Are you getting enough protein（蛋白质）? The question provides its own answer: If you are worrying about the amount of protein in your diet, then you are almost certainly eating more than enough.

You merely need to visit a western supermarket today to see that many people regard protein as some kind of excellent medicine — one food companies are profitably adding to anything they can. “When the Box says ‘Protein’, Shoppers say ‘I’ll take it’” was the headline of a 2013 article in The Wall Street Journal.

The intensity of our protein obsession can only be understood as part of a wider series of diet battles that go back half a century. If we now thirst for protein as if it were water, it may be because the other two macronutrients — fats and carbohydrates — have each in turn been made to seem poisonous (有毒的) in the public mind.

In the current nutrition wars, protein has emerged as the last macronutrient left standing. David L. Katz, an American doctor and public health scholar who is the director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center said, “First they told us to cut fat. But instead of whole grains and lentils, we ate low-fat junk food.” Then food marketers heard the message about cutting carbohydrates and sold us protein-enriched junk foods instead.

For decades now, there has been a tendency to think about what we eat and drink in terms of nutrients, rather than read whole ingredients in all their complexity. A combination of diet fads and clever marketing has got us here. It doesn’t matter whether we fixate on “low fat” or “low carbohydrates” or “high protein” — we are making the same old mistakes about nutrition in a new form.

Imagine a cat that does not need someone to clean up after it keeps an older people company and helps them remember to take their medicine. That is the shared dream of the toy maker Hasbro and scientists at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The researchers received a $ 3-million-dollar from the National Science Foundation for a special project. They want to find ways to add artificial intelligence, or AI, to Hasbro’s “Joy for All” robotic cat.

The cat has already been for sale for two years. Though priced at over 1,000 dollars, it sold quite well. It was meant to act as a “companion”(陪伴) for older people. Now the project is aimed at developing additional abilities for the cat. Researchers are working to decide which activities older adults may need the most. They hope to make the cat perform a small number of activities very well. Such activities include finding lost objects and reminding the older people to take medicine or visit their doctor. They also want to keep the cost down to just a few hundred dollars.

It is an idea that has appealed (有吸引力) to Jeanne Elliott. Her 93-year-old mother Mary Derr lives with her in South Kingstown. Derr has dementia (痴呆). The Joy for All cat that Elliot bought this year has become a true companion for Derr. The cat stays with Derr and keeps her relaxed while Elliott is at work. Elliot said a robotic cat that helps her mother to remember to take her medicine and be careful when she walks would be greater.

The researchers are trying to learn how the improved cats will complete helpful activities and how they will communicate. They say that they do not want a talking cat, however. Instead they are trying to design a cat that can move its head in a special way to successfully communicate its message. In the end, they hope to create an exchange between the human and the cat in which the human feels the cat needs them. By doing so, the researchers hope they can even help prevent feelings of loneliness and sadness among elderly people.

In 2013 Tallinn(爱沙尼亚首都塔林) became the world’s first capital city to offer people free public transport. Last year Estonia(爱沙尼亚) set the aim to become the first country with free public transport nationwide. Buses are now free of charge in 11 of its 15 counties.

Tallinn’s city government came up with the idea of free transport in 2008. Even though the city paid more than 70% of public-transport costs, ticket prices were still too high for poorer people. Crowdedness had also become a problem. Since 1991, the number of people owning cars has doubled.

Opponents(反对者) thought the idea unaffordable and critics(批评者) predicted the transport system would become overcrowded and lack money.

Surprisingly, public transport has improved, despite a €12 million hit to the system’s finances from lost ticket sales. Tallinn’s population has grown, leading to an increase in local tax intake. Additional revenu(财政收入) comes from tourists, who still have to buy tickets. The use of public transport in Tallinn has gone up by 10%, while the number of cars in the city has gone down by 10%, meaning less congestion.

Now other countries are looking at Estonia’s experience. Tallinn officials say they have had interest from France, Sweden, Poland, Italy and Germany. Other places have already introduced free public transport for certain groups or at certain times. In England 1/3 of all bus trips are fare-free especially for pensioners(领养老金者); Wales runs free travel at weekends to improve tourism. But so far full fare-free travel is rare. The city of Hasselt in Belgium ran free public transport for 16 years before reintroducing fares because of increasing costs.

An increase in students applying to study economics at university is being attributed to (归因于) the global economic crisis awakening a public thirst for knowledge about how the financial system works.

Applications for degree courses beginning this autumn were up by 15% this January, according to UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. A spokesman for the Royal Economic Society said applications to do economics at A-level were also up.

Professor John Beath, the president of the society and a leading lecturer at St Andrews University, said his first-year lectures --- which are open to students from all departments --- were drawing crowds of 400, rather than the usual 250.

“There are a large number of students who are not economics majors (专业), who would like to learn something about it. One of the things I have done this year is to relate my teaching to contemporary events in a way that one hasn’t traditionally done.” He said.

University applications rose by 7% last year, but there were rises above average in several subjects. Nursing saw a 15% jump, with people’s renewed interest in careers in the pubic sector (部门), which are seen as more secure in economic crisis.

A recent study showed almost two thirds of parents believed schools should do more to teach pupils about financial matters, and almost half said their children had asked them what was going on, although a minority (少数) of parents felt they did not understand it themselves well enough to explain.

Zack Hocking, the head of Child Trust Funds, said, “It’s possible that one good thing to arise from the downturn (低迷) will be a generation that’s financially wiser and better equipped to manage their money through times of economic uncertainty.”