【推荐1】Designers are increasingly using different kinds of materials to produce products that do not harm the environment. Reused plastic bottles, wood, plant fiber, and even seaweed are being used in place of traditional materials for household goods and clothing.

Unusual materials

Nina Edwards Anker’s candleholder and ceiling lamp look like ancient pieces of paper placed around electronic lights known as LEDs. But a closer look shows that they are made of algae (藻类). Anker came up with the idea while working on a doctoral research project at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

A show for new materials in Germany

Heimtextil is an international trade show, or fair, for new textiles in Frankfurt, Germany. This year’ fair placed attention on making new products that came from reused materials.

“We’ll see companies demonstrating how inorganic materials like nylon, plastic and metal can be reused,” Olaf Schmidt, Heimtextil’s vice president of textiles and textile technology, said.

He added, “And there’s seaweed, used to produce sound pad and panels that provided great insulation (隔音), are fire-resistant and regulate humidity (湿度) well.”

Many companies using other materials

Patagonia, North Face and Timberland are among the companies now using natural materials to produce goods. Italian company Frumat has developed a plant-based leather made from the waste created by apple juice makers. Pinatex helps support farms in the Philippines by using waste from the pineapple harvest to create material that is sold to makers of shoes, clothing and other products.

【推荐2】Many countries are currently facing major problems related to waste collection, particularly in urban areas, due to the large amount of waste produced daily by the population. Technology could play a significant role in dealing with these issues, for example, through the development of more effective tools to gather and collect garbage.

With this in mind, researchers at Vishwakarma Government Engineering College have recently created a cheap and effective system, which they refer to as AGDC, for automatic garbage detection and collection. Their system uses AI algorithms (计算程序) to detect and locate waste in its surroundings, then picks it up with a robotic arm.

The system consists of a robotic body (i.e. a base, a robotic arm and a drawer) and several machine learning algorithms. It uses convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to detect garbage on the ground. Then, it calculates its position by analyzing pictures collected by an integrated camera (内置摄像头). Next, another algorithm judges the distance between the robot and the garbage, while also giving instructions to the robot to reach the target location. The position of the garbage and these instructions are then fed to a microcontroller, which controls the robot to move to where the garbage is resting. When the robot finally reaches the garbage detected by CNNs, it uses a robotic arm to collect it and drops it into a drawer that is attached to its body.

The researchers have already developed a prototype (原型) of their waste detection system, which can currently collect up to 100-200g of garbage. In their future work, they plan to expand on this prototype, so that it can collect two to three kilograms of garbage before emptying its drawer. In addition, the team is thinking of developing and training a new CNN model that would allow AGDC to detect various kinds of garbage at the same time.

【推荐3】Cell phones, tablets, laptops, smart-watches: the modern world is packed with a lot of devices that bring us connectivity, entertainment and information. Our hunger for the latest models leads to the “throwaway” culture, which means consumers often throw away old devices as soon as new ones come to the market, a habit that can have a significant effect on waste streams and the environment.

With concerns about e-waste growing, some companies are now turning to chemistry to develop solutions to recycle items like old cell phones, extracting value at the same time. One such example is the work being carried out by Mint Innovation, a clean tech firm based in Auckland, New Zealand. “We’ve developed a biological process for recovering valuable metals from electronic waste,” said Ollie Crush, the company’s chief scientific officer.

Crush explained that Mint Innovation’s system included grinding(磨碎)waste up into a powder. “The reason why we must do this is that we need to make sure that we’re exposing all the metal contained within to a chemical filtering(过滤)process,” he added.

When it comes to recovering a valuable material like gold, the technique used by Mint Innovation has a number of steps. According to a video, chemicals dissolve (溶解) the powdered waste into a solution, with any materials that haven’t dissolved filtered out. Microbes are then added to the mix. Gold atoms catch on to them in a process called “selective biosorption”. Next, the microbes coated gold are filtered, producing a paste which is then turned into a solid, “recycled” gold.

“Nearly 50% of the value of e-waste comes from the gold,” Cameron Weber, a senior lecturer at Chemical Sciences, said. “In fact, there’s actually more gold in e-waste as a concentration than there is in gold that’s been mined, which shows you the value of being able to take your e-waste and recycle and reuse some of the elements that are found in it,” he added.

Looking ahead, Crush, explained the process could potentially have a number of interesting applications. “The future for Mint Innovation is to prove that our technology works with a number of different materials,” he said. “So, we’ll just keep trying to see where our microbial process makes more sense.”

【推荐2】Everyone has their favourite Bond songs with the 007 movies offering so many different musical outings over the years from classic rock and pop to soul and even dance. Let us know in the comments.

Golden Eye sees a cat-like Turner wandering about throughout its sound stage, flashing her claws where necessary. Its sweeping arrangement and sentimental brass (感伤的铜管乐) contribute to a powerful vocal performance. The strings are mixed with horns that sound like a passing train. This is effortless singing from Turner and her amazing control is a joy to hear.

This rock/pop little number has always felt rather clear to the listeners. It is a bit Bond-aping (邦德式模仿) rather than creating something new all by itself, which is what it should ideally be aiming for. Crow gives it her all with her soft voice.

Right from the brilliantly exciting intro, the whole track just sounds so strong, as if it was chiseled (镌刻) out of the very finest stone. A lot of this is down to Chris Cornell’s powerful and deeply rich voice. One of the greatest singers of his generation, he absolutely nails this track.

The title theme that most people can’t actually remember. By all accounts, Sam Smith’s Writing’s On The Wall was written very quickly, and frankly, it shows. Far from being a terrible song, it just lacks basically everything that a Bond theme needs. Sure, it certainly feels empty.

【推荐3】COVID-19 INFORMATION

COVID-19 ALBERTA HEALTH DAILY CHECKLIST

(FOR CHILDREN UNDER 18)

Overview

This checklist applies for all children, as well as all students who attend kindergarten through Grade 12, including high school students over 18. Children should be screened (筛查) every day by completing this checklist before going to school, childcare or other activities. Children may need a parent or guardian to assist them to complete this screening tool.

Screening Questions for Children under 18:

Please note: If your child is experiencing any symptoms from the lists above, do not bring them to visit a continuing care or acute care facility for 10 days from when symptoms started or until symptoms resolve (whichever is longer), unless they receive a negative COVID-19 test result and feel better.

2021 Government of Alberta | Updated: February 18, 2021

Alberta