【推荐2】A new research shows human activity is changing the sound of the Earth's oceans and seas. Scientists say the sound changes of our oceans, seas, and other waterways affect many marine (海洋的) animals - from very small shrimps to huge whales.

Sound travels very far underwater, Francis Juanes, an ecologist at the University of Victoria in Canada, told the Associated Press. For fish, he explained, sound is probably a better way to sense their environment than light. Sounds help fish and other marine animals survive and communicate with each other. Sounds also help some ocean animals find food and avoid their hunters.

However, increased noise from humans is making it harder for these animals to hear each other. The noise is coming from shipping traffic, underwater exploration, and other noisy human activities. For many marine animals, their attempts to communicate are being masked by sounds that humans have produced. Experts explain that masking happens when one or more noises in the water block sound important to a marine animal's living. The overall number of marine animals has gone down by about half since 1970. Some studies show the stress from human noise might also affect the immune system as well as reproductive health or behavior. Imagine having to raise your kids in a place that's noisy all the time," said Joe Roman, a marine ecologist at the University of Vermont.

"When people think of problems facing the ocean, we often think of climate change, plastics, and overfishing. But noise pollution is another thing we need to be monitoring. Sound pollution may be easier to deal with than other ocean problems," Scientist Juanes says. "If we make something for the ocean, think about how to make it quieter."

【推荐1】Many scientists believe our love of sugar may actually be an addiction. When we eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar enters our blood and affects parts of our brain that make us feel good. Then the good feeling goes away, leaving us wanting more. All tasty foods do this, but sugar has a particularly strong effect. In this way, it is in fact an addictive drug, which doctors suggest we all should cut down on.

“It seems like every time I study an illness and search for the first cause, I find my way back to sugar,” says scientist Richard Johnson. One-third of adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and up to 347 million adults have diabetes (糖尿病) . Why? “Sugar, we believe is one of the culprits, if not the major reason,” says Johnson.

Our bodies are designed to survive on very little sugar. Early humans often had very little food, so our bodies learned to be very efficient in storing sugar as fat. In this way, we had energy stored when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. So the very thing that once saved us may now be killing us.

So what is the solution? It’s: obvious that we need to eat less sugar. The trouble is, in today’s world, it’s extremely difficult to avoid. From breakfast cereals (谷物) to after-dinner desserts, our foods are increasingly filled with it.

But there are those who are fighting back against sugar. Many schools are replacing sugary desserts with healthier food like fruit. Other schools are growing their own food in gardens, or building facilities like walking tracks so students and others in the community can exercise.

【推荐3】Driving while talking on the phone increases the likelihood of an accident and is actually more dangerous than driving drunk, U.S. researchers report. This holds true whether the driver is holding a cell phone or using a hands⁃free device.

“As a society, we have agreed on not tolerating the risk associated with drunk driving,”said researcher Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah.“This study shows us that somebody who is conversing on a cell phone is exposing him or herself and others to a similar risk — cell phones actually are a higher risk,”he said.

In the study, 40 people followed a pace car along a prescribed course, using a driving simulator （模拟仪）. Some people drove while talking on a cell phone, others drove while drunk（meaning their blood-alcohol limit matched the legal limit of 0.08 percent）, and others drove with no such distractions. The researchers found an increased accident rate when people were conversing on the cell phone. Drivers on cell phones were 5.36 times more likely to get in an accident.

The bottom line: Cell⁃phone use was linked to“a significant increase in the accident rate,” Drews said.

The phone users did even worse than the inebriated, the Utah team found. There were three accidents among those talking on cell phones — all of them involving a rear⁃ending（追尾） of the pace car. In contrast, there were no accidents recorded among participants who were drunk.

In response to safety concerns, some states have declared it illegal to use hand ⁃ held cell phones while driving. But that type of law may not be effective, because the Utah researchers found no difference in driver performance whether the driver was holding the phone or talking on a hands⁃free model.

“We have seen again and again that there is no difference between hands⁃free and hand⁃held devices,”Drews said.“The problem is the conversation. The best solution to the problem is obvious: Don’t talk on the phone while you are driving. ”