【推荐1】In Billings, Montana, some healthcare experts are using 3D printers to make reusable plastic masks. What makes them special is that the masks are then fitted with pieces of surgical (外科的) masks which can be replaced when needed.

“The surgical masks are cut into smaller squares that can be filled into the plastic mask to serve as a filter (过滤器) ,”said Dusty Richardson, a surgeon at the Billings Clinic. “The filter can be used for a day and you can substitute it the next day, but I do wash it for the next use,” Richardson added. The plastic mask and filter can be cleaned with soap, bleach (a chemical that is used to make something become white) and other cleaning chemicals. Richardson believes healthcare workers can get six to ten uses out of a single surgical mask.

Richardson came up with a prototype (原型) of the mask and worked with surgeon Spencer Zaugg and Spencer’s son Colton to make the design become a reality. They’re all really into 3D printing and Colton has design experience and was able to adapt a pattern he found online.

“Spencer and Colton have four 3D printers,” Richardson said. “They have created at least 15 masks so far.” Public schools in Billings are closed because of COVID-19, but some teachers went back into their classrooms on Monday to start printing out masks on their schools’ 3D printer. It takes a few hours to print a single mask.

Richardson said the files and instructions are posted online so anyone can make the masks on their own 3D printer. “I got a text from someone who printed one out in Scotland and is even working on it overseas,” Richardson said.

They’ve already made one huge improvement to their design. A company called HiTech Filters heard about the project and said that they could mass-produce filters using hospital-grade high-efficiency material quickly without wasting precious surgical masks.

“We’re just trying to help people here,” Richardson said. “We want healthcare providers and patients to be safe.”

【推荐2】Towards the end of the 1985 sci-fi classic Back to the Future, the inventor Doc Brown announces “where we’re going, we don’t need roads as the car lifts into the air”. While flying cars aren’t yet filling our skies, many are in development. In October the Chinese XPeng X2 successfully completed the first public test flight of its two-seater flying car in Dubai.

The XPeng X2 lifts vertically off the ground using eight propellers (螺旋桨), without the need for a runway, and is therefore suitable for built-up city areas. The vehicle, designed to carry two passengers, is fully electric and its makers say it can rise through the air at around two meters per second and then reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. The XPeng X2 is equipped with AI automation — it can be set to self-drive. It learns how to avoid traffic, buildings and people. It does not produce any carbon dioxide emissions during flight and is a step forward in the pursuit of urban green transportation. It is suitable for future low-altitude city flights and is perfect for short-distance city journeys such as sightseeing and medical transportation.

Although the test flight lasted just 90 seconds, according to Dr. Liu, chief aviation specialist at Xpeng Aeroht, the technology is close to being ready for public use, but regulations on flying cars are still some way off. Liu believes that people will be able to use flying cars within limited regulated spaces in just five years. This lines up pretty well with the Chinese government’s plan to put flying taxis on the market by 2025. The self-driving function presents further difficulties with regulation and also throws into question public acceptance. Many people are worried about the safety issues around self-driving cars on the ground, let alone vehicles that are flying around above their heads. However, Peng says it is safer for its flying car to be self-driving than to be driven by a human.

There are lots of flying cars in development now around the world and many of them actually fly, like Opener’s “BlackFly”, SkyDriver’s “SD-03’’and Klein Vision’s “AirCar” — which made a successful 35-minute test flight between two cities in Slovakia in 2021.

【推荐3】The recent launch of ChatGPT, a chatbot created by Open AI for public use, has underlined the growing reach of digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) in working life. Like most technological revolutions that affect the workplace, chatbots can potentially create winners and losers and will affect both blue-collar and white-collar workers.

ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) tool that allows users to interact with the GPT-3 model using natural language. The model is trained on a great amount of data, which allows it to generate human-like responses to a wide variety of inputs.

This type of AI can greatly benefit the productivity of skilled workers. Chatbots offer the possibility to automate (使自动化) boring and time-consuming tasks, such as writing standardized reports, meeting minutes and emails. Workers could therefore be freed to focus on more important and creative tasks. A chatbot virtual personal assistant could guide skilled workers through different projects or production processes. It can also generate original content and ideas, and potentially help to research and develop new products and services.

But tools such as ChatGPT presents a real risk of skilled and semi-skilled workers losing their jobs. For example, chatbots can be developed to train employees in an organization, resulting in the unemployment of human trainers.

Previous waves of technological change have created both winners and losers. Workers who are quicker to adjust to technological change will win by increasingly taking on tasks complementary (互补的) to AI while giving up automated ones.

【推荐1】Marmite is a thick, dark, salty spread that many British people like to eat on toast. It divides the British people, and its slogan is “You either love it or hate it”.

Marmite’s maker, Unilever, wants to show that Marmite is not just a spread. New combinations are in the supermarkets, such as Marmite Brussels sprouts, Marmite pot noodles and Marmite peanut butter.

For a long time, Marmite has been a secret staple (主食) of chefs and home cooks who use it in stocks (高汤) and sauces. Now Marmite has become a named ingredient on restaurant menus in all parts of the country. There’s the Marmite chicken wings at Eat Vietnam in Birmingham; Monica Galleti’s pumpkin pasta with Marmite and mushrooms at Mere, central London.

“Chefs use it as a seasoning,” says the chef Sat Bains. “Like soy sauce, it gives depth and umami (鲜味).” Bains has been using Marmite quietly since his restaurant opened in Nottingham in 1999, “mixing it with butter and cooking fish and meat in it”.

Tom Cenci of Loyal Tavern in London uses Marmite to make stocks and sauces rich and salty. “And I have vegetarian and vegan dishes that need a Marmite stock.” But he says, “Marmite has a lot of nostalgic (怀旧的) connections for people. As a child, I ate Marmite crumpets with a cup of tea. To put it into something like a cheesecake is silly.” Cenci doesn’t name Marmite as an ingredient on his menu because he’s worried that Marmite-haters won’t eat his food.

“Some Marmite-haters, who hate the strong umami taste of Marmite on toast, find it much nicer to eat when it’s an ingredient in a recipe,” says Camilla Williamson from Unilever.

Marmite is made from leftover brewer’s yeast, so it is also popular with people who want to reduce food waste. It is popular in plant-based diets, too.

Marmite has a lot of vitamin B12, which is found mostly in animal products. My friend Emily, a Marmite fan, says, “if you used to eat meat and are now a vegetarian, Marmite should be at the top of your shopping list.”

【推荐2】New DNA Repair-kit Successfully Fixes Hereditary (遗传性的) Disease in Cells

Genetic mutations (突变) which cause a weakening hereditary kidney disease affecting children and young adults have been fixed in kidney cells from a patient using a potentially game-changing DNA repair-kit. The advance, developed by the team led by Dr Francesco Aulicino and Professor Imre Berger from Bristol’s School of Biochemistry, is published in Nucleic Acids Research.

Podocin is a protein normally located on the surface of specialized kidney cells and essential for kidney function. Faulty podocin, however, remains stuck inside the cell and never makes it to the surface, damaging the podocytes (肾小球足细胞) and leading to hereditary Steroid Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome (SRNS), which cannot be cured with medications. Gene therapy (疗法) which repairs the genetic mutations causing the faulty podocin offers hope for patients.

By applying new biology techniques, the team re-engineered baculovirus, a for humans harmless insect virus to create a DNA repair vehicle. This re-engineered baculovirus is considered safe, as it could only multiply in the insect, but not in human cells. It can enter human cells very efficiently. What sets apart baculovirus from current ones Like LV, AV, and AAV is that the shell of baculovirus resembles a hollow stick — it simply becomes longer when the load increases. This means a lot more advanced tool-kit and much larger DNA pieces to repair a genetic error can be delivered, making it much more multifunctional than commonly-used systems.

The team used patient-derived podocytes carrying the disease-causing error in the genome to demonstrate the potentials of their technology. Dr Aulicino said: “There are many avenues to apply our system. In addition to podocin repair, we could show that we can correct many errors in very different places in the genome efficiently, by using our single baculovirus delivery system and the most recent editing techniques available.”

Professor Gavin Welsh said: “These results are very encouraging. It is a long road ahead to carry out a new system for clinical applications, but we believe the advantages offered make this a very worthwhile undertaking.”