Businesses are finding more uses for Virtual Reality (VR) as the technology develops. VR is no longer only for gaming or enjoyment. An American company called Blue Goji is using VR to improve one's health by making exercise more fun.

    Blue Goji has offices in Austin, the capital of Texas. The company showed its cardiovascular (心血管的) workout machine, called the Infinity treadmill (跑步机), at the recent South by Southwest festival, an event held every year in Austin.

    A person using the treadmill wears a virtual reality headset when exercising. Before starting, the user tightens a belt to prevent falls. Then, the user plays a VR game while running on the machine. The game can transport the user into the virtual world, where he or she can be racing against virtual people.

    Recently, Leonardo Mattiazzi tested the Infinity treadmill. Mattiazzi said he had a strong feeling to actually get running and do something that pushed his limits. He said the experience was more interesting than running inside the gym without actually going anywhere.

    Constam said the active use of virtual reality helps solve a common problem while wearing a VR headset. She noted that a lot of VR experiences cause motion sickness because people are in motion during the game, but not moving in real life. But when the user is moving on the treadmill and in the game, the chances of motion sickness are reduced.

    However, users who tested the treadmill while wearing the VR headset each had a different experience. Constam said there generally is a learning curve for VR. The first time users feel lost, but "the more you do it, the more you get used to it," she said. Mark Sackler was a first time user. He said he felt a little sick at one point during the game. But he thought the experience was surprisingly realistic.

    After carefully studying the users' experiences, Blue Goji plans to make the treadmill available to the public in 2019.

    Your children are watching you. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} According to the Health Program, developing healthy habits is an important part for your children. And when it comes to developing healthy habits, parents influence their children more than anyone else.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} What happens during those early years can influence children for the rest of their lives. This includes some eating and exercise habits. Children are very careful, even at a young age. Children watch what others do carefully and imitate the behaviors of those closest to them. As parents, you should do the following: {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you do that, your children are more likely to be enthusiastic about developing theirs.

    Let your children see you taking care of your own physical health by eating fruits and vegetables. Talk to them about healthy habits in appropriate terms and at a proper time. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Computers, televisions and other forms of technology are a major part of life in the 21st century. Unfortunately, as the use of technology in the home increases, so does the time spent watching TV or playing on the computer. So as parents, you should also arrange the time for your children wisely.

A. Take part in physical activities and exercise regularly.

B. Don't get rid of technology, but use it wisely.

C. Be enthusiastic about developing healthy habits of your own.

D. Your actions arc speaking to them louder than your words will.

F. Children prefer to imitate their parents rather than listen to them.

F. This can be helpful to teach your children to form good eating habits.

G. It's easy for the children to form their healthy habits when they arc young.

    A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.

    According to course instructor William Barry, associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, a feat he described as “remarkable.” The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.

    Before becoming a student, Bina48 appeared as a guest speaker in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry's class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students enthusiastically supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course, Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry. Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.

    “Some interesting things happened in the class,” said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is “fairly simple — it's a feeling,” said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning “31 different versions of love,” said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.

    Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bina48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.

    In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely.

Plastic-Eating Worms

    Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场) and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

    Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物)and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Cun ent Biology in 2017.

    Federica Bcrtocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well," she explains, "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond."

    Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

    Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic."

    I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let's take a look at three types of "waits".

    The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait. It is without doubt the most annoying of all. Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池) as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it's full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.

    A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of self-control. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup required a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. "Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer(用文火炖）three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes." I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience.

    Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

    Turning one's life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn't come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.

    We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you're standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you'll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don't be desperate. You're probably just as busy as the next guy.

    Being overweight is one of the biggest problems that many men and women of all ages suffer from. Although everyone wants to lose weight quickly, burning fat is no easy task. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Don't expect to just read these tips and expect to lose weight while you sleep. It will take a lot of effort on your part to succeed.

    It's very important to drink lots of water while reducing the use of salt. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

Try not to eat the foods that contain high amounts of fats and instead focus on eating foods rich in fiber.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This is the best way to lose weight, as playing a sport can give a person a sense of confidence.

    Avoid taking medicines that help reduce your appetite, as they usually have many side effects and can do you more harm than good. Also, you shouldn't follow unusual diets such as those that focus on drinking large amounts of vitamin-concentrated liquids. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    Finally, everyone should know and understand that being overweight will eventually lead to bigger and more dangerous diseases and conditions, so it is best for us to stay fit before we gain weight while we still have a chance. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It's better for you to take things slowly and start with losing just a few pounds a month and then increasing that.

A. Just stick to the most popular diets

B. Here are a few tips on weight loss

C. Exercise regularly while you're on a diet

D. Salt tends to store water in the body leading to weight again

E. And in case you feel hungry you should eat low-calories foods

F. Also, make sure you don't try reducing too much weight too fast

G. When in doubt, don't be afraid to ask your doctor for suggestions