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    While famous foreign architects are invited to lead the designs of landmark buildings in China such as the new CCTV tower and the National Center for the Performing Arts, many excellent Chinese architects are making great efforts to take the center stage.

    Their efforts have been proven fruitful. Wang Shu, a 49-year-old Chinese architect, won the 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize — which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize in architecture — on February 28. He is the first Chinese citizen to win this award.

    Wang serves as head of the Architecture Department at the China Academy of Art (CAA). His office is located at the Xiangshan campus(校园) of the university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Many buildings on the campus are his original creations.

    The style of the campus is quite different from that of most Chinese universities. Many visitors were amazed by the complex architectural space and abundant building types. The curves(曲线) of the buildings perfectly match the rise and fall of hills, forming a unique view.

    Wang collected more than 7 million abandoned bricks of different ages. He asked the workers to use traditional techniques to make the bricks into walls, roofs and corridors. This creation attracted a lot of attention thanks to its mixture of modern and traditional Chinese elements(元素).

    Wang's works show a deep understanding of modern architecture and a good knowledge of traditions. Through such a balance, he had created a new type of Chinese architecture, said Tadao Ando, the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize.

    Wang believes traditions should not be sealed in glass boxes at museums. "That is only evidence that traditions once existed," he said.

"Many Chinese people have a misunderstanding of traditions. They think tradition means old things from the past. In fact, tradition also refers to the things that have been developing and that are still being created," he said.

    "Today, many Chinese people are learning Western styles and theories rather than focusing on Chinese traditions. Many people tend to talk about traditions without knowing what they really are, "said Wang.

    The study of traditions should be combined with practice. Otherwise, the recreation of traditions would be artificial and empty, he said.

    After opening the world's first commercial Direct Air Capture plant（直接空气捕集工厂）designed to pull CO₂ out of the air, Swiss company Climeworks is now trying to create the world's first “negative emission（负排放）” power plant.

    An international team of scientists has been working on a way to turn captured CO₂ into minerals. The project is called CarFix. Experts capture the gas, put it into water and send it to more than 700 meters underground. There the CO₂ on contact with a special kind of rock forms into a mineral.

    “Our results show that between 95 and 98 percent of the CO₂, sent underground was mineralized over the period of less than two years, which is amazingly fast,” says lead author of the CarFix project, Dr. Juerg Matter. Before this discovery it was thought that this mineralization could take hundreds to thousands of years.

    The DAC technology can collect CO₂ from the atmosphere and then store it underground or sell it to business needing the gas. For example, customers can use it in drinks. And the first plant in Zurich is supplying the captured CO₂ to a nearby greenhouse to “feed” vegetables. By using the company's CO₂ the customers can reduce their carbon mission as well as lower their dependence on energy.

    A 2015 study suggested that before the CarFix project, experts could collect CO₂, but they didn't have a large-scale（大规模的）method to safely treat it.

    Combining Climeworks' DAC technology with the CarFix mineralization process they will be able to create a system. This system doesn't put additional carbon back into the atmosphere. Actually it is carbon negative.

    “The economic cost of applying this kind of carbon capture technology on a large-scale is not particularly practical now, but for the first time we are seeing a realistic and effective system,” says Christoph Gebald CEO of Climeworks.

    China is facing a reading crisis（危机）, with more than 50% of people surveyed believing they don't spend enough time reading and only 20% satisfied with their reading time, China Daily said.

    According to Xu Shengguo, head of the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, the country's reading rate last year was 78.6%, which means that percentage of people read books, periodicals or newspapers or were involved in online reading, while 21.4% read nothing at all.

    The Academy launched an annual survey on the reading quantity of Chinese people in 2005 and found that each read 4.5 to 4.7 books on average per year between 2005 and 2014. Last year, Chinese people read only 4.56 books, compared with 12 in France, 11 in South Korea, 9 in Japan and about 7 in the United States. In addition, more the 40% of Chinese people read less than one book throughout the year outside of textbooks.

    A training meeting on reading supported by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was held in Beijing last week. It was the first meeting for the Leading Reader project, a training series for teachers, officials, college students and bookstore owners to promote(促进，提升) nationwide reading. It will be held on weekends during September and October.

    In addition to factors such as the large population base in China and imbalance of regional economic development, the shortage of public libraries is widespread. Reading parties in the community are in need of greater promotion. If we want to promote the nationwide reading rate, we have to encourage more grassroots reading programs.

    I can proudly say that last year I broke the record for the oldest person in the world to ride a roller-coaster. I'm 105, but I feel younger. Even the doctor agrees I'm in good condition. I'm a bit deaf and my legs feel weak, but they are the only issue.

    I rode the Twistosaurus at Flamingo Land, which spins you round quite fast. I didn't choose to go on that. I'd have preferred a really fast one that went upside down. But I was told I couldn't ride something like that, because my blood pressure could drop and I might have some danger.

    I wasn't nervous — I don't get frightened of anything. I was securely fastened, so I knew I wouldn't fall out. The roller-coaster ride went on for three or four minutes, and it couldn't be a better experience. And I raised a lot of money for the Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance fund, which was fantastic.

    People were saying I'd got a place in the Guinness World Records. Later, someone came to present me with the certificate. I had it on the wall in my living room, with another one that got a year earlier.

    My record-breaking ways really began a couple of years ago, with the ice-bucket challenge. It turned out that I was probably the oldest person in the world to do it, and the video was very popular. After that, I started to think about what else I could do to raise money for different charities.

    I'm not sure if anyone admires all the fun I'm having. They just say I'm daft and that's about it. But I've had many good days and many exciting times. I've had a really good life. I don't think I've wasted any of it.

    A large number of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps creativity.

    However, an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that opinion. Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gävle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings show music actually blocks creativity.

    To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants( 参与者) complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “badly affected” the participants' ability to complete tasks related to verbal creativity.

    The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word related to all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun" (sundress, sunflower, etc).

    Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar words, instrumental music, or music with familiar words. "We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

    To conclude, the findings challenge the popular view that music encourages creativity, and instead prove that music consistently disrupts creative performance in dealing with problems.