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In a field in England, three little robots have been given a great job: to find and kill grass before planting seeds (种子) in the soil.

The robots are named Tom, Dick and Harry. Tom is the first of the three clever robots to start working. He watches the crops (庄稼) carefully and collects the information about each plant. He can create a short introduction to each plant and even make decisions on what chemicals are needed for your crops.

Dick does the dirty work. He can go to each plant that is doing bad to the crops and take it out. Plants that are good for the crops are left. He can spray (喷洒) things like chemicals in order to keep plants healthy.

Harry is a planter. He digs holes into the field and puts seeds into the ground, and records where he puts them. If a seed doesn’t grow, he can easily travel there and plants a new seed.

The smart robots are made by Small Robot. The British company says farmers could reduce costs by 40% and chemical usage by up to 95%. The little robots allow farmers to free their soils from chemicals. Using less chemicals is going to save much money and is good for the environment. As well as reducing the use of chemicals, robots will bring us better soil quality and more plants and animals.

“We have to change farming now, or else there won’t be anything to farm,” says Small Robot.

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It’s reported that India is facing one of the worst water shortage in its history. 26-year-old Ramveer Tanwar knew a thing or two about it years ago. The young man comes from a small village in Greater Noida in India. A trip back to his hometown has totally changed his life.

During the trip, Ramveer noticed that many lakes where he used to swim and play with his friends dried up because of pollution. What’s worse, many water bodies were disappearing fast. Instead of waiting for the government to take action, the young man decided to take matters into his own hands.

In the beginning, Ramveer went from door to door or held meetings to educate local villagers on the importance of water protection. He believed by teaching people the situation could get better. But later he found that was not enough. So besides talking to villagers, he teamed up with them and began to revive (复活) lifeless lakes in the area. “We tried reviving a lake by removing all its waste. Many of the villagers came to help. Some of them worked with us while others offered us tools (工具) and equipment,” Ramveer said. They even succeeded in getting support from the forest department, which provided them with plants to be planted around the lakes.

Since 2014, with the help of the volunteers, Ramveer has brought about twelve dead lakes back to life. Of course, he doesn’t plan to stop there. Today he is using his power and influence to call on more people to join him.

As a 16-year-old boy looked closely at a mouse, it ran around an enclosed area in a lab. “Hi, Jakob. I’m Jake.”

Jake Litvag named the mouse, but they share more than just names. Scientists genetically engineered (基因改造) Jakob, the mouse, to be similar to Jake in one important genetic way. That mouse and its relatives are the first in the world to have the same missing gene that scientists say may cause Jake’s condition—autism (自闭症).

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis raised the mice from stem cells (干细胞) that came from Jake’s blood. They wanted to study his condition. Jake’s parents, Joe and Lisa Litvag, visited the lab back in December 2021. They thought that meeting the scientists and the mice would help Jake understand his important part in the research. He now considers autism something to be proud of rather than something that makes him different from others.

“Oh wow. Cool!” Jake said as he watched the research mice. Walking out of the lab, Lisa Litvag cried as she thought about her son’s cells helping others. After meeting the mice, the family visited another lab, where Jake looked through a microscope at his own stem cells. “That’s me! How cool! I never saw anything like that in my life,” Jake said, as his dad pulled him close.

Jake’s father Joe Litvag said that he and his family are “deeply proud” to be part of the research. He added, “What do we live this life for? It’s to try to—in one way, shape or form—be of service to others.”

After winning the championship (锦标赛) in boy’s singles under 14 years old at the ASICS Tennis Junior Tour (亚瑟士青少年网球巡回赛) in Guangzhou in late August, Wang Fa has quickly attracted attention on the Internet.     66    

Wang is a member of the Va minority (佤族) in Cangyuan county, Yunnan province. Over the past six years, Wang learns tennis at the Yunnan Wild Elephants Tennis Club.     67     His training includes running 9 kilometers and waving his tennis racket more than 7, 000 times a day. “If it wasn’t for tennis I would still be helping out my family with farm work back home,” he told China Daily.

Wang has a habit of carrying his tennis things in a bamboo basket which is a symbol of the country life of the Va minority.     68    

At first, Wang’s parents did not want him to learn tennis. They thought it was too expensive.     69     Zhang Xiaohong, Wang’s personal trainer, founded the club in 2014, choosing around 20 local children and training them for free. “I want to take children to the outside world through tennis,” Zhang said.     70     He said, “I will head to the top on the competition stage.”