Custom tattooed fish (纹身鱼) may be big sellers at markets, but an animal expert say it is a cruel and potentially lethal practice.

    In Laitai Flower and Fish Market near the Lufthansa Center in Beijing, four of over 20 fish stores sell marine ornamental fish that are tattooed using laser (激光) guns with beautiful images in order to make them more attractive to customers. Many people just love these kinds of fish, which gives them a unique visual impression. The price of these fish ranges from 50-100 yuan. Some customers are willing to pay an additional 100 yuan to have Chinese characters tattooed on to the fish. The most popular characters are “zhaocai” (attracting fortune) and “fu” (blessing). The color of tattooed fish won't fade away, and the fish can be cared for as regular fishes:

    But Ye Zhenjiang, a professor from the Ocean University of China, said “the practice would damage a fish's mackerel scale, which is its protective layer. Although I haven't done any research on the impact of the laser on mackerel scale, it is obvious that the mackerel scale may be infected or even destroyed under the exposure of laser,” Ye said. “It's like tattooing a human being's body, and it breaks the physiological balance of the fish and damages: the skin's protective surface, It may even cause death among fishes which have thin mackerel scale.”

    A specialist in aquatic(永生的) animal study surnamed Xu, from the Beijing Fisheries Research Institute, said, “We have no specific regulations to prevent fish from being tattooed. An official surnamed Bai from the Fishery Surveillance and Administration Bureau(FSAB), said there is no study showing that the laser threatened a fish's health. He said a regulation on small animal protection, to be passed in the near future, doesn't include regular aquatic animals. He said the institution is only responsible for aquatic animals that are on the verge of extinction. He said tattooed fish are mainly from south China's Guangdong province because Beijing does not have the laser technology to tattoo a fish.

    “It's too brutal to tattoo pictures or characters on fishes, even if it makes them more beautiful,” many tropical fish buyers told METRO yesterday. “We would never buy fish like that and we prefer them with natural beauty.”

    A great invention by an 18-year-old high school student grew out of a simple problem most teenagers meet with.

    “I'm a teenager and I have a cellphone and my cellphone battery always dies，so I was really looking for a way to improve energy storage，” Eesha Khare said on Tuesday. “That's how I came across the super capacitor.”

    The teenager who came from California, and graduated from high school last week，won a $50，000 prize on May 17，2013 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for creating a device that can store enough energy to charge a cellphone in 20 to 30 seconds.

    “It charges very quickly and can store a lot of energy，” Khare said. “The cool thing is that it's a lot thinner than one strand of hair.”

    Khare hasn't used her invention to recharge a cellphone yet，but she used it to power a light-emitting diode (LED) in order to show its capability(容量). If used on cellphones，the supercharger would slide on to the phone's battery to juice it up in a matter of seconds. The technology isn't available to consumers yet，and it could be years until it is.

    At an Intel event in Phoenix，Khare won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award，taking second place overall in the world's largest high school science research competition. She beat out more than 1，600 finalists from 70 countries. She said that she has been approached by several companies to continue her research，but she is now focused on attending Harvard University in autumn.

    “Right now，just my education，but hopefully we'll see what happens in the future，” she said about her plans. “I have a lot of interests，so we'll see what I do in the future.”

    Rapid advances in a new technology will soon transform science fiction into reality — meaning people will have driverless cars, small robots at their command and the ability to experience being in another place without leaving home, predicted Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the planet's largest cell phone trade show.

    Introduction of books available online, Internet translation of languages and voice recognition for computers all happened much faster than anyone could foresee and that technological research into even more previously unheard of advances is progressing at a fast speed.

    “People who predict that holograms（全息图）and self-driving cars will become reality soon are absolutely right,” Schmidt told thousands of attendees. Research under way will lead to situations where people can put themselves at events like a rock concert so that they can see, hear and even feel the event. And turn down the volume, if it's too loud.

    One attendee said she was scared that the possibility could be dehumanizing, but Schmidt replied by holding up his cell phone into the air. “It has an off button and it is here on the right,” Schmidt said. “My point is that it is all about your control. If you don't like my version of a rock concert, I'm not forcing you to go.” In the future, small robots could be used so busy people can send them to events for video and voice transmissions when their presence isn't required, Schmidt said.

    Technology in the near future will redefine the relationship among people in the world. “With technology comes power and with power comes choice, and smarter resourceful citizens are going to demand a better deal for their new life,” Schmidt said.

    The United States will introduce a new and comprehensive(综合的) exam for students who seek to study in American and other English-speaking countries, Xinhua News Agency reported from New York.

    The exam, which stands for a great change from the current English level test, was disclosed by Theresa Chang Wei Jen, associate director of the International Service of the US College Board, America's leading educational organization.

    The Advanced Placement International English Language (APIEL) will be offered for the first time throughout the world on May 10, 2002, said Jen.

    However, the APIEL is a strange title to most Chinese students, and it is unlikely to soon gain the similarity of other already existing exams, such as the TOEFL(Test of English as a Foreign Language), the GRE(Graduate Record Examination), or the IELTS(International English Language Testing System).

    "I have never heard of such a test and I would prefer the IELTS if I need another exam," said Xu Jingyan, a graduating student from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, who wants to study in England and has already taken the TOEFL.

    Most of Xu's classmates have never heard of the APIEL. "The APIEL is designed for international students who wish to get university studies in English-speaking countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia." said Jen.

    The APIEL has been adopted, said Jen, because the TOEFL can no longer accurately reflect the abilities of students of using the English language comprehensively in an academic environment. Xinhua reported that a fairly large number of foreign students who earned high scores in TOEFL exam turned out to be very ordinary educational performers after admission.

    Compared with the TOEFL, the APIEL measures a student's ability to read, write, speak and understand English through testing his or her skills in listening comprehension, speaking with accuracy(精确) and resourcefulness, and writing with clarity(清晰) and fluency, Jen said.

Preparing Cities for Robot Cars

    The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist's dream, years away from materializing in the real world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn't leading the way here. Companies have been testing their vehicles in cities across the country. It's hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology has the potential to change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is regulated.

    While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars (and rightfully so), policymakers also should be talking about how self-driving vehicles can help reduce traffic jams, cut emissions (排放) and offer more convenient, affordable mobility options. The arrival of driverless vehicles is a chance to make sure that those vehicles are environmentally friendly and more shared.

    Do we want to copy—or even worsen—the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most adults own individual self-driving vehicles. They tolerate long, slow journeys to and from work on packed highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride, which encourages urban spread. They take their driverless car to an appointment and set the empty vehicle to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport—an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing (叫车) services.

    A study from the University of California at Davis suggested that replacing petrol-powered private cars worldwide with electric, self-driving and shared systems could reduce carbon emissions from transportation 80% and cut the cost of transportation infrastructure (基础设施) and operations 40% by 2050. Fewer emissions and cheaper travel sound pretty appealing. The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues (责任与维护问题). But driverless car ownership could increase as the prices drop and more people become comfortable with the technology.

    Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless vehicles doesn't extend the worst aspects of the car-controlled transportation system we have today. The coming technological advancement presents a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.

A British woman who once weighed some 322 pounds said breaking a roller coaster seat during an amusement park outing was her motivation for working toward a healthier weight.

Four years ago, Danielle Wright, 27, went to the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, England, with her sister. She wanted to avoid roller coasters, fearing that she was too heavy for them. But she was convinced to give it a try and boarded one of the rides.

"Fitting in the seat was bad enough, but when it came to pulling down the safety bar, my stomach stopped it from working," she recalled. "One of the employees came over and had to put his foot against the ride and push the bar hard to make it click into place."

She was worried throughout the ride that “the bar was going to pop open and I was going to be thrown off the tracks". When the ride ended, the bar sprang up and made a huge noise. Shortly after, she heard an announcement over the loudspeaker saying the ride was temporarily closed due to a broken seat.

Though it was embarrassing, the incident presented a silver lining. "It's what I needed to motivate me to lose pounds," Danielle said. She totally changed her diet, cutting back on carbohydrate and replacing food like chocolate with healthier choices such as apples and yogurt. Meanwhile, she also began participating in workout classes.

In November 2016, Danielle found out she was pregnant. But as tempted as she was, she didn't allow herself to eat unhealthy food while pregnant and stuck to her new diet.

Now Danielle weighs some 140 pounds. "Being able to run and play with my little boy is, he best part of it all. I couldn't have asked for a better reward," she said.