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    A Kickstarter launched Friday will allow interested parties to set up a camera and pet toys in their home for anyone to play with their pets remotely. It's called the ipet Companion, an Internet-connected camera and device that streams video online and allows basic commands from people watching. They can move the camera, look at their pet and press a button to swing a toy around.

    Obviously, demand is strong. The Kickstarter proved so popular that Scott Harris, iPet Companion's founder, said that thousands of people started asking for it.

    The reason why people keep talking about this is the emotional(情感的) connection they have from a thousand miles away. If you want, you can enter a queue to move the camera and play with the pets. Each room has toys that are hooked(钩住) into Internet-connected devices, and you can move them by pressing a button.

    But there's sort of a problem: Pets get bored easily. Young pets will stay more interested than adult pets, but finally even a baby pet will get bored, too. To stop that from happening, you'd better limit the pets' access(接近) to the boys and change the place where they're located in the room.

Harris understands this and said you can plug anything into that adapter(适配器) —toys that you can get on your own. And that's where the iPet Companion really gets interesting. Harris explained that the device is actually sort of a Trojan horse to bring the “Internet of things” to more homes. You don't really have to use it for pets. The adapter could be used for any device with an electrical plug—a sprinkler, say, that you'd be able to activate to water your grass.

    “Our whole goal, our whole purpose is to let anyone control any physical object that they want to while they travel anywhere in the woorld,” Harris said.

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    While your pet fish may appear to be unaware of your presence, chances are that it knows you extremely well and can probably even identify you from a crowd of human faces!

    To test if this was accurate, some scientists decided to study archerfish（喷水鱼）. These animals don't have a sophisticated（复杂的）brain that is necessary to recognize the slight differences between human facial features.

    They began by presenting four archerfish with images of two human faces. Initially, the fish spit at both. However, they soon learned spitting water at the one selected by the researchers earned them a food treat. After that, they focused primarily on that image. The researchers then took the experiment one step further by introducing 44 other human faces to the mix.

    To the researcher's astonishment, the trained archerfish were able to recall the learned image almost 81% of the time. And this accuracy improved to 86% when the researchers made the identification even harder, by replacing the colored photos with a set of black and white images and hiding the shape of the head.

    The results of the study suggest that though having tiny brains, archerfish may have developed high visual discrimination abilities. While it is contrary to the previous theory that a sophisticated brain is necessary to recognize human faces, the researchers believe they do not recognize faces by recalling complex facial information like gender and identity, but more likely by discriminating between detailed  patterns. Even so, the fact that these archerfish could “remember” those faces demonstrates that they have an impressive memory for details that lasts much longer than the originally-thought 3 seconds!

    This is not the first time researchers have realized how “smart” fish are. Previous studies have shown that fish can recognize those fish they have “socialized” with previously, and even recall complex three-dimensional maps of their surroundings.

    （I）It was a surprising announcement: SpaceX, a private company（私人公司）, said it would fly two people to the moon next year (2019). This has not been attempted since NASA's Apollo moon landings about 45 years ago. In the news conference, Elon Musk. SpaceX founder said two people have already paid SpaceX a “wonderful” amount of money to send them on a weeklong flight just beyond the moon.

    （II）Exercise reduces the risks of dying from all causes, including cancer and heart disease. But many people who work all week have little time for exercise. They try to take exercise or do chores to increase their heart rates over the weekend. A new study suggests that it is healthy to do that, which can reduce their risk of cancer and cardiovascular（心血管疾病）disease.

    （III）Scientists in London have found a possible way to solve the problem of plastic bottle waste. They have made a water bottle you can eat. The product is called Ooho, made of seaweed, a plant that grows in the ocean. Oohos are tasteless and look like bubbles or balls. They can hold water or any other liquid（液体）inside. When people drink Oohos, the outside bursts in the mouth and can be eaten. Even if you throw it away, it will degrade in about four weeks. It is good for the environment.

    Chinese scientists recently have produced two monkeys with the same gene, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using the same technique that gave us Dolly the sheep. These monkeys are not actually the first primates(灵长类)to be cloned. Another one named Tetra was produced in the late 1990s by embryo(胚胎)splitting, the division of an early-stage embryo into two or four separate cells to make clones. By contrast, they were each made by replacing an egg cell nucleus(卵原子核)with DNA from a differentiated body cell. This Dolly method, known as somatic(躯体的) cell nuclear transfer(SCNT), can create more clones and allows researchers greater control over the edits they make to the DNA.

    Success came from adopting several new techniques. These included a new type of microscopy(显微术) to better view the cells during handling or using several materials that encourage cell reprogramming, which hadn't been tried before on primates. Still, the research process proved difficult, and many attempts by the team failed. Just two healthy baby monkeys born from more than 60 tested mothers. This leads to many researchers' pouring water on the idea that the team's results bring scientists closer to cloning humans. They thought this work is not a stepping stone to establishing methods for obtaining live born human clones. Instead, this clearly remains a very foolish thing to attempt, and it would be far too inefficient, far too unsafe, and it is also pointless.

    But the scientists involved emphasize that this is not their goal. There is now no barrier for cloning primate species, thus cloning humans is closer to reality. However, their research purpose is entirely for producing non-human primate models for human diseases; they absolutely have no intention, and society will not permit this work to be extended to humans. Despite limitations, they treat this breakthrough as a novel model system for scientists studying human biology and disease.

    A   RICHMOND EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE

    Learn to act introduces people to a broad range of acting techniques. It is specially geared to those with little or no acting experience. The atmosphere is relaxed and unthreatening and great emphasis is placed on developing the confidence and abilities of people who may initially be a little apprehensive!

    B   WORLD CULTURE DAY

    Brazilian Street Percussion

    2:30—4:50

    Samba percussion workshop. Lift your spirits with the taste of carnival! It doesn't matter whether you're an experienced musician or a complete beginner; you'll be creating complex exotic rhythms in no time.

    African Storytelling

    3:45—4:45

    The magical African storytelling tradition of narration, poetry and proverbs. An event for all the family.

    C   SCOTTISH DANCING

    IT'S FUN

    IT'S GOOD EXERCISE

    ● We have classes for dancers of all abilities.

    ● Previous experience is not essential.

    ● All you need to bring is a pair of soft shoes and enthusiasm.

    ● Classes are held in a number of places and at different times.

    ● We guarantee you a warm welcome.

    D   DRAWING IN COLOUR

    An intensive workshop for beginners

    Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October

    This unusual workshop offers instruction in effective ways to draw in colour. Activities will include study of light and shade and ways to express mood and emotion in colour.

    The small class(12 students) assures maximum attention for each student. Professional quality materials are included in the fee of ￡95.

Researchers in Australia recently announced a new device（设备） that absorbs water from air to produce drinkable water. They said it can produce up to 1,000 liters of drinkable water a day, adding that it could be "lifesaving during drought or emergencies". What's more, unlike other water generators（造水机）, their invention works by heating air instead of cooling it.

Researchers at the University of Newcastle call the device the Hydro Harvester. The device absorbs water from the air. Solar energy or heat from other industrial processes can be used to produce hot and wet air. After heating, the air cools, producing water for drinking or watering crops.

The researchers say the device can produce enough drinking water each day for a small rural town of up to 400 people. It could also help farmers keep their crops alive during droughts. Researchers thought their device would be especially useful in Australia because its climate is dry.

More than 2 billion people around the world will benefit from the device. They are in a situation where they do not have access to high-quality water. The device is meant to help alleviatewater shortage and safety.

Studies of the technology will be done in several Australian communities this year. The World Economic Forum （WEF）, a nonprofit group based in Switzerland, says water shortage continues to be a problem worldwide. The WEF said getting water from the atmosphere is a "promising solution that can immediately generate drinkable water using moisture（水汽） in the air". However, the group warns that the technology is costly. It estimates that one mid-sized device could cost between $ 30,000 and $ 50,000. So the group is concerned whether it will be accepted by the public.