【推荐1】Eat nuts, live longer.Researchers have found that those who eat a handful of peanuts every day significantly decrease their risk of dying from all causes compared to those who do not eat nuts.A new study concludes that all types of nuts seem to be protective.

Researcher Ying Bao is with the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.She and her colleagues looked at the impact of nut consumption by analyzing two huge studies that began in 1980 ----the Nurses’ Health Study, which tracks the well-being of more than 76,000 women, and 42,000 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Among the questions asked at the beginning of the studies was, “how frequently do you eat nuts?”The information was updated every two to four years.Bao says the participants were followed for three decades.

“What we observed is that people who eat more nuts are less likely to die over the next 30 years,” said Bao.“So, for example, if a person eats nuts once per day, that person has a 20 percent lower risk of dying.”

Bao says eating a handful of nuts five or more times per week is associated with a 29 percent reduced risk of dying from heart disease and an 11 percent lower risk of cancer death.A serving size is 28 grams.

Nuts contain nutrients, including high quality proteins, vitamins and minerals, all of which have anti-cancer effects and may help protect the heart.

Bao says researchers are planning studies to find out how nuts are beneficial to human health.

The study on the health benefits of nuts was funded by the International Tree Nut Council Research and Education Foundation.

【推荐1】When Johan Bavman’s son Viggo was born, so was a deeply personal photograph project: a look at fathers using Sweden’s expansive parental-leave policy-to stay home with their children.

Paid maternal leave around childbirth is commonplace throughout the world: It’s federal policy in 34 or the 35 member nations, such countries as England, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, etc. of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development（all but the United States）. About two-thirds of those nations also fund at least brief parental leaves for fathers-a benefit first extended by Sweden, in 1974.

Sweden’s program has allowed parents to split 480 days of subsidized（补贴的）leave to care for children and earn bonuses according to how evenly they split the leave. But despite those incentives, only about 14 percent of Sweden’s fathers “took paternal leave and shared the days equally with their partner,” Bavman says.

He joined the ranks of those dads in 2012 at Viggo’s birth-- “I wanted to be at home by myself with him, to get to know his needs” --and is also using leave to stay home with Manfred, born in 2016. In his photo project（now a book）, Bavman shows fathers in Sweden overseeing child and home care. “It’s gone unrecognized that this is really hard, full-time work” he says, and “something that women have always been doing.”

Like most new mothers, Caroline Ihlstrom looked forward to cuddling and feeding her new-borns. But premature twins Parisa and Leia were unable to nurse. When Bavman arrived to take photos shortly after the twins’ birth, their father, Samed Kohigoltapeh, had fed them formula（配方奶）and was warming them against his skin. A construction engineer. Kohigoltapeh took joint parental leave with Ihlstrom for the babies’ first four months and then soloed with them for six more months.

So far Bavman has made portraits of 45 fathers on leave. He is happy to offer them as role models “so men can see the benefits of being on leave.” But he’s not as impressed with the nicknamed some Swedes apply: latte-pappor, or “latte dads,” as if the men perform childcare duties between coffee dates. Though he does drink coffee, Bavman says, “I don’t have time to sit.”

Taking long leaves with his children has made him a better parent, Bavman says. He hopes his photography project will inspire more fathers-and more countries-to give the idea a try.

【推荐2】Researchers and environmentalists have been pushing for clean energy, as well, contending with the rising threat of climate change. An increasingly researched renewable resource is called Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), in which the sea’s temperature variations are used to produce power. On the surface of the ocean, the temperatures are much warmer compared to the seafloor. It gets considerably colder the deeper you go because the sunlight cannot reach the bottom. These temperature differences are most noticeable in the summer when the sun is present for a majority of the hours of the day. To put it simply, OTEC uses a series of pipes that take the cooler water out in the depths of the ocean. The warm water on the ocean’s surface helps heat the cool water, which then vaporizes (蒸发) a fluid, and as a result, turns a turbine (涡轮机) to produce electricity.

Three types of ocean heat renewable energy systems are being developed and researched. An OTEC closed-cycle is perhaps the most common and well-researched, consisting of a condenser (冷凝器), evaporator, pumps, turbine and generator. There are also open systems and hybrid systems.

Systems work by pumping the warmer surface water through an evaporator containing a working fluid with a low boiling point, such as ammonia. Once the fluid vaporizes, it is used to drive a turbine and generator. From there, the vaporized fluid turns back into a liquid through a condenser, cooled by the cold, deep ocean water that pumps up from the depths. The OTEC systems that use seawater can use condensation to make water without salt.

OTEC systems need to place technology about 1 kilometer below the surface of the water. The cold water intake pipe is in the deepest area, and the piping where warm water enters is above sea level. The pumps are needed to move warm water into the system, and a heat exchanger is required to evaporate the fluid. Condensers condense the steam produced in the system, and a marker keeps the entire system afloat.

Energy is essential for almost all human activities. If the world wants to avoid an energy crisis, people need to begin relying on renewable energy. Fortunately, the three types of OTEC can provide energy for large populations.

【推荐3】Florida shores may soon become a bit safer thanks to the creativity of 13-year-old Kaial Hajik in Panama City Beach. After hearing of several drownings (溺亡) in the Gulf of Mexico over the past few years, Kail worked with his father Joe Hajik to design an emergency kit prototype (原型) called the LifeBoKx.

The LifeBoKx includes basic life-saving equipment and educational materials to be positioned along the shoreline of Panama City Beach. The emergency kit includes two life jackets and visual aids including the “Drowning Chain of Survival,” a visual representation from the International Life Saving Federation (ILS) telling how to safely behave when drowning.

Kaial and his father said the story of Richard Stacey Redman made them want to create the LifeBoKx. Redman drowned on Panama City Beach in 2019 trying to save a drowning child. “It’s not just people drowning. It’s actually the people who work to help save these people that are losing their lives,” Joe Hajik said.

The LifeBoKx is just an idea for now, but the father-son team imagines placing the emergency kits throughout the Panama City Beach shoreline.

Wil Spivey is the director of the newly created Beach Safety unit. Kaial and Joe Hajik presented the LifeBoKx to Spivey and his team. When asked about the prototype, Spivey said, “Our main feeling is that we just thought it was really exceptional — that a young man saw a need or problem in his community and tried to take action and stand up and do something meaningful about it.”

Spivey said his team supported Hajik and offered suggestions. The LifeBoKx could not stand as a replacement to lifeguards and trained emergency responders but Spivey said it offered some useful tools, particularly the educational materials, and the possibility to help the progress of emergency response.