Getting electricity has always been a problem for the 173 people living in Nuevo Saposoa, a small village in Peru, South America. However, things went from bad to worse in March 2015 after heavy rains damaged the only power cables in the area. The villagers were forced to use oil lamps, which are not only expensive but also dangerous because of the harmful gases they produce.

    Luckily, researchers at the University of Technology (UT) in Lima, Peru heard about their problem and found a wonderful solution. They made a lamp that can be powered by plants and soil, both of which can be easily found in the Amazonian rainforest where the village lies. The lamp takes energy from a plant growing in a wooden box and uses it to light up an LED light bulb.

While that may sound amazing and even impossible, the science behind the ides is quite simple. As plants create their food (using the sun's energy, water and chemicals from the soil), they also produce waste which they return to the soil. Tiny animals in the soil eat this waste and they produce electrons – the building blocks of electrical energy. The UT team put special sticks inside the soil to capture the energy and keep it in the lamp's batteries for later use. The researchers say a single charge can power a 50-watt Led light for two hours - enough time for local villagers to get their evening work done.

The university gave ten Plant Lamps to the villagers of Nuevo Saposoa in October 2015. So far, they have been a huge success! Elmer Ramirez, the UT professor who invented the lamp, believes the Plant Lamp could help improve the lives of many people, especially small rainforest communities, 42% of whom have no electricity.

    Terrafugia Company has said that its flying car, named Transition, has successfully finished a 37- second test flight.

    On March 5th, 2009, at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. The company's chief pilot, Phil Meteer, piloted the flying car.

    Transition is a two-seat airplane that can take off and land at airports as well as drive on roads.

    The company said that the flying car can travel at speeds up to 115 mph in the air, drive at highway speeds on the ground, and fold up (折叠）to fit in a garage (车库) 81 inches wide and 80 inches high.

Hospitals could use it to transport patients so as to avoid road traffic. It may start running on wheels, and when it gets to traffic lights it can fly overhead the lights and keep its way forward. So it's good news to avoid traffic problems and the traffic accidents.

But some people say this is a going airplane rather than a flying car, at least on the appearance. Anyway, we are happy for scientific-technical progress, what a fantastical world in the near future!

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    When you build a house，you use a blueprint．What's a blueprint?In general，a blueprint is a drawing that you use to build a house and shows where to put all the parts of the house．DNA is a drawing,too．It's the blueprint of life．

    But building a living thing is far more complex*than building a house．It takes millions of years for nature to change the DNA in living things to make them fit the world they live in．

    How tall are you?What color are your eyes?What size are your feet?All these things are strongly influenced by your DNA before you are born．

DNA is fantastic!

  ★Except for some twins，every living thing has its own unique*DNA．

  ★Some health problems can be caused by problems in your DNA．Scientists can look for these problems and，sometimes，help you if you become sick．In the future，scientists might be able to change your DNA．   

  ★There are copies of your DNA in every part of your body．For example，your finger has the same DNA as your hair．

  ★You have your own unique DNA，which repeats patterns from your parents' DNA．but not exactly the same．From your DNA，scientists can identify not only you，but also people who are related to you．Your parents and grandparents are related to you，and you have their DNA．When you have a grandson or granddaughter，he or she will have your DNA．

    Your DNA has billions of instructions that explain why you are the way you are．It's one of the most amazing things on the earth !

    It's every parent's worst nightmare there's a fire in the house, the alarms are beeping, but the children are sleeping on. Now scientists have found a better way to rouse slumbering youngsters. Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of his mother's voice is about three times more likely to wake him up than a traditional alarm.

    Writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, Smith and colleagues report how they compared the effects of four different smoke alarms on 176 children aged between 5 and 12 years old, none of whom had hearing difficulties or were taking any medication that affected their sleep. While one alarm featured a high-pitched beep the sort of commonly found in households the other three featured the voice of the child's mother calling either the child's name, giving instructions such as: "Wake up! Leave the room! ", or both. Each child slept in a lab-based room that resembled a real bedroom.

    The results show that vocal alarms appear to be more effective than high-pitched beeps. About 90% of children woke for a voice alarm compared with just over 53% for the traditional alarm.

    “High pitched beeping alarms don't wake up children well at all under about 12 years of age, "said Dr Gary Smith, a co-author of the research from the Nationwide Children's hospital in Ohio, although

he said at present it is not known why. He said it was important to look at developing better alarms.

    Prof Niamh Nic Daeid, director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, said the research found a human voice combined with a low-frequency pulsing tone was far more effective in waking up children than a traditional high-pitched alarm. She also noted that more work was needed to explore whether other familiar sounds, such as a dog barking, might also prove effective in rousing children.