【推荐1】When interviewed on the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2019-20 season, Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner of the NBA, said,"It's been a challenging year. Apart from being distressed by the pandemic and social unrest, we also lost two of our icons - David Sternand Kobe Bryant. It's been our longest season in NBA history, and so much was thrown-at us" . However, he added that the NBA was incredibly blessed with being able to restart its season four months after its initial shutdown.

The NBA shut down on March 11 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Later, it became clear that resuming the NBA's season was far more complex than simply rescheduling games. The NBA community, like the world at large, has lost friends and family to the virus. It has wrestled with economic hardship job losses and mental health issues. It has gone from trying to escape risk to understanding how to live with it. Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Player Association (NBPA), made it clear.“It's really been an evolution of emotional reactions from one extreme to another. Complete disbelief, ignorance (无知) and not taking it seriously, to gradually coming to a point where, "OK, what are my real options here?"

Roberts attributed the reopening of the NBA season to the strong, long-standing relationship between the NBA staff and Bob lger, executive chairman of the Walt Disney Company. Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, similarly pointed out that their mutual trust helped push the process forward. Eventually, they agreed that playing without fans and out of the home arenas would be a workable choice. After numerous calls for months among NBA and NBPA committee members, business leaders, public health officials, the managers and presidents of the teams, they finally struck a deal with the Walt Disney Company to use the resort (度假胜地) near Orlando, Florida to build a single bubble site for the games, training and housing for all the players, coaches and media staff.

Their endeavour paid off. On July 7, 22 teams gathered on the bubble campus in Florida where they lived and isolated themselves from the world outside in the following three months. Reflecting on their path, Silver believed that a sense of unity from top to bottom is the key."Without it, the financial disputes and the safety protocols (协议) would never be settled."

【推荐2】Sportsmanship is the cornerstone of competitive sports, representing the principles of fair play, respect and honesty. It goes beyond winning and losing, emphasizing the importance of moral behavior, respecting each other, and fellowship.

At the heart of sportsmanship lies the concept of fair play. It fosters (培养) a culture of rule-following, fair judgment, and equal opportunities for all participants. Fair play encourages athletes to compete with integrity, showing honesty and accepting the outcomes gracefully. It fosters an environment where cheating, unsportsmanlike and rude behavior are discouraged. By upholding fair play, athletes develop a sense of morality (道德) and a strong character that extends beyond the field of sports.

Sportsmanship also includes respect and empathy (共情), creating an environment that encourages understanding and camaraderie. Athletes show respect for opponents, officials, and teammates, recognizing their contributions and valuing their abilities. They appreciate the various backgrounds, skills and perspectives that athletes from different teams bring to the game. Through respect and empathy, sportsmanship bridges gaps, promotes inclusivity and fosters a sense of unity among athletes and fans alike.

Sportsmanship is shown by athletes who act as role models, inspiring others with their conduct on and off the field. When athletes display sportsmanship, they send a powerful message to young fans, teaching them the importance of fair play, respect and moral behavior. This positive influence extends to society as a whole, where sportsmanship can shape attitudes, values and behaviors beyond the field of sports. By upholding the principles of sportsmanship, athletes contribute to a healthier, more caring society.

Sports organizations, coaches and educators play an important role in promoting sportsmanship. They should foster an environment that encourages fair play, respect and honesty. Emphasizing sportsmanship in training programs and competitions helps athletes develop a strong moral compass,empowering them to make moral choices both in sports and in life. Furthermore, fans and audience should also welcome sportsmanship, creating a positive atmosphere that encourages fair competition and respect for all participants.

Sportsmanship is the bedrock of competitive sports, emphasizing the values of fair play and respect. It improves the sporting experience, fosters unity and shapes athletes into responsible and caring individuals. By promoting sportsmanship, we can create a sporting culture where victories are celebrated but fairness, respect and the spirit of the game take center stage.

【推荐1】It is a small step for a plant, and a giant leap for plant kind. A sprouting (发芽) cotton seed on China’s Chang’e-4 lunar lander is the first plant ever to grow in another world, indicating a new era for life in space.

Seeds, including cotton, arabidopsis (拟南芥), oilseed rape (油菜) and potato were carried to the Moon as a part of biological experiment, along with fruit fly eggs and some yeasts (酵母).

Pictures sent back by the probe show the cotton seeds sprouting on January 7, 2019, a few days after Chang’e-4 landed on the far side of the Moon.

The organisms (生物) are in a sealed can, protected from the extreme temperatures and radiation on the surface. “Understanding how to grow plants in space will help lay the foundation for human settlement on the Moon,” a scientist leading the experiment told the South China Morning Post.

The six organisms are intended to form a mini-ecosystem, with the plants making oxygen and food to sustain the fruit flies. Yeasts could process the flies’ waste and dead plants to provide another food source.

In a future human settlement, potatoes could provide food, rapeseed could be a source of oil and cotton could be used for clothing. A study in 2014 reported that plants could sprout and grow in lunar soil for 50 days without any additional nutrients (营养物). Over longer periods, human waste could help support plants’ nutritional needs.

These lunar green shoots aren’t the first plants in space. Astronauts on the International Space Station have grown crops including peas, radishes and cucumbers. They got their first bites of space-grown romaine lettuce in 2015.

The China National Space Administration eventually hopes to put humans on the Moon. “We are studying the program of sending astronauts to the Moon, but it’s still in very early stages,” a deputy director told the South China Morning Post. “We haven’t got the approval yet.”

【推荐3】To give grasshoppers (蚱蜢) some credit -- jumping across yards and between branches takes a lot more expertise than it might appear. There are incredibly tiny factors to consider, such as the resistance in launch surface, as well as desired distance, speed, and landing.

Most jumping robots can’t compete with the insect, as their jumps are limited to starting atop extremely rigid surfaces. But a new bouncing robot developed by researchers in Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering is crossing those barriers, and showing promise for how autonomous devices could operate in the future.

A team of scientists led by professor of mechanical engineering Sarah Bergbreiter recently optimized a robot’s latch mechanisms (弹簧机制) used to boost it upward. Previously, these latches were primarily thought of as simple “on/off switches that enabled the release of stored energy. However, Bergbreiter and her team employed mathematical modeling to illustrate that these latches both were capable of controlling energy output, as well as controlling the transfer (传递) of energy between the jumper and the launch surface.

To test their work, the team positioned a small jumping robot atop a tree branch and recorded the precise energy transfers in its jumps’ first moments.“We found that the latch can not only mediate (调节)energy output but can also mediate energy transfer between the jumper and the environment that it is jumping from,” said Bergbreiter.

Now that researchers better understand the interactions at play in the opening moments of jumping, they can now begin working on ways to integrate this into future robotic designs. “It has been nearly impossible to design controlled insect-sized robots because they are launched in just milliseconds,“ explained Bergbreiter. “Now, we have more control over whether our robots are jumping up one foot or three. It’s really fascinating that the latch -- something that we already need in our robots -- can be used to control outputs that we couldn’t have controlled before.”