Alibaba, Bank of China and Huawei—these are the dream employers for Chinese students, according to a new survey.

    “The survey of more than 55,000 students, conducted by the research firm Universum, has found that roughly a quarter want to work for an international company, while only 9％ want to work for a start-up. Five percent want to start their own business.”

    The students said that work-1ife balance was the most important career goal, followed by job stability. When it comes to desirable companies, Bank of China has been named the top choice by business students for seven consecutive years, and the gigantic state-owned firm shows no signs of giving up its lead.

    William Wu, the China country manager for Universum, said that banking remains an attractive industry for young Chinese. “China's government is now emphasizing the revolution of the finance industry, which leaves the younger generation with the impression that although banking is a traditional industry, there are still a lot of development opportunities.” Wu said.

    E-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) improved six places from 2014, ranking second among business students. Alibaba's rise shouldn't come as much of a surprise—the company held a record-breaking $25 billion IPO in September.

    Among engineering students, Alibaba was once again a bridesmaid. Instead, Huawei—a telecoms infrastructure firm that now makes consumer products-took the top spot.

    “Both of these companies are pioneers in terms of local companies going international.” said Wu. “It shows that… an international development strategy has a positive influence among Chinese young talents.” Tech companies ruled the rankings for humanities students, with Alibaba—which was ninth in 2014 —landing at the top. Last year, Apple was the Number l choice of Chinese students.

    Hacking isn't just for computers and smartphones, According to a study published last week in the journal Science, scientists have found a way to hack a plant's genes in order to make it use sunlight more quickly. Someday, the results could increase the amount of food produced around the world.

    Photosynthesis（光合作用）is the word used to describe how plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food. Scientists who conducted the new study say this is a very slow process. Plants use less than 1 percent of the energy available to therm. But by hacking a plant's genes, the scientists were able to increase the amount of leaf growth on plants between 14 and 20 percent.

    "Specifically, scientists hacked the plant's protective system. Normally, this system is activated when a plant gets too much sunlight, "said scientist Krishna Niyogi, co-author of the study. When the plant senses the light, it gets rid of extra energy and creates more leaves. When the plant is in shade, the protective system is turned off, but the process is slow.

    Stephen Long is the lead author of the study. He compared a plant's protective system to light-adjusting glasses. When a person wears the glasses outside during the day, the lenses（镜片）darken and lighten depending on how sunny it is. Plants do the same thing, he said. But in plants the adjustment can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. This makes it hard for plants to get the right amount of sunlight needed to create food.

    The new study sped up the process. By changing the plant's genes, the protective system turned on and off more quickly than normal. As a result, leaf growth on the plants scientists used in the study increased. Leaf growth in two plants increased by 20 percent, while leaf growth on a third plant increased by 14 percent. Scientists conducted the study on tobacco plants. But they think the genetic changes will produce the same results in corn and rice.

    A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men aboard were able to swim to a small, desert-like island. Not knowing what else to do, the two survivors agreed that they had no alternative than to pray to God.

    However, to find out whose prayers were more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.

    The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the island, and he was able to eat its fruit. But the other man's parcel of land remained barren.

    After a week, the first man became lonely and decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the island. But on the other side of the island, there was nothing.

    Soon thereafter the first man prayed for a house, clothes and more food. The next day, like magic, all of these things were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing.

    Finally, the first man prayed for a ship so that he and his wife could leave the island, and in the morning he found a ship docked at his side of the island.

    The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island, considering the other man unworthy to receive God's blessings since none of his prayers had been answered.

    As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from Heaven booming, "Why are you leaving your companion on the island?"

    "My blessings are mine alone since I was the one who prayed for them," the first man answered. "His prayers were all unanswered and so he doesn't deserve anything."

    "You are mistaken!" the voice rebuked him. "He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings."

    "Tell me," the first man asked the voice, "what did he pray for that I should owe him anything?"

    "He prayed that all your prayers would be answered."

    For all we know, our blessings are not the fruits of our prayers alone, but those of another praying for us. So what you do for others is more important than what you do for yourself.

    "Let's go see Santa!" Samantha said, pointing.

    I shrugged. I found out long ago that the real Santa doesn't hang out in malls. He's always too busy checking his list for kids twice and supervising the elves (小精灵).

    Last year, "Santa" had a tattoo on his arm. I pretended I didn't notice and named all the toys I ever wanted, until he was about to kick me out. I like playing around with fake Santas.

    We joined the line and after what seemed like ages, it was our turn. Samantha's eyes were glowing with excitement as she listed her wishes. She went back to Mom and Dad with a delighted smile and some candies.

    I sat on Santa's lap and moved from side to side to get comfortable. He made a face. "Have you been good this year? Ho! Ho!"

    "Oh, yes! I played nicely with my sister, obeyed my parents, and teachers are fond of me. "

    A suspicious smile appeared on his jolly face. "What would you like for Christmas, my boy?" "Santa, I want a new teacher for Christmas."

    He got a little surprised and looked at me. "Don't you want any new games, or a baseball mitt (手套)?"

    "No. I want a new teacher who doesn't give too much homework. I don't have time to play anyway, with all those assignments I'm getting. "

    It was worth waiting in line just to see the look on his face. He gave me a coloring book and a Christmas sticker. Just before I left, he pulled me closer and said in a low tone, "I'll make sure Miss Coleman makes your wish come true."

    How did he … that voice … "Mr. Principal?"

    I guess sometimes wishes do come true. I had a lighter workload until June!

    In 2015, a man named Nigel Richards memorized 386, 000 words in the entire French Scrabble Dictionary in just nine weeks. However, he does not speak French. Richards' impressive feat is a useful example to show how artificial intelligence works—real AI. Both of Richard and AI take in massive amounts of data to achieve goals with unlimited memory and superman accuracy in a certain field.

    The potential applications for AI are extremely exciting. Because AI can outperform humans at routine tasks—provided the task is in one field with a lot of data—it is technically capable of replacing hundreds of millions of white and blue collar jobs in the next 15 years or so.

    But not every job will be replaced by AI. In fact  four types of jobs are not at risk at all. First, there are creative jobs. AI needs to be given a goal to optimize. It cannot invent, like scientists, novelists and artists can. Second, the complex, strategic jobs—executives, diplomats, economists — go well beyond the AI limitation of single-field and Big Data. Then there are the as-yet-unknown jobs that will be created by AI.

    Are you worried that these three types of jobs won't employ as many people as AI will replace? Not to worry, as the fourth type is much larger: jobs where emotions are needed, such as teachers, nannies and doctors. These jobs require compassion, trust and sympathy—which AI does not have. And even if AI tried to fake it, nobody would want a robot telling them they have cancer, or a robot to babysit their children.

    So there will still be jobs in the age of AI. The key then must be retraining the workforce so people can do them. This must be the responsibility not just of the government, which can provide funds, but also of corporations and those who benefit most.

    Did you know that if you attach a weighed stick to the back of a chicken, it walks like a dinosaur?

    No, you did not know(or care to know) such things, but now you do! Thanks to this year's winners of the 12 Noel Prize! Now in is 251h year, the lg Nobel is the goofy younger cousin of the honored Nobel Prize. It applauds achievements in the fields of medicine, biology, physics, economies.literature.etc. Every September at Harvard University, awards are presented in 10 categories that change year to year, depending on - according to the organization - what makes the judges "laugh, then think".

    The ceremony officially begins when audience members launch paper airplanes at an assigned human target on the stage, then speakers only have 60 seconds to present their research. In previous year, the one-minute rule was imposed by a young girl - nicknamed Miss Sweetie Poo -who would go up to the platform and repeat the words: "Please stop, I'm bored." in a sharp tone until the speaker left the stage.

    Fortunately for candidates though, the Ig Informal Lectures are held afterwards on Saturday to give presenters more time to explain the crazy things they're working on.

    The research can seem more like the brainchildren of teenage boys than of respectable adults. Justin Schmidt won the physiology Ig for creating the "Sting(蛰) Pain Index," which rates the pain people fell after getting stung by insects. Smith pressed bees against 25 different parts of his body until they stung him. Five stings a day for 38 days, Smith concluded that the most painful sting locations were the nose and the upper lip. Ouch.

    As silly as they sound, not all of the Ig awards lack scientific applicability, A group of scientists from 12 different counties won in the medicine category for accurately diagnosing patients with appendicitis (阑尾炎) based on an unusual measurement: speed bumps(减速带) . They found that patients are more likely to have appendicitis if they report pain during bumpy car rides.

    All these weird experiments have just one thing in common. They're improbable. It can be tempting to assume that "improbable" implies more than that--implies bad or good, worthless or valuable, trivial or important. Something improbable can be any of those, or none of them, or all of them, in different ways. And what you don't expect can be a powerful force for not only entertaining science, but also for the boundary-pushing science we call innovation.