4 . The pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of modern life, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. There is one thing, however, that has remained almost unchanged: the emojis we send.

According to data from the Unicode Consortium (统一码联盟), nine of the 10 most-used emojis from 2019 also ranked among the top 10 this year. The tears of joy emoji ranked No.1, despite members of Gen Z deeming it uncool.

“It speaks to how many people use emojis. If emojis were a purely Gen Z thing, then you wouldn’t see it so highly ranked,” said Alexander Robertson, an emoji researcher at Google. “Because of the large number of people using emojis, even if one group thinks something is lame, they have to be a really big group to affect these statistics.”

And it makes sense that Gen Z would think that certain emojis aren’t fashionable. It’s part of the “teenager experience of creating a sense of subculture where there’s a right way and a wrong way of behaving.” Plus, there is a range of laughter that can be expressed: There’s light chuckling. There’s acknowledgement laughter, which is just a marker of empathy. Using emojis, such as the skull face (“I’m dead”) or crying face ( uncontrollable tears of laughter), can help to illustrate that range.

“It basically indicates that we have what we need to communicate a broad range of expression, or even very specific concepts,” Mr Robertson said. “You don’t necessarily need a Covid emoji.”

“We did see a rise in the use of the virus emoji. But it wasn’t made remotely into the most-commonly used ones because we still had plenty to laugh about and plenty to cry about, whether it was because of the pandemic or not,” said Lauren Gawne, a senior lecturer in linguistic at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

“Even in the midst of this massive global pandemic that preoccupied so much of our time,” She added. “We still spent a lot of time wishing each other happy birthday or checking or laughing about some new and unexpected elements of this slow-burning weirdness.”

5 . A project called “I Am A Scientist” is giving middle and high school students the opportunity to interact with modern-day researchers. Below are stories from some of the scientists who are involved in the program.

“I have a black belt in Taekwondo (跆拳道). I am driven by a deep desire to help others. I believe that all people have a fundamental right to health care.”

Her work: During the Zika epidemic, Al-Alusi met with the communities that had been hardest hit by the virus, using data and mathematical models to keep them safe and healthy.

Background: Al-Alusi was born in California but her parents emigrated from Iraq. This experience provided her with an understanding of the health needs of the immigrant community.

“I’m a huge sports fan. I’ve traveled to more than 40 countries. I’m a licensed scuba diver but a terrible swimmer. I hated science in high school.”

His work: Amamoto studies the tiny but amazing brains of animals that have a superpower — the ability to regenerate. He learns what factors help these special brains regrow, so that we can try to treat diseases like Parkinson’s.

Background: Amamoto lived in Japan until the age of eight, when his family moved to Chicago. He had to overcome major language barriers which saw him shift between speaking English at school and Japanese at home.

“I once competed in a robot competition. I love Beyonce. I love cooking. I’m a doctor who studies ways to improve women’s health.”

Her work: Connor is a doctor at a hospital in Boston where she studies cancer cells in a lab using microscopes and computers, but she also works directly with patients who are undergoing tests for new cancer treatments.

Background: Growing up in Florida, Connor was a serious kid who stressed about the little things. She was into her schoolwork and loved to put on plays with her friends in which she would organize the whole thing and assign everyone a role.

7 . Some people say that A. I. large language models can be unpredictable and unreliable — giving false information and acting strangely toward users. I’ve been using A.I. tools like ChatGPT almost daily for several months now, and I’ve seen them spit out plenty of wrong answers.     1     Here are three things that A.I. is especially good at.

Getting creatively unstuck

A. I. can also be a good tool for getting your creative juices flowing. Recently, I was trying to come up with questions to ask a podcast guest. I pasted the guest’s bio into ChatGPT and asked it to give me “10 thoughtful, incisive interview questions” for this person.     2    

Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, recommends using A.I. to overcome writer’s block, or get a running start on hard projects.

    3    

I’ve also been using ChatGPT and other A.I. apps as a kind of rehearsal for offline tasks I find unpleasant or hard.

When I had to have a difficult conversation with a friend, I asked ChatGPT to take part in a role-playing exercise. “Pretend you’re my friend, and react the way you think my friend might react,” I told it.     4     It didn’t make the real one painless, but I felt more confident knowing I’d already practised with a chatbot.

Of course, A.I. chatbots can’t replace human friendships. But they can be a kind of on-demand sounding board, offering us basic feedback and advice without judgement.

Sparking Notes for everything

    5     I’ve used A.I. programs to “read” long articles for me, and summarize dense academic papers. Usually they get the key points right, even if some of the details are missing. If you’re bored of reading this article, you could ask ChatGPT to summarize it for you. I promise I won’t be offended.