In 1665, Johannes Vermeer, one of the greatest painters in Netherlands, put the last drop of paint onto a canvas and completed his masterpiece “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” On an April day 357 years later, Janine Strong slowed her bike to stop, paused her fitness app, and watched unexpectedly as the snaking line of her cycling route drew the shape of Vermeer’s masterpiece over the streets of Brooklyn.

Ms. Strong creates what has come to be known as “GPS art” — a practice that uses the Global Positioning System mapping capabilities of modern phone apps to create digital drawings with an athlete’s route. It has grown with the widespread availability of satellite tracking for use by ordinary people. In fact, the idea ham been around stance before the popularity of smartphones for fitness like Strava released in 2009.

In 2003, The New York Times Margarine told of how Jeremy Wood ant the idea for GPS art. Mr. Wood said while he was using a GPS tracker on a flight and the plane flew in a holding pattern above Heath-row Airport, he was attracted by the pattern appearing on his Garmin GPS device. In recent years, technology has advanced enough to create visual maps in real time using a phone or smart watch.

“I get bored cycling on the same path in the same streets,” Ms Strong said. “Creating GPS art gives me more reasons to hit the pavement, which makes cycling a lot easier. I always have a big smile on my face when it works out and I upload it and it’s done,” she added. “It’s a very satisfying feeling.”

To complete her digital vision of “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” she biked almost 50 miles around southern Brooklyn, carefully checking Strava to make sure each turn, circle, and straight line was achieving the shape of carrying and head covering of Vermeer’s original.

Technology companies are raising hundreds of millions of dollars to develop farm products that use microbes (微生物) and seaweed to grow crops. The move comes at a time when fertilizer prices are very high and increasing attention is being paid to how food is produced around the world.

Microbes, including fungi (真菌) and viruses, have been available for years as treatments to protect plants from insects and disease, with mixed outcomes, but developers are increasingly using them as natural ways to support crops while keeping up crop production levels.

The new microbial fertilizers are sometimes called biostimulants. Such products could help farmers use less nitrogen, a fertilizer that can pollute waterways and create a gas that has environmental effects.

One product from the startup Pivot Bio has microbes that take in sugar from the roots of corn, wheat, or sorghum plants, producing an enzyme that changes nitrogen to a crop nutrient. The company says that farmers have already used it on more than 400,000 hectares and it also raised $430 million last year from investors. The $3 billion biostimulants industry is to grow by 12 to 15 percent each year over the next five years.

Microbial fertilizers are largely unregulated, with few studies on how effective they are at developing crops. Besides, not everyone is convinced that biostimulants work. For example, University of Minnesota soil scientist Daniel Kaiser has tested Pivot’s PROVEN product over the past two seasons. He used it on six areas with reduced nitrogen fertilizer treatments, but only one area showed an improved yield.

Currently, only a small number of American states require companies to supply data on the effectiveness of microbial fertilizers. And the US Environmental Protection Agency has only issued draft guidance for public review.

Officials of Detroit, Michigan, have equipped a piece of road with new technology designed to charge electric vehicles (EVs) on the path. The roadway is meant to serve as a demonstration project for the technology, which could be expanded to larger road systems.

The system uses a series of copper wires placed underneath the road. These wires have the ability to send electricity through a magnetic field to charge an EV’s battery. Charging can happen while the car is driving or sitting above the equipment. Electreon says the electric road system is safe for people and animals walking over it and does not harm drivers.

The technology was created by Electreon, a developer of wireless charging solutions for EVs. Stefan Tongur, Electreon’s vice president of business development, told The Associated Press EVs require special equipment to receive the wireless signal. “The technology is smart,” Tongur said, and “knows who you are...”

The electrified road stretches about one half-kilometer. It will be used to test and improve the technology in preparation for wider releases. Tongur said the project aims to “demonstrate how wireless charging unlocks widespread EV adoption, addressing limited range, grid (电网) limitations, and battery size and costs.” He looks forward to a future in which, in his words, “EVs are the norm, not the exception.”

Michigan’s Department of Transportation (DOT) signed a five-year agreement with Electreon to develop the roadway charging system. Officials have said they plan to build another electrified stretch of road in another part of the city. Michigan transportation officials say the wireless-charging roadway project has helped position the state and city of Detroit as national leaders in EV technology. “In Michigan, we want to stay ahead of the curve,” Michigan DOT Director Bradley C.Wieferich told the AP.