A new tool of communication called the "drift diary" is doing the rounds among young college graduates.

The "drift diary", like those ancient paper messages put into a bottle left to drift on the high seas to reach hundreds of miles away, connects lonely hearts. It was first started by a Beijing woman, who goes by the screen name Little S, in 2007.It has become the preferred tool of communication among youngsters afraid to reveal their innermost self to peers, but wanting to share their lives with others. The way it works is that the initiator（发起人）of the diary mentions it on popular Internet forums such as Tianya and Douban. Those wanting to react or otherwise add to the diary then send their real names and addresses to the initiator via e-mails or text messages.

The numbers in one group are usually restricted to between 30 and 50. The diary then is passed on to another by the express delivery or personal handover. The diary writers are mostly anonymous（匿名的）but if they wish to reveal their identity they can do so by posting their contact information at the end of their postings.

The diary writers not just add words but also decorate the plain notebooks with cartoons, drawings or even dress it up with a ribbon or a new cover. Interesting experiences, travel journals, the simple joys of everyday living or sweet recollections of childhood, all find a place in these diaries. Most often, though, the writers set down their frustrations and predicaments.

It usually takes one year for a diary to return to the initiator. The last recorder is the luckiest one, with access to all previous entries, while others can request photocopies of them from the diary's initiator.

Scientists have invented a new way to make electricity. Their method uses supertiny holes to make electricity from moisture (水分) in the air. Water droplets in the air carry an electric charge. In clouds, these water droplets build up large charges, which we later see as lightning. One of the researchers, Yao Jun, described the new invention as a “small-scale, man-made cloud”. Since the new device generates electricity from the air, scientists call it “Air-gen”.

The new device is very small and very simple. In it, water molecules from the air move through tiny holes from the upper part of a material down into the lower part of the material. The holes are the key. The material has lots of extremely tiny holes called “nanopores (纳米孔)”. As the water molecules work their way through the nanopores, they disrupt the electrical balance between the upper and lower parts of the material, leaving the upper part with a greater charge. This “imbalance” between the two parts is what creates electricity.

Currently, the device only makes a small amount of electricity. But in lab tests, the Air-gen produced electricity all day and all night for a week, powered by nothing but the air.

Scientists have tried to make electricity from humidity before, but those methods didn’t work for long or were too expensive to make. In 2020, Dr. Yao and his team found a way of getting electricity from humidity using special “nanowires” made from bacteria. In time, that research led the scientists to the key invention of the Air-gen. The researchers are hopeful the Air-gen will become an important green energy source.

Many scientists are impressed with the ideas behind the Air-gen. But some scientists have suggested that it might be tough for the Air-gen to create enough electricity to really make a difference, especially compared with solar energy. But Dr. Yao and his team are to work on ways to make Air-gen technology more powerful. Dr. Yao says, “What I imagine is that sometime in the future, we can get clean electricity wherever we go.”

Researchers in Japan have installed (安装) on a train a speaker that barks like a dog and snorts like a deer in order to prevent collisions with animals on the tracks.

The country has been troubled by a problem with trains colliding with deer on its railways. According to Japan’s transport ministry, there were 613 cases of train services delayed for at least 30 minutes resulting from collisions with deer and other wild animals in 2018-19.

Deer are attracted to railway lines because of a need for iron in their diets. They lick (舔) the rails to pick up iron filings caused by the action of wheels against tracks. This dietary need has led to a constant battle to keep the deer separate from the danger of a fast-moving train. In the past, flashing red lights and even lion faces have been unsuccessfully trialed in an attempt to keep deer off the tracks.

This new device has been invented by a team at the country’s Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRD). RTRI officials explain that deer have a habit of repeatedly snorting short, shrill sounds to warn other deer when they sense danger. The barking of the hunting dog, which drives deer to panic, strengthens the effect of the warning noise, according to the RTRI. When the deer hear a combination of a 3-second-long recording of a deer’s snort and 20 seconds of a barking dog, they panic and flee rapidly.

RTRI researchers say late-night tests, at times when deer are most frequently seen by railway tracks, have resulted in a 45 percent reduction of deer sighting. Future plans include still barking sites where deer are commonly seen, but the unpleasant noises will not be so loud in areas where people live beside the tracks.