【推荐2】Quantum ( 量子 ) computers have been on my mind a lot lately. A friend has been sending me articles on how quantum computers might help solve some of the biggest challenges we face as humans. I’ve also had exchanges with two quantum-computing experts. One is computer scientist Chris Johnson who I see as someone who helps keep the field honest. The other is physicist Philip Taylor.

For decades, quantum computing has been little more than a laboratory curiosity. Now, big tech companies have invested in quantum computing, as have many smaller ones. According to Business Weekly, quantum machines could help us “cure cancer, and even take steps to turn climate change in the opposite direction.” This is the sort of hype ( 炒作 ) that annoys Johnson. He worries that researchers are making promises they can’t keep. “What’s new,” Johnson wrote, “is that millions of dollars are now potentially available to quantum computing researchers.”

As quantum computing attracts more attention and funding, researchers may mislead investors, journalists, the public and, worst of all, themselves about their work’s potential. If researchers can’t keep their promises, excitement might give way to doubt, disappointment and anger, Johnson warns. Lots of other technologies have gone through stages of excitement. But something about quantum computing makes it especially prone to hype, Johnson suggests, perhaps because “‘quantum’ stands for something cool you shouldn’t be able to understand.” And that brings me back to Taylor, who suggested that I read his book Q for Quantum.

After I read the book, Taylor patiently answered my questions about it. He also answered my questions about PyQuantum, the firm he co-founded in 2016. Taylor shares Johnson’s concerns about hype, but he says those concerns do not apply to PyQuantum.

The company, he says, is closer than any other firm “by a very large margin ( 幅度 )” to building a “useful” quantum computer, one that “solves an impactful problem that we would not have been able to solve otherwise.” He adds, “People will naturally discount my opinions, but I have spent a lot of time quantitatively comparing what we are doing with others.”

Could PyQuantum really be leading all the competition “by a wide margin”, as Taylor claims? I don’t know. I’m certainly not going to advise my friend or anyone else to invest in quantum computers. But I trust Taylor, just as I trust Johnson.

【推荐2】Plastic-Eating Worms

Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills (垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste (糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. “Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well,” she explains, “The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond.”

Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes (肠道微生物)?

Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply “millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”

It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might ________.

【推荐3】The AIDA model is the foundation of modern marketing and advertising practice. It outlines the four basic steps used to persuade potentials to make a purchase. The first three steps lie in creating attention (A), decorating interest (I), and building desire (D) for the product, before the fourth step — the “call to action” (A) — tells them exactly how and where to buy. AIDA can channel the customer’s feelings through each stage toward reaching a sale.

......

“Call-to-action” is where all of the initial hard work pays off and leads to the action from a potential customer. For example, they might pick up the phone to discuss the idea of a trial of the services or, alternatively, they may just buy that product or service that has been promoted to them all along.

And AIDA is used to great effect in the movie industry. Movie studios begin their marketing campaigns months in advance. The campaigns develop by offering attractive flashes of the movie without giving too much away. Desire is inspired by the release of the full preview which is fully designed to show the exciting moments of the movie, from special effects to humorous lines of dialogue on the opening weekend. Advertisements in newspapers and on television focus on the movie’s release, inviting the consumer to go and buy a ticket.

【推荐2】Cassandra Warren was in a rush and feeling a little overwhelmed with work and planning her wedding. As she was getting invitation for her wedding in the mail one day, she addressed one to her aunt and uncle in Eugene, Oregon, about 20 minutes from where she lived.

A week later, the invitation came back. She had mistakenly written down the wrong address. A handwritten note was written on the return envelope: “I wish I knew you —this is going to be a blast. Congratulations — go and have dinner on me. I’ve been married for 40 years—it gets better with age.” A $20 bill was put inside.

Cassandra was at a bit of a professional crossroads and had been having a tough day. In fact, she’d been complaining to her fiance, Jesse Jone, about her frustrations just as she opened the misdirected envelope. Then she read the note.

“It was kind of prefect timing,” said Cassandra, who worked as a nanny. “I was really grateful for it.”

And the magic envelope wasn’t finished with its surprises. Cassandra looked closer and saw that the person had written “Live long and prosper” on the envelop, a nod to Star Trek (《星际迷航》).

“We’re kind of Star Trek fans,” she said.

Cassandra, 26, and Jesse, 24, had no idea who the mystery note writer was. But they figured the Star Trek reference was because the person noticed the corner of their invitation, which had both a Star War sword and a Harry Potter wand (魔杖).

“She assumed we’d understand her message,” Cassandra said, “Which we did.”

Cassandra, who was a counselor (顾问) for families with autistic children, went out to dinner the following night with a friend who was going overseas with military. They happily put the $20 toward their bill.

Then Cassandra stopped by a store and bought another card — a thank-you card. She wrote her aunt and uncle’s incorrect address on the envelope again -- this time on purpose —and addressed it to “Kind Stranger”.

Inside, she wrote, “Thank you for the note and taking the time to send it. Not many people would have done that. It was a big blessing after the day I was having. I am thankful for people like you still being in the world.” Don’t miss other real-life acts of kindness like this one that will warm your heart.