The beginning of the 21st century saw a revolution in home living with new technology changing the places where we live, from the internet to flat TV screens, and it seems technology could be changing our homes again. A project conducted by Johann Siau, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Engineering and Technology, has built on the university’s InterHome project – aiming to create a home that supervises people living at home who are weak or elderly.

“We’ve developed a wristband type device,” said Johann Siau, “which allows us to monitor the condition of an elderly person, or whoever is wearing the device. It allows us to collect data of a person, to see if the person has fallen or is away from where they are supposed to be. It connects an elderly person with an assisted living type device with the InterHome.” The assisted living project is part of the university’s wider InterHome project, which is the development of a smart house. The house stores the usage patterns of the person living there and can adapt to make it use as little energy as possible. “Connecting the two together and building the service element allow us to introduce the assisted-living idea to care for the elderly. It’s very important that these technologies are there to help and support rather than to replace any of the existing services.”

Built from zero

The InterHome is not just a prototype or a vehicle for research, it’s a study tool to help students from different scientific backgrounds learn about and develop technology. The InterHome combines the latest broadband technology, mobile data and communication. Researchers and students make sure all the technology works together. Students get experience by developing new hardware and software themselves. It requires a variety of skills from students – electronic engineers, computer students, design students and so on. “The present plan we are working on is a smart home project in Watford with some commercial companies,” said Johann Siau. “We are looking at how a smarter home can provide extra value services.”

To deal with a changing world, we have to change as well. Transforming land into farms removes forests and worsens climate change. But we need to grow more food to support a growing global population. What can we do?

Scientists have discovered that plants grow best under a certain type of light, which can be provided by red and blue LEDs. The combination of these lights at the right level makes a space look pink. Since “pinkhouses” supply their own light, they don’t need to have fragile glass walls and ceilings. And they can be set up anywhere, including places that don’t get the amount of light greenhouses need.

Since pinkhouses can pack food in huge columns, one of these farms doesn’t need a lot of land. Farmers can set up pinkhouses in cities. They completely control temperature and light, which can help some plants grow twice as well in pinkhouses as they do in traditional farming. Pinkhouses can allow for many more harvests per year since farming doesn’t have to stop in the winter.

Even though pinkhouses are a great way to grow crops, lighting and heating an indoor space is very expensive. It doesn’t make sense to grow foods that take up a lot of space or that we need to grow lots of, like wheat, rice, and corn, in a pinkhouse. We will still need to grow those crops in fields. We can start farming smarter.

Farmers will use satellite imagery to figure out exactly where to plant each crop. Think of a mixture of just the fight crops, rather than a rectangle of one type of plant. Sensors in the fields will measure the soil’s water level：temperature, and chemical content. They will even be able to detect insects and send out notifications to a smartphone app. Irrigation systems will be tied to weather forecasting programs, allowing very precise watering and care, all calculated to get the best plant growth and yield.

In space, there is no up or down. Without the gravity that we experience on Earth, as-tronauts and everything else on a spaceship float freely.

Humans can experience the sense of zero gravity without going into space. How？A zero-gravity flight. When an airplane flies in a lot of parabolas（抛物线）, a man-made zero-gravity environment is set up. Everything in the plane floats, even passengers.

Gravity has an effect on everything from the human body and mind to the behavior of plants and the way machines run. Space travel is expensive and dangerous. But zero-gravity flights let scientists conduct experiments in an environment that mimics（模拟） the conditions of space. On each of its research trip, Zero-G flies about 30 parabolas, each of which creates a period of weightlessness that lasts about 30 seconds. Nikolaus Kuhn of the University of Ba-sel, in Switzerland, flew with Zero-G. He was conducting an experiment about soil and the flow of water on Mars. The Red Planet has about one-third of the gravity that Earth has. This means water flows more slowly on Mars. By making the parabolas less steep, zero-gravity flights can make the feeling of Martian gravity. Flying with Zero-G has been necessary for Kuhn’s research. “It is the only chance, other than going to Mars, to mimic movement of water as it would be on Mars,” he told TFK.

For years, NASA used zero-gravity flights to prepare and train astronauts. “I have not been to space,” Peters of Zero-G says, “But I have been told by astronauts that zero-gravity feels exactly the same.” As humans continue to explore the universe beyond Planet Earth, zero-gravity flights will remain an important and fun tool. “It never gets old,” Peters says “I would do it every weekend for the rest of my life if I could.”