【推荐1】Both African elephants and Asian elephants face serious threats to their long-term survival, although the risks vary widely from place to place. Several million African elephants roamed across the continent as recently as the early 20th century, but today only about 350, 000 remain. Asian elephants were less abundant to begin with, reportedly numbering about 200,000 a century ago. There are now fewer Asian elephants left in the wild, maybe close to extinction unless something can be done to save them.

The main threat to elephants is a familiar one for wildlife around the world: loss and destruction of their habitats. Many elephants also face additional dangers, though, including both direct and indirect conflict with people.

On top of occupying and altering elephant habitats, people also commonly plant food crops there. As more farms appear in forests and plains where elephants are accustomed to roaming, their crops often become easy targets for hungry elephants. A herd can destroy a year’s harvest in one night, leading to understandable hostility among farmers, many of whom are living a poor life and have little income to make up the loss. This sometimes leads to certain killings of elephants, interactions that are dangerous for everyone involved. These clashes lead to hundreds of deaths across Asia and Africa every year, both elephant and human.

Many people around the world are committed to preserving these ancient creatures. Elephants are important keystone species shaping and maintaining the ecosystems around them. Since the main threat to elephants is habitat loss, it makes sense to focus our conservation efforts on preserving what’s left of their natural environment. The fate of elephants is also more broadly linked to the human communities around them, since people with enough legal opportunities to support their families might be less likely to depend on hunting for income. And where farmers clash with elephants on the edges of their remaining habitat, conservationists are trying a variety of creative techniques to help both creatures coexist. For example, many small farmers can’t afford fences strong enough to keep out elephants, but some now surround their crops with beehive fences, which take advantage of elephants’ natural fear of bees. As a bonus, the bees also provide fresh local honey.

【推荐1】Many of us enjoy watching animals in the wild. They usually make us pleased, cheer us up and, sometimes, even make us frightened. But do you know what they can teach us? Wild geese (鹅), for example, teach a very good lesson about teamwork.

In fall, Canada wild geese fly south to get away from Canada’s cold winter weather. They lift off in no order. Yet very quickly they form a V-shape, with one bird leading the flock (鸟群). Scientists have discovered that wild geese flying in a V-shape can help them to save energy. In this way, they can fly 70 percent farther without rest than those flying alone.

What can human learn from this?

Be cooperative. We have found that wild geese make sound in flight to encourage those that have fallen behind to keep up with the speed. Team members should regularly communicate with each other while working towards a common goal.

Set a good example. When wild geese are on the ground, if something frightens the leader, it might fly off. So does the flock. But if the leader stays calm, the flock will do the same. Wild geese and people usually emulate their leaders. When leading, we must remember that our actions and feelings will be passed on to our followers.

Whether it is in our personal lives or our work, we need other people. We are encouraged by their enthusiasm and energy. If we face the difficulties alone, the risks are greater. Like wild geese, when we work together, our burdens are lighter.

【推荐2】“THEY’RE ALL IN TROUBLE,” says Kenyan ecologist Paula Kahumbu. “All elephants are in major, major trouble.”

Populations of the three species have declined: savanna (热带草原) elephants forest elephants and the smaller-eared Asian elephants. And we’re to blame. We’ve expanded (扩张) into elephant territory, building homes and roads, cutting down forests and planting crops. Besides, with the rise of poaching (偷猎), the number of elephants has decreased and became dangerously low in the past five decades.

“Poaching doesn’t just destroy animals,” says Kahumbu, “it gradually weakens society.” That’s why her organization monitored poaching cases in Kenyan courts, launched a campaign called Hands Off Our Elephants and educated children on the value of wildlife. Kahumbu’s goal is noble and urgent: to change “the whole national awareness about conservation.”

Now, she’s taking her message to an international stage with Secrets of the Elephants, a four-part series on National Geographic. It explores the hidden lives of elephants in four habitats — Asia, plus African forests, deserts, and savannas — as well as the people who are racing to save the animals.

“We kind of know what they need, but we aren’t always generous enough.” Secrets of the Elephants, she hopes, will familiarize people with the wildlife that lives among them.

While making the series, the difficult situation of some elephants shocked her. “You look at their faces and they look so sad,” she says. She particularly noticed this in Asia, where Asian elephants and people live in increasingly close distance.

“Despite decades of research into African elephants, much research into Asian elephants has fallen behind — which is why our programme in the following pages will focus on this species,” she adds.

【推荐1】Inspired by how ants move through narrow spaces, scientists have built a robot that draws in its limbs (肢) to pass through narrow passages, climb over steps and move on grass and loose rock.

“Insects are really a neat inspiration for designing robot systems that can perform various movement behaviors,” says Nick Gravish, a roboticist at the University of California, San Diego. Ants adapt their gesture to crawl (爬) through tiny spaces. For example, their legs collapse a bit when they hit an object, and they continue to move forward quickly.

Gravish team’s robot is about 30 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters long with four wavy limbs. Each limb is made up of six nested tubes that can draw into each other. What’s more, the limbs don’t need to be actively powered or adjusted to change their overall length. Instead, springs (弹簧) play a very crucial role because they automatically allow the legs to become short or stretch back out.

The robot can change the width and height of its body to achieve larger body sizes than other similar robots. This adaptability lets the robot get into spaces as small as 72 percent its full width and 68 percent its full height. Next, the researchers plan to actively control the firmness of the springs that connect the leg parts to tune the motion to earth type without consuming too much power.

The researchers think that such small robots are easy to produce and can be quickly adjusted to explore complex environments. However, despite being able to walk across different types of land, the researchers think that these robots are, for now, too breakable for search-and-rescue, exploration or biological monitoring. The new robot takes a step closer to those goals, but getting there will take more than just robotics.

【推荐2】Professor Johann-Dietrich Woemer has been in his new job as Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) for a week. In charge of a € 4. 4 billion annual budget, the former Chair of the German space agency is ultimately responsible for everything at ESA: Europe’s new weather and communication satellites; astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS); and explorations of Mars, Mercury and Jupiter.

When I ask him about his intentions for ESA,I expect a predictable and political answer about the economic and social benefits of space or maybe the importance for science of exploring the unknown Universe. Instead, Woemer surprises me with a vision for a future of space exploration that is both daring and ambitious.

“We should look to the future beyond the International Space Station,” he tells me. “I propose a Moon village on the far side of the Moon. ”

Yes, a village on the Moon. “A Moon village shouldn’t just mean some houses, a church and a town hall,” says Woerner. “This Moon village should mean partners from all over the world contributing to this community with robotic and astronaut missions and supporting communication satellites.”

Woerner pictures his Moon village in his mind as a multinational settlement involving astronauts from different countries. “We should have international cooperation, without any limitations, with any countries of the world,” says Woemer. “We have enough Earthly problems between different nations-space can bridge these Earthly problems and the Moon seems to be a good proposal. To keep a certain country out of a space program is not the right way; a much better solution is to find ways to cooperate in space to strengthen ties between humans on Earth. ”

【推荐3】The demand for digital audio (音频的) books is growing very rapidly. Let’s first look at why this has happened. The busy lifestyle leaves us little time to sit down and read a paper book. Besides, we all have time in the day when we are not really busy mentally. Therefore, we listen and “read” when doing other things.

An audio book, read by a professional narrator who is telling you the story, is an ideal way to “read” books that you wanted to read for long but that lack of time did not permit you to read. Storytelling has a very long tradition and with the new technology, it is gaining popularity again.

“For many people, listening to an audio book is an opportunity to hear an author firsthand,” says Mary Beth Roche, president of the Audio Publishers Association. “It’s like having the very best lecture series, not just in your own town, but in your own car or home — and at your command, they’ll read when YOU are ready to listen.”

Audio books used to be thought of as limited special products for only the blind and sight-impaired (视力受损的) or for kids and lazy people who either can not or do not want to read themselves. This has greatly changed over the last few years. A study found that the average listener of audio books is about 45 years of age and has an average yearly income of over $50,000, and at least a college education and often more advanced degrees. And these people have practical knowledge or understanding of the Internet.

Moreover, audio books are especially good for children who hate to read because of problems in school. That way they are familiar with the adventure of using their own imagination to paint their mental pictures of what they hear, rather than just staring at the TV screen. Also, if they have the book and the audio, reading along can help them overcome reading problems.