Trip 1 Black Bear Count

There have been fires in this area in the last few years and the Office of the National Park is not sure how many black bears are still living. Some bears have been seen since the fires, and the Office has asked for young people to help count them. The entire trip will last three hours.

Bookings necessary.

Cost: 15£ for adult, 10£ for child           When: March 14, April8

Trip 2 Garland Valley

Bring your drink and lunch for this walk in a beautiful area of the Blue Mountains. Garland Valley is close to the town of Garland but is part of the National Park. Many wild animals live in this area, including many rare birds. This is a great walk for bird-lovers. The trip lasts four hours.

Bookings necessary.

Cost: Free                             When: May 8, September15

Trip 3 Flashlight Adventure

Put on your warm clothes, bring a flashlight and a pair of glasses, and come for a night walk along the Dungog Valley in the National Park. A guide will lead the tour. Many of the animals you will see on this trip can only be seen at night. The guide will tell you about the lives of the animals you see. Numbers are strictly limited on night trips, so be sure to book early. This walk lasts two and a half hours.

Cost:12£ for child, 15£ for adult                       When: May 15, July 22

Equipment to be needed:

·Please bring enough water and food for all walks.

·Wear good walking shoes-no high heels.

·Wear a hat for day walks.

·Dress warmly for night walks.

·Children must be with an adult.

·Make sure your flashlight works well and bring extra batteries for night walks.

·Follow all instructions from guides during the walks. The mountains are a dangerous place.

Bookings:

·Bookings for the above trips can be made by telephone (893-4847) or on the Internet at www. blue — mountaintour. com.

Isaac Newton's book, the Principia, transformed human understanding of the forces of nature, providing a mathematical basis for the movement of planets, moons, and comets(彗星), as well as objects on Earth. Recently, a new survey has more than doubled the known number of first editions of the book, including the first ones found in Asia. Nearly 200 first editions of Principia were newly identified in the survey, bringing the total known number to 386. The volumes cover 27 countries on five continents, including Africa and Australia.

Until now, the size of the Principia's first edition had been thought to be small-around 250-based on a 1953 survey that put the number of copies at 189. That figure partly reflects a long-held idea that the book, formally titled the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, was virtually incomprehensible outside of a small circle of expert mathematicians. But the new survey suggests that the great volume, at 500 pages and written in Latin, may have been popular in many parts of the world.

Behind the pages of the Principia, in which Newton laid out his three laws of motion, is an interesting history that involves the astronomer Edmond Halley and ether great figures. Most famous today for the comet that bears his name, Halley sought Newton's input on the shape of planetary orbits, a question that Halley and his colleagues had been puzzling over. Excited by Newton's answer—an ellipse(椭圆), and even more so by a paper he later sent to show his calculations, Halley pushed Newton to write the Principia, then funded its publication and was key to promoting it.

Such a precious book of knowledge carries enormous value. "In a sense, the Principia combined all the work that was done for the previous hundred years," says Mordechai Feingold, a science historian at the California Institute of Technology. "It took Newton to put together the ideas, that Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and other scientists had put forth insofar as heavenly bodies(天体) are concerned, to realize that Earth is a planet like any other planet and there's a mutual(相互的) attraction between all those heavenly bodies. "

A Japanese company has created a "smart" mask that aims to improve communication for people wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of COVTD-19.

The use of face masks has become normal in parts of the world still struggling to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. However, it can affect the quality of communication between wearers.

The wearable electronic device is designed to help improve speech communication in such conditions. The Japanese company Donut Robotics calls its invention the "e-mask". The device is meant to fit over other kinds of face masks commonly worn by the public.

Made of soft plastic material, it contains a built-in microphone and has holes in the front to let air in. When turned on, the mask uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a mobile device. An app then helps users perform several actions, including turning speech into text, completing telephone calls and making the user's voice louder. The device can also translate a person's voice from Japanese into eight other languages.

Taisuke, the head of Donut Robotics, told the Reuters, "We worked hard for years to develop a robot and we have used that technology to create a product that responds to how the coronavirus has reshaped society." He noted that the company raised $265,000 in just the first 37 minutes to develop the smart mask through a campaign on the Japanese crowdfunding service Fundinno. "It would usually take three or four months to get that kind of money," Taisuke said.

The company produced a working model of the mask within a month by using software developed for its other robot products. The mask design was similar to one created years ago by one of the company's engineers that mapped facial muscles to interpret speech

Taisuke said the company plans to sell its first 5,000 e-masks starting in September, at about $40 per mask, in an effort to enter a global market that newly appeared.