4 . Scientists of the University of Antwerp and University of Liege have found how the human brain changes and adapts to weightlessness, after being in space for 6 months.

A child who learns not to drop a glass on the floor is an example of how the brain follows the physical laws of gravity to best function on Earth. Astronauts who go to space station live in a weightless environment, where the brain’s rules about gravity are no longer applicable. A new study on brain function in astronauts has found how the brain’s organization is changed after a six-month mission to the International Space Station(ISS).

The University of Antwerp has been leading this BRAIN-DTI scientific project through the European Space Agency. Magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)(磁共振成像)data were taken from 14 astronauts’ brains before and several times after their mission to space. Using a special MRI technique, the researchers collected the astronauts’ brain data in a resting condition.

In cooperation with the University of Liege, recent analyses of the brain’s activity at rest found how functional connectivity, a marker of how activity in some brain areas is connected with the activity in others, changes in specific regions. “We found that connectivity was altered after spaceflight in regions which support the combination of different types of information, rather than dealing with only one type each time,” say Steven Jillings and Floris Wuyts. “Moreover, we found that some of these changed communication patterns remained throughout 8 months of being back on Earth. At the same time, some brain changes returned to the level of how the areas were functioning before the space mission.”

The researchers are excited with the results, though they know it is only the first step in pursuing our understanding of brain communication changes after space travel. For example, we need to understand whether longer time spent in outer space might influence these observations, and whether brain characteristics may be helpful in selecting future astronauts or monitoring them during and after space travel.

5 . These books will send you up in the air and flying through the clouds.

6 . A man rides a brand-new, orange bicycle to his office door. He parks the bicycle by the side of the building and disappears inside. A woman approaches and waves her smartphone over a QR code (二维码) on the bike. The lock opens and she rides off. These days, China’s once bicycle-jammed streets are choked with cars, but people in cities are getting back on two wheels, attracted by the ease of using shared “dockless” (无桩的) bikes.

For years, bike-sharing programs have been common in big cities around the world, but they require customers to return the bicycles to docking stations. In China, a more user-friendly approach is spreading rapidly. It involves bikes that can be paid for by using a smartphone and left anywhere. A ride typically costs one yuan on a fashionably-designed bike in an eye-catching color.

The first such service was started in June 2015 by a company called ofo. The company now has around 2.5 million yellow-framed bikes in more than 50 cities in China. Its main competitor, Mobike, which started up only a year ago, says it has several million of its orange-wheeled bikes spread across similar areas. Apart from the two, several other companies are piling in the business, including bluegogo, CooLQI, Hellobike and so on.

The dockless system is likely to be abused. Some riders hide the bikes near their homes to prevent others from using them. Another trick involves photographing a bike’s QR code and then scratching it off to stop others from scanning it. With the stored photo, the rider can then keep the machine for his own use. However, customers caught misbehaving can have points deducted (扣减) from their accounts, making it more expensive for them to rent the bikes.

A bigger problem for the new firms is persuading people to use bikes instead of cars. Thirty years ago, 63% of Beijingers rode to work. Now only 12% do. Many people think that cycling is only for the poor. Cycling is also dangerous, since many bike lanes (自行车道) have been removed to make room for cars and about 40% of road accidents involve bicycles.

Some city authorities accuse the bike-sharing firms of causing traffic jams, but most people like the services.

7 . Live-stream marketing: A rural rags-to-riches story?

For many years, quality agricultural products were unable to sell in faraway provinces.     1     It prevented them from accessing a wider, urban client. In most cases, because farmers failed to directly reach consumers, their heavy physical labor resulted in very little income. In this regard, live-stream marketing may appeal to young migrant workers and convince them to return home in the countryside.     2    

In Yunnan Province, southwest China, live-stream marketing is currently the most popular way of pushing local products to consumers across the country.     3     It is turning the smartphone into a new farming tool by fashioning new shopping centers. Live-streaming has greatly boosted the province’s produce sales in the past two years. We now have a great business model in place, combining products with high-quality live stream platforms and support packages from the government.     4     Anyway, the continuous development of live-stream marketing is ready to play a big role in raising rural incomes in relatively backward provinces like Yunnan. E-commerce live-streaming is doing pretty well nowadays, but farm produce only accounts for a small share, mainly due to the lack of experienced hosts and infrastructure in rural areas.

    5     How to grow live stream marketing for farm products? Short videos or live-streams, the key is to meet consumers’ demand. High-quality products alone aren’t enough; they must consider buyers’ preferences as well.

The lander carrying China’s first Mars rover successfully touched down on Mars on May 15, 2021 . It is the first time China     1    (land) a probe on a planet other than Earth. Tianwen-1,     2     (comprise) of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on July 23 , 2020. The rover is named after Zhurong,     3     god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology. The rover also echoes with the Chinese name for Mars: Huoxing.

    4     flying 475 million km, Tianwen-1 was 192 million km from Earth when it reached Mars orbit. The nine-minute-landing was     5     (incredible) complicated with no ground control. “Not knowing much about the Martian atmosphere brought a lot of     6     (certain) factors to the mission,” said Geng Yan. “The landing would have failed had     7     not been for the constant effort and each flawless step.”

China has released the first pictures taken by its Zhurong rover on Mars. There are even a couple of short videos that record the right instant     8     the rover’s aeroshell departs the Tianwen-1 orbiter. The successful touchdown of Zhurong made China only the second nation     9     (put) a probe on the surface of Mars and operate it for a significant     10     (long) of time.

9 . Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians. He completed 722 musical works. Unfortunately, the master died while still working on his 10th Symphony (交响曲). Now, a team of musicians and scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to complete the artist’s final composition.

Dr. Matthias first came up with the idea to complete the composition in 2019. He thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday in December 2020. He began by enlisting an international team of music experts to help him with the giant task. They included music composer Walter and Dr. Ahmed, the creator of an innovative AI technology for the art market.

Ahmed and his colleagues started the process by familiarizing the AI software initially with a broad range of classical music, and then, narrowed it to just Beethoven’s work. Meanwhile, Walter and his group tried to interpret the rough drafts and the handful of notes that detailed Beethoven’s plans for the 10th Symphony.

The team then began the slow and careful task of feeding the AI software musical notes from the unfinished composition. To stay true to Beethoven’s original composition, Ahmed’s team sent Walter hundreds of AI-generated musical note variations every evening. Walter would listen to them and then select the one that he thought was closest to what the artist would have written. The AI team would add the music and rerun the software to generate the next suggestions. And piece by piece, the team was able to complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony!

The composition was firstly released on October 9, 2021. Not surprisingly, it caused some controversy (争议). Critics believe technology should not be used to replicate the human creative process. Ahmed and his team agree with their opinions and say their AI software is not out to replace humans — it is just a tool to help artists to express themselves in new ways.

10 . Due to the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), the social distancing commands separated family members from each other in 2020. However, it also resulted in some lifelong friendships between people who would have otherwise never met.

The unlikely friendship between 99-year-old Mary and her two-year-old neighbor, Benjamin began in May 2020. The lockdown was particularly hard for Mary, who has been living alone since her husband passed away 37 years ago. Her other family members are in other states. The 99-year-old spent her days watching television game shows. Benjamin, a then one-year-old who lived next door, was also stuck at home and unable to play with kids of his age.

The unusual friendship developed gradually. At first, Mary would wave at Benjamin from her window whenever she saw the young boy in the yard. Then, she began adventuring outside to greet him in person. The routine eventually expanded to daily gatherings by the fence that separated the two homes. The unlikely pair even invented a socially distanced game that Mary calls cane (手杖) ball. “I came out of the house one morning, and he threw his ball toward the fence,” she said. “I got my cane, and I reached over the fence and hit the ball toward him, and he’d throw it back. That’s how it started.”

When the weather turned cold, the two were unable to meet in the yard as regularly. But Benjamin’s mother, Sarah, kept the friendship alive by often stopping by Mary’s house with the kid. The friendship between the two has developed even further since Mary got vaccinated (接种疫苗) earlier this year. The two give each other hi-fives across the fence and often sit outside Mary’s house. This spring, Mary and Benjamin gifted each other with their favorite.

Benjamin now goes to daycare three times a week. But he still regularly makes time to visit his best friend who he refers to as “Mimi”. “Friendship really knows no boundaries,” Sarah said. “Certainly, you wouldn’t guess that a 99-year-old and a 2-year-old would be friends, but they can be. And they both get a lot out of it.”