Is your schoolbag too heavy to carry? The e-schoolbag will help you.

It is said that e-schoolbags are going to be brought into use(进入运用) in Chinese middle school soon. In fact, the e-schoolbag should perhaps be called an e-textbook. It is a small computer for students. Heavy schoolbags have long been a serious (严重的) problem for them. But the e-schoolbag will change everything. It is much lighter than a usual schoolbag. Also it is as small as a usual book, but it can still hold all the things for study, such as a textbook, an exercise book and so on. They can be made into chips(芯片)that are as small as a stamp. The students can read the text page by page on the screen, take notes, or even send e-mails to their teachers. All they have to do is to put the right chip into the e-schoolbag and press a button.

Some say that e-textbooks can be easily broken; some say it is not good to students’ eyes. But only time will tell.

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In the new film, Avengers: Age of Ultron, a computer which is designed to bring peace to the world describes that the simplest way to achieve peace is to kill humans—no people, no war. Yet the computer, Ultron, finally failed, but the film is making people nervous about what the future will be like when machines become programmed with artificial intelligence (人工智能).

Artificial intelligence is the ability of computers to do things that require thought. Right now computers don’t really think, they just process a lot of information very quickly. But scientists are developing new computers that will act like the human brain. They will be able to think and create, and not just follow the instructions of a human programmer.

Gray Scott, an American scientist who spends his time thinking about the future, is hopeful about the future of artificial intelligence and says it will be helpful to humans. It will do most of our jobs and allow people to enjoy life. However, Elon Musk, the inventor of the Tesla electric car, says these machines with artificial intelligence are “probably more dangerous than anything else?” and once they begin thinking for themselves they will be out of human control.

It’s a bit frightening to think that some day, instead of machines working for us, we will be working for them; or, even worse, not working at all by 2018, it’s said that 50% of American jobs will be done by computers. People with little knowledge and few skills had got most of these jobs. However, with artificial intelligence machines, even highly educated and highly skilled workers may be out of work. Engineers, doctors, and even scientists may find themselves jobless.

In 19th century England, there was a group called the Luddites. They were textile (纺织的) workers whose jobs had been replaced by machines. They destroyed the machines in hopes of getting their jobs back. It didn’t work. Technology moved forward, as it always does, and people had to adapt (适应).

Perhaps one day we will have to use our real "intelligence to make sure a machine’s “artificial” intelligence doesn’t lose control and cause more harm than good.

China has just opened its FAST radio telescope to international scientists. It means scientists across the world can apply for using the telescope to do astronomical observations.

FAST is short for Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. Its construction was completed in September 2016 and it officially began operating in January 2020. Measuring 500 meters in diameter. FAST is the largest radio telescope in the world, surpassing the 305-meter telescope of the U.S. Arecibo Observatory. FAST is also believed to be the world’s most sensitive single-dish radio telescope, and is 10 times more sensitive than the 100-meter Radio Telescope Effelsberg in Germany.

The major scientific task of the telescope is the observation of pulsars（脉冲星）. The study of pulsars can help to confirm the existence of gravitational radiation（引力辐射）and black holes, and help solve many other major questions in physics. Another major scientific goal of FAST is to search for life outside the Earth.

The telescope is located in a naturally deep and round karst depression（喀斯特洼）in southwest China’s Guizhou Province. The first advantage of the selected site is the altitude. The average altitude of Guizhou is about 1,100 meters. Generally, the higher the altitude, the more it can observe. Secondly, the radio telescope needs to have a “big pan” to receive a better signal. The huge natural depression could reduce the difficulty of construction. Moreover, the selected site in Guizhou is far away from cities, and has a small population density, which reduces the interference caused by wireless devices such as TVs, mobile phones and radios from human activities.

So far, FAST has identified over 300 pulsars. Experts predict that the number could reach 1,000 in five years and that the telescope could locate and identify the first pulsar outside the galaxy.