【推荐1】On June 7th 2020, Kathy Sullivan and an underwater explorer (探险家) named Victor Vescovo went down 10,915 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, making the 68-year-old lady the first woman ever to reach the deepest point in the sea.

Dr. Sullivan has a long history as an explorer. She was among the first women to join NASA as an astronaut (宇航员). She made three separate trips into space. In October of 1984, she took part in a 3.5-hour spacewalk, making her the first American woman to take part in activities in space outside of a spaceship.

But Dr. Sullivan has also been interested in the ocean (海洋) for a long time. Before she joined NASA,   she was in the US Navy (海军), where her job included studying the ocean.

After she left NASA in 1993, Dr. Sullivan began working for NOAA(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) as its chief scientist. NOAA studies both the oceans and the atmosphere.

The purpose of Sunday’s submarine dive (潜水艇潜水) was the Mariana Trench (马里亚纳海沟). It is the deepest part in the ocean floor. And the deepest part of the Mariana Trench is known as Challenge Deep---the deepest place on Earth.

The two spent about an hour and a half at the bottom, taking valuable pictures of the area. Because of the time required to get used to the changing pressure (压力), it took about four hours for their submarine to come back to the surface.

After coming up from the bottom of the ocean, Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Vescovo made a phone call to the International Space Station (ISS) and compared ideas with the astronauts on the ISS about what was similar between their experiences.

Dr. Sullivan said that as an astronaut and as someone who studies the ocean, it was a “hard but once-in-a-lifetime day”.

【推荐2】The last time wild bison(野牛) set foot in the UK, the Middle Stone Age was coming to a close as the English people living in caves discovered farming and started clearing forests for raising farm animals. Now, 6,000 years on, wild bison are coming back to our soil as part of a major conservation project.

In an effort to protect the European bison, a small group of the endangered animals are to be reintroduced into Kent in the spring of 2022. Conservationists hope the bison will also help decimate spare pine trees to create sunny new open space in the forest and improve insect, bird and plant diversity in the area.

To start with, one male and three females will be introduced, with each female expected to produce one baby per year through natural breeding. The bison to be released in the UK will likely come from   the Netherlands or Poland,where similar reintroduction programs have been achieved.

These animals have a huge size, weighing up to a ton each. They are expected to kill off trees in former pine plantations by eating or rubbing against bark(树皮). The dead wood should provide food for insects, which will in turn provide food for birds including nightingales and turtle doves. Scientists who are part of this project believe that the reintroduction of bison will pose no threats to people living nearby since these bison have a peaceful nature and will not harm others.

Paul Hadaway, from Kent wildlife Trust, said, “Using missing keystone species like bison to restore natural processes to the home of animals and plants is the key to creating bio-abundance on our land.” Once the bison are settled in their 500-hectare land, the public will be able to pay a visit and observe the animals from viewing platforms. And as they grow year by year, some may be moved to similar locations across the UK.

【推荐3】Will Smith jumped into a live volcano and kayaked (划皮艇) down an Icelandic whitewater river for his latest project. But he wasn’t making an action movie. It was personal.

Smith, a Hollywood leading man who admits that he’s far from enjoying outdoor activities, has put himself in danger while filming Welcome to Earth, a Disney original series from National Geographic. He was afraid at that time, but he says “It’s really difficult to enjoy things if you’re scared. I think the ability to see how beautiful things are is directly connected to your openness to them and fear closes you down.”

Smith says he was once scared of everything and hated water, but he learns to read the rapids (急流) while whitewater kayaking, rescues turtles near the Great Barrier Reef and goes 3,000 feet below the sea in a deep-water submarine.

Dr. Albert Lin, an engineer and explorer who has uncovered lost cities previously for National Geographic, was astonished to find that Smith was able to control his fears even in the face of real danger. While diving in the underground lake in Namibia, Smith got into trouble and Lin watched him “dropping at a rate that felt like maybe we wouldn’t see him again.” But Smith was able to control his mind and deal with the situation. “I respected Will Smith, the actor, before, but now I definitely have grown to truly respect Will Smith, the human being,” says Lin.

Produced by famous filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the series carries on the tradition of National Geographic pushing the exploring envelope (极限) and employing the latest technology to help us understand our world. “I hope this can help people out there get a sense of how absolutely incredible our planet is,” says Lin.

The experts Smith has paired with teach him about speed, smell and sound and the colors out there he might miss. “You can’t really want to protect something that you don’t understand. And you can’t want to protect something that you can’t recognize as beautiful,” Smith says.