5 . Chinese researchers have developed a robot designed to help doctors treat the new coronavirus and other highly infectious diseases. The machine has a long robotic arm attached to a base with wheels. It can perform some of the same medical examination tasks as doctors. For example, the device can perform ultrasounds (超声波扫描检查), collect fluid samples from a person’s mouth and listen to sounds made by a patient’s organs. Cameras record the robot’s activities, which are controlled remotely so doctors can avoid coming in close contact with infected patients. Doctors and other medical workers can operate the machine in another place.

The robot’s main designer Zheng Gangtie, an engineer and professor at China’s Tsinghua University, told Reuters news agency that he got the idea for the device when his medical friend told him that one of the biggest problems in dealing with COVID-19 was that healthcare workers treating patients were getting infected themselves. Zheng said he wanted to do something to help this situation. So the engineer gathered a team and went to work on the robotic device.

Zheng said the devices use the same technology that is used for space equipment, including moon explorers. The new robot is almost completely automated. It can even disinfect itself after performing actions involving patient contact.

However, Zheng said he had heard from some doctors that it would be better not to build such robots to be fully automatic. This is because many patients still desire a personal presence to help calm them during treatment.

The team currently has two robots and both have been tested by doctors at hospitals in Beijing. One machine was taken to Wuhan’s Union Hospital, where doctors there got trained to use it. The plan is to use the robot to help treat coronavirus patients, along with assistance from nurses and other hospital workers.

Zheng would like to build more of the robots, but says money from the university has run out. Each robot costs about $72,000 to make. He says he does not plan to commercialize the design, but hopes that a company can begin that process.

6 . It was a lifesaving task as thrilling as any in the months-long battle against the wildfires that have torn through the Australian bush. But instead of a race to save humans or animals, a specialized team of Australian firefighters was bent on saving invaluable plant life: hidden groves (树林) of the Wollemi pine, a prehistoric tree species.

Wollemi pines peaked in abundance 34 million to 65 million years ago, before a steady decline. Today, only 200 of the trees exist in their natural environment. The trees are so rare that they were thought to die out until 1994. That’s the year when David Noble, an officer with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, came across a grove of large trees he didn’t recognize.

Noble brought back a few branches and showed them to other biologists and botanists. A month later, Noble returned to the grove with some scientists. It was then that they realized what they had found: “a prehistoric tree species that has outlived the dinosaurs.” the American Scientist explains. So when Australia’s wildfires started burning toward Wollemi National Park in recent weeks, firefighters from the parks and wildlife service put a carefully planned operation into action.

Large air tankers dropped fire retardant (阻燃剂) around the pines. Firefighters set up an irrigation (灌溉) system around the trees to keep them wet. “If the fire did go through, we wanted it to be a cool burn as opposed to a hot burn to give them the best chance of survival,” Kean said. The fire did sweep through the groves where these trees have somehow survived for millions of years. For a few days, the smoke was so thick that it wasn’t clear whether the plan had worked. At last the smoke eased off. A few trees had been burned by the flames, and two died. But the efforts had paid off. “Finally,” Kean said, “we were able to get in there and see that, thank goodness, the trees were saved.”

7 . Travelling doesn’t always have to be about changing your location. Reading books also takes you on real-life adventures around the world, even from our armchairs. Here we feature 4 adventure tales that we can dive into.

Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains, by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent.

Despite suffering from panic disorder, the brave Bolingbroke-Kent sets off on an adventure across a lesser-known part of India, Arunachal Pradesh. There is plenty of humor thrown in, along with the highs and lows of her journey, so it’s not just all serious.

Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson.

“A little voice in my head said: Sounds neat! Let’s do it!” writes Bryson of his more humorous than heroic journey from Maine to Georgia along the Appalachian Trail. Bryson’s tale may be the funniest call for conservation ever written.

Brazilian Adventure, by Peter Fleming.

Peter Fleming signed on to a risky 3,000-mile Brazilian jungle hunt to uncover the fate of a lost English explorer. Imagine a book: Funny, exciting, literate, a period piece that still works.

A Book of Migrations, by Rebecca Solnit.

It’s a search for roots in Ireland. Her long hike in western Ireland leads to a reflection on movement-cultural, psychological, personal. There is much to learn by getting away from the tourist route, walking and speaking to the people you meet along the way. They have stories to tell that you won’t find in the tourist guides.

What travel-inspiring books have you ever read? Please email us at amy.alipio@natgeo.com.

8 . My mother turned 75 this past fall. One night a few months before, I’d asked her what we could give her that she would really like.

“Maybe something big, that all three of us can go in on?” I encouraged, knowing that my brothers and I would cough up whatever it cost while also suspecting that any gift she might think up would be something strange but affordable like a duck-shaped bath soap.

“I know exactly what I want from you kids,” she said, like she’d loaded this gun a month ago. “Really?” Was she thinking of a trip to Hawaii? A latest bathroom decoration? “Absolutely.” She nodded in that way she does when she is dead sure.

She seemed to be waiting for me to ask again, so I did. “Well?” “If there is any problem that you or your brothers have that I can help with, I’d like to know about it.”

Astonishing. What a woman. She lives to serve. Oh, I wish that I could have an ounce of her devotion. “God, Mom..” I said. She put her finger up to indicate that she wasn’t quite finished. “And if there’s any problem that you have that there is nothing I can do to change,” she said, “I’d like to not know about it.”

Astonishing. What a woman. Oh, I wish that I could be that clear-headed and direct.

“You’re amazing.”

“Listen, Kelly,” she said, “I’ve been a mother since 1964, and I’d like to stop worrying and get some sleep.” Oh, Ma. I got you. You’ve carried us long enough. As of your 75th birthday, your status shifts to a mother retired with highest merits. You’ve done fine work. Nobody could have done more. Happy Birthday.