It is hard for modern people to imagine the life one hundred years ago. No television, no plastic, no ATMs, no DVDs. Illnesses like tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia meant only death. Of course, cloning appeared only in science fiction. Not to mention, computer and Internet.

Today, our workplaces are equipped with assembly lines, fax machines, computers. Our daily life is cushioned by air conditioners, cell phones. Antibiotics helped created a long list of miracle drugs. The by-pass operation saved millions. The discovery of DNA has revolutionized the way scientists think about new therapies. Man finally stepped on the magical and mysterious Moon. With the rapid changes we have been experiencing, the anticipation for the future is higher than ever.

A revolutionary manufacturing process made it possible for anyone to own a car. Henry Ford is the man who put the world on wheels.

When it comes to singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives, you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Henry Ford who most influenced all manufacturing everywhere, even to this day, by introducing a new way to make cars--one, strange to say, that originated in slaughter houses (屠宰场).

Back in the early 1900s, slaughter houses used what could have been called a “disassembly line.” That is, the carcass (尸体) of a pig was moved past various meat-cutters, each of whom cut off only a certain portion. Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have each worker completely assemble a magneto, one of its elements was placed on a conveyer, and each worker, as it passed, added another component to it, the same one each time. Professor David Hounshell, of The University of Delaware, an expert on industrial development tells what happened: “The previous day, workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one magneto every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person.”

Within a year, the time had been reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Hooked together by ropes, partially assembled vehicles were towed past workers who completed them one piece at a time. It wasn’t long before Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year, a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half, to $260, putting them within reach of all those who, up until that time, could not afford them. Soon, auto makers over the world copied him. In fact, he encouraged them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations, entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile had arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation, everything from toasters to perfumes is made on assembly lines.

Edsel Ford, Henry’s great-grandson, and a Ford vice president: “I think that my great-grandfather would just be amazed at how far technology has come.”

Many of today’s innovations come from Japan. Norman Bodek, who publishes books about manufacturing processes, finds this ironic. On a recent trip to Japan, he talked to two of the top officials of Toyota. “When I asked them where these secrets came from, where their ideas came from to manufacture in a totally different way, they laughed, and they said, ‘Well. We just read it in Henry Ford’s book from 1926: Today and Tomorrow.’”

UK Phone Booths Become Free Solar-powered Mobile Phone Changers

Created in the 1920s by Sir Giles Gilbert Scotty the architect who designed Waterloo Bridge, the red public telephone boxes, which can be seen all over the UK, are regarded as one of the most typical symbols of this country.

However, public phones have had their day despite their lovely housings. While coin-operated and card-operated telephones are on the edge of extinction, mobile phones are playing a significant role in people’s lives. Though they are more portable, flexible and extensively used, mobile phones have their kryptonite: battery life. Instead of trashing the phone booths, a project was then promoted to recycle and reuse them. To be consistent with the environment-friendly preference, people are allowed to rent and repurpose the red phone boxes. In this way, they are making an unusual comeback.

When you take a walk down Tottenham Court Road in London and find your mobile phone in a low-battery condition, there happens to be a green option for you. The abandoned phone booths are being repurposed as free charging stations powered by solar energy.

Inside the booths, which are newly painted green, there are various adapters that can be connected to different brands and models of mobile phones. Just walk in, plug your phone in, and charge it up whenever it needs to be supplied with power. Since most people would stay inside the boxes while they charge, Solarbox, the company which launched the project, can reach a large quantity of audience by displaying ads on solid equipment. Its advertisers include well-known companies like Uber, yet 30% of advertising space is reserved for local community projects.

Apart from converting phone booths into solar-powered charging stations, other forms of transformation can be found in and outside the UK. For example, there is medical equipment or mini libraries adapted from phone booths, while in America, thousands of phone booths have been transformed to Wi-Fi hot spots.

Chances are you have a cellphone within inches of you. Cellphones use radiofrequency (RF) radiation to send signals. Radiofrequency energy is a form of electromagnetic radiation, which can be either ionizing (离子化的) or non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation includes X-rays, which have been proven to be harmful, but the evidence is still iffy about non-ionizing rays.

CNN’s Dr Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon, has long been outspoken in his use of a headset for his cellphone. “Non-ionizing radiation won’t damage DNA. It’s more like very low power microwaves,” he says. “In the short term, they are likely harmless. But in the long term, it could be a different story. Anyway, who likes the idea of a microwave, even a low-powered one, next to their head all day?”

Earlier this year, researchers at the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) exposed rats to RF for about nine hours a day, seven days a week. The study found that the rats were more likely to develop brain and heart cancers. In contrast, the control rats were not exposed to RF, and none of them developed any cancers.

It should be noted that the levels of radiation that the rats were exposed to were much higher than the limits set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “The levels and time of exposure to radiofrequency radiation were much greater than what people experience with even the highest level of cellphone use,” the NTP said.

Researchers at Drexel University may be on to something. The team has created a nanomaterial (纳米材料) made out of a thin layer of MXenes, which will protect a device from electromagnetic pollution. “We believe MXenes are going to be the next generation of protective materials for portable, flexible and wearable electronics,” said lead author Yury Gogotsi, Ph. D.

Researchers wonder if the next step can be protecting humans in the same way, but that will require more research. In the meantime, if you’re concerned about radiation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you use a speakerphone or wired headset as much as possible.