“另类”工作一瞥
It’s 2030 and, as you approach your supermarket 1)till, there is not a cashier to be seen. In this cashless world, personal service in shops, banks and cinemas has become a thing of the past, replaced by scanners and a robotic personal assistant that not only organises your life, but also 2)empathizes with you as your mood 3)dictates. And from London to Sydney is just two hours away by space-plane. 4)Far-fetched? Not a bit of it. As our lives change radically over the next 20 years, so will the job market. Here are some odd and new jobs, especially in the science world:
The Spaceship Pilot
“When I was at school, I won a prize, a book called Exploring Space. I still have it, so this really is a dream come true,” says 5)Virgin Galactic 6)test pilot Dave Mackay, who, in a couple of years, will be flying fare-paying passengers into space 68 miles above the Earth. Last December, Virgin Galactic unveiled its first commercial spaceship, VSS Enterprise, which will, in 2011, make its first 7)foray into space from 8)Spaceport America, a high-tech 9)terminal under construction in the 10)Mojave desert in 11)New Mexico. The aim of the ￡240 million project is to have six spaceships and, says Mackay, “We should be interviewing for space pilots in around three years.” Then there are likely to be 12)openings for space tour guides, and yet more jobs if Sir Richard also builds a launch station in Scotland.
Sneeze 13)Modeler
Someone sick sneezes near you, and then you get ill. Obvious, right? But the work done by University of California at Berkeley researcher Mark Nicas and others modeling infection pathways shows that we barely understand how infection works. The size of the 14)particles coughed onto you matters, as does where they land. That’s why Nicas, under a joint grant from the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency, has begun a hunt for better data on bursts of 15)mucus and 16)saliva. A volunteer 17)swishes a salt 18)solution before coughing on a plastic face. Using a 19)chloride-20)ion detector, Nicas and his assistants can determine how much 21)spittle hits the vulnerable parts of the face. “For 100 years, no one has tried in a good way to measure what 22)fraction of cough fluid would strike the eyes, nose and lips,” he explains. “Information like this currently doesn’t exist.”
23)Doomsday Fact-Checker
Imagine an inbox full of questions from sleepless, 24)apocalypse-obsessed teenagers. That’s what 25)Mayan archaeologists and other 26)meso-American researchers 27)are up against since the release of the movie 2012 and the accompanying boom in end-of-the-world media. Three years ago, a 28)distraught message from a teen to Anthony Aveni, an astronomer at Colgate University who specializes in meso-American culture, led him to write The End of Time: the Maya Mystery of 2012, a book that investigates and 29)discredits the 2012 30)scenarios. Nonetheless, he and his colleagues still get 2012 questions at cocktail parties. “The apocalypse comes from a pop-culture way of thinking based on Christian philosophy,” Aveni says. “Some of my colleagues are getting irritated by it and 31)brush it off, but I see it as a special teaching moment.” He hopes the 32)hoopla might 33)pique interest in the Maya. And the world-ending myths? “If the American public believes in crazy theories,” he says, “we’re not doing our jobs.”
Multi-Species Baby 34)Tickler
We know that apes are 35)ticklish. But does ape and human laughter mean the same thing? Marina Davila-Ross, a neuroscientist at the University of Portsmouth in England, sought an answer in what is perhaps science’s most enjoyable research project: tickling human and ape babies to compare their laughter. After tickling the babies of several colleagues and recording their giggles, Marina traveled the world, recording the laughter of baby 36)chimps, 37)bonobos, and 38)gorillas. In most cases, she held the mic as the apes’ 39)handlers tickled the little ones. (“Apes are like us—many won’t be tickled by a stranger,” she explains.) But after three months in an 40)orangutan 41)rehab center in 42)Borneo, she got to do her own tickling on half a dozen furry orange babies. Her research suggests that tickle-induced laughter developed in a common ancestor 10 to 16 million years ago. “It was fun,” Marina admits. “It’s play behavior, and everybody—apes and humans—enjoys that.”
The 43)Vertical Farmer
On Kevin Frediani’s “farm”, there is no soil, no smell and no noisy tractors. The only sound is that made by more than 11,000 plants on the move. 44)Lettuces, spinach, 45)chard and herbs, growing 46)hydroponically in trays 47)mounted in ranks three metres high on 70 computer-controlled hanging 48)rigs, are travelling sedately around Frediani’s glasshouse, taking on fresh nutrients at a feeding station. In September 2009, the 42-year-old became Europe’s first vertical farmer when he began his project at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park. “We don’t use pesticides, there is no pollution and we don’t have to worry about the weather,” says Frediani. The system produces three times the crop you would get farming flat. Yet it uses only about five percent of the water consumed in traditional agriculture, and it is all recycled. “Vertical agriculture will really come into its own in towns and cities,” Frediani says. “Schools, hospitals and housing estates could have their own vertical farms, tended by a new generation of vertical farmers.”
2030年,当你在超市买完东西来到收银台准备付款时,你看不到一个收银员。在这个没有现金的世界里,商店、银行和电影院里的人工服务已经成为历史,取而代之的是扫描仪和一位机器人助手,它们不但能够把你的生活安排得井井有条,还能对你的情绪指示心领神会。乘坐航天飞机,从伦敦到悉尼只需要两个小时。这一切听上去不着边际?一点也不。未来20年,随着我们的生活发生巨变,职业市场也必将随之变化。下面就是一些新奇的工作,特别是在科学领域:
太空飞船驾驶员
“在学校读书的时候,我赢得了一个奖,奖品是一本叫《探索太空》的书。我至今依然保留着它,所以说这真的是梦想成真。”美国维珍银河公司的试飞员戴维·麦凯伊说。几年后,他将驾驶太空飞船,带着付费游客进入距离地面68英里(约109.4公里)的太空。去年12月,维珍银河公司的第一艘商用太空飞船“VSS企业号”正式亮相。2011年,它将从位于美国的太空中心(新墨西哥州莫哈韦沙漠上一个正在建设中的高科技航空集散站)出发,开始首航。这个投资额高达24亿英镑的项目打算要建造六艘太空飞船。麦凯伊说:“大约三年之内,我们应该会招聘太空飞行员。”到时候,还可能会出现太空导游这一职位空缺。而如果维珍银河公司的老板理查德爵士也在苏格兰建造一个发射站的话,那将会有更多新的工作机会。
喷嚏研究员
众所周知,如果生病的人在你旁边打喷嚏,你多半会被传染。但美国加州大学伯克利分校的研究员马克·尼卡斯及其同事就喷嚏的传染路径所做的模型研究显示,对于喷嚏的传染过程,我们所知甚少。打喷嚏者释放出来的微粒数量以及它们的落脚点都很重要。因此,在美国国土安全部和环境保护署的双重支持下,马克·尼卡斯开始搜寻有关打喷嚏时喷出的粘液和口水的更多数据。实验中,一名志愿者先唰地甩动一种含盐溶液,然后朝着一张塑胶人脸咳嗽。通过使用氯离子探测器,尼卡斯和他的助手们可以确定有多少唾沫侵袭了面部那些脆弱部位。“一百年来,没有人试过找出好的办法来测量侵袭到眼睛、鼻子和嘴唇的喷出物是以什么比例分布,”他解释道,“类似此类的信息目前尚不存在。”
世界末日论辟谣者
想象一下你的收件箱里塞满了来自失眠者和被末日毁灭论困扰的青少年们的来信这样的情形。自从电影《2012》上映,媒体掀起世界末日讨论热潮以来,玛雅考古学家和其他中美洲文化研究者就面对着这样的挑战。三年前,一个心绪狂乱的孩子写来的信促使专门研究中美洲文化的科尔盖特大学天文学家安东尼·阿维尼写了一本书——《时间尽头:2012玛雅之谜》来研究和驳斥“2012世界毁灭”论。然而,时至今日,他和他的同事们在鸡尾酒派对上仍会遇到各种有关2012的问题。“2012世界毁灭论是一种源于基督教哲学思想的流行文化思考方式,”阿维尼说,“我的一些同事面对这种说法会非常生气,并懒得作答,但我认为这是进行教育的好机会。”他希望这股“热潮”可以激发人们对玛雅文化的兴趣。而至于世界末日论的说法,“如果美国公众还相信这种疯狂的说法,”他说,“那说明我们的工作没有做好。”
多种物种宝宝挠痒员
我们知道猿类是怕痒的。但是它们被挠痒时发出的大笑是否与人类的笑意义相同?为了寻找答案,英格兰普茨茅斯大学的神经学家玛丽娜·德维拉—罗斯设计了一个可能是最愉快的科学研究项目:给人类和猿类的婴儿挠痒痒,比较他们的笑声。在给一些同事的婴儿挠痒并记录下婴儿们的笑声之后,玛丽娜环游世界,录下了非洲黑猩猩、倭黑猩猩和大猩猩它们各自的婴儿的笑声。大部分情况下,她拿着麦克风录音,由猿类的训练者来给那些婴儿挠痒。(“猿类和我们一样——很多都不愿被陌生人挠痒,”她解释说。)但在婆罗州一个猩猩收容中心工作了三个月后,她忍不住也给六只毛绒绒的橙色小家伙挠起痒来。她的研究表明,挠痒发笑这一行为起源自1000万到1600万年前人类和猿类的共同祖先。“很有趣,”玛丽娜坦承说,“这是一种游戏行为,无论是猿类还是人类都很喜欢如此。”
垂直农场主
在凯文·弗雷迪阿尼的“农场”里没有土壤,没有臭味,没有闹哄哄的拖拉机。唯一的声音来自1.1万株在移动着的植物。莴苣、菠菜、甜菜和草药都种植在装着培养溶液的盘子里。盘子成排地固定在3米高的架子上,被由70台电脑控制的悬挂器械监控,安静地围绕弗雷迪阿尼的暖房旋转,在“喂食站”吸收新鲜养料。2009年9月,42岁的弗雷迪阿尼在佩恩顿动物园内的环保公园开始了他的无土栽培项目,成为欧洲第一位垂直农场主。“我们不用农药,这么做没有污染,而且我们也不用担心天气,”弗雷迪阿尼说。这套系统的作物产量是平地农场的三倍。而它所使用的水量大概仅为传统农业耗水量的百分之五,并可循环利用。“垂直农场将会真的出现在城镇和都市里,”弗雷迪阿尼说,“学校、医院、住宅小区都可以有自己的垂直农场,新一代垂直农场主也将随之诞生。”
