William Kamkwamba lives in Malawi, Africa, where most people have to grow their own food and have no electricity or running water. When he was 14 years old, there was a terrible drought (干旱) and most families, including William's, couldn't grow enough food.
Because of the drought, William's family couldn't afford to send him to school any more. So one day, William went to the library near his home to study. He found a science book called Using Energy, which included instructions for building a windmill (风车). Windmills are good sources of electricity, and they can bring water up from underground. William didn't know much English, and he wasn't able to understand most of the book, but it was full of pictures. Looking at the pictures, William thought he could build a windmill for his family.
When William started building his windmill, a lot of people laughed at him, including his mother. But William saw the photo of the windmill in the book. That meant someone else was able to build it, so he knew he could build it, too. He didn't have the parts and equipment that he saw in the book's pictures. So he looked for parts in junkyards to build his machine.
William changed his design little by little. First, the windmill powered only one light bulb (灯泡). Finally, it powered four lights. Then there was enough electricity for four lights and a radio. No one laughed at William after that, and people in his town started to come to his house to get power for their cellphones. Later, William built a second windmill. This one brought water up from underground. After that, William began to teach other people how to build windmills.
Now he uses his website, movingwindmills.org to educate and give hope to people. His main message is this：To the Africans and the poor who are struggling (挣扎) with your dreams ...trust yourself and believe. Whatever happens, don't give up.
Google's new camera, called Clips, is a smart device. It comes with a case that has a clip (夹子), but it's not designed to be worn on your clothing. Most interestingly, it uses artificial intelligence to take photography out of your hands and captures moments entirely on its own!
What sets this roughly 2inch by 2inch camera, with a threehour battery life and Gorilla Glass for toughness apart is that it is specially intended for moments, like when a child does something cute that may happen too quickly for you to pull out your smartphone.
The Clips device uses machine learning algorithms (计算程序) to help capture scenes. Those algorithms include face recognition. "Once it learns that there's a face you see frequently, it'll try to get nice photos of those faces," said Juston Payne, the device's product manager. And they also want it to recognize facial expressions, which involved "training it to know what happiness looks like". The Google team also trained it to recognize what not to shoot—like when a child's hand is over the lens, or if it is tossed in a dark purse.
The only way to see the images is by connecting the camera with your phone, as it has no screen for viewing or editing.
Concerned it could seem strange? Yes, Payne admitted, but he said they addressed that by making it obvious what it is. A green light on the front signals that it is on. Besides, unlike a camera meant to monitor your home, it is not connected to the Internet.
"This product is only possible because of the way that silicon (硅) has advanced." Payne said that now they could squeeze the technology down into a device this size. Going forward, we're likely to get more assistance from the artificial intelligence packed into our apps and gadgets.
Characteristics of an Excellent Scientist
The Free Dictionary defines a scientist as a person having professional knowledge on one or more sciences, especially natural science or physical science. Let's look at some characteristics of an excellent scientist.
Curiosity
Scientists such as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse discovered things mainly because they wanted to know how things work. If a scientist doesn't have the drive to ask questions or even wonder, then he/she never gets to the first stage of the scientific process.
Patience
There are very few jobs that take longer than this one. Even if you think you have received some education on science, you still have a lot of scientific researches to do. If you're an instantgratification (及时满足的) type of person, this may not be the best choice for you.
Ethical (道德的) qualities
In order to truly discover and use knowledge for the greater good, a scientist must have a desire to improve people's life as well as the environment and living things, since they are all linked and they can affect one another in the long run. A scientist must report findings honestly regardless of personal or outside commercial (商业的) interests. Sticking to an old belief without evidence is dishonest.
Working habits
An excellent scientist even takes notes of the smallest observation, keeping it in mind and recording it. He/She also needs to communicate thoughts on paper and verbally. Networking skills connect him/her with colleagues working on similar projects where he/she may discover something new.
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A. Becoming a scientist takes a long time. B. An excellent scientist must be very curious about things. C. It also defines a scientist as someone who uses scientific methods. D. However, that belief shouldn't be changed without powerful evidence. E. He/She can work well alone or in groups, depending on what's needed. F. To make discoveries in human knowledge, you have to think differently. G. One of the main places that many scientists work in is the research laboratory. |
Rome wasn't built in a day. Nearly two decades have passed since China launched the first Beidou satellite in 2000. Since then, more Beidou satellites have been sent into orbit, (form) the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).
In late 2012, BDS(begin) providing services to people in China and other parts of the AsiaPacific region. At the end of 2018, it started to provide global services. Now with two more Beidou satellites (launch) on Dec.16, 2019, BDS has 53 satellites in orbit. It (expect) to greatly improve the system's ability to serve (user) worldwide.
Although a satellitebased navigation system needs only 24 satellites to run (proper), having 53 allows for better coverage.
This is it works: a signal receiver on Earth measures its distance from at least three satellites by recording the amount of time it takes (receive) their signals. Then it can calculate its location. With so many satellites, BDS can provide more accurate calculation. While GPS provides meterlevel positioning accuracy, BDS reduces the error centimeters. This service is especially useful for land surveying, mapping, agriculture and automated driving.
Future plans call for a smarter and more accessible system with Beidou at its core, to come online by 2035. By then, we can probably say that Rome has finally been built.
