"Can you imagine?" Diébédo Francis Kéré said to NPR, "I was born in Burkina Faso, a little village where there was no school. And my father wanted me to learn how to read and write very simply because then I could translate or read him his letters."
The first Black winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize was as surprised as anyone else to be selected for the field's most famous prize. Many architects had openly supposed that 2022 would be Sir David Adjaye's year, who is best known for designing notable buildings as the Nobel Peace Center in Norway. Kéré, who is based in Berlin but centers much of his practice in Africa, has been—until now—far lesser known, with buildings that include primary schools and a healthcare clinic.
When he was twenty, in 1985, Kéré earned a scholarship to study carpentry in Berlin. But he also attended night school and was admitted to Technische Universität Berlin, from which he graduated in 2004 with an advanced degree in architecture. He was still a student when he designed and built the innovative Gando Primary School.
Kéré's architectural practice was inspired by his own experience attending school with around 100 other children in a region with temperatures over 100 F. "It's very hot inside. And there was no light, while outside, the sunlight was abundant. I think, one day I should make it better. I was thinking about space, about room, about how I could feel better." In his designs for Gando Primary School and Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School, Kéré drew on traditional building materials such as local clay mixed with concrete, and emphasized shade and shadows, making spaces bright enough and letting air in, and thus reducing the need for air conditioning. He wanted the buildings to evoke the sense of an oasis (绿洲), a place for many children, to be happy and learn how to read and write.
Nobody knows the value of a good doll better than Jandrisevits. "Dolls have a power we don't completely understand," she said. It's a conclusion she came to while working as a social worker using dolls to help her young clients adapt to their changing medical situations. Many of the kids saw themselves in those dolls. But for the kids missing a limb or who had lost their hair, there were none they could relate to.
So, seven years ago, when a friend revealed that her child was stuck in self-doubt and self-distrust, Jandrisevits, now 49, knew what might help the youth through this potentially challenging period. "It's hard to tell a kid, 'You are perfect the way you are, ' and to build self-esteem (自尊) that way, but never offer them anything that looks like them, "she says.
Jandrisevits went about changing that. She crafted a doll by hand — using fabric, stitching, and markers — that resembled (像) her friend's child and sent it off. After the friend posted a photo online of the happy child and doll, another woman asked Jandrisevits to make a doll that looked like her baby, who was missing a leg.
Word spread, and soon Jandrisevits was making dolls for children with scars, birthmarks, facial deformities(畸形), — in short, a doll that looked like them. She quit her job and started a nonprofit, A Doll Like Me.
Working out of her home in Milwaukee, from photos sent by parents or caregivers, it takes Jandrisevits roughly three days to craft only one doll. A GoFundMe page helps her cover costs and allows her to donate her services. She hasn't charged for a doll since she began her nonprofit.
In all, she's made more than 400 dolls. The waiting list is long, but Jandriscvits will never give up. As she explains on her GoFundMe page, "Every kid, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, medical issue, or body type, should look into the sweet face of a doll and see their own."
Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing a way of editing genes(基因), which offers the promise of one day curing inherited(遗传的) diseases. Working on opposite sides of the Atlantic, French woman Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer A. Doudna came up with a method known as CRISPR-Cas9 that can be used to change the DNA of animals and plants.
It was the first time two women had won the chemistry Nobel together—adding to the small number of female winners in the sciences, where women have long received less recognition for their work than men. The scientists' work allows researchers to precisely edit specific genes to remove errors that lead to disease.
"There is great power in this genetic tool, which affects us all," said Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, "It has not only made huge progress in basic science, but also led to advances in new medical treatments. "
Charpentier, 53, spoke of the shock of winning. "Strangely enough I was told a number of times that I'd win, but when it happens you're very surprised. And I wish that this will provide a positive message to young girls who would like to follow the path of science. "
Doudna told The Associated Press, "I actually just found out I'm in shock. And my greatest hope is that it's used for good, to uncover new mysteries in biology and to benefit humankind. "
The Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT have been in a long court fight over patents(专利) on CRISPR technology, and many other scientists did important work on it, but Doudna and Charpentier have been most consistently(一致地) honored with prizes for turning it into an easily usable tool.
Many parents dream of their children growing up and seeing the world. But Edith Lemay, a mother of four from Canada, worried her children were running out of time to do that.
When her first child, Mia, was little, she noticed she would bump into things. In 2018, Mia was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa(色素性视网膜炎).
"What it does is that the cell in the retina dies over time and they lose their field of vision. There's a chance they will go completely blind by midlife," said Lemay.
The disease is genetic, meaning Lemay's other kids were at risk. She soon noticed two of her sons, Collin and Laurent, had the same symptoms. They were soon diagnosed, too.
"Of course it was devastating(令人极为震惊的). And when you have a kid, you always have an image of what their future is going to be like and all of a sudden, you get that news and you need to erase that and think it over. And it really is a grieving process," Lemay said.
Lemay wanted to prepare her kids for what was to come and thought about filling their visual memory. In March, Lemay, her husband, and her four kids left Canada and embarked on an epic journey, traveling the globe for a whole year—showing their kids the world, before it is too late.
During their trip, Lemay is homeschooling her kids. The family also made a bucket list of fun activities they want to accomplish, so each kid can see their dreams come true.
Lemay said her kids are not only making visual memories. They're also learning important life lessons, like focusing on the positive. "Sometimes they're tired and there's frustration. It's difficult. But with the travel, I want them to be resilient."
"I want them to know that any situation that's hard is temporary, because through their life, they'll need lots of resilience," she said. "They're going to adapt to a situation with their eyesight and then in a few years later, they'll lose a chunk of their eyesights and they will have to readapt and adapt again and fall and get back again," Lemay continued.
Many parents want to give their kids the world and this mom did.
Would you eat less junk food if it costs a little bit more? Starting on July 1, the Navajo Nation will charge a 2% tax (税) on junk food sold on its reservation (保留地)- the first tax of its kind in America. The change is part of the Healthy Dine Nation Act, which the tribe's president Ben Shelly approved last November. The law will also the current 5% sales tax on healthy food from fresh fruits and vegetables.
Denisa Livingston from the Dine Community Advocacy Alliance, a group that helped pass this law, hopes to make people in the community more aware of their food choices. "This is a friendly awareness tax, "she said.
In a press release, Livingston said that by the law, they want to improve the health of its population, which inhabits a 27, 000-square-mile reservation from Arizona and New Mexico to Utah.
Approximately 24, 600 Navajo tribe members face obesity, according to the Navajo Area Indian Health Service. Type 2 diabetes has emerged as a growing public health concern affecting up to 60% of reservation residents in some areas.
Livingston says that the Navajo Nation's status (身份)as a food desert contributes to the health problems the people face. A food desert is an area where fresh, healthy food is expensive and hard to find. Food deserts are especially common in low-income communities, such as the Navajo Nation, where 38% of the population lives at the poverty level.
The money that the government collects from junk food taxes will be put towards projects that encourage people to eat healthy food from community vegetable gardens, greenhouses, and farmers' markets. "This is going to open the door to more opportunities and conversations and ideas about how we move to a food oasis (绿洲) where everyone has access to healthy food, " Livingston said, "Whether you're deep in the reservation or the neighboring towns, you will have the availability of healthy food. "
After decades of work trying to save the giant panda, Chinese officials have announced the species is no longer endangered. The pandas have been reclassified in the country from endangered to vulnerable after efforts to increase the population. Now the number has risen to 1,800 in the wild.
"China has established a relatively complete nature reserves system," Cui Shuhong, director of the Department of Natural Ecological Protection of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said on Wednesday. "Large areas of natural ecosystems have been systematically and completely protected, and wildlife habitats have been effectively improved. "
The latest classification upgrade reflects their improved living conditions and China's efforts in keeping their habitats integrated, Cui added.
Bamboo makes up 90% of pandas' diets, and the animals would likely starve without the shoots. Experts believe China's efforts to replant bamboo forests have been the key to the increase in the population of pandas.
Generally speaking, a panda has to eat at least 26 pounds of bamboo every day to maintain its energy, so large areas of bamboo forests are primary to their survival.
Planting bamboo also has advantages for the planet, as the bamboo is grass, not a tree, and is incredibly efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide, as well as emitting 35% more oxygen than trees.
"The Chinese have done a great job in investing in panda habitats, expanding and setting up new reserves," Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of conservation at the World Wildlife Fund. told the media. "They are a wonderful example of what can happen when a government is committed to conservation. "
Continuing China's success will be dependent on the country protecting land from agricultural and urban development. As land becomes rarer, measures will need to be extended to protect more land, to ensure bamboo forests can thrive and as a result, protect the future of the world's most lovable, lazy, and monochrome (black and white) creature.
Elon Musk isn't content with electric cars, shooting people into orbit and populating Mars. He also wants to get inside your brain.
His goal is to develop devices that can provide treatment to neural(神经的)diseases-and that may one day be powerful enough to put humanity on an equal footing with possible future super intelligent computers.
Not that it's anywhere close to that yet.
In a video Friday obviously aimed at seeking new employees, Musk showed off the second version of the Neuralink, a device about the size of a large coin. It's designed to be put in a person's head. An earlier version of the device has to be placed behind an ear like a huge hearing aid.
But the young company is far from having a commercial product, which would involve complex human trials and governmental approval. Friday's video showed three pigs. One, named Gertrude, had a Neuralink device in its brain.
Musk, a founder of both the electric car company Tesla Motors and the space-exploration firm SpaceX, has always been worried about that smarter AI machines will outwit humans. His solution? Link our brains to computers so we can keep up with or even win over them in intelligence!
Musk urged coders(程序员), engineers and especially people who have actually created a product to apply. "You don't need to have brain experience," he said, adding that this is something that can be learned on the job.
Connecting a brain up directly to electronics is not new. Doctors have already put similar devices in brains to treat such conditions as Parkinson's disease. In 2016, researchers reported that a man regained some movement in his own hand with a similar brain implant. But Musk's proposal goes beyond this. Neuralink wants to build on those existing medical treatments and work on devices that could link our brains to computers one day.
Language is the bridge that connects people everywhere. On April 20, people around the world celebrated the United Nations Chinese Language Day. To mark the occasion, the UN Office at Geneva, Switzerland, organized the first Chinese Language Video Festival (CLVF).
Participants from 27 countries, including the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, took part in the one-hour special event, sharing their passion for the Chinese language and culture through short videos. Over 340 video submissions told touching stories about a civilized, modern and youthful China through participants' personal experiences in the country.
Though some people find the language difficult to learn, most find it to be rewarding.
For M. Yousaf from Pakistan, learning Chinese gave him a better perspective and insight into the culture. "Learning Chinese is not just learning a language. It's a language of one of the biggest populations in the world," Yousaf said. "If you know this language, you know the civilization and mind of the people. "
Of course the language itself is unique, particularly considering it's tonal (音调的) foundation. "Tones are important because a lot of Chinese syllables (音节) sound similar or even the same – the tone changes their meaning," said Mike Fuksman, an American living in Beijing.
To remember Chinese characters, you can connect them with pictures and make some short stories. Many people find it is important to use imagination when learning Chinese. For example, the Chinese character for "tea" has some lines of grass, the roof of a house and people drinking tea.
Learning any language comes with benefits, particularly for those who are always looking to learn more. Since some languages have "loanwords (外来词)" from Chinese, it may be easier for one to pick up Korean or Japanese after studying Chinese. "It helped me so much when I started learning Japanese," said Yerdana.
Liao Wentao, a pet undertaker, put the body of 2-year-old Garfield on a small bed surrounded by flowers. Then he let the cat's owner say a last goodbye before cremation (火化). "We send off 400 to 500 pets each year, and there's a great demand for pet funerals," he told China News.
Keeping pets has become a trend for young people in China and people are more than willing to pay for whatever their pets need. From 2019 to 2021, China's pet market grew by almost 18% and hit 348. 8 billion yuan in value in 2021, according to a report by iResearch Consulting Group.
As the pet economy develops, animal lovers' various needs have boosted the emergence and development of related businesses such as bathing, pet food, pet beauty and healthcare.
In addition to basic services, pet owners are increasingly paying for many new services, such as training, pet funerals, insurance, photography and entertainment. The growing pet market has also given birth to a large number of new pet-related jobs, noted CCTV News.
Liu Wei, 33, is a famous pet detective in Shanghai. He and his team work on finding families' lost pets. "We have successfully helped find more than 1,000 pets. Besides cats and dogs, there are other pets like birds, lizards and hamsters," Liu said. "In many big cities, cats and dogs have become an important part of many families and are taken good care of. So what we look for are not just pets, but family members. "
Apart from pet undertakers and detectives, some people work as pet food testers, pet sitters and pet trainers. According to Tu Di, secretary-general of the Hunan Pet Industry Association, the booming pet market shows people's improved living standards.
However, there are also problems with the industry, for example, the high fees of taking pets to the vet (兽医). Many pet owners have called for stricter pricing regulations for pet medical services, reported Global Times.
A Chinese carpenter's traditional skills have become an unexpected Internet hit as he creates woodwork with a single piece of wood, without glue, screws or nails. Wang Dewen, known as "Grandpa Amu" on YouTube, has been praised as the modern day Lu Ban, a well-known Chinese structural engineer during the Zhou Dynasty, thanks to his rich carpentry(木工手艺)knowledge.
Grandpa Amu's most popular video, which shows him making a delicate wooden arch bridge, has gone viral on YouTube, gaining more than 40 million views. "If you do something, you have to love it, and you have to be interested in it; however, being interested doesn't mean there's only happiness and no pain. "Grandpa Amu shared when talking about his excellent carpentry skills.
His most popular works include a folding stool, a model of the China pavilion from the 2010Shanghai Expo, and an apple-shaped interlocking puzzle, known as a Lu Ban lock. Grandpa Amu follows an ancient Chinese mortise and tenon (榫卯)technique, which means no nails or glue are involved in the entire process of building the arch bridge.
The master carpenter has also made several wooden toys for his grandson using the same technique. His young grandson's favorites include a walking Peppa Pig and a bubble blowing machine. Attracting over 1. 17 million fans on YouTube, Grandpa Amu's videos so far have gained more than 200 million views.
His wonderful woodworking skills, using the same mortise and tenon joints found in the Forbidden City, were developed from the age of thirteen as a way of supporting his family in East China's Shandong Provincc. "The grandson is so happy, as there have been so many fine and unique toys made by grandpa from an early age, "commented one netizen; while another said "It's amazing. I hope these traditional crafts can be passed on!"
