Humans are getting away from the nature gradually because of the developing technology. But now Digital Technology is offering us an opportunity to listen to the sounds in the nature in powerful ways, making us get closer to the worlds of animals and plants.

All around the nature, there are sounds that we struggle to pick up and understand. Elephants, for example, communicate with each other using infrasound, a sound far below our human hearing range. Coral in the ocean also communicates with each other through sound waves, with one purpose of attracting baby coral to areas where it can successfully grow. This is a shocking fact as coral doesn’t have any ears!

To pick up sounds humans are normally unable to hear, scientists have placed listening devices in these environments. Researchers have attached tiny microphones to honeybees and turtles, and stuck listening posts that can receive different sound waves from coral reefs and trees. These devices are controlled by computers and networked with digital sensors and satellites. When interconnected, these digital devices work like a hearing aid: enabling humans to observe and record nature’s sounds beyond the limits of our own listening ability. After the sounds are recorded, AI is then able to determine their meanings.

With this technology, humans can not only understand the animals, but also communicate back to them. For example, a team of researchers in Germany decoded the honeybees’ behavior with AI. Then they taught tiny robots how to do the honeybee dance. Using these dancing machines, the scientists were able to order the honeybees to stop moving, and to communicate where to fly to collect a specific nectar. In addition to the possibility of speaking with animals, the research could also be used to create a form of healing for animals and plants. That’s to say, in the near future, scientists might be able to get coral to grow in certain areas by playing “healthy reef” sounds, which could help to heal some of the damage we have caused.

Now, Digital Technology provides a new way for humans to listen to the vivid sounds all around us. The dream of allowing humans to socialize with different animals and plants throughout the nature is being on its way.

Is it possible to go online, talk with your friends on apps, or even read a map on your coat in the near future? Yes, your coat!

It is what scientists are working on. Professor Peng Huisheng and his team at Fudan University have made a new kind of cloth. 【小题1】 They spend 12 years trying to make “digital cloth”.

【小题2】 You can not only fold it, but also wash it. The researchers wash it 500 times and fold it 1,000 times. But the coat is almost unchanged. That’s because this coat is made of a kind of light and soft but strong fibers and fits people well. 【小题3】 The difference is that it can work like a smartphone. It is just like putting a phone screen into the coat. Wear it and then it can show you a lot of information you want.

It is believed that the new coat can be used in many ways. 【小题4】 It can also help people who can’t hear or speak to talk with others. In the hospital, the doctor can learn the health problems of a patient through his or her coat. 【小题5】

Are you looking forward to putting on this coat? It’s coming soon. Let’s wait and see.

People often say, “You can’t live only on air.” But Chinese scientists can now tell you: Maybe you can.

Scientists from Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have made great progress. They have changed carbon dioxide, the “infamous” greenhouse gas, into starch (淀粉).

Starch is the main part of the flour, rice and corn that we eat every day. It’s created by plants through photosynthesis (光合作用). But according to the team’s director Ma Yanhe, plants do this in a complex (复杂的) and inefficient (低效的) way, which takes about 60 steps. The new study, after six years of hard work, has found a simpler way to do this, with only 11 steps.

“Our study shows that creating complex compounds (化合物) like starch is possible in a lab, and there are many areas that can benefit (受益) from this technology,” Ma told China Daily.

The scientists first turned CO₂ and H₂ gas into methanol (甲醇). Then they pieced (组合) these methanol molecules (分子) into bigger and more complex molecules. Finally the starch came out.

This method makes it possible to produce food in factories, instead of traditional farming. This will not only help make plenty of starchy crops (农作物) such as potatoes, but also save water, fertilizer (肥料) and land. It may also help recycle CO₂ to deal with climate change, according to China Daily.

The study can benefit space exploration too. Astronauts no longer need to worry about their food as they travel in space. They may simply turn the CO₂ they breathe into the food they eat!