【推荐2】Everybody eats, and what you eat is getting more expensive all the time. Food prices have risen 15 percent in the past 3 years — to about $240 a week. Can you really cut a grocery bill that size in half?     1    

It's no surprise that cooking at home is a huge step in the right direction, and it may require less time than you think.     2     It somewhat makes sense, whether you are growing a garden or investing some volunteer time with a community garden.

    3     If you save your receipts （收据）from groceries and eating out for a few weeks, you'll have all the data you need to start making plans. Make notes on your buying patterns, which is good for your wallet. When researchers from the University of Utah analyzed the food buying patterns of 10,000 Americans, they found many folks were spending nearly half of their food dollars on restaurants and fast food.     4     About 7 percent spent over a third of their food budget on alcohol.

Once you have known where you stand, you can start changes in your diets to reduce food costs.     5     There are three paths to follow: develop a food-efficient diet, keep a food-efficient kitchen, and spend your food dollars as wisely as possible. And even better, you may find you truly enjoy some of these strategies, which are not only good for your wallet, but maximize flavor and nutrition.

【推荐3】Meat cultivated(培植)from cells — with no need to raise and kill animals—is now a reality. The process of cultivating meat uses the basic elements needed to build muscle and fat and enables the same biological process that happens inside an animal. Cultivated meat is identical(完全相同的) to conventional meat at the cellular level. But can it be made cheaply enough to replace animal agriculture?

More than 150 startups are pursuing an ambitious goal: meat that doesn’t require raising and killing animals and that is affordable and tastes and feels like the meat we eat now. They are part of a young industry aiming to use cell biology to reduce the environmental impact of the world’s ever-increasing demand for meat and change global protein production the way electric cars are shaking up the auto industry.

“We are addicted to meat as a species. It’s part of our culture,” said Believer founder Yaakov Nahmias. “But we thought about quantity rather than the environment, rather than sustainability.”

Although there are dozens of companies making this meat, none has yet reached commercial-level production in terms of scale or cost. From cell line development to bio-processor design, there are a number of scientific challenges to meet before cultivated meat is widely available at the market. Government policy is another challenge. Only Singapore and the U. S. allow sales of cultivated meat.

And while many people who have tried it say they like it, others find the idea distasteful. A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that half of U. S. adults would be unlikely to try it. When they were asked why, about half said they didn’t think it would be safe. Even Nahmias’10-year-old son Oren said he would only eat traditional meat. “I feel bad” for the animals, he said, “but they are yummy!”

“Until this meat costs and tastes the same as traditional meat, it will remain a specialized product,” said Bruce Friedrich, president of the Good Food Institute.

【推荐1】If you’ve ever thought that dogs seem to know when people are stressed, you were right. Scientists in Ireland ran an experiment which showed that dogs can tell the difference between the smell of a person when they’re relaxed and when they’re stressed.

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, led by scientist Clara Wilson, worked with four dogs. They taught the dogs to use a special smell-testing device with three openings. The scientists used treats and rewards (奖励) to train the dogs to find and signal the correct opening. Over time, the dogs were given harder and harder smelling jobs. The final goal was to see if they could smell stress in the breath and sweat of a person.

So the researchers collected breath and sweat samples (样品) from 36 different people. They got samples when the people were calm, and also when they were stressed. To stress people out, the scientists asked a really difficult math problem, and forced people to do it in their heads quickly. And they weren’t nice about it. They kept telling the people to hurry up, and didn’t give them any help. That lasted for three minutes. Then the researchers collected two more sweat and breath samples. They also asked the people about their level of stress, and measured their heart rates and blood pressure. Most people said they felt very stressed. On average, the heart rate increased from about 91 beats per minute to about 105 beats per minute.

The scientists used one of the stressed samples, along with two clean pieces of cloth, to train the dogs to find the stressed smell. Then came the challenge- the dogs had three choices: a sample from a calm person, a stressed sample from that same person, and a clean piece of cloth. In all, the dogs did 720 of these tests. They correctly identified the stressed sample about 94% of the time.

【推荐1】Dancing with your grandma for 15 minutes a week promotes positive feelings and improves her state of mind, a study says. Doctors from Israel are urging younger family members to have a regular visit to their grandmas and have a dance with their grandmas.

And they found a 15 minute boogie (布吉舞) once a week lifted the spirits of elderly family members and helped strengthen the family bond. In fact, it is called Dance Movement Therapy (DMT). DMT across the generations, complete with eye contact, was found to promote positive feelings and improve mood for the elderly.

The grandparents reported a bright state of mind, happy memories and uplifted spirits. Dancing has also previously been connected with improved muscle strength, balance and endurance (耐力). For the grandchildren in the study, the weekly boogie changed how they view ageing and allowed them to come to accept the eventual death of their elderly relative.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, assessed how dance affected the well-being of 16 dance movement therapists (治疗师)and their grandmothers. Dance movement therapy was paid attention due to the fact it is easily accessible and does not cost more to practice. The researchers were eager to examine a low-cost method to treat issues commonly faced by an ageing population-such as limited mobility and depression. Grandchildren were instructed to make eye contact and encourage playfulness and touch. They were also told to mirror their grandmothers’ movements and give them time and space to rest when needed.

The sessions were recorded and then analysed while diaries and interviews recorded the opinions and feelings of the participants. As well as the benefits to the health of the senior, the experiment also changed the idea of the younger family members.

【推荐2】Tests, after­school activities and problems at home can increase stress for students. But research now suggests that the main reason for the students’ rising anxiety levels is something else.

A psychology professor Jean Twenge said, “What a lot of teens told me is that using social media and their phones seems forced. This use of phones has led to a loss of sleep and face-to-face interactions.” Last year, in the journal Pediatrics three researchers wrote that too much social media use might contribute to the development of mental health problems in teenagers, such as loneliness, depressive symptoms and anxiety.

Researchers are still not sure whether phones cause student depression or depression causes phone use. Yet 70 percent of teens see anxiety and depression as major problems among their peers, according to a February Pew Research Center report.

Schools are starting to take steps to deal with the problem. Many public schools pay outside companies to watch students’ social media activity for signs of pain. Some schools have organized some events in which people do not use their electronic devices. Belfast Area High School in Maine had one such event in April. About 20 percent of students and school employees took part, demonstrating the influence that the technology has on their daily life.

Emily Mogavero, a 17­year­old student in New York, said, “I definitely feel stressed to keep up my information and stuff. It kind of worries me that I’m on my smart phone so long.” Mogavero said she sometimes puts her phone out of reach or powers it down so she doesn’t hear anything.

Some parents are not letting their children get smart phones until they grow up. A teacher, Erin Schifferli, says her 12­year­old daughter, Aeva, won’t get a phone until she is 16 years old. Deirdre Birmingham of Montclair signed on a campaign called “Wait Until Eighteen” because she didn’t think her video game­loving 10­year­old son was ready for a smart phone.