【推荐1】Laughter is a kind of universal body language that’s shared by people of all nationalities, skin colors, cultures and traditions. But did you know that the ability to tell genuine laughter apart from fake laughter also transcends (超越) cultures?

Greg Bryant, a professor of communication at the University of California, Los Angeles, US, published a study in Psychological Science in late July in which be found that people are able to identify real laughter through slight variations in sound.

In the study, 884 people from 21 countries were asked to listen to random recordings of laughter. Some of the recordings were made up of spontaneous (自然的) laughs, while others were made by people who were asked to laugh on command.

The study showed that people around the world have the ability to pick out real laughter, although their abilities vary from country to country. Residents of the Samoan Islands, an island chain in the central South Pacific, were particularly good at it, correctly identifying real laughter 56 percent of the time. According to Bryant, people from smaller, less industrialized nations “are more accurate in identifying a natural smile” because they rely heavily on emotional engagement (联系) in order to predict others’ behavior and create stronger social relationships.

But how do people from different cultures detect natural laughter so easily? And what traits does real laughter have? As Professor Jessica Wolf of the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Association for Psychological Science, in real laughter, our vocal chords (声带) “produce qualities such as higher pitch (音调) and volume (音量), as well as faster bursts of non-articulate (不清晰的) sounds and more non-tonal (无语调的) noise”

By contrast, fake laughter will “sound like speech”. According to Science Daily, fake laughter is controlled by the same brain system that controls the lips and tongue.

Bryant further explained that this system has an imitative (模仿的) capacity (能力), saying “with this speech system, you can make a lot of different noises, including crying, laughter or a shriek (尖叫) of pain. That’s where fake laughter comes from.”

So that’s something to think about the next time one of your friends laughs at something you said. Will you be able to tell if it’s real or fake?

【推荐3】A healthy amount of sunshine may be the secret to staying young. British scientists have discovered.

Vitamin D is produced naturally by the skin in response to sunlight and may help to slow the ageing process and protect against heart disease, according to the study.

Researchers from King’s College London studied 2,160 women aged between 18 and 79, looking at their telomeres—a biological marker of ageing found in DNA. As people get older, their telomeres get shorter and they become more susceptible to certain illnesses.

But the study found women with high levels of vitamin D had comparatively longer telomeres--- a sign of being biologically younger and healthier.

The study suggests vitamin D may help to slow down the ageing process of DNA, and therefore the ageing process as a whole.

Lead researcher Dr Brent Richards said, “These results are exciting because they show for the first time that people who have higher levels of vitamin D may age more slowly than people with lower levels of vitamin D.” This could help to explain how vitamin D has a protective effect on many ageing related diseases, such as heart disease and cancer.”

Professor Tim Spector, a co-author of the report, added, “Although it might sound absurd, it’s possible that the same sunshine which may increase our risk of skin cancer may also have a healthy effect on the general ageing process.”

Vitamin D made by the action of sunlight on the skin accounts for 90 percent of the body’s supply, but lower levels can also be got through food such as fish, eggs and breakfast cereals.

Other studies have suggested the vitamin plays a key role in protecting against cancer and heart disease.

【推荐1】The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it the rise of a new kind of single use plastic in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE), like face masks and gloves. Experts warned that these sharply increasing single-use items could cause a new wave of plastic pollution and kill wildlife.

The charity Ocean Conservancy reported that volunteers had collected more than 100,000 PPE items from coasts and waterways during the last six months of 2020. They sent out a survey to more than 2020 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) coordinators and volunteers asking about their experience with PPE. The results show that it is a real problem. Volunteers collected 107,219 pieces of PPE in 70 of 115 participating countries. Of those surveyed, 94% reported seeing PPE at a cleanup, and 40% found five items or more. Further, 37% found the items had already sunk into the water.

“During one of our clean-ups in the canals of Leiden, our volunteers found a latex glove with a dead fish trapped in the thumb,” said Auke-Florian Hiemstra, a study coauthor Iron Leiden University. “Also, in the Dutch canals, we observed that a water bird was using face masks and gloves in its nests.” Other animals that have gotten tangled up in face masks include a fox in the UK, a pufferfish in Florida, and two crabs in France. Numerous dogs and cats have been observed eating PPE as well.

The danger posed by PPE goes deeper than what the eye can see. Luckily, there are ways that all of us can be part of the solution to the problem of PPE pollution. Hiemstra recommended using reusable PPE instead of single-use products. In that case, we should deal with them properly by cutting the ear loops to prevent animal entanglements (缠绕物) and throwing them away in a bin that is not overstuffed. “We definitely think it is important for citizens to understand how much PPE is ending up in the environment and impacting animals,” Hiemstra said.

【推荐2】The amount of plastic pollution in the oceans is rapidly increasing. This is problematic, as at least 700 species of sea animals may mistake it for a tasty snack. While we know that some species seem to eat plastic because it looks like jellyfish or some other food sources, less research has been carried out into what plastic smells like to marine animals.

But now, a study from the University of North Carolina has found that the coating of algae that naturally builds up on ocean plastics causes the rubbish to give off the scent of food.

The researchers took 15 loggerhead turtles, each around five months old, and placed them in a laboratory tank. They then piped in clean water, clean plastic, turtle food, and plastic that had been immersed in the marine environment for five weeks.

The turtles showed no reaction to the smell of clean water or clean plastic. But when they were exposed to the smell of ocean-soaked plastic or turtle food, they exhibited food-seeking behaviours like reaching their noses out of the water or showing increasing activities.

“This finding is the first demonstration that the smell of ocean plastics causes animals to eat them, ” said Dr Kenneth J. Lohmann, who took part in the study. “It’s common to find loggerhead turtles with their digestive systems fully or partially blocked because they’ve eaten plastic materials. There are also increasing reports of sea turtles that have become ill and stranded on the beach due to their ingestion (摄食) of plastic.”

According to the researchers, areas of the ocean with dense concentrations of plastic may trick turtles and other marine animals into thinking that there is an abundant food source. “Once these plastics are in the ocean, we don’t have a good way to remove them or prevent them from smelling like food,” said Lohmann.

【推荐3】What is eco­fashion? Eco-fashion is about making clothes that take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry.

    1     Firstly, the production of textiles(纺织品)pollutes the environment heavily. Cotton­planting uses pesticides(杀虫剂)；sheep­farming and wool­cleaning contribute to global warming；Secondly, every stage of clothing production has a significant effect on the environment. They all use a great deal of energy, and some also involve chemicals which evidently do harm to the surroundings.    2    Thirdly, growing consumption levels and our shopping habits further worsen the bad effects. We are now so quick to throw away clothes that have been worn only a couple of times.

    3    To a large degree, it is the fashion producers that really have the power and the responsibility to shape our future. There are numerous ways in which these producers can reduce their ecological footprint, from switching to green energy and reducing energy use, through selecting sustainable (可持续的)materials and choosing local suppliers, to recycle and minimize waste.     4    

There is some concern that eco-friendly fashions are just a trend that we will eventually grow tired of but in fact, more and more people are concerning about this and we can make sure that doesn’t happen.    5    

【推荐1】Scientists have not found any signs of life on Mars yet, but they say a robotic vehicle called “Curiosity” is helping them learn a lot about the planet’ s history and climate.

Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012 after travelling through space for more than eight months. It was sent to Mars by scientists from NASAin the United States.

Curiosity is about the size of a car and has six wheels. It also has a robotic arm, cameras, and instruments that allow it to examine things it finds on the surface. Then it sends the information back to the earth.Curiosity' s main task is to find out if anything could live on Mars, either now or in the past. On Nov.2,NASA scientists held a press conference (新闻发布会) to discuss what Curiosit y had found in its first two months onMars.

Curiosity has found soil that is similar to the sand formed by volcanoes (火山) on the earth. Scientists say that studying the minerals in Martian soil will help them understand what conditions were like on the planet in the past.

Curiosity also found smooth stones like the ones found on river beds and seashores on the earth, where their rough edges have been worn down by water. Mars is very cold and dry now, but scientists say the smooth stones tell them that a river used to run through the place where they were found.

Curiosity has been testing the atmosphere around Mars for a type of gas called methane (甲烷), but so fari t has not found any. On the earth, most methane is produced by plants or animals. Methane on Mars might indicate that some type of tiny plants or animals lived there.

Curiosity is the fourth robotic vehicle to be sent to Mars. It will continue to explore the planet for about two years :

【推荐1】2 Killed in Knife Attack in French Town Under Lockdown

In what was described as a potential terrorist attack, a knife-wielding man killed two people and wounded five others on Saturday morning in a town in southern France with only a few shops open under a national lockdown to prevent the coronavirus pandemic (新冠肺炎).

The attacks took place about 11 a.m. local time outside a bakery and other shops. Witnesses said that the suspect yelled, “Allahu akbar!" as he lunged at his victims, according to France Bleu. The assailant （行凶者）randomly attacked bystanders on the street, first cutting the throat of a man in his 40s in front of his companion and his son, in the center of Romans-sur-Isere, just south of Lyon, according to the French authorities and news media.

He then attacked two workers and a customer inside a tobacco store before heading to a butcher’s shop. The suspect, a 33-year-old man of Sudanese origin, was arrested by the police as he was "found on his knees on the sidewalk while praying in Arabic," said the country’s antiterrorism prosecutor’s office, which is handling the investigation into the attack. At the man’s home, investigators found religious writings in which the author complained of living in a "country of infidels （没有信仰的）the prosecutors said in a statement.

The suspect—who the French news media said was an asylum-seeker （避难者）from Sudan—was not immediately identified by name. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that "light would be shed on this odious （可 憎的）act which casts a shadow on our country, which has already been severely tested in recent weeks. "

【推荐2】NASA scientists using virtual reality technology are redefining our understanding about how our galaxy (银河系) works.

Using customized, 3D virtual reality (vr) simulation (模拟) that animated the speed and direction of 4 million stars in the local Milky Way neighborhood, astronomer Marc Kuchner and researcher Susan Higashio obtained a new perspective on the stars’ motions, improving our understanding of star groupings.

Astronomers have come to different conclusions about the same groups of stars from studying them in six dimensions using paper graphs, Higashio said. Groups of stars moving together indicate to astronomers that they originated at the same time and place, which can help us understand how our galaxy evolved.

Goddard’s virtual reality team, managed by Thomas Grubb, animated those same stars, revolutionizing the classification process and making the groupings easier to see, Higashio said. They found stars that may have been classified into the wrong groups as well as star groups that could belong to larger groupings.

“Rather than look up one database and then another database, why not fly there and look at them all together,” Higashio said. She watched these simulations hundreds, maybe thousands of times, and said the associations between the groups of stars became more intuitive inside the artificial cosmos (宇宙) found within the VR headset. Observing stars in VR will redefine astronomer’s understanding of some individual stars as well as star groupings.

The 3D visualization helped her and Kuchner open a window into the past. “We often find groups of young stars moving together, suggesting that they all formed at the same time,” Kuchner said. “The thinking is they represent a star-formation event. They were all formed in the same place at the same time and so they move together.”

【推荐3】We tend to take holiday colors for granted, since they’re so deep-rooted in our culture. It’s usually pretty obvious what colors go with what holidays. But what might be less obvious is why certain colors are associated with certain holidays. For instance, as black and orange begin to take over department store corridor as decorations, we wonder how these colors became so popular for the holiday. Is it just because of black cats and pumpkins, or is there a deeper meaning to it?

Black

To learn how black became associated with Halloween, we'll have to explore the history of the holiday itself. Halloween can date back to a pagan celebration called Samhain, a ceremony that the ancient Celts celebrated in late October and early November. The purpose of the celebration was to welcome in the time of harvest, and with it, “the dark half of the year”.

But the true symbolic significance of black had to do with death, as did the holiday. The ancient Celts believed that during Samhain, the boundaries between the living and the dead were weakened. So the celebration would also include offerings to dead ancestors, and celebrants would wear deep black mourning dress.

Orange

Orange is a little self-explanatory. But it also has to do with the particular time of year. Again, Samhain was introducing the harvest time; people would have seen the trees turn orange after months of greenery. But the orange also has to do with another important component of the ancient Samhain celebrations: fire. The ancient Celts would light community fires while leaving the fires in their own fireplace to bum out. The fires could also be ceremonies to help defend against devils while the gateway between the living and the dead was weak. And those fires certainly would have been orange!