【推荐2】Cristina Mittermeier is a marine (海洋的) biologist and multi-award-winning photographer who has devoted her life to ocean conservation. Recognised as being one of the world’s most influential conservation photographers, Cristina has travelled to 132 countries to communicate the urgent need to protect wild places.

She began her career as a marine biologist, but soon realised that she could better protect the oceans and the planet through her camera. “Science is important to understand what is happening to our planet, but it fails to convey the emotions that make us care. Photography allows us to humanise stories and create something meaningful, and I had an urgent need to share the difficult situation of the planet. I love creating photographs that engage people in conversations and makes them stop and think.”Cristina said.

Making a successful career as a photographer has not been an easy journey. Cristina worked hard at teaching herself the basics of photography and then she went back to school to learn more. “I studied the work of people I admire, and I tried to be creative in the way I expressed the purpose of my photography. I didn’t just want to take pictures; I wanted to make images of such power and purpose that they would inspire others to give meaning to their life’s work and move people to action.”

She founded the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) in 2014, and today she is the co-founder and president of Only One Collective, which includes Sea Legacy, a story telling studio that creates powerful visual content to move people from unconcern to action. Having a big following isn’t enough when it comes to reaching a large audience. Motivating people and making them to act voluntarily is an interesting challenge, but actions need to be informed by science.

【推荐1】After erupting almost continuously for over three decades — from 1983 to 2018 — Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano finally seemed to lose steam , producing no lava (岩浆) for nearly two years. The stillness ended on the night of December 20, 2020, when the active volcano began erupting lava fountains, gas and steam from a crack in the northwest wall of the Halema’uma’u crater (火山口).

By December 31, 2020, the volcano had erupted over 27 million cubic meters of molten rock — enough to fill more than 8000 Olympic-sized swimming pools — and replaced the existing water lake with a nearly 600-foot-deep lava lake. Fortunately, the magma (岩浆) is contained inside the volcano’s crater and does not bring a risk to people or property as it did in 2018, when the molten rock flowed through a residential neighborhood, destroying over 700 homes.

Residents have, however, been asked to limit outdoor activities in areas with high volcanic smog, which is a form of air pollution created when sulfur dioxide and other pollutants sent out from volcanic activity interact chemically with atmospheric steam, oxygen, dust, and sunlight. While not deadly, it can bring unpleasant feelings to skin, eyes, nose and throat, and it can be particularly harmful to individuals with breathing problems.

Now recognized as one of the world’s youngest and most active volcanoes, Kilauea was initially believed to be one offshoot of a bigger volcano. It was only after researchers discovered a magma system extending over 37 miles inside its crater in 1884 that the volcano was finally accepted as a separate unit.

Many locals believe that Kilauea’s eruptions are caused by Pele, a Hawaiian volcano goddess who lives in the mountain. According to a popular folk story, the goddess was forced to leave Tahiti. Upon arriving at Hawaii, she burst with anger, creating destructive fire caves and volcanoes. While Pele was killed during an historic battle with her sister Nāmaka on the island of Maui, her spirit lives on inside the Halema’uma’u crater.

【推荐2】At any given moment, about seven microliters of tears are present in each of our eyes-about a tenth of a drop of water. Tears are more than salty water—they deliver oxygen and nutrients to our eyes, remove waste and serve as the first line of defense against disease.

Research has shown that markers of many of the most common diseases like cancer are found in tears. Work is already under way to confirm the use of such markers for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. Recently, a technology named TearExo has been developed for breast cancer screening using patients' tears. That could greatly reduce the costs of testing.

Actually, the potential merits of tears as indicators of health go beyond occasional testing. One promising tear-based technology is a smart contact lens that continuously monitors a patient's biomarkers, significantly improving disease prevention and early detection. Recently, a smart contact lens has been successfully developed for continuous glucose monitoring and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Such a product probably won't be ready for commercial use for several years. However, about 45 million people in the US already wear contact lenses to correct their vision, so switching to a smart version will be simple for them.

Interestingly, NASA ever suggested using tear markers to monitor astronauts' health in space. This allowed us to better understand the effects on human health of long-term exposure to space environmental factors like weightlessness. Tear markers from experienced astronauts and new astronauts without space exposure could be used to establish a health database, which might be one of the first stepping stones toward making living in space a reality.

Tears can provide an inexpensive, rapid and easy-to-use alternative to monitor health. Given the advantage in tear technology to monitor health, and to be used even by the healthy, such technology will almost certainly lead to the more effective prevention of diseases—rather than having to deal with the difficulties of treating them.