【推荐2】The warm coast of California is a place where many western monarch butterflies travel to stay during the cold winter months in the United States. Researchers fear the record low number of monarchs this year could mean the insects are in danger of disappearing in the near future.

The Xerces Society works on conservation efforts for insects. Last winter, it recorded around 29,000 butterflies in its yearly survey. That was similar to the winter before, when an all-time low of 27,000 monarchs was counted. But the count this year is dangerously low. Fewer than 2,000 orange-and-black butterflies are in the yearly count this January, which showed a big drop in recent years. On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch butterfly population has decreased by more than 80 percent since the mid-1990s.

Causes for the extremely low numbers of butterflies in the western states include homebuilding and chemical use, which destroyed milkweed plants along their migratory(迁移的)path. The plants are needed for monarch butterflies to grow and develop. Climate changes interfere with the growth of wild plants. And huge wildfires in the west may also have influenced their migration.

A 2017 Washington State University study predicted that monarch butterflies would likely disappear within 10to 20 years if the population dropped below 30,000 and nothing was done to save them.

Action should be taken to provide protection for their food supply and environment, including their migratory path. The Xerces Society said it will keep working with other partners to protect the monarch. The organization added that people can help by planting flowers and milkweed along these butterflies’ migratory path.

【推荐3】There are many reasons bears rub (摩擦) against trees. Sometimes they use smells to leave messages on trees for other bears, at other times they remove hair and rub that hard-to-reach part. A new study uncovers an additional benefit: keeping ticks (蜱虫) at bay.

When bears rub against bark, the trunks of the trees they move back and forth against leak out tars (焦油), a kind of thick sticky liquid. The substances, which are extremely unpleasant for ticks, stick to skin, and are water-resistant, making them really suitable to be an effective natural medicine that can drive away ticks.

Biologists have observed that brown and black bears have affection for certain types of trees, such as beech trees. The appeal of the tar is so strong that scientists use its strong smells to attract bears for studies. To test the guessing that the tar is a tick-warding medicine, Biologist Agnieszka Sergiel found herself staring at long containers which the widespread ticks she caught were placed into. She watched to see if they would run away from the tar on one side and toward safe, plain water at the other end of the container. And run they did!

The study provided clear evidence that ticks were avoiding the tar, said Hannah Tiffin, a scientist specializing in ticks. “I think it’s an interesting route to go and could make sense,” she said. “Using natural medicines to war d insects off has been seen in the wild. Monkeys rub their skin with orange trees and dolphins may treat their skin with an undersea material. Your cat may even use some plant to keep insects away.”

Expanding the limited database of ticks found on bears will be one of the most important steps to improve this work, Sergiel noted. There’s still a lot to be learned about tar functioning as a medicine to war d off ticks. Collecting skin samples from different bears and testing ticks’ responses could also be useful, she added.

【推荐1】There are psychologists who believe that the parent is a large collection of “ recordings ” that is stored in a person’s brain. A very important part of these recordings is the set of rules and laws that was imposed by the young person’s parents. These rules and laws helped shape the young person’s beliefs about himself or herself and about the world. And, as the child had no way to judge them, these rules and laws were recorded in his brain as “truth”.

What do these rules and laws say? Well, that depends upon what the parent said and did. Some common ones might be: “Be kind.” “Don’t lie.” “Don’t steal.” “Mother loves you ” “Father is wise.” “Work is good.” Such rules help socialize and comfort a child.

However, some of the other rules might be upsetting, demeaning or misleading: “Do it this way.” “Don’t do it that way.” “You’re bad.” “You’re stupid.” “You’re mean.” “You’re ridiculous.” “Never give a fool an even break.” Such statements and rules can damage a person.

Every person’s parent recording is different. Each of us had a unique childhood. One psychologist simply points out two things: Each has a parent recording in our brain and this re-cording sometimes “come on” and tells us what to do. It’s a voice out of the past, telling us what to do in the present.

This may give us problems. First, the information or rules in our parent may be incorrect or out of date. Second, our parent sometimes can influence us without our being aware of it. When that happens, we may do things or make decisions without fully considering more correct or up-to- date information.

As you work toward choosing your occupation, you may be sure that your parent will get into the act. You really can’t prevent this — in fact, you might not want to. The point is that you should be aware of this parent that is influencing you. Try to take advantage of its good advice, but also try to avoid being hurt by the bad.

【推荐2】It’s time for bed, the lights are out, and yet you’re wide awake. You do eventually manage to fall asleep, but even then, it’s a very shallow, restless sort of sleep.

Now more research suggests you needn’t look further than outside your window and at the moon for the cause of this sleeplessness. However, in a surprising twist, the findings weren’t entirely what the researchers expected. While we know that humans are a species ruled by light, the “lunar phase effect” (月相效应) affects sleep even when artificial sources of light are accounted for.

Rather than people staying up later and sleeping less during the full moon, it was just before the full moon that sleep was shorter and lighter. “It turns out that the nights before the full moon are the ones that have most of the moonlight during the first half of the night,” said Horacio Iglesia, a professor of biology at the University of Washington in The Guardian. The opposite was true just before the new moon — people tended to sleep more and go to bed earlier.

Ninety-eight participants across three Indigenous communities in Argentina wore wrist monitors tracking sleep patterns over the course of one to two months. While one community had no access to electricity, the second community had limited access, and the third community was located in an urban setting with full access to electricity.

The study also found that this lunar phase effect on sleep also appeared to have greater impact on people who had more limited access to electricity. In every community, participants’ peak (高峰) sleepless period occurred in the three to five days leading up to the full moon night, while the opposite was true for the new moon, the study authors found.

Wanting further insight, the researchers compared their data to the results of a similar study of 464 Seattle-based students at the University of Washington. The findings proved consistent.

This research supports the view that try as we may, we can’t ever fully get away from some forces of nature.

【推荐3】What do ants, bees, pigeons, and herrings have in common? All these animals swarm. Swarming occurs when large numbers of individual animals move, work, or cooperate as a group. They appear to know where they are going and what they are doing. Why are they doing this?

Ants are a good example of swarming animals. Swarms of ants can do many difficult tasks. For example, they can find the shortest path to the best food source. It may appear that individual ants build nests and defend their homes, but ants aren’t clever architects or soldiers—at least not as individuals. If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you will be impressed by how inept it is. Although individual ants don’t appear to be very intelligent, as colonies they are, thanks to swarm intelligence.

Swarm intelligence is the collective behavior of large groups. The key feature of swarm intelligence seems to be that no one is in charge. In the case of ants, there appear to be no leaders. No ant seems to be telling any other ants what to do. There is a queen ant, but her only role is to lay eggs. Yet, a colony of half a million ants functions perfectly without any managers at all. Furthermore, no single ant seems to have any knowledge about the big picture—the main goals or objectives. The swarm relies on lots of interaction between individuals who all follow the rules. One of these rules is to stay close together. When individuals stay close together, they communicate and share a lot of information.

Different animals have different methods of interaction. For example, ants leave a trail of pheromones for other ants to follow. A key component of bee interaction is movement. When bees need to move their hive, scout bees go out in search of a suitable place to live. When they return, they each do a type of dance. The “happier” the bee is about the new location, the faster the dance is. In addition, the dance includes a code with directions to the new location. The excited dancers excite other scout bees. These bees then fly out to check. They come back, get close together, and dance with the other excited bees. The bees will not move until they are all “excited”, or in agreement about the best location. Once a large enough group of bees all agree, they convince the thousands of other bees. Then they all fly together to the new site.

Some scientists are applying the wisdom of animals to solve human problems. Thomas Seeley, a biologist at Cornell University, uses swarm intelligence in his meeting. Seeley doesn’t tell his staff what to do or make all decisions. Instead, he asks his staff to identify all the possibilities, discuss their ideas, and then vote by ballot. Seeley wants his staff, like the bees, to focus on the group’s needs, not on the individual ideas. “It gives a group time to let the best idea emerge and win.” Seeley says that running meetings using swarm intelligence ideas can lead to better decisions. It can also reduce conflict among the staff.

In nature, animals use swarm intelligence for survival. For these animals, working together is a matter of life or death. For humans, there is much to learn from swarm intelligence to make our lives more efficient.

【推荐2】The lift-off of any NASA space shuttle is always a huge event, but on July 23, 1999, it was particularly emotional for a group of women whose nickname was the “Mercury 13”. On that day, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle ever.

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream is a photo essay book that tells the story of thirteen female pilots, known as the “Mercury 13”, who attempted to join NASA’s astronaut program in the 1960s, when there was an unspoken rule in America: you had to be a man if you wanted to be an astronaut.

They participated in the Women in Space program, in which they not only completed the tests but also surpassed the results of male astronauts. However, their ambition, courage, and achievements were ignored by NASA and other government figures, involving Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was in favor of prohibiting women from being astronauts.

Of course, those 13 women never made it to space, but they continued to push for female pilots to be admitted to the space program. Because of their courageous struggle, later generations succeeded.

Younger female readers will enjoy reading these stories about women who overcame criticism, prejudice and injustice and dared to achieve more than the roles society wished them to play. Not only are these women excellent role models for our girls, they are also a good reminder of how hard women once fought for us, so we can enjoy the relative equality today. I would recommend this book to any young woman, especially one in high school who is ready to take on the world on her own, one who may be questioning where she will take her life and definitely one who may be dreaming bigger than most people think is appropriate.