When Jeanne Calment entered the world in 1875, telephones and automobiles still lay in the future. Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso were not yet born. The Eiffel Tower was 14 years from being built. As a teenager, she met Vincent Van Gogh, near her home in Arles, in the south of France. He was “very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick—I forgive him, they called him loco (精神失常的)”, she recalled. When she died last week at age 122, she was the world's eldest person. (There are others who claimed to the title, but only Calment had the official documents to prove her age.)

    Each February 21, her birthday, she would share the secrets of long life. Some years it was “a sense of humour”, others it was “keeping busy”. “God must have forgotten me,” she once explained. The truth probably was that her mother reportedly lived to be 86 and her father 94.

    Her life had its sadness: she outlived her husband, her only daughter and her grandson. According to a friend, she was imperturbable. “If you can't do anything about it,” she reportedly said, “don't worry about it.”

    In her last years she was nearly blind and deaf, but her health remained good. She ate a few bars of chocolate each week and continued smoking until a few years ago, when she could no longer light her own cigarettes. She never lost her sense of humour. On her 110^th birthday, she commented, “I've only ever had one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it. “Her longevity made her famous; her spirit made her eternal (永恒的).

Evolution.

In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five fays off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride (搭便车).

I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured (使……放心)me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

    In an unmanned supermarket,a customer waits to pay.With the use of advanced digital payment technology, including biological recognition and in-depth learning,the man leaves in a minute.There's no cashier in the store.At a large university,students use a hand-scanning machine that authorizes their entry into the gym.Those people are using “smart machines” which identify people by their physical characteristics.These new devices use fingers,hands, faces,eyes and voices.Some machines may even use smells.This new technology,called biometrics,gets information from parts of the body.

    In the past,biometric machines were used mainly in government agencies or in prisons.But now that the cost of the technology is lower,these machines are starting to be used everywhere,from border services to schools.

    Some people,however,are concerned that these machines will mean the destruction of personal privacy.They worry that the machines will get personal information about them.“I know it seems like these machines are invading our privacy,but actually,biometric machines help to protect it,”says Jay Tarkett,who works at a company that develops the machines.“They can be used instead of passwords on a computer,for example.They can also identify criminals at airports.So,really,they help to promote public safety,and all the information stored is kept confidential by  the machine itself.”

    Some people don't like the idea of using fingerprints because they associate them with criminals,and feel like they are being accused of something.In addition,they don't work for some people,such as bricklayers,who wear down their fingerprints.Yet,face recognition does work well because the subject doesn't really have to do anything.To cash a check at a bank,for example,the customer has to do nothing more than look at a machine similar to an automatic teller.If the face matches the picture kept on fie,the customer gets the money with no problems.The need to carry identification with you from place to place,then,would all but cease.

    It has been found that the hand scan works well in the college gym.Before this machine was used,students at the college entered the gym using cards similar to credit cards.The problem was that students often lost or forgot their cards.With the hand-scanning machine,however,the problem was solved right away.

    But the machines are still new,and there can be problems.For example,voice recognition works on the phone, but it is not precise,and can be tricked.Another constraint（限制）we notice,with machines that use face recognition in particular,is that they can be fooled if people color their hair or gain a lot of weight.However,this particular problem may be solved by a new type of technology that scans a person's iris,the colored part of the eye.It can even identify the person from a few feet away,recognizing a customer as he or she approaches the ATM.

    The wonderful experiment I am going to introduce proves that air is just all around and that it presses down upon us. Air pressure is a wonderful force. When you swim underwater, you can feel water push down your body. The air all around you does the same. However, your body is so used to it that you do not notice this. The pressure is caused by a layer of air called the atmosphere. This layer surrounds the Earth, extending to about five kilometers above the Earth's surface.

    The following experiment is an easy one that you can do at home. But make sure that you are supervised, because you will need to use matches. Now for the experiment！

    What you need:

·A hard-boiled egg without the shell

·A bottle with a neck slightly smaller than the egg

·A piece of paper

·A match

Method:

1） Check that the paper will sit firmly on the neck of the bottle.

2） Tear the paper into strips and put the strips into the bottle.

3） Light the paper by dropping a burning match into the bottle.

4）Quickly sit the egg on the neck of the bottle.

Result:

    Astonishingly, the egg will be sucked into the bottle. Your friends will be amazed when you show them the experiment. But be careful when you handle matches.

    Why it happened

    As the paper burns, it needs oxygen and uses up the oxygen（air）in the bottle. The egg acts as a seal in the neck of the bottle, so no more air can get inside. This reduces the air pressure inside the bottle. The air pressure must equalize, so more air from outside must enter the bottle. The outside air pressure against the egg and then the egg is pushed into the bottle! This proves that air is all around and that it is pressing down on it.

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    The EP will not reduce oxygen in the room. With other heaters, you'll notice that you get sleepy when the heat comes on because they are burning up oxygen.

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Emilia Dobek traces her interest in space and the universe back to third grade when she and her father watched a blood moon — a total lunar eclipse (月食) — on the roof of their house.

Now a seventh grader at East Prairie Elementary School, Dobek recently won the national Discovery Education Lockheed Martin Beyond Challenge by designing a space station for travelling to Mars.

She says that night watching the lunar eclipse started a strong desire in her that has yet to run out of fuel. So when her teacher Andrea Smeeton received information about the national challenge, Smeeton said she immediately had one student in mind.

"I knew she would love the challenge and that she would go way beyond in her search," Smeeton said. "She immediately started researching bone density (密度) of astronauts and how to have food on Mars. "

"My design will ensure the safety of the astronauts and make sure their comfort is out of this world," Dobek says.

Dobek's design calls for building the MSS or Mars Storage Station to put the supplies in. It also includes the SGF or Self-Growing Farm, and she details how it would work with the elements on Mars.

Then there is physical and leisure activity for the astronauts under Dobek's design. A simulator (模拟装置) allows astronauts to choose their exercise machine and virtual reality environment. Rooms have circular ceilings so astronauts will be able to watch downloaded shows and even see places on Earth, such as their homes.

"I want to tell other kids to follow their passions," Dobek said. "Whatever they want to do, they should push for it and always try their best."