between a device for work and one for personal use.

The phones come with Apple’s new A12 bionic chip, which helps make Face ID and games load faster. Apple played up the speed of these new phones during its product announcement, and they are fast. But so were the models before them.

Both models feature beautiful OLED screens that make watching videos, especially on the XS Max, totally surprising.

Battery life is also improved on both devices. Apple (AAPL) says you can spare about 30 minutes longer on the XS compared to last year’s X, and 90 minutes longer on the Max. It’s not a game changer, but we’ll take any extra minutes we can get.

There is one major difference between the iPhone XS and XS Max: size. The Max is unquestionably big, but it’s technically the same size as the iPhone 8 Plus. The edge-to-edge screen creates the illusion（幻想）the device itself is 21% larger than its predecessor, but it’ll fit in your hands just as easily (or not) as older Plus models.

But   it's   hard   to   shake   the   feeling   that   the   device   is   big   just   to   be   big.   Unlike the Samsung(SSNLF) Galaxy Note or   the iPad, the XS Max   doesn’t support many features tailored for bigger screens, such as another row of apps or a side-by-side display that lets you use two apps at once. It’s a missed opportunity.

The real star of the new models is the camera. A new feature called Smart HDR shoots a four-frame object taken at different exposures and settings and mixes them together to create more detailed shots — similar to an existing feature on the Google Pixel 2.

But the likely fan favorite feature is a change to the iPhone’s Portrait Mode that lets you change the depth of a photo after you take it, allowing you to have more creative control. For example, you can snap a shot of a friend on a beach and change the background for an artsy feel. If you decide later you want to see more of the ocean, you can change the background via the edit button.

It’s an impressive feature, but the results also depend on your photo skills and the lighting. When it's good, it’s really good. When it’s not, you'll still get a good-looking picture. The Pixel 2 and Samsung Galaxy S9 offer a similar feature, too.

The XS and XS Max come with headphones, but unlike last year, you won’t find an adapter included in the box. This means you’ll need to spend $9 more if you want to use an old pair of headphones. It’s Apple’s way of saying it’s finally time to get over the fact there’s no longer a headphone jack.

【推荐3】It is very common for a classroom to have a world map on the wall. However, a new map, called the AuthaGraph World Map, might replace the old maps.     1     This surprised many because earlier winners of the important award have been things like robots and mobility chairs (移动座椅).

But this map is very special, because it is more accurate than the maps you have used at school. This is because it is difficult to copy the 3-D, spherical surface (球面) of the world onto a 2-D map.     2     This means places like North America look much bigger than they really are. North America looks the same size as Africa, even though Africa is much bigger.     3    

Many people have tried to fix this problem, but until now they haven’t been successful.

    4    Created by Japanese designer Hajime Narukawa, it cuts the globe into 96 equal triangles and puts them into a tetrahedron (四面体) shape. In this way, the designer keeps the proportions (比例) of the land and water the same when going from a 3-D sphere to a 2-D map.

The map is already being used in Japanese school textbooks. According to the Good Design Award judges, it is the best example of what the planet really looks like.     5    

【推荐1】Ford is turning McDonald’s coffee waste into headlights

Ford is recently including coffee chaff (谷壳) that comes off during the roasting process—into the plastic headlights housing (大灯外壳) used in some cars. It has asked McDonald’s, which doesn’t roast its own coffee, to connect it with suppliers.

In recent years, as consumers feel more concern for plastic pollution and carbon emissions, companies have made full commitments to reduce their influences on the environment. They’ve also been developing new, sustainable materials to build consumer products.

Traditionally, Ford uses plastic and talc(滑石粉) to make its headlights housing. The coffee version is more sustainable because it’s lighter and doesn’t use the talc which, as a mineral, isn’t renewable. Coffee chaff, on the other hand, is widely available, and much of it goes to waste. Eventually, Ford hopes to use the material for more parts.

Ford decided to work with coffee chaff a few years ago. But it’s been experimenting with organic materials for over a decade. The auto company has been using soy-based foam(泡沫) in its cushions since 2011. It also uses waste from wheat, coconut, tomato and other plants in its cars in order to help meet some of its sustainability goals, which include using more renewable materials. Once the Ford team figured out how coffee chaff could be used to build car parts, it reached out to McDonald’s because of the restaurant chain ‘s scale and its sustainability goals. Like Ford, McDonald’s also wants to bring renewable and recycled materials into its products. The partnership between Ford and McDonald’s is an example of how brands with different projects can work together.

“We’ve conventionally thought of cooperation as within the food industry,” said Lan Olson, senior director of Global Sustainability at McDonald’s. “The Ford partnership can help McDonald’s see what kind of larger impacts are possible when it works with a company in another field. This is just scratching(划开) the surface of trying to understand what’s possible,” Olson said.

【推荐2】There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy traffic. At present，we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution， the problem is really worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade，a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in distant areas away from any industrial cities. In fact，the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a “greenhouse effect” —keeping heat reflected from the earth and raising the world’s average temperature. If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees，much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York，Boston，Miami，and New Orleans will be in water.

Another view，less widely held，is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth’s temperature—a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age，and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen. Perhaps，if we are lucky enough，the two tendencies will offset each other and the world’s temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits，people ignore the damage on our environment caused by the “advanced civilization”. Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worthwhile?

【推荐3】As environmental concerns continue to increase, many people are left wondering how they can balance the need to travel with the need to protect the planet. One particular dilemma that has received significant attention is air travel.

Air travel is known to be one of the most carbon-intensive forms of travel. According to a report by the European Environment Agency, aviation is responsible for around 3% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years. In addition, aircraft contribute to other types of air pollution, such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

For environmentalists who advocate for reducing our carbon footprint, this brings up a difficult question: should we avoid flying altogether?

On one hand, it’s easy to see why environmentalists would want to keep away from air travel. By doing so, they could dramatically reduce their carbon footprint and set an example for others. Additionally, some argue that air travel perpetuates (使永久) a culture of over-consumption, which is contradictory lo environmental values.

However, there are also arguments in favor of air travel: For one, air travel enables people to experience different cultures, build relationships, and expand their knowledge in ways that might not be possible otherwise. It can also facilitate business trades and contribute to economic growth. Moreover, some experts believe that technological advancements could make air travel more sustainable in the future. For example, some airlines are experimenting with biofuels and electric planes, which could dramatically reduce the emissions associated with air travel.

So what’s the answer? Ultimately, it’s up to each individual to decide whether the benefits of air travel outweigh the environmental costs. However, there are steps that everyone can take to reduce their impact. For example, travellers can choose to fly less frequently, opt for direct flights, and offset (抵消) their emissions through programs like carbon offsetting. In the end, the key is to remain aware of the environmental impact of our choices and to make informed decisions based on our own values and priorities.

【推荐2】By now you’ve probably heard about the “you’re not special” speech, when English teacher David McCullough told graduating seniors at Wellesley High School: “Do not get the idea you’re anything special, because you’re not.” Mothers and fathers present at the ceremony — and a whole lot of other parents across the Internet — took issue with McCullough’s ego-puncturing words. But lost in the uproar was something we really should be taking to heart: our young people actually have no idea whether they’re particularly talented or accomplished or not. In our eagerness to elevate their self-esteem, we forgot to teach them how to realistically assess their own abilities, a crucial requirement for getting better at anything from math to music to sports. In fact, it’s not just privileged high-school students: we all tend to view ourselves as above average.

Such inflated self-judgments have been found in study after study, and it’s often exactly when we’re least competent at a given task that we rate our performance most generously. In a 2006 study published in the journal Medical Education, for example, medical students who scored the lowest on an essay test were the most charitable in their self-evaluations, while high-scoring students judged themselves much more stringently. Poor students, the authors note, “lack insight”

into their own inadequacy. Why should this be? Another study, led by Cornell University psychologist David Dunning, offers an enlightening explanation. People who are incompetent, he writes with coauthor Justin Kruger, suffer from a “dual burden”: they’re not good at what they do, and their very ineptness prevents them from recognizing how bad they are.

In Dunning and Kruger’s study, subjects scoring at the bottom of the heap on tests of logic, grammar and humor “extremely overestimated” their talents. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they guessed they were in the 62nd . What these individuals lacked (in addition to clear logic, proper grammar and a sense of humor) was “metacognitive skill”: the capacity to monitor how well they’re performing. In the absence of that capacity, the subjects arrived at an overly hopeful view of their own abilities. There’s a paradox here, the authors note: “The skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain.” In other words, to get better at judging how well we’re doing at an activity, we have to get better at the activity itself.

There are a couple of ways out of this double bind. First, we can learn to make honest comparisons with others. Train yourself to recognize excellence, even when you yourself don’t possess it, and compare what you can do against what truly excellent individuals are able to accomplish. Second, seek out feedback that is frequent, accurate and specific. Find a critic who will tell you not only how poorly you’re doing, but just what it is that you’re doing wrong. As Dunning and Kruger note, success indicates to us that everything went right, but failure is more ambiguous: any number of things could have gone wrong. Use this external feedback to figure out exactly where and when you screwed up.

If we adopt these strategies — and most importantly, teach them to our children — they won’t need parents, or a commencement (毕业典礼) speaker, to tell them that they’re special. They’ll already know that they are, or have a plan to get that way.