【推荐1】Researchers have known for decades that orcas (逆戟鲸) across the North Pacific have harmful pollutants in their system.

Now, a new study reveals orcas in the western North Atlantic, including those in the Arctic, are significantly more polluted than animals in the east — a finding that “shocked” study leader Anaïs Remili, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Montreal. The research strongly points to their diet playing a major role in the level of pollutants, rather than their location.

The study looked at the presence of persistent organic pollutants, or toxic chemicals that degrade slowly and accumulate in the body, in the blubber (鲸脂) of orcas across the North Atlantic. These pollutants, relics of industrial and agricultural processes, “have a tendency to bind to fat,” says Remili, whose study was published in October in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. These chemicals weaken orcas’ immune systems, disrupt their endocrine (内分泌) function, prevent growth and brain development, and even interfere with reproduction.

Pollutants increase as they move up through the food chain, and the orcas that consume top predators — for example, those that primarily eat other marine mammals rather than fish—are most polluted. Thanks to their high body fat and position as apex (最高点) predators, orcas are some of “the most contaminated animals on the planet,” Remili says.

Her earlier research showed that eastern North Atlantic orcas primarily feed on herring (鲱鱼); mid-North Atlantic orcas feed on seals and mackerel (鲭鱼); and western North Atlantic orcas feed on baleen whales, porpoises (海豚) and seals.

It makes sense that western North Atlantic orcas would have higher pollutants, due to their diet, but “you would expect less contaminants overall in the Arctic compared to industrialized areas,” such as off the east coast of North America, Remili says.

“We’ve really come to learn that you are what you eat,” says Peter Ross, senior scientist and healthy waters program director at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation in British Columbia, who wasn’t involved in the study. “The top of the food chain, as illustrated by these long-lived killer whales, is extremely easy to hurt.”

【推荐2】The European Union on Monday prohibited (禁止) the use of X-ray body scanners (扫描仪) in European airports, parting ways with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has used hundreds of the scanners as a way to screen millions of airline passengers for explosives (爆炸物) hidden under clothing.

The European Commission, which enforces common policies of the EU’s member countries, adopted the rule “in order not to risk doing harm to citizens’ health and safety”.

As a PBS News Hour investigation detailed earlier this month, X-ray body scanners use ionizing radiation (电离辐射), a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and cause cancer. Although the amount of radiation is extremely low, equal to the radiation a person would receive in a few minutes of flying, several research studies have concluded that a small number of cancer cases would result from scanning hundreds of millions of passengers a year.

European countries will be allowed to use an alternative (可替代的) body scanner relying on radio frequency waves, which have not been linked to cancer. The U.S. TSA has also used hundreds of those machines—known as millimeter-wave scanners—in U.S. airports. But unlike Europe, it has decided to use both types of scanners.

The TSA would not comment specifically on the EU’s decision. But in a statement, TSA spokesman Mike McCarthy said, “As one of our many layers of security, TSA uses the most advanced technology available to provide the best opportunity to detect (探测) dangerous items, such as explosives.” “We strictly test our technology to ensure it meets our high detection and safety standards before it is placed in airports,” he continued, “Since January 2010, advanced imaging technology has detected more than 300 dangerous or illegal items on passengers in U.S. airports nationwide.”

Body scanners have been controversial (有争议的) in the United States since they were first used in prisons in the late 1990s and then in airports for tests after 9·11.

【推荐3】When sorting through the apples at the grocery store, you see an ugly, strange-looking apple. Whether it’s a strange color, has spots, or is a strange shape, you wonder how it made it onto the shelves. Who would buy and eat this? Most people would not buy ugly produce. That is why it is rare to see ugly-shaped fruit or off-colored vegetables. So what happens to this produce?

Data have shown that 20%—40% of fruits and vegetables are rejected even before they reach grocery stores. And even more are rejected on site, because grocery stores and companies have incredibly high standards for what their produce should look like. That includes color, shape, size, weight, and length. And the food that doesn’t meet these standards is thrown away. There are incredibly strict laws about food donation that actually makes it illegal to donate food that doesn’t meet standards that are similar to those of the grocery store as well as laws that restrict this food from being used as animal feed.

Besides, 10% of rich countries greenhouse gas emissions come from food that was grown and never eaten. Food waste not only contributes to climate change, but also food insecurity and extreme poverty. As stated above, in the greatest food wasting countries, there are laws that confine produce from being donated to people in need.

By reducing food waste, a third of the world’s entire food supply could be saved. That’s enough to feed 3 billion people. Also, by reducing food waste, farmers all over the world could sell more of their produce and inspire their rural, agricultural economies. There are many ways to get involved in ending food waste! You can participate in advocacy events hosted nearby like with Feedback Global, who hosts an event called “Feeding the 5000” where they seek to feed 5000 people with food that would have otherwise been wasted. Encourage your local grocer to sell ugly produce. Food is food!

【推荐1】A race is on in solar engineering to create almost impossibly-thin, flexible solar panels. Stanford University researchers announced they have achieved record efficiencies in a promising class of new materials—which can be thinner than a piece of paper.

According to the study published in the journal Nature Communications, it uses a new material called “transition metal dichalcogenides” (TMDs). They absorb incredibly high volumes of sunlight that reach their surface compared to other solar materials.

“Imagine an autonomous drone (无人机) that powers itself with a solar panel atop its wing that is less than six micrometers thick.” said Koosha Nassiri Nazif, co-lead author of the study.

Slimming down is necessary because the king of solar materials, silicon, is much too heavy, large and rigid for applications where flexibility, lightweight and high power are important and excellent.

While TMDs hold great promise, research experiments to date have struggled to change more than 2% of the sunlight they absorb into electricity. But the scientists believe they could practically reach 27% efficiency with electrical improvements. That would be comparable with today’s top solar panels, silicon included.

Nazif told Forbes that the new materials are great candidates for next-generation electronics and solar cells. Chipmakers like Intel and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company are already considering TMDs for their future technology. They could be used in a variety of mobile applications, including self-powered wearable devices and sensors, as well as giving a boost to lightweight airplanes and electric cars.

The ultra-thinness does come with engineering challenges, primarily in mass production. When transferring such a layer of TMD to a flexible, supporting material, the TMD layer is frequently damaged.

But the team thinks it is possible to overcome these challenges. Should they succeed, it could change solar power as we know it. “Silicon makes up 95 percent of the solar market today.” Nazif told Forbes. “This is why we aren’t seeing these applications for solar cells today; TMDs are going to change the landscape.”

【推荐2】Vast stretches of America are dominated by corn, nearly 100m acres of it, stretching from Ohio to the Dakotas. What once was forest or open prairie (大草原) today produces the corn that feeds people, cattle and, when made into ethanol (乙醇), cars.

Now, the nation’s airlines want to power their planes with corn, too. Their ambitious goal would likely require nearly doubling ethanol production, which airlines say would slash their greenhouse gas emissions. If they succeed, it could transform America’s Corn Belt yet again, boosting farmers and ethanol producers alike, but also potentially further damaging one of the nation’s most important resources: groundwater.

Corn is a water-intensive crop and it can take hundreds of gallons to produce a single gallon of ethanol. But as airlines embrace the idea of ethanol, prompting lobbyists (游说者) for ethanol makers and corn growers alike to push for clean-energy tax credits in Washington, vital aquifers (地下水层) face serious risks. “We’re on track to massively increase water usage without any real sense of how sensitive our aquifers are, “ said Jeffrey Broberg, who is concerned about groundwater in Minnesota. a major corn state, where he is a water-use consultant and founder of the Minnesota Well Owners Organization.   

United Airlines this veal signed a deal with a Nebraska ethanol company to buy enough sustainable aviation fuel as the biofuel is known, to power 50, 000 flights a year. In August, Delta announced a plan to create a sustainable fuel hub(中心) in Minnesota. The Biden administration could decide on its tax incentives (激励) for the industry as soon as December. “Mark my words, the next 20 years, farmers are going to provide 95% of all the sustainable airline fuel, ’’President Biden said in July.

This year a New York Times data investigation found that groundwater is being dangerously exhausted nationwide, largely by agricultural overuse. As climate change makes rainfall less reliable and intensifies droughts, rising demand for ethanol could put even more pressure on America’s fragile aquifers to be used for irrigation.