【推荐2】We often hear honesty is the best policy, and no one likes to be called a liar. But is dishonesty always wrong?

Not necessarily.

According to psychologists, there are two types of lies: lies that help your relationships and the people around you are called pro-social lies; and lies that hurt them are called antisocial lies.

How often have you clicked “Like” on Wechat Moment, not because you actually like what your friends posted, but because you want to show your support? This white lie is an example of a pro-social lie. But when people tell lies on social networks to make their own lives seem more exciting, or to make others jealous, this is antisocial lying.

Workplace lies range from harmless lies to destructive untruthful statements. An example of a pro-social workplace lie is complimenting someone on their presentation —even though it was only average —because you know they were nervous beforehand. In this case your intention is simply to protect your colleague’s feelings. However, people sometimes tell bigger lies at work for the purpose of avoiding blame or to stay on the boss’s good side. These are antisocial lies. They are antisocial because your boss is likely to discover the truth and as a result, will probably stop trusting you.

Lying is also a significant part of the natural world. So it’s little wonder we resort(求助)to it almost by instinct. Human babies sometimes pretend to cry, check to see if anyone is listening, and then start crying again. By the age of five, children learn to say things that are completely untrue, and most nine-year-olds have mastered keeping secrets to protect themselves.

Lying can be incredibly harmful to our relationships and to the people around us. But that’s only true for antisocial lies. Pro-social lies have the opposite effect—they can actually help us.

【推荐3】During its 300 or so years in Britain, tea has changed from the exotic to the ordinary. Historians like to ask why the Industrial Revolution took place here in the 18th century and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia. Several historians argue that sugar played a significant role in fulling workers. Could it be that sweet, boiled water with a mildly addictive plant produced a healthier as well as more energetic population just when England needed labour? That appears to be the case put forward by Francisca Antman, an economist at the University of Colorado.

It is not a new thesis, but Professor Antman provides the first quantitative evidence that tea drinking powered the Industrial Revolution, by increasing the health of workers. Her study reveals that the practice of boiling water for tea lowered death rates by 25% in lower water-quality areas. This “accidental improvement”, she argues, occurred just as people were moving into cities, where the crowding together would otherwise have led to serious epidemics. Instead, the country possessed a healthy pool of labour needed for industrialization.

One of the key moments that shifted tea from a luxury good to a mass market drink came, the Antman paper argues, in 1784 when the tea tax was cut from 119% to 12.5% at one stroke. By the end of the century, even the humblest farmer drank tea twice a day. The East India Company also muscled out an opponent coffee by pushing its tea in the home market. Tea gardens made the drink a cultural custom, as did the worker’s tea break.

Professor Antman argues, “Why England experienced a decline in death rates over this period without an increase in wages, living standards, or nutrition can be explained in part by the widespread adoption of tea as the national drink and increased consumption of boiled water”.

【推荐1】Wherever we go, we are surrounded by history. Across the globe, cultural heritage is passed down through the generations. It is in the buildings and structures around us. It is in the arts and artifacts (手工艺品) we treasure. It lives in the languages we speak and the stories we tell. But today, it is under attack as never before. Not only are the damages of time threatening our cultural heritage, but climate change, globalization and tourism are all exacting a heavy price. Technology is now the most important weapon in the battle. Here’s how technology is preserving our cultural heritage.

As you can imagine, creating the replicas (复制品) by 2D images is extremely time-consuming. Increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms (算法) allow millions of images to be stored in a matter of hours. AI will also make restoration and preservation of existing cultural heritage far easier and better than previous methods.

Virtual reality (VR) technology will play a leading role in preserving our cultural heritage in the coming years. Many of the most important sites and architecture are easily damaged. Human interaction with these locations is doing a great deal of harm. Wastes pile up everywhere, causing serious problems. As more cultural heritage sites and objects are digitally mapped and recorded, VR technology will increasingly become the way that people experience them. We’ll all finally be able to walk through places, look at (and touch) artifacts and works of art without ever seeing them with our own eyes.

Finally, our cultural heritage will be preserved by technology. Efforts in research, data sharing and project work will help promote and preserve the cultural heritage of countries all across the world.

【推荐3】Debate about artificial intelligence (AI) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic (算法) discrimination,the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity. As some observers worry, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards. AI could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and toughest problems. And, they say, AI will do this in a very specific way: by speeding the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.

Such claims are worth examining, and may head off fears about large-scale unemployment and killer robots. Many previous technologies have, of course, been falsely praised as panaceas (灵丹妙药). The electric telegraph was praised in the 1850s as a sign of world peace. Experts in the 1990s said the internet would reduce inequality.

But the mechanism by which AI will supposedly solve the world’s problems has a stronger historical basis, because there have been several periods in history when new approaches and new tools did help bring about bursts of world-changing scientific discovery and innovation.

In the 17th century microscopes and telescopes opened up new vistas of discovery, while the introduction of scientific journals gave researchers new ways to share their findings. From the mid-20th century,computers in turn have enabled new forms of science based on simulation and modelling, from the design of weapons and aircraft to more accurate weather forecasting.

And the computer revolution may not be finished yet. As is reported, AI tools and techniques are now being applied in almost every field of science, though the degree of adoption varies widely. 7.2% of the published papers on physics and astronomy last year involved AI. AI is being employed in many ways. It can identify promising candidates for analysis, such as molecules (分子) with particular properties in drug discovery,or materials with the characteristics needed in batteries or solar cells.

All these are to be welcomed. But the journal and the laboratory went further still: they altered scientific practice itself and unlocked more powerful means of making discoveries. AI has the potential to set off such a transformation.