【推荐2】Rome had the Forum (论坛). London has Speaker’s Corner. Now always-on-the-go New Yorkers have Liz and Bill.

Liz and Bill, two college graduates in their early 20s, have spent a whole year trying to have thousands of people talk to them in subway stations and on busy street comers. And just talk.

Using a 2-foot-tall sign that says, “ Talk to Me,” they attract conversationalists, who one evening included a mental patient, and men in business suits.

They don’t collect money. They don’t push religion (宗教). So what’s the point?

“ To see what happens,” said Liz. “ We simply enjoy life with open talk.”

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, they decided to walk from New York City to Washington, a 270-mile trip. They found they loved talking to people along the way and wanted to continue talking with strangers after their return.

“ It started as a crazy idea.” Liz said. “ We were so curious about all the strangers walking by with their life stories. People will talk to us about anything: their job, their clothes, their childhood experiences, anything.”

Denise wanted to talk about an exam she was about to take. She had stopped by for the second time in two days, to let the two listeners know how it went.

Marcia had led her husband to a serious disease. “That was very heavy on my mind.” Marcia said. “ To be able to talk about it to total strangers was very good,” she explained.

To celebrate a year of talking, the two held a get-together in a city park for all the people they had met over the past year. A few hundred people appeared, as well as some television cameramen and reporters.

They may plan more parties or try to attract more people to join their informal talks. Some publishers have expressed interest in a book, something the two say they’ll consider before making a decision.

【推荐1】British chemist David Evans has become an overnight celebrity（名人） on Chinese social media His chemistry experiments have attracted over 2 million followers in just a few months. Evans is a chemistry professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The 60-yearold always wears a white lab coat, a pair of safety goggles（护目镜）, and smiles often. Some web users say he looks just like “the Grandpa of KFC”.

Evans has posted videos of various experiments. His most popular experiments have attracted millions of hits on video-sharing apps. Excited children's cheers and shouts cam be heard in his vides “I hope my experiments can arouse people's interest in science.” he says.

Evans has been interested in China since childhood. In the early 1970s, before the reform and opening-up, he viewed China as “a country full of mysteries”. He first visited the Chinese mainland in 1987 to attend a chemistry conference in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He quit his job in the United Kingdom and moved to Beijing in 1996. Many of his friends though he was crazy. But Evans said they just saw China's challenges but not it potential.

Since 2011, Evans has turned to the Internet to popularize science. He learned short-video apps are also popular in small cities and rural areas. And he realized this enables him to reach more students, who lack opportunities to perform fun experiments. But even a one-minute video requires a considerable amount of work. Still, he thinks it's worth it to perform his responsibility to popularize science.

His experiments always fill schools' lecture halls with laughter. Some viewers call him “a Harry Potter-like magician”, but he disagrees. “A magician never tells the secrets behind his tricks, but a scientist always gives an explanation.” He sees himself as a teacher. He performs experiments t spread knowledge, inspire thinking, remove misunderstandings and show that science can create change. Evans says he looks forward to more “chemical reactions” with China.

【推荐2】Famous Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping and his research team’s experiment of planting saltwater-tolerant rice in desert areas of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates proved to be a success, with one type of rice producing more than 7.5 tons per hectare, Xinhua reported.

Saltwater-tolerant rice is designed to grow in tidal flats or other areas with heavy salt content. It was the world’s first successful case of planting rice in a tropical desert area, standing as China’s contribution to improving the ability of people in desert areas to be self-sufficient in main foods, a move that can protect global food security and improve the desert ecological environment.

In January, the center chose dozens of types of hybrid rice and planted them on small places of desert areas near Dubai. After five months of growth, the center invited experts from India, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other countries for evaluation, and found three types of rice producing more than 6 tons per hectare. In June, a second evaluation will be carried out for middle-season rice.

The technology of saltwater-tolerant rice plays a key role in the success as the natural environment of the Dubai desert is terrible for rice growth. The daytime temperatures could be as high as over 50 ℃, and nighttime temperatures could drop by 30 ℃. Humidity stays below 20 percent and there are sandstorms from time to time. The biggest challenge is the desert soil, which is low in organic matter and unable to keep soil moisture as it is totally sand. To make it worse, sea water remains just 7.5 meters below the soil, which makes it easy to be full of salt.

With this success, the center and the private investment office of the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai plan to set up a 100-hectare experimental farmland in Dubai, to test the production costs and cultivation techniques(耕种技术) of the saltwater-tolerant rice and prepare for promotion. The two parties will construct a 100-hectare standard farmland in 2019 and speed up rice planting in 2020.