【推荐2】China’s Chang’e 5 mission to the moon was completed in less than a month after blasting off (点火起飞). A capsule containing samples of lunar (月球的) rocks and soil collected from the surface of our natural satellite landed in Inner Mongolia, where it was taken back for study.

Chinese broadcaster CGTN reported that the capsule had landed back to Earth just after 10am Dec. 16. Search crews were out in the freezing pre-dawn Hours looking to find back the capsule from the snowy grassland during temperatures well below zero. Aerial images (航拍影像) appeared to show the capsule safely resting on the ground.

China's National Space Administration announced on Thursday, Dec. 3, that its ascent module (上升器) had blasted off from the top of the mission's lunar lander, carrying samples of rock and soil it dug from the lunar surface. It then met with an orbiter circling the moon. The pair made the return trip to Earth where the capsule carrying the samples was sent on its way for a hot and fast going down through our atmosphere only to land on the frozen ground.

The mission lifted off from China on Nov. 23 and landed on the moon on Dec. l. Videos from Chinese media showed the lander’s robotic arm hard at work during its short shift on another world. During its stay, Chang'e 5 also sent back images of a lunar plain of relatively young volcanic moon rock. The image shows both distant hills and how the feet of the lander dug into the soft surface of the moon as it touched down. Enlarging the foot of the lander in particular providers a real sense of the dry, desert-like lunar surface. When the samples were collected, they have been the first pieces of the moon to be returned to our planet since the 1970s.

【推荐3】As we all know, the universe includes the Sun and Earth, the planets and moons, the galaxies and stars.     1    

Within the universe are billions of galaxies. A galaxy such as our own Milky Way contains billions of stars.     2     Like many stars, the Sun is orbited by planet, comets, and asteroids. Together they form a solar system.

Cosmologists (宇宙学家) think that before the universe existed, all matter and energy were gathered in a tiny point. Then the point exploded. This explosion is called the Big Bang. After the Big Bang, the universe expanded at an amazing rate.     3     It took about 400 million years for the stars and galaxies to form. Earth and the rest of the solar system came into being about 9 billion years after the Big Bang.

We still have much to learn about the universe. One important question remains unanswered: Does life exist beyond Earth? Scientists do not have the answer.    4     Others believe that there are thousands of worlds with people or animals living there yet to be discovered. But no one can say for sure.

    5     Some think that the universe will continue to expand forever. Others feel that the galaxies, solar systems and planets might someday be torn apart. Whatever happens to the universe, don’t worry — it’s not going to happen for billions of years!

【推荐1】Since the last ice age, humans have cleared nearly half of the earth’s forests and grasslands for agriculture. With the world population expanding, there’s ever-increasing pressure on farmland to produce not only more food but also clean energy. In places such as Yakima County, Washington, it’s created competition for space as land-hungry solar panels (板) consume available fields. Last month, the state approved plans to cover 1,700 acres of agricultural land with solar panels, fueling concerns over the long-term impacts of losing cropland.

A recent study from the University of California, however, shows how farmers may soon harvest crops and energy together. One researcher, Majdi Abou Najm, explains that visible light spectrum (光谱) can be separated into blue and red light waves, and their photons (光子) have different properties. Blue ones have higher energy than red ones. While that gives blue light what is needed to generate power, it also results in higher temperatures. “From a plant angle, red photons are the efficient ones,” says Abou Najm. “They don’t make the plant feel hot.”

A goal of the study is to create a new generation of solar panels. He sees potential in the organic solar cells, which come from carbon-based materials. Thin and transparent, the cells are applied like a film onto various surfaces. This new technology could be used to develop special solar panels that block blue light to generate power, while passing the red light on to crops planted directly below. These panels could also provide shade for heat-sensitive fruits during the hottest part of the day.

By 2050, we’ll have two billion more people, and we’ll need more food and more energy. By maximizing the solar spectrum, “we’re making full use of an endlessly sustainable resource,” says Abou Najm. “If a technology kicks in that can develop these panels, then the sky is the limit on how efficient we can be.”

【推荐2】Many travelers are familiar with the UNESCO’s World Heritage List (世界遗产名录) However, less is known about the organization’s List of World Heritage in Danger. It currently specifies 53 World Heritage sites under threat of “serious and specific dangers” due to factors such as climate change, armed conflict, and development pressures. The accelerated degeneration(退化) of these cultural treasures is a reality that should concern the world, since the younger generation may not have the opportunity to visit them.

For this reason, insurance company Budget Direct, and Neo Mam Studios, a creative studio based in the UK, have started a project, creating a series of GIFs to repair World Heritage sites and demonstrate what these ruins would have looked like if they had been protected.

Drawing attention to sites at risk, the project aims to give everyone the opportunity to visit these sites virtually (虚拟的). It started with in-depth research around the sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Based on the results, the team made a selection according to two main criteria: First, they were man-made places. Second, they still had standing elements. Focusing on the selected sites, the team worked with architects Jelena Popovic and Keremcan Kirilmaz and industrial designer Erdem Batirbek to research and illustrate six of these legendary locations.

In this series of GIFs, six sites are digitally repaired to their former glory. They include Hatra in Iraq, Leptis Magna in Libya, Palmyra in Syria, Portobelo-San Lorenzo in Panama, Nan Madol in the Federated States of Micronesia as well as the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls. Time does not stand still, and neither does technology. Thanks to these technologies, we can travel virtually, without leaving home, to those places that, whatever their future may be, will always be part of the collective memory.

【推荐1】On a rainy afternoon in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, a group of amateur musicians gathered to lay down a few tracks. This wasn’t the first time the band had performed together, but it was their first time in a recording studio.

The band, which calls itself Infinity, first performed its work at the 2022 Pittsburgh Schizophrenia Conference in November. All four band members are diagnosed with schizophrenia, a mental disorder that can cause people to interpret reality in abnormal ways, which can cause many kinds of disordered thinking.

Infinity formed five years ago when Flavio Chamis, a Brazilian composer and conductor, began working with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) on how to use music to treat mental illness.

“Having a mental health diagnosis is not a reason to not have a creative life,” Chamis said. Schizophrenia can be disabling, but therapy, medication and even playing music can help, according to a growing body of research.

Chamis and K.N. Roy Chengappa, a professor of psychiatry (精神病学) at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital and the director of Pittsburgh’s schizophrenia conference, are continuing their efforts with the four musicians and to further investigate musical interventions in mental health outcomes.

As imaging techniques advance, scientists are working to answer precisely why music affects the brain in the ways that it does. Playing music seems to have an impact on timing systems in the brain, which are affected by major depression, schizophrenia and other illnesses. There is research indicating that training patients to play in rhythm can in fact help retrain the brain in other, less obvious ways. Interventions tend to have positive effects, but the research is still in early stages.

The band doesn’t have much formal music training, but they played and sang with touching sincerity. “It’s not supposed to be professional or perfect,” Chengappa said. “One of them has been my patient for 20 years. ... They’ve really blossomed.”

Chamis led the Infinity recording from the piano, with each musician in a separate sound-proof room listening to one another on headphones. The conductor and composer encouraged the musicians and gave advice after each take.

“It’s been great working on this with Flavio,” said guitarist David Baird. “I loved feeling like a professional. ... I want more.”

【推荐2】When George Smith was 31, he became enthusiastic about some ancient tablets in the British Museum. But even after the tablet fragments(碎片) had been pieced together, little had been translated. The 3, 000-year-old tablets remained as mysterious as buried in the ruins. Even so, the English archaeologist (考古学家) decided he would be the man to reveal the secrets. Smith taught himself Sumerian and literary Akkadian. After nearly two decades, Smith had a breakthrough：The complex symbols were describing a story, just like Noah’s Ark!

For thousands of years, humans have been telling stories, sharing the morally even before the invention of writing. In one way or another, much time in people’s lives is spent telling stories. Besides entertainment, stories did give us something more.

Stories can influence people’s emotional lives. Storytelling allows people to peek into someone’s conscience to see how others think and feel. Studies have found reading stories significantly increased empathy towards others, especially people initially seen as “outsiders”, such as foreigners or people of a different race. Interestingly, the more absorbed the readers are in the story, the more empathetic they are in real life. Psychologists tested this by “accidentally” dropping a handful of pens. Those who had previously reported being “highly absorbed” in the story were about twice as likely to help pick up the pens.

But why start telling stories in the first place? Their usefulness in understanding others is one reason, and another theory is that storytelling could be an evolutionary(进化的) mechanism that helped keep our ancestors alive. For example, if you heard, “There’s a monster near that tree, so don’t go over there,” it would not be as effective as told, “My cousin was eaten by a scary creature that lurks around that tree, so don’t go over there.”

Upon translating the 11th tablet, the most important part of the story, Smith told a coworker, “I am the first person to read that after 3.000 years of oblivion(被遗忘)!”