【推荐2】On Monday, August 21, millions of Americans across the country wore their protective eyeglasses to watch the highly expected total solar eclipse (日食). Though the eclipses, which occur about every 18 months, are not rare, this one was historic. It was not only the first total solar eclipse visible from the mainland US in more than 38 years, but also the first to be seen coast to coast in almost a century.

The crowds were thrilled as the moon briefly blocked the sun, covering cities all the way from Oregon to South Carolina (SC) with darkness. A cold ran down many spines (脊柱) as the temperatures dropped dramatically, by up to 12 degrees Fahrenheit, during totality (全食). Those fortunate enough to have clear skies not only saw the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, which is usually not visible in the sun’s glare, but also the bright stars and planets.

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative everywhere. The crowds who gathered in Charleston, SC, the last big city in the path of totality, had to struggle against a thick cloud cover when the partial eclipse began at 1:17 pm. It did thin out a little as totality took place at 2:46 pm, allowing for a good view of the eclipse, but not the sun’s corona! However, some splendid flashes of lightning that occurred just as the moon covered the sun helped ease the disappointment somewhat.

All in all, the rare event, believed to be the most observed and most photographed eclipse in history, was a huge success. As Bill Nye, aka “the Science Guy” briefly put it, “Experiencing an eclipse changes the way we feel about space and how we are connected. This moment will remind us all that we share a common origin among the stars and that we are all citizens of the same planet.”

【推荐1】In Jakarta, apart from the narrow, unpaved road, the two-meter-high concrete coastal wall is the only thing that separates Susan’s small restaurant from the sea. Her family depends on that wall. Growing up here, Susan used to play on the beach in front of her house. But by the 2000s the beach had disappeared, and the sea frequently flooded the neighborhood.

In 2002, the government built the coastal wall, to give the residents peace of mind and time-a respite (暂缓) from the steady sinking of the land under the city and the steady rising of the sea. But just five years later, in 2007, the wall proved no match for the worst floods in Jakarta’s modern history.

Jakarta is now sinking at a truly alarming rate-a rate that varies around the city but is up to 11 inches a year in the northern areas. About 40 percent of Jakarta is below sea level. By comparison, climate change is raising sea level by only less than an inch a year. But sinking land and rising sea both point toward the same outcome: regular flooding in Jakarta. “Jakarta is the center of administration, economy, culture, and entertainment. Over the years Jakarta has grown into a big city with no environmental support system.” says Andy, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia. Ultimately that’s why it is sinking today.

The situation is one reason the government announced that the nation’s capital would be moved away to a new city to be built on Borneo, which is now forest. But local communities aren’t so happy with the plan. They fear the project would destroy their land, forest, and livelihoods. In Jakarta, on the other hand, those who welcome the decision arguing that it will ease Jakarta’s burdens of crowding and pollution.

But as the government leaves the sinking capital, what is to become of the 10 million people like Susan who still live there?

【推荐2】For many years people in Estonia have been leaving their rubbish in the forests. Rainer Nolvak, a businessman, and his friends wanted to clean up all the rubbish in Estonia. The rubbish was not just an environmental problem. It was a problem of people’s attitudes. Rainer Nolvak got together with a team of 20 friends and they began to make a plan about how to clean up the rubbish. Soon, over 600 people joined the group.

They named the project Let’s Do It! Estonia. The Ministry of the Environment gave them some support. Many companies joined the group. Famous actors and singers also took part in it. Even the President of Estonia joined. They sent information about Let’s Do It! Estonia throughout the country.

Technology experts developed a special computer program. Team members went into the forests to find where the rubbish was. They used their mobile phones to mark every place where they found rubbish and sent the information to the computer program. Then, the marked rubbish places appeared on the map. Anyone could go on the Internet and see the map.

The team found a surprising result. There were over 10,000 tons of waste in the forests of Estonia. When people saw how much waste was around their own homes, they were shocked. Thousands of people began to help. The team chose May 3, 2008 as the day to clean up the rubbish. On May 3, more than 50,000 people helped to get rid of the rubbish. They cleared out over 10,000 tons of rubbish in only one day!

This was amazing for the environment in Estonia. It was also an important step for Estonian society. Rainer Nolvak gave a speech at a conference in the Balkans. He said, “The most important thing we did was build a team. It changed every one of us. We had to connect with people. We had to see that the rubbish was our problem. At times we were afraid of sharing. When we were together and there were many of us, we were not afraid.”

【推荐3】It’s unlikely that we’ll see a dodo, a flightless bird, walking this earth anytime again, according to Beth Shapiro, a evolutionary molecular biologist.

“When most people think about de-extinction, they’re imagining cloning,” Shapiro said. Cloning, the approach that created Dolly, the sheep in 1996 and Elizabeth Ann, the black-footed ferret in 2020, creates an identical genetic copy of an individual by putting DNA from a living adult cell into an egg cell from which the nucleus (细胞核) has been removed. Adult cells contain all the DNA needed to develop into a living animal. Egg cells then use that DNA as a blueprint to turn themselves into many kinds of cells——skin, organs, blood and bones——the animal needs.

“But no living cells from dodos exist. Instead,” Shapiro said, “you’d have to start with a closely related animal’s genome (基因组) and then change it into one similar to dodos.” For example， mammoths (猛犸) are also extinct，but they were very closely related to modern Asian elephants, so researchers are attempting to bring mammoths back from extinction by creating a hybrid mammoth with some mammoth genes replacing part of the elephant genome in an elephant egg cell. However, there are likely millions of genetic differences between the genome of an Asian elephant and that of a mammoth according to Shapiro.

As for the dodo, its closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon. Mammoths and Asian elephants are pretty closely related, whereas it had been more than 20 million years since the dodo and the Nicobar pigeon had any common ancestors. Genetic differences between the two bird species are therefore much greater, making it a formidable task to create a successful hybrid in the lab, Shapiro said.

Even if scientists manage to bring dodos back, the island where they once lived is a very different place nowadays, which make it impossible to reintroduce dodos without major intervention.