【推荐1】Scientists at Rice University in Houston, Texas have developed a fabric-based (基于织物的) wearable tool that “hits” users’ wrists (腕关节) with pressurized air, silently guiding them to their finishing point. The study, put out on August 29 in the magazine Device, showed that users could correctly read which direction the tool was telling them to go since the wearable uses air instead of electronics, it can be built lighter than present designs.

The wearables may benefit people with hearing loss, and experts such as doctors, pilots, and soldiers who are crowded with signs and sounds.

But while tools that produce signs or sounds are prevalent in everyday life, tools that use touch-based signs are still uncommon.

To get over this difficulty, the Rice University researchers developed a light, comfortable wearable tool from fabric materials that can be worn on a user’s arm. The team tested the tool by measuring forces applied to the user as a function of pressure and the shape of the wearable.

“Every person has a differently shaped arm, a different feeling of what ‘feels good’ in terms of the forces applied and the timing of the forces, and different abilities in responding to the type of touch-based signs we sent,” said Barclay Jumet the lead author of the study. “Fortunately, our fabric-based wearable tool is easily tailorable (可定制的) and adjustable (可调节的) to a series of body types and sizes.”

After testing the performance of the touch-based wearable tool in a lab-based study, the researchers set out to see how well these tools could guide users in a real-world situation. “We were amazed that the user was able to find his way around the streets of Houston and later follow 50 meters long on an open field with 100% exactness in receiving and reading touch-based signs,” said Daniel Preston, the co-author of the study,

“Further development will seek to improve the ability to pass on even more difficult signs that are easily and naturally noticed by the user,” said Preston.

【推荐2】For me, a large part of growing from a girl into a woman was developing a hatred for my body. When I was a kid, I didn’t think about my body all that much. My attitudes towards my body changed around middle school when people were talking about staying“in shape”and going on diets. And thus I started to internalize the harmful standard that we have to look good all the time.

Looks are given far too much importance in our society. Women are supposed to look perfect all the time. We’re supposed to idolize (崇拜) celebrities who have far more time and money to spend on their appearance than the average person. It’s simply not attainable.

I love the idea of body positivity. I firmly believe that everyone should try to love themselves as much as possible. However, it’s almost impossible to love every part of your body all the time. Personally, I could never achieve that. It’s a good idea to promote body positivity in theory, but it also allows us to beat ourselves up because we don’t love ourselves all the time.

Body neutrality (中立) is a much more attainable goal. Body neutrality promotes the idea that your body is simply your body instead of thinking something is good or bad. This mentality is easier to achieve, and it doesn’t force you to try to love things you don’t love. We don’t need to love every part of our body —it’s just a body.

Another way to view your body is to be thankful for everything that it does for you rather than how it looks. For example, I am grateful that my body allows me to go skiing because I love skiing. This shift in mentality can be helpful because it focuses on your body’s ability to do things you love, instead of your appearance.

Ultimately, the ideal mentality is loving every part of your body all the time. However, the more realistic alternative is accepting your body for what it is and what it does for you. Love can come after, but neutrality is a good place to start.

【推荐1】A study was carried out as a cooperation program among researchers at the universities of Turku (Finland), Sydney (Australia) and Cordoba (Spain). Those researchers used artificial nests (人工鸟巢) to test two methods for reducing the nest predation (捕食) of endangered ground-nesting birds.

Predator control is a common challenge in areas where many animals, such as ground-nesting birds, cannot bear the impact of the increased number of predators. For example, in areas that have fewer top predators, the red fox population can be overly large for the areas they live in. Besides, predator control by hunting can be hard and cannot be carried out everywhere or at any time, for example, during the birds’ nesting season. In such cases, the foxes can cause a decline in the populations of some birds.

In the first experimental sites, the researchers spread waterfowl’s smell in wetland areas. With the chemical camouflage (伪装), the researchers studied whether predators might fail to find the artificial bird nests. In other areas, the researchers used eggs giving off an unpleasant smell which could cause discomfort with the goal of making predators believe that the bird eggs were not eatable. The researchers also used control sites which they visited as frequently as the experimental sites to stop predators from making the right choices.

The study showed that the chemical camouflage especially decreased the predation of the artificial bird nests by red foxes. “Unlike other predators, red foxes were more easily deceived into not eating bird eggs than some other predators. We found red foxes might rely more on their sense of smell to find bird nests. The chemical smells could make most of them think the food they found could not be eaten,” explains Senior Researcher Vesa Selonen from the University of Turku.

“Our results are interesting as they show that these approaches could reduce the nest predation of endangered birds. We’re wondering whether the results we observed with the artificial nests can also lead to the protection of real bird nests and a larger number of young birds,” says Professor Toni Laaksonen from the University of Turku.

【推荐3】High in the Swiss Alps, St Moritz made its name as a place for pushing the boundaries of winter sports. Recently, the region continued its long tradition of expanding the limits of what is possible with a world record attempt-not on snow or ice, but on rails. To mark the 175th anniversary of Switzerland’s first railway, a railway company created the world’s longest passenger train-100 cars, 2, 990 tonnes and almost two kilometers long.

Formed of 25 new electric trains, the record-breaking 1, 906-meter train took almost an hour to cover around 25 kilometers over the impressive UNESCO World Heritage Albula Line, which is famous for its endless swooping curves and steep inclines (斜坡). The mountain railways are regarded as great feats of engineering. The 62-kilometer line be- tween Thusis and St Moritz, a world-renowned masterpiece of civil engineering, took just five years to build despite requiring 55 bridges and 39 tunnels.

Unlike most Swiss and European railways, which use the standard gauge (标准轨距) between the rails of 1. 435 meters, the rails, known as Rhaetische Bahn rails, are just one meter apart. “In order to complete the train’s journey successfully, everything has to be perfect. We need to be 100% synchronized (同步的), every second. Everyone has to keep their speed and other systems under control at all times, " lead driver Andreas Kramer said. "We need to know the Albula Line very well, every change of gradient, and every incline. "

The mountainous Swiss landscape has encouraged creative transportation solutions for generations, resulting in one of the most train-reliant nations in the world. On average, Swiss citizens travel about 2, 450 kilometers by train annually-an estimated quarter of their total transportation system. In 2021, Swiss Federal Railways operated 11, 260 trains carrying 880, 000 passengers and 185, 000 tonnes of goods per day on a 3, 265 kilometer-long network with 804 stations. Therefore, the successful record attempt will be great for the local area and for the country as a whole.