【推荐1】Homes are usually warmed with radiators (暖气片). Some homes are warmed by floor heating. Now, a new way of heating is being developed by using the “wallpaper” on your walls. This wallpaper is not decorative. It actually goes under and not over the wall-electrically heats a room. And this type of heating technology heats objects, even people, instead of the air and this helps you feel warmer.

The electric heating panels (嵌板) which are hidden in the wall are connected to the main electrical panels of your home. Each room can be heated independently through an app, so you do not have to heat unused rooms. It takes around 20 minutes to heat a room.

With rising prices for home heating, the panels seen like the right way to go. “It makes me happy that I don’t depend on gas,” Kris Bilski, an early user, said. About 23 million homes in the UK are connected to the gas grid (网) but the government wants to phase out gas-fired pots by 2035. Home heating is responsible for 17 percent of greenhouse gas materials, so removing fossil fuel-based heating will help the environment.

The new electric heating systems are easy to get for private homes and the company is currently testing the new technology in public housing in some cities. The types being tested can be fitted while people are still living in the apartment so it makes installation a lot easier.

Heating your home with this type of technology does not heat your water, so an additional heating system is required, but an energy efficient heater can be used.

While the wallpaper is greener, electricity in the UK is very costly so it is not an economic way to heat homes unless there is a renewable energy source like solar panels used. Still, reducing the dependence on fossil fuels will go a long way to green the UK and help the country meet its climate targets.

【推荐2】Cutlery (餐具) including chopsticks, knives, forks and spoons which delivers an electric shock to change the taste of food could help cut down salt in fast food. Scientists have developed a pair of chopsticks, which can make food taste saltier, sour or bitter without the need for extra seasoning (调味). They are also working on a spoon and fork that could make food taste spicier or sweeter. This “digital seasoning” technology could help food manufacturers and restaurants to reduce the amount of salt they put into food without relinquishing taste.

They work by delivering pulses of electricity to the tip of the tongue to stimulate the tastebuds(味蕾). Dr Nimesha Ranasinghe, an assistant professor who led the work on the electric cutlery, said, “This technology is aimed at creating a virtual taste sensation.”

Some Chinese takeaway food and ready meals were recently found to contain up to 11 times more salt than a bag of crisps — more than half of an adult’s daily allowance. Salt is known to be linked to serious health problems like heart disease and stroke.

But using a pair of electric chopsticks could help cut salt levels without influencing the taste, said Dr Ranasinghe. The technology, which Dr Ranasinghe initially developed while at the University of Singapore, works by installing two electrodes (电极) into each chopstick or the end of a spoon. These electrodes send a weak current through the tip of the tongue when they touch it to stimulate the taste buds.

By controlling the frequency and strength of the electric current, the researchers can stimulate either sourness, saltiness or bitterness. They say up to 80% of people experience changes in saltiness and sourness with the devices and 70% can sense changes in bitterness.

Dr Ranasinghe said he was also working on ways of imitating sweetness and spiciness by rapidly heating and cooling the tongue. It could lead to a spoon that allows desserts to taste sweet while having lower sugar levels or a fork that can give a curry extra heat without the need for extra chilies (辣椒). Dr Ranasinghe said: “We have some early findings of imitating sweetness, a mint-cool sensation and hot or spicy sensations.”

【推荐3】Tolstoy, one of east Africa’s few remaining Super Tusker elephants, wandered the grasslands around Mount Kilimanjaro for more than five decades. That was until last year, when he died after being speared by a farmer seeking to protect his crops.

“This is happening more and more,” said ranger Daudi Ninaai from Kenya’s Amboseli ecosystem reserve. The ranger fears other elephants will meet the same fate, as the increasingly frequent conflicts between humans and wildlife are worsened by the increase of new commercial farms. Incidents of elephants’ crop robbing more than doubled from 156 in 2020 to 363 last year.

“It’s skyrocketing because the space is shrinking,” said Samuel Tokore, a senior official at Kenya Wildlife Service. The fenced farms have considerably reduced elephants’ ability to travel. Tall barriers have been thrown up across their ancient migration routes.

The problem begins partly from a state-led move to divide 1.35mn acres in Amboseli used by generations of native Maasai people into private lands. After the public land was divided up, some chose to sell them on to commercial farmers.

“The destruction of wildlife buffer zones (缓冲区) and corridors for industrial farming is at a tipping poinit,” WildlifeDirect’s Kahumbu said. Michael Kairu set up his farming business in Amboseli five years ago only to find out later about the threat it posed to wildlife. His 500-acre farm is located in what was once an elephant breeding ground. “Government agencies and communities should make it clear where you can farm,” said Kairu, whose customers include leading UK supermarkets. “I don’t want to be in the wrong place,” he said.

【推荐3】There are 156 known species of glass frogs living throughout the neotropics. Recent advancements in genetics are giving researchers a revealing look into the lives of these one-inch-long tree dwellers, some of which are the size of a paper clip.

Scientists have discovered, for example, that male glass frogs in some species are stellar parents — a rare trait among vertebrates (脊椎动物). Males of at least 24 species not only protect their eggs from predators but also actively care for them. While the embryos (胚胎) develop, males of some species, such as the sun glass frog sit atop their egg clutch "like a chicken," keeping the eggs hydrated until they hatch into tadpoles (蝌蚪).

New research is also discovering how the glass frog's transparent belly forms. It's suspected that young glass frogs physically rearrange the insides of their cells and tissues to become transparent adults. Fluid between the tissue cells may also contain a substance that allows light to travel through.

Another mechanism that may allow glass frogs to blend into the green leaves on which they doze during the day is called "a biological mirror", a kind of shield or covering of crystals in many of their tissues, which reflects up to 30 percent of the light that normally reaches them. Those crystals amplify the light signal, and the frog's green looks brighter.

Many scientists studying glass frogs arc motivated by the fact that some of their subjects are disappearing—and fast. Agriculture, cattle grazing, and mining projects in the Andes are taking over the frogs' already fractured forest homes.

"As soon as they are discovered, many species are declared endangered," Guayasamin, a biologist in Ecuador, says "yet there could be an advantage in conserving such isolated ponulanons." All could be inspired to work together to set aside frog-rich patches of land as reserves, ensuring that these delicate creatures have a solid chance at survival.