“More and more consumers across the country are using cashless payment methods. The rapid development of third⁃party mobile payment tools is helping to encourage cashless payment across the country,” said Dong Ximiao, a researcher at Renmin University of China.

Although there were 3.4 billion third⁃party payment accounts in total in China in 2016, China is not the first country to seek a cashless society. Developed countries like Sweden, Denmark and Singapore are also seeing that increase.

However, the rapid development of the cashless payment does not mean there are no challenges or criticisms. Alibaba’s Hema store has come under the spotlight (成为焦点) recently. The media said that consumers couldn’t buy goods in cash there, which would be considered illegal.

Alipay and WeChat Pay, the nation’s two major third⁃party mobile payment tools, also launched campaigns this month to encourage more people to use cashless payment methods, which caused concern over whether cash will soon disappear.

“Some offline sellers refuse to accept cash, which influences the natural circulation (流通) of cash,” said Dong. He stressed that a cashless society would not mean that cash would completely disappear. “Also it’s important to remember that nearly half of China’s population live in the country, and they are unable to enjoy innovation (革新) brought by the Internet,” said Dong. “And when it comes to China’s senior citizens, most of them prefer to use cash in their daily lives,” he added.

“It’s ridiculous (荒谬的) to question digital payment tools’ contribution to financial development. In the long term, various payment methods will be used by consumers, and merchants should respect consumers’ payment habits,” Dong noted.

Conventional wisdom says that hardship can make us old before our time. In fact, a new study suggests that violence not only leaves long-term scars on children’s bodies, but also changes their DNA, causing changes that are equal to seven to ten years of premature aging.

Scientists measured this by studying the ends of children’s chromosomes (染色体）, called telomeres(端粒), says Idan Shalev, lead author of a study published in Molecular Psychiatry.

Telomeres are special DNA sequences (序列）which prevent the DNA in chromosomes from separating. They get shorter each time a cell divides, until a cell cannot divide any more and dies.

Several factors have been found to shorten telomeres, including smoking, radiation and psychological stresses such as being treated badly when young and taking care of a chronically ill person.

In this study, researchers examined whether exposure to violence could make children’s telomeres shorten faster than normal. They interviewed the mothers of 236 children 3t ages 5, 7 and 10, asking whether the youngsters had been exposed to domestic violence between the mother and her partner; physical maltreatment by an adult; or bullying. Researchers measured the children's telomeres —in cells obtained by wiping the insides of their cheeks一at ages 5 and 10.

Telomeres shortened faster in kids exposed to two or more types of violence, says Shalev. Unless that pattern changes, the study suggests, these kids could be expected to develop diseases of aging, such as heart attacks or memory loss, seven to 10 years earlier than their peers.

Shlev says there is hope for these kids. His study found that, in rare cases, telomeres Better nutrition, exercise and stress reduction are three things that may be able to lengthen telomeres, he says.

The study confirms a small but growing number of studies suggesting that early childhood adversity imprints itself in our chromosomes, says Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School.

Justice is something we all desire, and the hope is that our legal system can be fair. In the past, people often saw injustices taking place that went unpunished. Some of these people got fed up, took matters into their own hands, and became vigilantes (治安员). They played the role of judges, jury and executioners (执行者). Today, the same thing is happening on a much larger scale, and it is known as Internet vigilantism.

Internet vigilantism works by first identifying a person who has committed a crime or done something that is considered uncivil.

Our modern age that is filled with digital cameras has made injustice easy to record, and the Internet has made it easy to distribute the evidence instantly. This method has been successful in many cases for tracking down people who have committed crimes. It also has been very helpful in keeping those with power in check. Keeping power in check is the upside of distributing evidence only if justice is reached through proper channels.

However, there are two sides to Internet vigilantism. When Internet citizens gang up on people for minor crimes or small faults, those who are the focus of the gangs can have their lives ruined. The vigilantes gather information on the Internet and use it to publicly shame the person. The accused person thus loses all his or her rights to privacy and everything about him or her is brought out into the open. Internet vigilantism violates basic human rights to privacy and can cause serious damage to people or their reputations.

Another problem is that it also has a negative effect on the friends and family members of the person being shamed. Innocent people with the same name as the accused can also get caught in the cross fire. Worst of all, the person being targeted rarely gets a chance to defend himself or herself.

We need to ask ourselves how far we will go to punish someone and how much privacy they deserve. When it comes to Internet vigilantism, remember that it is very easy to post an opinion or video anonymously (匿名地) online and give a one-sided or partial account of the truth. Like so many other aspects of life, we must resist passing judgment before fully understanding a situation.