On April 26, 2017, a big Chinese ship caught the eyes of the whole world. China’s first homemade aircraft carrier (航空母舰) hit the water in Dalian, Liaoning.

The new big ship is China’s second aircraft carrier. It was designed in China and built in China, too. It is about 315 meters long and 75 meters wide. That is a bit larger than three soccer fields.

An aircraft carrier is like an airport on the sea. It can carry planes and troops to war. Planes fly from and land back on it, and soldiers work and live on it, too. But building an aircraft carrier is very hard and expensive. It costs a lot of money and needs a large amount of steel and other special materials. For example, a basic aircraft carrier is made of 60,000 tons of steel. It also uses complex (综合的) technologies, including radar, electrics, mechanics and weapons. Finally, it takes years to build.

Today, not many countries own an aircraft carrier or have the ability to build one. China has become the seventh country in the world that can build an aircraft carrier by itself, after the USA, Russia, England, France, Italy and Spain.

【推荐2】In the future, people may travel to Mars by water﹣powered spaceship! Today’s spaceships are fine for getting things into space, but they are not so good at travelling long distances. These spaceships burn chemical fuels（化学燃料）and they are very expensive. Scientists say that a water-powered spaceship could make the trip to Mars much cheaper. The idea is just in the planning stages now, but scientists think such a spaceship could be developed soon.

The key to the water﹣powered spaceship is the engine（发动机）. Regular engines push spaceships by burning fuel. The water engine will use steam, created by solar panels that heat water to a high temperature. Of course, the spaceship will have to carry a lot of water for the long trip to Mars.

One US company has already developed a spaceship like this. These spaceships are made of a strong material. Two of them have already been sent up into space, using rockets and then later filled with air. “Balloon” spaceships could be very large and carry enough water for a long trip. With the “Balloon” spaceships, enough water could be carried to power the engines and grow food during the trip. And the people on the spaceship might even get to take a hot bath!

Scientists say the biggest advantage of such a spaceship would be its cost. The “Balloon” spaceship uses water to push it through space and costs about one thirtieth of a normal spaceship. Such savings naturally encourage continued research into balloon spaceships and water engines. If these scientists are correct, we may soon be on our way to Mars in a spaceship powered by water.

【推荐3】A special copyright (版权) case has recently drawn attention because it is about artificial intelligence (AI). A court (法庭) in Shenzhen ruled that a news report written by Tencent’s AI enjoys copyright protection. A website broke the law because it used the article without permission (允许). This is the first case in China that has provided copyright protection to work done by AI. But what does it show us? Will AI take the place of creative workers in the future?

Probably not. AI is not yet able to write creative stories. The news report mentioned above is mainly about data. Since AI is good at dealing with data, it is often used to write financial ( 金融的) reports.

Some newspapers also use AI to report on stories about natural disasters (灾害), which mainly require basic facts such as “where” and “when”. As Forbes wrote, instead of losing their jobs, reporters can make their work more efficient (高效的) by using AI so that they can put more energy on storytelling and less on numbers.

AI is actually being helpful in many creative fields. For example, Wayne McGregor, a British choreographer (编舞), is famous for using AI to create new dances. For him, AI is a powerful tool that can help choreographers break out of common movement.

“It’s time to stop worrying about if AI can be creative,” according to Forbes. Instead, we should pay close attention to how humans and AI can work together in ways that we have never dreamed of before.

【推荐1】Chinese astronauts gave a science lesson from the Tiangong space station to millions of students on Dec 9, 2021. The three astronauts, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, showed life in space and did experiments in micro-gravity（微重力）. It was the first lesson of the Tiangong Class, China’s first extraterrestrial（地球外的）lesson series and it aims to make space science popular.

In the lesson, Ye did experiments which is about cell（细胞）growth in a weightless environment. He compared the growth and shape of cells in artificial gravity（人造重力）and zero-gravity to study their changing rules and mechanisms（机制）in space. This was not the first time that China has tried to grow plants in space. As early as 2016, Chinese scientists grew rice on the Tiangong Ⅱ space lab to study how plants grow without an Earth-like environment.

Another experiment in the space lesson was shown by Wang Yaping. She showed how a paper flower “bloomed” on the surface of water in Tiangong space station, she explained that the surface tension（张力）of water is increased in space because of zero gravity. One of the examples of surface tension on Earth is that some insects can “walk” on water. They use surface tension to “stand” instead of falling through water.

Surface tension plays a key role in product development. Researchers around the world are measuring surface tension to improve the quality of their products. Paints are cut to stick better on the surfaces they are applied to. Surface tension also has influence in drug development.

Teenagers need to eat food that is good for their bodies while they’re still young so that they will grow up to be healthy adults. So it is necessary for school cafeterias （食堂）to provide nutritious and healthy food. With this in mind, the government has introduced a new food safety rule that will improve nutrition and health standards in schools.

The rule came into force on April 1, 2019. It requires the heads of primary and middle schools to eat with students in their cafeterias. Schools will also be required to make information about food sources and suppliers（供应商）public.

The rule also suggests that parents should eat with students at school in order to provide advice on food safety and nutrition. Schools must try to find food safety problems and solve them in a timely manner.

If a school is caught buying low-quality food or failing to report food safety incidents（事件）, the head of the school will be warned, fired or handed over to law enforcement（执法机关）, the rule says.

Parents across China have become angry about food safety incidents in schools. The most recent example happened in March at the Chengdu No. 7 High School Development School. Parents posted videos and photos of moldy（发霉的）food that was served in the school cafeteria. Finally, the head of the school was fired. In October, the head of an international school in Shanghai was fired after health and education authorities found moldy tomatoes and onions in the school’s kitchen.

What do other schools do?

Schools in other countries have many ways to ensure food safety. For example, many parents in Australia volunteer in their children’s school cafeterias. These parents do their best to see that their children are served nutritious food.