The Intelligent Transport team at Newcastle university has turned an electric car into a mobile laboratory named "DriveLAB" in order to understand the challenges faced by older driver. So that they can discover what the old really need while driving. Research shows that giving up driving is one of the key reasons for a tall in health and happiness among older people. It may make them become more lonely.

Led by Professor Phil Blythe, the Newcastle team is developing some new technologies that are used inside cars. They want to make it possible to help older drivers to continue driving into later life. These technologies include custom-made navigation (定制导航) tools, night vision (可视) systems and intelligent speed systems. Phil Blythe explains: For many older people, particularly those living alone or in the country, driving is important for keeping their independence, giving them the freedom to get out without having to depend on others. But we all have to accept that fact: as we get older, we do everything more and more slowly. As a result, it's difficult for older people to avoid any possible dangers while they are driving. And many of them will lose confidence in their driving skills. The result is that people stop driving before they really need to."

Dr Amy Guo, the leading researcher on the older driver study, explains, "The DriveLAB is helping us to understand what the key points and difficulties are for older drivers and how we might use technology to solve these problems." For example, most of us would expect older drivers to go slower than everyone else. but surprisingly, we found that in 30mph zones (区域), they try to keep at a constant speed. Some of them even break the speed limit (限制) and face to be punished. We're going out of our way to set up systems which can control their speed as a way of preventing that.

"We hope that our work will help with technological solutions to make sure that older drivers stay safer behind the wheel."

【推荐1】Mr. Guo is a teacher from Xi’an. He asked his students to hand in their homework through a QR code (二维码). “We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate the codes, and in the end every one of us could create them easily,” said Mr. Guo. “When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat (微信). Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work everywhere using my computer or telephone.”

The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Mr. Guo scans (扫描) his students’ QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos. Guo’s students like the new way and think it is interesting. “We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun.” said Tingting, a student of Guo’s.

“The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share.” Guo said. “It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation(创造). I don’t want my students to fall behind the times.”

However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time on computers and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it’s unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the code when they hand in their work, which doesn’t take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the students’ work at any time. And it’s also an easy way to share homework with other students.

Crew members of Shenzhou 14 gave a science class 400 kilometers above Earth to students on October 12, 2022 in the Tiangong space station(太空站). The class began at 3:40 p.m., with 1,420 students listening to the class from different classrooms across China. The primary classroom is in China Science and Technology Museum. There are also classrooms in Yunnan, Henan, and Shandong.

The three astronauts(宇航员) Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe greeted students, teachers and other viewers(观众) when the class started in the afternoon. They talked about their special life and work inside the space station.

The astronauts made scientific experiments(实验) to show interesting physical phenomena(物理现象)in space. They also invited young viewers to do similar experiments along with them to see the differences between space and land to feel the fun. Also, they answered questions from students in the primary classroom during the class.

Tens of millions of teachers and students across China, including Hong Kong and Macao watched the hour-long live class. They were excited to know more about biology, physics and chemistry through the experiments in space.

It was the third class of the Tiangong Class. Chinese astronauts will present more classes in the future. Such activities help toencourageyoung people to love science.

Shi Yi, a teacher in Beijing, said the class was an eye-opening experience(经历) that would ignite(点燃) students’ interest in science.

Wang Yihan, a fifth-grade student, said, “The experiments really surprised me. I have great interest in space and would like to play a role in our country’s space program in the future.”

【推荐3】Do you know that China has sent one more spaceship into the space recently? Do you know who are in the spaceship this time? Shenzhou XVI spaceship successfully reached space on May 30, 2023. It marked the beginning of the Shenzhou XVI mission (任务).

There are three people on the spaceship: Jing Haipeng, 57; Zhu Yangzhu, 37 and Gui Haichao, 37. They are special in many ways. Jing is now the most experienced astronaut in China. This is the fourth time for him to fly into space. Zhu is an engineer and Gui is a scientist. He is also the first Chinese civilian (平民) on a spaceflight.

Both Zhu and Gui are China’s third-generation (第三代) astronauts. They were picked in 2020 from a group of researchers and engineers. One woman and seventeen men were picked. And they are in three groups. One group is spaceship pilots. They “fly” the spaceship. Another group is spaceflight engineers. They “fix” the spaceship. There is also a group of science specialists, such as Gui. They do scientific studies in space.

Gui’s glasses also draw people’s attention because astronauts aren’t usually nearsighted (近视的). But picking specialists is different from picking other astronauts. It’s safe to wear glasses in the space station. However, during the launch (发射) and return, Gui needs to take off the glasses.

The astronauts will stay inside the Tiangong space station for around five months. They will return to Earth in November. They will do spacewalks, provide help when other spaceships visit the Tiangong space station and finish many science tasks in space.