【推荐1】Blue Planet II's latest episode focuses on how plastic is having a devastating effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers recently also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, the oceans are drowning in plastic.

Though it seems now that the world couldn't possibly function without plastics, consumer plastics are a remarkably recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s, the same decade that plastic packaging began gaining in popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastics pollution research, for instance, is still a very early science.

We put all these plastics into the environment and we still don't really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. One in three leatherback turtles, which often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their bellies. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastics on a regular basis. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

And it's not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastics in our seas. Humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning in the same breath as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. There are no ocean trash deniers, at least so far. To do something about it, we don't have to remake our planet energy system.

This is not a problem where we don't know what the solution is. We know how to pick up garbage. Anyone can do it. We know how to dispose of it. We know how to recycle. We can all start by thinking twice before we use single-use plastic products. Things that may seem ordinary, like using a reusable bottle or a reusable bag—when taken collectively really do make a difference.

【推荐2】Plastic is the workhorse material of the modern economy. Light and durable, it’s been used to make a vast number of products since its introduction over 100 years ago.

However, a study carried out by the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation(基金会) and McKinsey &Company showed the breakdown of the status of the global plastic system. A full 32% of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into out oceans.

The Ocean Cleanup, a startup founded in 2013, is the brainchild of Boyan Slat, who came up with the idea for the company when he was just 17 years old. Since then, it has received more than $2 million in funding(基金). The company plans to use a large device that will be fixed to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This will have arms that spread out over 100 km, getting all of the plastic garbage pushed into its nets. This is then collected by a 10,000 metrecube container that will be emptied monthly.

Most recently, the Ocean Cleanup launched a team of explorers aboard a specially refitted C130 Hercules aircraft heavily loaded with specialized sensor equipment. It discovered that the problem was worse than expected with an abundance of plastics measuring up to 1.5m across and at a higher density than previously thought. The organization will continue to pilot the device and will start removing the pile before the end of the decade.

Once the plastic is out, what should we do with it? The foundation hopes that the plastic from the ocean will have a commercial value which can help to fund the project. Ocean plastic is not easy to use, for it’s mixed with everything from intact PET bottles to microplastics. However, some of the world’s biggest companies also see the chance to market products made of ocean plastic.

Transforming today’s plastic economy from its present form (takemakewaste) to a zero waste circular economy (takemaketakemake) is a difficult challenge. However, with cooperative action from producers, recyclers, governments and consumers alike and continuing innovation, it can be done.

【推荐1】One of the most firmly established idea of manliness is that a real man doesn’t cry. Although he might shed a tear at a funeral, he is expected to quickly regain control. Sobbing openly is for girls. One study found that women cry significantly more than men do—five times as often, on average, and almost twice as long per period.

Historically, however, men routinely wept, and no one saw it as shameful. For example, in the Middle Ages, knights cried purely because they missed their girlfriends. In The Knight of the Cart, no less a hero than Lancelot weeps at a brief separation from Guinevere. There’s no mention of the men in these stories trying to restrain or hide their tears. They cry in a crowded hall with their heads held high. Nor do their companions make fun of this public crying; it’s universally regarded as an admirable expression of feeling.

So where did all the male tears go? The most obvious possibility is that this shift is the result of changes as we moved from an agricultural society to one that was urban and industrial. In the Middle Ages, most people spent their lives among those they had known since birth. If men cried, they did so with people who would sympathize. But from the 18th to 20th centuries, the population became increasingly urbanize, and people were living in the midst of thousands of strangers. Furthermore, changes in the economy required men to work together in factories and offices where emotional expressions and even private conversations were discouraged as time wasting.

Yet human beings weren’t designed to swallow their emotions, and there’s reason to believe that restraining tears can be harmful to your well-being. Research from the 1980s has suggested a relationship between stress-related illnesses and inadequate crying. Weeping is also, somewhat related with happiness and wealth. Countries where people cry the most tend to be richer and more confident.

【推荐2】Researchers have created glass by harvesting energy from wind and precipitation (降水).The approach offers an alternative to other smart windows powered by batteries, solar panels, and even standard power outlets. “The creation represents a new kind of renewable energy source”, says Liming Dai, a nanomaterial engineer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, who was not involved in the research.

Smart glass, which changes its characteristics to block out light or heat, has been around for decades. Common examples include glare-fighting rearview (后视) car mirrors and windows that change color for energy savings and privacy. But many are expensive, and people are still looking for eco-friendly ways to power the windows. Batteries and plug-in outlets aren’t apparently “green”, and built-in solar panels can cloud or hide parts of the glass.

In experiments, the glass produced up to 130 milliwatts per square meter, enough to power a pacemaker or a smart phone while it’s asleep, the team reported online last month in ACS Nano. This output might suit many applications, such as being a power source for home or office electronics, says co-developer and scientist Zhong Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Since their first project in 2012, a light-up sidewalk powered by footsteps, he and his colleagues have miniaturized their generators to create everything from self-cleaning keyboards to sensors for security systems.

But Wang and colleagues still have more work to do before this smart glass is ready for commercialization. Now, the glass has no way to store the energy it creates. To solve this problem, Dai says, transparent supercapacitors (超级电容器) could be placed into the glass without decreasing visibility.

For now, the team wants to improve the energy efficiency of their nanogenerators. These tiny power plants can convert about 60% of the mechanical energy (机械能) that they encounter into electricity. “The output power is a constant goal,” Wang says. “Free energy is around us, and anything can happen if you take control of it."