【推荐1】Gerty Cori, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, was born Gerty Theresa Radnitz in Prague in 1896. Gerty decided at the age of sixteen to study medicine. She entered the Realgymnasium at Tetschen, from which she graduated in 1914, and then went to the Medical School of the German University of Prague. While in medical school, Gerty met Carl Cori, a classmate who shared both her love of skiing and mountain climbing and her interest in laboratory research. In 1920, the two published the results of their first joint research, received their medical degrees, and married each other.

Gerty’s first research position was as an assistant in the Karolinen Children’s Hospital in Vienna. In 1922, Carl Cori moved to the United States to join the staff of the New York State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases in Buffalo, New York. Gerty Cori moved a few months later, starting as an assistant pathologist ( 病理学家) at the Institute and later rising to an assistant biochemist. In 1928, the Coris became US citizens.

In 1931, Carl Cori accepted the position of chairman of the Department of Pharmacology of the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), while Gerty Cori was hired as a research fellow. In the early 1940s the Coris moved to the Department of Biological Chemistry. Gerty Cori was made an associate ( 副) professor of Research Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology in 1943. She was elevated to the rank ( 级别) of professor of Biological Chemistry in July 1947, the same year she and her husband were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on the metabolism of glycogen (糖代谢).

In 1947, Gerty Cori began showing the signs of myelofibrosis, an unusual blood disease. She fought the disease for ten years, refusing to give up her research until the last few months of her life. Gerty Cori died on October 26, 1957.

【推荐1】India’s robotic spacecraft landed on the moon undamagedly on August 23, 2023, a historic achievement for the country’s growing space program.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the first ever to touch down at the lunar south pole. Many nations and private companies have set their sights on the region because of its ice, thought to be buried in the polar craters. The natural resources are coveted because they could supply drinking water, air, and rocket fuel for future missions, ushering a new era in spaceflight.

The success also means India has been one of countries who have landed a spacecraft on the moon. The victory comes four years after India’s previous mission, Chandrayaan-2, crashed.

An Indian official, who watched the live stream from Johannesburg, South Africa, said, “On this joyous occasion, I would like to address all the people of the world: India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone. This success belongs to all humanity.”

About 60 years have passed since the first unpiloted (无人驾驶的) moon landings, but touching down is still demanding. The moon’s atmosphere is very thin, providing virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. Furthermore, there are no GPS systems on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot. Engineers have to make up for these shortcomings from about 239,000 miles away.

Over the past four years, private companies and other nations have tried and failed. But perhaps now there’s more hope.

The Indian official said, “I’m confident that all countries in the world including those from the global south are capable of achieving such a success. We can all aspire (渴望) to the moon and beyond.”

【推荐2】Scientists have discovered what they believe is the world’s largest plant, an underwater field of sea grass that stretches for 1.12 miles off the west coast of Australia. This huge meadow (草地) has spread widely all through Shark Bay. The sea grass plant is believed to be around 4, 500 years old.

Many plants create new plants by growing flowers and spreading seeds. The DNA of the plants that grow from these seeds is slightly different from the DNA of the plants that the seeds came from. By comparing the DNA from their samples, the scientists hoped to get an idea of how many different sea grass plants there were in the meadow.

What they learned shocked them — all of the grass samples had almost exactly the same DNA. That meant that they were all just one plant, one big sea grass plant spreading out over 77 square miles. This makes it the largest known plant in the world by far.

So how has the Shark Bay sea grass grown so large? Instead of spreading with flowers arid seeds, it spreads by cloning (克隆) itself. As its roots spread out under the sea floor, new plants shoot up from those roots.

The sea grass in Shark Bay is also unusual in another way. It’s a “polyploid”. Usually, an organism (有机体) has two parents, and gets half of its DNA from each. But polyploid organisms have all of the DNA from both parents, meaning they have twice as much DNA. The scientists think the extra DNA may make it easier for the sea grass to survive in difficult conditions.

The Shark Bay sea grass generally grows and spreads about 14 inches a year. Because of the history of Shark Bay and the rate of growth, the scientists believe that the plant is about 4, 500 years old.