There are some very good inventions which deserve to be better known, even though I admit that some of them are crazy. Let's have a look at some of them and see if you agree that they deserve to be more successful.

The Australians had a great idea to stop people from drinking and driving. The idea was that if a driver wanted to start the car, she or he would have to blow into a bag first. If there was too much alcohol in their breath, the car wouldn't start. It sounds like a great idea to me, but people said that they might need to drive the car in an emergency even if they had drunk too much alcohol. Another idea I liked was an invention by a scientist who thought his children watched too much TV. He linked the TV to an exercise bike so that the electricity to power the TV was generated by the bike. If the children wanted to watch a lot of TV, they had to ride very hard. I found another invention on the Internet was designed to encourage good habits. Believe it or not, this invention was an ashtray which spoke to you when you lit a cigarette! The ‘voice’ of the ashtray was activated by the heat from the cigarette and reminded you how dangerous it is to smoke.

One of the strangest inventions I have come across is a bicycle which can cross rivers! The idea was that when you came to a river, you could inflate (使充气) a huge plastic ball all around the bike. You would then get into the ball which would float on the river while you rode the bike inside the ball! One thing I would like is a baseball cap with a built-in radio so you can listen to sports programmes all day with your hands free. While we are on the subject of sport, the Americans invented a kind of robot for sports fans. If you were watching your team on TV on your own, you could press a button and the robot would do ‘high fives’ with you! Fantastic! I wonder if you have any brilliant ideas for inventions like these.

ChatGPT is back in the headlines. Open AI, the company behind the popular chatbot has now introduced a powerful new language model: GPT-4.

On March 14, GPT-4 showed the world how smarter it is than the previous GPT- 3.5. One of its best new features is that it can understand pictures. For example, if you show a picture of a phone using the wrong charger, GPT-4 can tell why the picture looks strange or funny.

But GPT-4’s developments don’t stop there. The new language model can code classic games like Tetris (俄罗斯方块) in a matter of minutes, and produce the code and layout (布局) for a website based on a handmade drawing. It can also change the tone and style based on what you ask it to do. GPT-4 is much better than the older GPT at passing tests, which may worry teachers. According to CNN, GPT-4 did really well on a law school test, with a score in the top 10 percent of test takers. But GPT-3.5 only got a score in the bottom 10 percent.

GPT-4 will also see greater use as a tool to power other apps and services. For example, the language leaning app Duolingo plans to use GPT-4 in their upcoming Duolingo Max function (功能). Users can learn language by talking with AI. Another app, Be My Eyes, will have a digital assistant to help blind people better understand the world around them. The government of Iceland also plans to use GPT-4 to protect the Icelandic language.

There are still problems with the new language model, however. GPT-4 still struggles to get completely correct answers, especially with newer information after September 2021. GPT-4 also sometimes “hallucinates”, meaning that it will insist that wrong information is true.

Many people are getting the COVID-19 vaccine(疫苗) these days. But some are afraid of needles(针). What if we didn’t use them at all? Scientists around the world are working on new kinds of vaccines. They hope to help people get vaccinated more easily.

Vaccines we can breathe in(吸入)

Chinese scientist Chen Wei and her team have made a new vaccine. You can breathe it in through (a mask or have it sprayed(喷洒) into your mouth. “We do tests since last September and are now applying for(申请) emergency use of the vaccine,” Chen said.

According to Chen, COVID-19 mainly infects us through the nose and throat(喉咙). By breathing in the vaccine, people can get “mucosal immunity(黏膜免疫)”. This can kill the virus in the nose and throat before it goes deeper into the body. It’s also much easier than injecting(注射) a vaccine. This will help more people get vaccinated quickly.

Vaccine patch

Australian scientists at the University of Queensland have made a COVID-19 vaccine patch(贴片). “It’s a very simple one and it’s easy to use. You don’t need medical staff(医务人员),” said researcher David Muller.

You just put the patch on your arm, leave it on for seconds and take it off. Now you are vaccinated. According to the researchers, the patch has 5,000 very tiny needles. They are too small to cause any pain (疼痛). Now researchers are testing the patch on humans. If successful, it could be used within two years.

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