【推荐1】While going to the aquarium（水族馆）is a great way to learn about sea animals, some have raised concerns about the animals' quality of life. But Edge Innovations, a company in New Zealand, has a very special way to solve the problem.

Edge Innovations is working with American creators of some of Hollywood's most famous animals to develop robot dolphins that look like almost exactly the same as real-life animals.

The ocean park industry has had falling interests for over ten years because of ethical（道德的）concerns and the cost of live animals, yet people's hunger for learning about and experiencing these animals is still as strong as ever. Developers believe that it's time to make a change in this industry and that this method shows humans' mercy and brings more interests at the same time.

One robot dolphin could cost an aquarium at least $ 26.3 million. But the robot would be controlled by humans and be able to play with humans as a regular dolphin would. The price at the moment is very high, but Edge Innovations notes that since the robots last longer than a real animal, the returns will be worth the price.

The robot dolphin weighs just about 600 pounds but is amazingly life-like. According to The Guardian, a test audience was actually not able to tell it apart from a real dolphin. As for aquarium visitors, the developers forecast that they won't mind not seeing a "real" dolphin. "For people in New Zealand, for me, I prefer natural animals," said Li Wang, the business developer for Edge Innovations. "But when we think about the new generation who spend far more time than us playing electronic games online, we think the robot dolphins will be accepted.”

The development of robot animals may be the future of zoos and aquariums, making it easier for animal lovers to enjoy nature in a kind way.

【推荐3】A subway line that links downtown Beijing with Daxing International Airport in the Chinese capital now allows passengers to enter and exit stations by just scanning the palm of a hand, setting an example of how using biometric data in public transportation can make commuting more convenient.

The pilot program was launched on Sunday on the Daxing Airport Express subway line to spare passengers the trouble of swiping a card(刷卡)or scanning a QR code to catch a train , the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said.

Any commuter aged 14 and above can first register the print of either palm through a simple, automated process and provide relevant information to authorize the payment gateway of WeChat, a popular messaging app in China. Once the palm print is registered, a commuter can scan the palm at any automated ticket gate to pass through. The fare is automatically paid after exit. Besides, the registration is a one-time process and doesn’t require renewal.

“Passengers can just place a palm above the scanning machine when entering or exiting a subway station. The ticket gate will open if the palm scan matches the palm print registered voluntarily,” said Zhang Li, an expert at the Beijing Metro Network Control Center.

The biometric method combines the use of palm print and vein mapping, which are different for every individual. Therefore, data masking and encryption(加密) technologies have been applied to protect user information.

Xin Jianhua, general manager of the public service center at WeChat Pay, said palm scans can be gradually used in offices, schools, gyms and restaurants, as it requires no contact and is therefore safer and more efficient. “Currently, it is very useful for the elderly and those who have physical limitations,” he said. “Use of biometric data allows passengers to take subway trains if they do not have cash or when they forget their subway cards,” he added.

【推荐2】Teenagers who take part in arts and cultural activities, such as dance, drama, reading and going to concerts, are less likely to engage in antisocial and criminalized behavior up to two years later, according to a new study by researchers from UCL (University College London) and University of Florida.

For the peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, researchers looked at data from more than 25,000 teenagers in the United States who had filled out questionnaires over several years.

They measured the teenagers’ overall engagement with arts activities based on a wide range of factors, from involvement in school clubs, orchestras, choirs, and arts classes outside school, to whether they had visited museums or been to concerts, or read on their own. Researchers looked at data from two US-based studies of 1988, whose participants were nationally representative. The research team analyzed questionnaires filled in by teenagers and their parents between 1988 and 2002. The average age of participants at the start of these studies was 14 to 15.

In one of the groups, about half of adolescents reported engaging in antisocial and criminalized behaviors in the last 12 months. The average number of times participants engaged in these behaviors over the year was 1.6. Although the researchers found that arts engagement was linked to fewer positive perceptions of antisocial behavior and better self-control scores, they could not conclude that these factors were causally responsible for the association between arts engagement and antisocial behavior as the study was observational. Nonetheless, in considering mechanisms through which the arts could reduce antisocial behavior, the researchers cited previous studies showing improvements from arts engagement including increased empathy, more prosocial (亲社会的) behavior, reduced boredom and improved self-esteem, as well as better emotion regulation.