【推荐2】Humans can race to get out of a hurricane’s path. Some animals can sense a hurricane coming and leave quickly, but there are animals that can’t simply get out of the way. Here are the various effects of hurricanes on animals.

Birds may be able to sense air pressure and other changes in the environment, which encourages them to get out of harm’s way. Some birds will even speed up their migration (迁徙) leaving earlier than usual if a serious hurricane is approaching. However, strong winds can push birds hundreds of miles away from their home. Young or weak birds can become separated from the rest of their group and often have difficulty making it home.

Fish can also be affected. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, about 184 million fish died in south Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin alone. Strong winds blew leaves off trees, blowing them into wetlands. The rotting (腐烂的) organic material to extremely low levels of oxygen in the water, killing the fish. Some fish will often find sheltered areas during hurricanes, but they’re not always safe. Dolphins have occasionally been blown to shore during big hurricanes.

There are many other dangers that come with hurricane-related water. Sharp rise of saltwater onshore can harm wildlife and plants that live in the freshwater and can’t bear the salt content.Heavy rain can also affect the balance of fresh and salt water in some areas, harming the creatures that live in them.

Many animals lose their regular food supply when a hurricane arrives, as strong winds and rains destroy trees of fruits, nuts and berries. During Hurricane Andrew, about one-quarter of Louisiana’s public oyster seed (牡蛎种苗) grounds were destroyed. Because the oysters were an important food source for some birds on Louisiana’s barrier Islands, the birds suffered mass death as a direct result of the hurricane.

【推荐1】National Napping Day: reasons you should nap.

Finding the time to recover among daily responsibilities can be hard, but napping has benefits that could help you level up in your overall health and productivity.     1     In other words, if you feel like calling it a day and feeling sleepy, don’t feel bad.

    2     Taking a nap once or twice a week could lower the risk of heart attacks or strokes, according to a study published in the journal Heart. After tracking more than 3,400 people between the ages of 35 and 75 for slightly more than five years, the researchers found that those who liked occasional napping -once or twice a week, for five minutes to an hour-were 48% less likely to experience a heart attack, stroke or heart failure than those who didn’t nap at all.

It might even help you get into shape. A 2020 study focusing on women found the more sleep-deprived (失眠) the women were, the more likely they were to consume added sugar, fatty foods and caffeine.     3     That’s because inadequate sleep is believed to stimulate hunger and suppress hormone signals that communicate fullness.

Napping has been found to boost your creativity.     4     In a January 2020 study of 2,214 Chinese adults ages 60 and older, participants who took afternoon naps for five minutes to two hours showed better mental ability than those who didn’t nap.

Napping may not ensure success in every aspect of your life, but it could improve your health and charge your brain's batteries.     5    

【推荐1】In recent years, there has been great progress in the study of genetics. With this progress, doors have been opened up to technologies that never existed before. While many people are excited about these new technologies, these same technologies frighten others. Nowhere is this truer than with genetically modified (GM) (转基因的) food.

There are two ways in which a plant or an animal can be genetically modified. First, new material can be inserted into its DNA to give the plant or animal qualities which it would never have in nature. Second, material can be taken from the DNA of a plant or an animal in order to remove qualities which are not desired.

One aim of GM research is to produce food which will make us healthier. So far, this technology has been used to produce plants which are better able to defend themselves against pests and disease. Supporters of GM food argue that GM plants are healthier and have larger harvests. While there has been research in GM animals such as pigs, no GM meat is being sold at present.

Many questions have been raised about GM food. No one really knows whether it is safe for animals or humans to eat. Scientists admit that more tests should be done on GM food. Research has been limited to increasing production profits, rather than making sure that GM food is safe. GM food could therefore be dangerous to eat.

There is also a question as to whether GM plants are safe for the environment. Since GM crops are planted outside, they are part of the food chain — insects and other animals eat them or use their products, and these insects and animals will be eaten by other animals. No one knows what effects the GM material might have on the food chain.

Since no one really knows whether GM food is safe, many countries have hesitated to give permission for the production of GM food, as they would rather be cautious with this new technology.

【推荐2】For more than 50 years, seawater has flowed through the Hong Kong’s toilets. And in 2013, Hong Kong built a system that used seawater to cool part of the city. The system sends cold seawater to a factory with heat exchangers. The seawater takes in heat to cool pipes full of circulating (循环的) water. That cooled water then flows into buildings to cool rooms. The slightly warmed seawater is sent back to the ocean. Known as district cooling, this type of system tends to use far less energy than typical air conditioners.

How much water and energy had this strategy saved Hong Kong? And why weren’t other coastal cities doing this? A team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology set out for answers. They focused on Hong Kong and two other big coastal cities: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Miami, Fla. The idea was to see what it might look like if all three adopted city-wide saltwater systems.

All three places would save lots of fresh water and energy, the researchers found. These savings came from the more efficient saltwater air conditioning. Though costly to build, saltwater-cooling systems could pay off in the long run for many cities.

The researchers figured out how emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases would drop if each city instead used seawater for cooling and flushing (冲刷). Next, they studied how much pollution would be created to build the new system. They compared these results to see how emissions of climate-warming gases would change for each city.

Hong Kong would see the biggest cut in greenhouse gases if the system were expanded to the whole city. It could drop by some 250,000 tons each year. Miami could see a drop of around 7,700 tons of carbon pollution per year. Saltwater cooling would cause more planet-warming gases in Jeddah than it would save. The reason: Jeddah’s unplanned urban expansion and all the pipes that would be needed to service it. The pollution coming from building such a large system would be higher than what the system would save.