LEGO (乐高) recently announced that they will start producing pieces from sustainable (可持续的) sugar cane. The toys, which will be closely similar to classic ones, will also feature “botanical elements” like leaves, bushes, and trees.

The pieces will be included in LEGO’S box sets from this year onwards. The move is part of the Danish company’s campaign to use sustainable materials in its products by 2030.

However, Tim Brooks, the firm’s vice-president, said, “We want to make a positive influence on the world around us, and are working hard to make great play products for children using sustainable materials. This is a great first step in our goal to make all LEGO pieces using sustainable materials.”

The new line of production has reportedly already started with pieces being produced from polyethylene, which is a soft and durable plastic (耐用的塑料). LEGO says that we needn’t worry about the quality of the new products, as they’ve tested the plant-based plastic to ensure that it meets the high standards for quality and safety that consumers (消费者) expect from the company.

“LEGO products have always been about providing high quality play experiences and giving every child the chance to shape their own world through inventive play. Children and parents will not notice any difference in the quality or appearance of the new pieces, because plant-based polyethylene has the same qualities as traditional polyethylene,” said Tim Brooks.

“It is important that companies in each industry find ways to help ensure a future where people, nature, and the economy grow healthily,” said Alix Grabowski, an officer at WWF. “The LEGO Group’s decision to use sustainable plastics represents a great opportunity to reduce dependence on finite (有限的) resources, and their work with the Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance will allow them to connect with other companies to continue to think creatively about sustainability.”

Thirteen vehicles lined up last March to race across the Mojave Desert, seeking a million in prize money. To win, they had to finish the 142-mile race in less than 10 hours. Teams and watchers knew there might be no winner at all, because these vehicles were missing a key part－drivers.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, organized the race as part of a push to develop robotic vehicles for future battlefields. But the Grand Challenge, as it was called, just proved how difficult it is to get a car to speed across an unfamiliar desert without human guidance. One had its brake lock up in the starting area. Another began by throwing itself onto a wall. Another got tied up by bushes near the road after 1.9 miles.

One turned upside down. One took off in entirely the wrong direction and had to be disabled by remote control. One went a little more than a mile and rushed into a fence; another managed to go for six miles but stuck on a rock. The “winner,” if there was any, reached 7.8 miles before it ran into a long, narrow hole, and the front wheels caught on fire.

“You get a lot of respect for natural abilities of the living things,” says Reinhold Behringer, who helped design two of the car-size vehicles for a company called Sci-Autonics. “Even ants (蚂蚁) can do all these tasks effortlessly. It’s very hard for us to put these abilities into our machines.”

The robotic vehicles, though with necessary modern equipment such as advanced computers and GPS guidance, had trouble figuring out fast enough the blocks ahead that a two-year-old human recognizes immediately. Sure, that very young child, who has just only learned to walk, may not think to wipe apple juice off her face, but she already knows that when there’s a cookie in the kitchen she has to climb up the table, and that when she gets to the cookie it will taste good. She is more advanced, even months old, than any machine humans have designed.

Engineers and scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a unique solution to help people in these areas get clean drinking water.

They developed a low-cost gel film (凝胶膜) that can pull water from the air in even the driest climate (气候). Just one kilogram of gel can collect up to six liters of water in a dry climate. For those living in a climate with relative humidity (潮湿), one kilogram of gel can collect up to 13 liters of water a day. As the gel is so inexpensive and easy to make, it may offer a way of providing drinking water to countries with water shortages.

Researchers have harvested fresh water from fog and dew before, but that only serves areas with high humidity. Other attempts at pulling water from desert air require lots of energy and do not produce much. In fact, this gel is a big improvement from earlier water harvesting technologies. The maximum water harvested has been 5.87 liters in places with relative humidity. This new gel doubles this amount, uses no energy and is simple to operate.

“This new work is about practical solutions that people can use to get water in the hottest, driest places on Earth,” said GuihuaYu, professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering. “This could allow millions of people without access to drinking water to have simple, water generating devices (取水装置) at home that they can easily operate.”

“This is not something you need an advanced degree to use,” the paper’s lead author, Youhong “Nancy” Guo said. “It’s straightforward enough that anyone can make it at home if they have the materials.” Scientists are planning on making a thicker gel that will increase the production, making this technology a practicable solution to drought.