【推荐1】When the conversation turns to clean, renewable energy, the talk almost always is about sun and wind. No one ever brings up another natural power source-snow. Unbelievable as it may sound, falling snow carries an electrical charge. Scientists have known this for decades, but until recently they couldn’t figure out how to turn it into electricity.

Two UCLA scientists have invented a device that uses silicone (硅胶) to catch the electrical charge from snow and create electricity. Their tool is small, thin and flexible, inexpensive, and needs no batteries. “We have a great source of energy ready to be collected,” said Maher El-Kady, a researcher in chemistry at UCLA and co-inventor of the device.“And we can do that using materials that are already produced in mass quantities.”

To be sure, their invention is still a “proof of concept” experiment for now, since its power output remains low. But the researchers believe its potential could be limitless. “There is room for development and further improvements by revisiting the device structure and operating method,” E-Kady said.

Snow builds up a charge on its surface because of the way water molecules (分子) order themselves as they turn into snowflakes, He said, “We thought,‘Why not bring another material with the opposite charge to get these electrons (电子) to create electricity?’ After trying a countless number of materials, we found that silicone produces more charge with snow than any other material.”

The scientists see numerous future uses. It could power a wearable tool that tracks the performance of cold-weather athletes. The device could also be included into solar panels, kicking in extra power during snowstorms.

They predicted that one of its most important applications will be its eventual use as in a miniaturized (微缩的)weather station that could monitor snow in real time, providing data about snowfall rate, accumulation, wind direction and speed. “Every time snow hits the surface of the device, it produces electricity,” El-Kady said.

“Technically, we made a weather station, but one that is self-powered,” he added. ”Unlike conventional weather stations that are huge in size and often rely on batteries for power, our device can work endlessly.”

【推荐2】With a relatively small population, pandas are not out of the woods or the bamboo forest just yet. The biggest threat to the wild panda population is habitat loss. And while around 54%of its wild habitat is protected, these areas are still vulnerable to natural disasters, such as wildfires. To protect panda habitat, the Digital Panda System, developed in a joint venture between the Sichuan Forest and Grassland Administration and Chinese technology giant Huawei, was used effectively across forest and grasslands in Sichuan Province.

The instant reporting system helps to detect wildfires in hard-to-reach areas, alerting fire departments so they can intervene (干预) quickly, as well as monitoring wildlife. Meanwhile, another smart technology-facial recognition-could help identify individual pandas more accurately. Each panda has a unique facial structure and hair pattern. To the human eye, their fur-covered faces all look the same, but computer algorithms are able to distinguish the differences.

The system collects data from 596 cameras, 45 infrared cameras, drones and satellites, which it stores in the cloud. Researchers use this data to monitor, track and study wildlife, as well as detect wildfire hotspots. Because the cameras are used in remote areas where there is little or no electricity, the system is solar powered and uses microwave transmission (传送), which doesn’t require cables (电缆).

The system assists 140,000 forest rangers, grassland managers, conservationists and researchers in Sichuan. In its first five months of operations, it detected 651 wildfire hotspots, reducing forest fires by 71.6% compared to the same period the previous year.

Despite its name, the Digital Panda System offers protection to more than just pandas. The system covers the Sichuan section of the newly established Giant Panda National Park. The park is home to most of China’s 1800 wild pandas-along with a further 8000 animal and plant species. In the future, the digital panda system could be extended across the sections of the national park that lie in Shanxi and Gansu provinces, creating more success stories for other endangered species.

【推荐3】The beginning of the 21st century is an era when the human mind has developed into a split screen, with one eye on real space and the other staring at the electronic mirror.

Modern technology has changed the path of time. This morning on a crowded bus I saw people texting, talking over the cell phone, checking e-mail, listening to iPods etc. Digital medium has taken over in the form of blogs. Private lives are increasingly translated into public space. The younger generation has embraced a more transparent lifestyle than older generations, and seems to have a different idea of privacy.

A woman writer like me cannot imagine a day without computers. I no longer write my articles with pens and paper. Instead, I simply write down ideas using the edit functions. The computer helps me correct the spelling and grammar in my writings if any. What a great advantage it is! Skype, chat, and call facilities keep me in touch with friends the world over and it feels like they’re living next door. There of course is the withdrawal (脱瘾期) symptom if I am unable to access my cell phone even for a short while.

A youngster today would prefer downloading books from the net rather than buying them in bookshops. Besides, I see Karishma, a home maker, often checking websites to find resale of apartments in the area of her choice. Her son Arjun is not interested in playing cricket (板球) with his friends on the playground but on his portable play station. Karishma talks about the transformation taking place during her generation. Earlier, she looked forward to watching movies together on the movie channel. “But these days children prefer to enjoy themselves with their numerous electronic goods,” Karishma comments sadly.

The bad side of modern technology is increased loneliness, loss in the number of jobs, and increased dependency on devices leading to reduction in competency and creativity.

【推荐1】Cyberbullying (网络欺凌) is the use of electronic communication to threaten or insult someone. A child can be involved in cyberbullying in different ways. They can bully, be bullied, or witness the bullying of others. The more digital forms of communication a child uses, the more exposure he or she may get to cyberbullying. Parents, teachers and other adults need to be aware of children’s online usage. Some warning signs that a child may be involved in cyberbullying are:

●Spending much more or less time on electronic devices, including texting

●Hiding their screen when others are near, and avoiding discussion about what they are doing on their device

●Closing social media accounts and opening new ones

●Avoiding social situations, even ones that were enjoyed in the past

●Becoming depressed, or losing interest in people and activities

Cyberbullying is like other forms of bullying and should be handled in a similar way. If a child is being cyberbullied, adults should support the child being bullied and tell the child doing the bullying that cyberbullying is something serious that should be stopped.

If a child sees hateful content online, there are a few easy ways they can deal with it. The child could report the content anonymously (化名地), as hateful speech goes against most websites’ principles of service. They can also block the person from posting abusive content. While ignoring posts might seem easier than blocking someone, it will not make the problem go away.

Adults can try to make their kids put themselves in the others’ shoes and consider how other people feel. They should see whether more help is needed for those involved, like speaking to a guidance counselor or mental health professional.

Cyberbullying may be impossible to stop completely, but parents could watch their child’s behavior and Internet time.

【推荐2】Finding a new job can be extremely challenging and lengthy, even for the most experienced professional.    1    

No matter how well you prepare for your job search,     2     . Finding a great job could take several months, particularly if you’re at the senior level. Try to accept this reality at the start of your job search, so that you can avoid feeling upset if things don’t immediately go your way.

Finding a new job ran be tough, so it’s important to try and keep a positive outlook, both for your own emotional well-being and for the impression you give to potential employers. To avoid letting your job search consume you. Try to keep a healthy balance in your life,     3     Think about your past achievements regularly, and the unique talents you have to offer a potential employer. Remembers your job search will be more effective if you are healthy, positive and optimistic.

Unfortunately, you can’t control how last a potential employer calls you back, or whether or not you get offered an interview. Rather than worrying about things that are out of your hands.     4     Polishing your CV(简历), broadening your network, learning new skills or slaying up to date with industry developments are constructive ways lo progress your job search and make the most of your time.

    5    . Think of your search as real work-something with a “start” and “end” time each day. Set daily goals and track your progress, so you can have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the week. Having a set routine and structuring your day will help you to remain both efficient and constructive.

【推荐3】For the first time, scientists have measured what actually happens with face-to-face interactions when employees start to work at an open-plan office, and their results show these modern workspaces are not as cooperative as you’d think.

Two researchers from Harvard Business School and Harvard University wanted to test whether removing walls at a real-world workplace really increases interactions between co-workers. “To our knowledge, no prior study has directly measured the effect on actual interaction that results from removing walls to create an open office environment,” Ethan S. Bernstein and Stephen Turban write in the paper. To that end, they approached two multinational companies that were re-organizing their office spaces at the global headquarters, and enlisted small groups of employees for two studies.

For eight weeks before the office redesign and eight weeks afterward, the researchers tracked employees’ social interactions and locations. This data was analyzed together with email and instant messaging information from the company’s servers to measure differences in how people were communicating with each other.

What they found was a pretty astonishing difference in face-to-face interactions — but not in the direction you might think. Across both experiments, employees’ social interactions in person decreased by a crazy 70 percent, while emails saw an uptick by roughly 20 to 50 percent.

So, instead of spending more time cooperating with co-workers in the new space where everyone could see them, people got their heads down and tried to preserve their privacy any way they could. According to these results, it appears that being forced into a more open-plan environment can make people switch from chatting to others in person to sending an email or using instant messaging instead.

As the team notes, it’s not automatically a bad thing, but it can certainly change work dynamics in an unexpected way. “That can have important consequences for how — and how productively — work gets done,” the researchers conclude.