A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.

     “It's extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.

    They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it's connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.

    While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers' fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.

    Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”

    Seven years ago,back in 2010,some reports covered a story that the world's longest railway tunnel was under construction in Switzerland.At that point it had already been under construction for over a decade.It had been voted to be built nearly a quarter of a century ago!The idea to build it could date back to nearly 70 years ago—about as old as some of your grandparents!

Yesterday,it was finally ready!

    It's 35 miles long and runs 7,500 feet beneath the Swiss Alps,a famous mountain range in Switzerland.It even runs under an old tunnel that was there before.It took a total of 17 years to build at a cost of $12 billion.128 million tons of rock were dug.Two million truckloads of earth were removed!

    The tunnel connects northern and southern Europe.The opening of this runnel was such a big deal that the Germany's leader,Chancellor Angela Merkel,France's president,Francois Hollande,and Italy's prime minister,Matteo Renzi,were an there to celebrate,as was Austria's chancellor Christian Kern.

    It's called the Gotthard Base Tunnel.Eventually,325 freight and passenger trains will go through the tunnel,relieving a lot of traffic on the roadways there and making it a more environmentally friendly option.The Gotthard Base Tunnel is a wonder of engineering!Make us want to visit it!

    Nikola Tesla

    Long overshadowed in public memory by his one-time employer, Thomas Edison, Tesla (1856—1943) was a brilliant scientist and engineer who earned more than 700 patents. He is most famous for developing alternating current (交流电), but his work also led to advances in wireless communications, lasers, X-rays, radar, lighting, robotics, and much more.

    Tesla was born to Serbian parents in what is now Croatia, but he emigrated(移民) to the U.S. as a young man, where he eventually became a naturalized citizen. Besides Edison, who later became his bitter rival, Tesla often worked with inventor George Westinghouse. In 1893, the pair demonstrated their advances in lighting and motors in the "White City" at the Chicago World's Fair. In 1895, Tesla and Westinghouse developed the world's first hydroelectric power plant, at Niagara Falls.

    At the turn of the century, Tesla set up a laboratory called Wardenclyffe in the small community of Shoreham, Long Island, where he conducted some of his most ambitious experiments. The building was financed by J. P. Morgan and designed by acclaimed architect Stanford White.

    The most prominent feature was Wardenclyffe Tower, also called Tesla Tower, a 187-foot-tall metal lattice tower topped with a big antenna that was intended to beam communications and even energy across the Atlantic.Tesla ran out of money while building the tower and was foreclosed(取消赎回权) on twice. As with his previous Colorado Springs lab, assets were sold to pay up his debts. In 1917, the U.S. government blew up the tower, fearing that German spies were using it in World War I. The metal was sold for scrap. For decades, the building was used for photo processing.

    "The tower is long gone, but the three-quarter-length statue of Tesla unveiled last week is a fitting memorial," said Alcorn, a retired teacher. "This is the last remaining Tesla laboratory anywhere in the world," she said. "He inspires those who work hard but don't get recognition, and people are starting to recognize how important his contributions are."

    As a sign of that growing appreciation, Elon Musk's start-up electric car company Tesla Motors was named after the visionary inventor in 2003.

    Terrafugia Inc. said Monday that its new flying car has completed its first flight, bringing the company closer to its goal of selling the flying car within the next year. The vehicle — named the Transition — has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so it can be driven like a car. The Transition, which flew at 1,400 feet for eight minutes last month, can reach around 70 miles per hour on the road and 115 in the air. It flies using a 23-gallon tank of gas and burns 5 gallons per hour in the air. On the ground, it gets 35 miles per gallon.

    Around 100 people have already put down a $10,000 deposit（定金） to get a Transition when they go on sale, and those numbers will rise after Terrafugia introduces the Transition to the public later this week at the New York Auto Show. But don't expect it to show up in too many driveways. It's expected to cost as much as $279,000. And it won't help if you're stuck in traffic. The car needs a runway.

    Inventors have been trying to make flying cars since the 1930s, according to Robert Mann, an airline industry expert. But Mann thinks Terrafugia has come closer than anyone to making the flying car a reality. The government has already permitted the company to use special materials to make it easier for the vehicle to fly. The Transition is now going through crash tests to make sure it meets federal safety standards.

    Mann said Terrafugia was helped by the Federal Aviation Administration's (联邦航空管理局) decision five years ago to create a separate set of standards for light sport aircraft, which are lower than those for pilots of larger planes. Terrafugia says an owner would need to pass a test and complete 20 hours of flying time to be able to fly the Transition, a requirement pilots would find relatively easy to meet.

    The Opening of a new bookstore, the Book Green Hook Sunday, September 5, 9a.m. to 9 p.m

    You will not want to miss the opening of your new neighbourhood bookstore! Located at 289 Main Street, the Book Green Hook is within walking distance of schools, homes and businesses. Come and check out the Book Green Hook on Sunday!

    There are various activities, including:

    Live music by local musicians

    One Book-of-Reading Club membership giveaway

    Wide Selection

    The Book Green Hook has five floors with books of all kinds—whatever you want. If we do not have the book you are looking for, we can specially order it for you. You will have it in your hands within two days!

    Reading Corners

    We are proud of our children's reading area on the first floor, as well as our teenagers' Corner on the second floor. Come for the activities and stay a while! Settle in one of these inviting reading areas; take a seat with a good book and a free cup of hot chocolate. You will discover the perfect way to spend a few hours.

    Book Events

    The Book Green Hook will be featuring monthly book signings by different authors, giving you a chance to meet and speak with well-known writers. Don't miss the experience of hearing these authors read aloud their own books!

    The Book-of-Reading Club

    Our Book-of -Reading Club will feature 12 books each year. As a member, you will be able to select one new book each month. The membership fee is only $10.00 per month. That is a great price for 12 books each year!

    So please join us on Sunday and learn about all that the Book Green Hook has to offer. You can come anytime between 9 a.m and 9 p.m—our activities last all day long!

    Supercomputers which can analyse blood samples and predict which patients are likely to become seriously ill could save tens of thousands of lives a year, it was revealed last night, according to The Daily Express.

    The artificial intelligence (AI) system, developed at University College London and set to be piloted in NHS hospitals later this year, will screen "at risk" patients so doctors can take early action to prevent death or serious illness. Prof Young, a consultant surgeon at Southend University Hospital, said: "I am so excited about this form of technology." Instead of people getting sick or dying because they are not picked up in time, this will allow us to step in earlier which will save lives and an enormous amount of money. "I think the potential of AI in healthcare like this is as big as the Industrial Revolution was—and signals a completely new example in the way we manage healthcare."

    The technology is the brainchild of Dr Vishal Nangalia, a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He used AI to analyse a billion stored blood samples from 20 different UK hospital trusts dating back up to 12 years. Computers assess blood test results by picking up subtle changes in red and white blood cells, suggesting a patient is going downhill.

    He found the technique forecast outcomes of patients with kidney problems with up to 95 per cent accuracy. Traditional methods highlighting serious patient concerns picked up as few as 16 percent of patients who went on to die. "This gives us the opportunity not only to save lives but to prevent serious illness, making the health service not only safer but more efficient." Prof Young said, "Instead of waiting for people to get worse, we will be able to treat them earlier."