【推荐1】Many people struggle to keep their weight in check as getting older. Now new research at Karolinska Institute in Sweden has found that lipid turnover (脂质代谢) in the fat tissue (组织) decreases when people are getting older, which makes it easier to put on weight, even if we eat less or exercise more than before.

The scientists studied the fat cells in 54 men and women over an average period of 13 years. In that time, all subjects, regardless of whether they gained or lost weight, showed decreases in lipid turnover in the fat tissue, and that is the rate at which lipid (or fat) in the fat cells is removed and stored. Those who didn't make up for that by eating fewer calories gained weight by an average of 20 percent, according to the study done together with researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of Lyon in France.

The researchers also examined lipid turnover in 41 women who underwent bariatric surgery (减肥手术) and how the lipid turnover rate affected their ability to keep the weight off four to seven years after surgery. The result showed only those who had a low rate before the surgery managed to increase their lipid turnover and maintain their weight loss.

“For the first time, the results showed that processes in our fat tissue rule changes in body weight during aging in a way that is independent of other factors,” says Peter Arner, one of the study's main authors. "This could open up new ways to deal with obesity (肥胖).”

Earlier studies have shown one way to speed up the lipid turnover in the fat tissue is to exercise more. This new research supports this and further shows the long-term result of weight-loss surgery would improve if combined with increased physical activity.

Obesity and obesity-related diseases have become a global problem. Understanding the change in lipids and what rules the size of the fat mass in humans has never been so significant to us. Therefore, let's expect the researchers to have more findings in this field to help us keep a healthy body.

【推荐1】European researchers say they have created a process that can produce oxygen from moon dust. The process could provide a major source of oxygen for humans taking part in moon exploration activities in the future. Researchers from the European Space Agency (ESA), carried out the experiments at a laboratory in the Netherlands. They reported their results in a study published in Planetary and Space Science.

The team says ESA’s experimental “plant” was able to successfully produce oxygen from simulated (仿造的) moon dust. The dust is part of a material known as regolith, a top layer of dirt and rock fragments that sit on the surface of the moon. Samples of regolith returned from the moon have confirmed that the material contains about 45 percent oxygen by weight. However, the oxygen is chemically locked in the form of minerals or glass, so it is not easily available for use. Having real samples of regolith from the moon made it possible for the researchers to create the simulated moon dust material used during testing.

ESA’s long-term goal is to design an oxygen-producing “pilot plant” to operate full-time on the moon. The first technology demonstration (演示) of the system is expected to take place in the middle 2020s. Beth Lomax of the University of Glasgow was a lead researcher on the project. “Being able to acquire oxygen from resources found on the moon would obviously be hugely useful for future lunar settlers, both for breathing and in the local production of rocket fuel,” she said in a statement.

The researchers reported that “as a bonus”, the process also results in the production of usable metallic materials. ESA researcher Alexandre Meurisse said the finding that a number of metals are left behind was an important discovery.

ESA and the U.S. space agency NASA are both working on plans to return human beings to the moon. NASA has set a goal for 2024, with the aim to keep humans on the moon for long periods. ESA officials say the latest experiments were part of expanded engineering development aimed at finding new ways for lunar materials to be used to support future human activities.

Last August, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida announced its own plans to develop a device that would melt lunar regolith to extract oxygen.

The NASA plan would involve heating the regolith to more than 1,600 degrees Celsius and then flowing electricity through the material, the agency explained. The process would attempt to cause a chemical reaction to split the regolith into oxygen and metals.

Kevin Grossman is a materials science expert at Kennedy Space Center. He said researchers will be carrying out experiments to test the technology with the goal of getting NASA, in his words, “one step closer to an automated mass production of oxygen on the Moon.”

【推荐3】Every day we experience one of the wonders of the world around us without even realizing it. It is not the amazing complexity of television, nor the impressive technology of transport. The universal wonder we share and experience is our ability to make noises with mouths, and so transmit ideas and thoughts to each other’s minds. This ability comes so naturally that we tend to forget what a miracle it is.

Obviously, the ability to talk is something that marks humans off from animals. Of course, some animals have powers just as amazing. Birds can fly thousands of miles by observing positions of the stars in the sky in relation to the time of day and year. In Nature’s talent show, humans are a species of animals that have developed their own special act. If we reduce it to basic terms, it’s an ability for communicating information to others, by varying sounds we make as we breathe out.

It is not that we don’t have other powers of communication. Our facial expressions convey our emotions, such as anger, or joy, or disappointment. The way we hold our heads can indicate to others whether we are happy or sad. This is so-called “body language”. Bristling (直立的) fur is an unmistakable warning of attack among many animals. Similarly, the bowed head or drooping tail shows a readiness to take second place in any animal gathering.

Such a means of communication is a basic mechanism that animals, including human beings, instinctively acquire and display. Is the ability to speak just another sort of instinct(本能)? If so, how did human beings acquire this amazing skills? Biologists can readily indicate that particular area of our brain where speech mechanisms function, but this doesn’t tell us how that part of our bodies originated in our biological history.