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.”

    Charlotte Heffelmire was home in Vienna,Va.,for Thanksgiving break from the Air Force Academy when she saw that her father had gotten stuck under the pickup truck he'd been working on.

    "I was on my back,face up,and I was trying to get some brake lines when apparently the jack（千斤顶）slipped and fell down on me,"her dad,Eric Heffelmire,told WUSA9.Gasoline spilled（溢出）and caught fire,and he knew he was in trouble."I thought they 'd be pulling out a dead body later in the evening."

    After his struggling for 10 minutes,his barefoot teenage daughter came running into the garage."I felt the weight shift,and I said,'You almost got it.'and then it was just UGHHHRRR,and suddenly I'm pulled out,"Eric told NBC4.

    Even Charlotte,120 pounds and 5-foot-6,isn't sure where her power came from."It was some crazy strength, "she told WUSA9.

    Realizing the burning truck could set her house on fire at any moment,Charlotte jumped into the truck and drove it out of the garage."I didn't want the entire house to explode with the truck,so I started the truck,put it in four-wheel drive,and managed to drive it with three wheels,"she said.

    Then she went inside the house to grab her baby sister and got her grandmother out of the house too."I just did what I had to do,so I don't feel like a big hero or anything,"Charlotte said.Her local fire department,Fairfax County Fire and Rescue,felt differently,awarding her the Citizen Lifesaving Award.

    A Language Program me for Teenagers

    Welcome to Teenagers Abroad! We invite you to join us on an amazing journey of language learning.

    Our Courses

Regardless of your choice of course, you'll develop your language ability both quickly and effectively. Our Standard Course guarantees a significant increase in your confidence in a foreign language, with focused teaching in all 4 skill areas—-speaking, listening, reading and writing. Our Intensive Course builds on our Standard Course, with 10 additional lessons per week, guaranteeing(确保) the fastest possible language learning (see table below).

    Evaluation

    Students are placed into classes according to their current language skills. The majority of them take on online language test before starting their program me. However, if this is not available, students sit the exam on the first Monday of their course. Learning materials are provided to students throughout their course, and there will never be more than 15 participants in each class.

    Arrivals and Transfer

    Our programme offers the full package—students are taken good care of from the start through to the very end. They are collected from the airport upon arrival and brought to their accommodation(住宿) in comfort. We require the student's full details at least 4 weeks in advance.

    Meals / Allergies(过敏) / Special Dietary Requirements

    Students are provided with breakfast, dinner and either a cooked or packed lunch(which consists of a sandwich, a drink and a dessert). Snacks outside of mealtimes may be purchased by the student individually. We ask that you let us know of any allergies or dietary requirements as well as information about any medicines you take. Depending on the type of allergies and/ or dietary requirements, an extra charge may be made for providing special food.

    We all love our children and we all know how competitive the world is these days. What's it going to be like when our children leave school? Will they have the skills they need to stay ahead of the competition?

    All children need two basic skills to succeed. They must be able to read and they must be able to write. And with so much information available to them these days, they must be able to read quickly and accurately. That's why your children need to be able to speed-read.

    It's ironic (讽刺的) that at this time of space-age technology, we've gone back to one of the earliest forms of mass communication—the written word. The Internet has introduced a revival (重新流行) of writing, and if you can't keep up, you'll be left behind. You certainly don't want your children to be left behind.

    You can help to make sure that your children are excellent writers—you can help them to learn how to use their language. Better still, you can learn with them!

    You and your children can spend time together in a worthwhile pursuit (事业)—learning how to write. Forget the theme parks, the computer games, the expensive movies and interesting sports. If you want your children to have treasured memories of time spent with you, learn together.

    For less than you would pay for tickets to a theme park, you can invest in your children's future—help them learn to write well with my six-part writing course.

Don't stand by while your child is left further and further behind.

    Do your children like to see adventure movies? The following are four adventure movies for kids.

    Toy Story

    In this story, toys come to life when nobody is watching. Woody, a cowboy doll, feels unhappy when a new spaceman figure Buzz takes his place as the favourite toy of six-year-old Andy. Buzz and Woody get into a fight and get trapped together in the next-door neighbour's house and they have to find their way home. In that journey, they form a close friendship and work together through everything.

    How to Train Your Dragon

    Young man Viking Hiccup wants to fight against the dragons that continually attack his town. But after finally catching his first dragon whom he names Toothless, Hiccup realizes that he no longer wants to kill it and instead treats it kindly. He learns that his people have misjudged the species.

    Up

    The story is about Carl Fredrickson, a 78-year-old man who sets out to realize his lifelong dream of seeing the wilds of South America. He ties thousands of balloons to float his house and to travel to Paradise Falls with an unwelcome companion Russel, who is an eight-year-old explorer.

    Despicable Me

    Gru wants to become the greatest thief by stealing the moon right out of the sky but he meets a challenge. The three girls he had adopted (收养) change his life in a way nobody would consider possible. The world's greatest villain (坏人) ends up being from being super-bad to a super-dad.

    Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you'll have no trouble answering these questions.

    Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child's day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear; we are numb(麻木的）to new stimulation(刺激), new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.

    The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realized it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they'd felt cold water at first.

    Another block to awareness is the obsession(痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a "ruby-crowned kinglet" and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.

    The pressures of "time" and "destination" are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what's around them. I asked them what they'd seen. "Oh, a few birds," they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.

    Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.