The type of soap with the name African black soap or simply black soap is the one that has its origin in Africa or West Africa to be precise.

The soap is often made by women and is fair-traded, though not always, Black soap is traditionally made in West Africa, typically Ghana, from secret recipes. Different tribes have adopted their own secret making techniques, which can be seen in different colors among black soap. Varieties of black soaps actually made in Africa tend to be pure.

The first step of making traditional African black soap is selecting the plant—usually cocoa pods or palm tree leaves, sometimes shea tree bark (酪脂树皮), which then are sun-dried and burned to ashes which are often used to heal cuts. To guarantee the natural color and light smell, it's important to keep a constant temperature of burning. Then the water is added into the ashes along with the shea butter, palm oil, and coconut oil. That mixture is cooked until it becomes stable. It needs to be hand stirred for at least 24 hours. After that, they scooped it out and let it ''cure'' for two weeks. Those soaps that are made in Africa contain no artificial ingredients (材料).

African black soap is being used for many generations and many causes. African black soap has many benefits over commercially produced soaps. One of the most common usage is to cure skin conditions and problems. After using this soap, the skin looks healthy. Another usage of the black soap is for removing the makeup and dead skin. It also gives an excellent UV (紫外线) protection because of the high level of shea butter in it.

However, the black soap also has some unpleasant side effects. For example, your skin may become over-dried. If so, you should stop using it and wash your skin with water.

After COVID-19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that while the number of nurses has increased in the past three years, the U.S. still experiences a shortage of registered nurses, and that there will be over one million unfilled nursing jobs. So what’s the solution? Robots.

Japan is ahead of the curve when it comes to this trend. Toyohashi University of Technology has developed Terapio, a robotic medical cart that can make hospital rounds, deliver medications and other items, and retrieve records. This type of robot will likely be one of the first to be implemented in hospital.

Robots capable of social engagement help with loneliness as well as cognitive functioning, but the robot itself doesn’t have to engage directly — it can serve as a mediator for human communication. Telepresence robots such as MantaroBot, Vgo, and Giraff can be controlled through a computer, smartphone, or tablet, allowing family members or doctors to remotely monitor patients or Skype them. If you can’t get to the nursing home to visit grandma, you can use a telepresence robot to hang out with her.

A robot’s appearance affects its ability to successfully interact with humans, which is why the Human-Interactive Robot Research decided to develop a robotic nurse that looks like a huge teddy bear. RIBA, also known as “Robear,” can help patients into and out of wheelchairs and beds with its strong arms.

On the less cute and more scary side there is Actroid F, which has such resilient skin and natural hair color that some patients may not know the difference. This conversational robot companion has cameras in its eyes, which allow it to track patients and use appropriate facial expressions and body language in its interactions.

It’s important to note that robotic nurses don’t decide courses of treatment or make diagnoses. Instead, they perform routine and laborious tasks, freeing nurses up to attend to patients with immediate needs. This is one industry where it seems the integration of robots will lead to cooperation, not replacement.

MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera led research on the artificial leaf project, says he and his colleagues took their cues from plants, which are literally buzzing with electricity.

“What happens is that sunlight comes in and hits the leaf and then the leaf immediately takes that sunlight and makes a wireless current,”says Nocera.

During photosynthesis, the energy in sunlight splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen joins with carbon dioxide to make sugar, an essential fuel for plant growth. In Nocera’s laboratory, scientists replicated that chemical process using a silicon device about the size and shape of a playing card, only thinner. It's coated with nickel and cobalt catalysts that when exposed to water and ultraviolet light, accelerate a chemical reaction.

“So you can literally just take this bottle of water and we could take the chip, put the chip inside the bottle of water, and go holding it up in the sun and you would start seeing hydrogen and oxygen bubbles coming up.”

The hydrogen is then recombined with the oxygen in a fuel cell to produce electricity. Nocera’s work builds on previous research. John Turner of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory pioneered the concept in 1998 using materials too expensive and unstable for commercialization.

Nocera says his so-called practical artificial leaf uses less expensive materials, is more stable and more efficient than that earlier design. He says the challenge is to collect the gases coming off the silicon and store them until the energy is needed. “That has to be engineered still,” he adds. “We don't know how to do that. It will be something that we will start doing pretty soon. You’ll be storing a fair amount of energy because this system is working at the efficiency more or less of the solar cell.”

In laboratory experiments, Nocera's solar cell prototype operated continuously for 45 hours without a drop in electrical output. Nocera notes that it works in any type of water. “So you can use natural water sources, which for us is a big deal, because if you are in rural parts of the world. especially where they are poor, it is really costly to bring in pure water and so, the fact that you can go over there' to a puddle and pick the water up and begin using it, is something that is very powerful for us."

Nocera believes the artificial leaf could be especially useful as an inexpensive source of electricity for low-income populations in developing countries. The goal, Nocera says, is to make each home its own power station. He predicts a commercial version of the artificial leaf will be on the market within three years.