【推荐2】Most people don't think much about the food scraps they throw away; however, researchers in Tokyo have developed a new method to reduce food waste by recycling discarded fruit and vegetable scraps into robust construction materials.

Worldwide industrial and household food waste amounts to hundreds of billions of pounds per year, a large proportion of which comprises edible(可食用的) scraps, like fruit and vegetable peels. This unsustainable practice is both costly and environmentally unfriendly, so researchers have been searching for new ways to recycle these organic materials into useful products.

“Our goal was to use seaweed and common food scraps to construct i materials that were at least as strong as concrete,” explains Yuya Sakai, the senior author of the study. “But since we were using edible food waste, we were also interested in determining whether the recycling process impacted the flavor of the original materials.”

The researchers borrowed a “heat pressing” concept that is typically used to make construction materials from wood powder, except they used vacuum-dried, pulverized food scraps, such as seaweed, cabbage leaves, and orange, onion, pumpkin, and banana peels as the construction powders. The processing technique involved mixing the food powder with water and seasonings, and then pressing the mixture into a mold at high temperature. The researchers tested the bending strength of the resulting materials and monitored their taste, smell and appearance.

“With the exception of the specimen obtained from pumpkin, all of the materials exceeded our bending strength target,” says Kota Machida, a senior collaborator. “We also found that Chinese cabbage leaves, which produced a i material over three times stronger than concrete, could be mixed with the weaker pumpkin-based material to provide effective rein for cement.”

The new, robust materials kept their edible nature, and the addition of salt or sugar improved their taste without reducing their strength. Furthermore, the durable products resisted rot, fungi, and insects, and experienced no appreciable changes in appearance or taste after exposure to air for four months.

Given that food waste is a global financial burden and environmental concern, it is crucial to develop methods for recycling food scraps. Using these substance to prepare materials that are stronger enough for construction projects, but also maintain their edible nature and taste, opens the door to a wide range of creative applications.

【推荐1】China is expected to restructure its industry and energy mix during the 14th Five-Year Plan period（2021-2025）to lay a solid foundation for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, a climate change expert has said.

The best possible situation is that China will achieve zero growth in coal consumption during the period, and see usage peak and begin to decline by 2025, according to He Jiankun, deputy director of China's national expert committee on climate change.

During the period, China should promote the development of the digital, high-tech and modern services industries, while the expansion of high energy-consuming industries such as the steel and chemical industries should be controlled, said the expert.

That is because China is still in the industrialization and urbanization stage and requires significant infrastructure construction, He added, noting that a large portion of carbon emissions in China are created during the building process rather than being a result of the people's consumption needs.

The adjustment and upgrading of the industrial structure will be promoted so that energy consumption per unit of GDP will drop rapidly and total energy consumption growth will be controlled, He said.

China has announced that it will make efforts to bring carbon dioxide emissions to a peak before 2030 and become carbon neutral(中和)before 2060.

The carbon emissions target means a nationwide peak by the deadline, but at the regional level, the progress will surely be staggered given differences in resources and economic development stages, said He, stressing the need to take a diverse and inclusive approach that coordinates(协调)emission cuts with development.

Relatively developed regions in east China are expected to be among the first to reach a peak as they take the lead in economic transformation, and another group of front-runners will be from the country's renewable energy-rich southwest, said He.

Since the carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets were set, local governments have engaged in making plans at the provincial and city level, the expert said.

He urged local authorities to "suppress the impulse" to expand capacity in energy-intensive heavy and chemical industries, and speed up the formation of a green, low-carbon circular industrial system.

【推荐2】Natural silence — the kind when you hear nothing but the sound of nature around you — is becoming increasingly scarce. The noise of man-made can be heard even in the remote corners of national parks and deep in the Arctic Ocean.

This is having some troubling effects. In humans, noise pollution has been linked to physical, mental health problems and cognitive impairment (认知功能障碍) in children. In wildlife,it’s disturbing navigation, pairing, communication and can cause hearing loss. “We’re losing the ability to listen to nature without noise pollution,” says sound recordist Matt Mikkelsen. He’s part of the non-profit organization Quiet Parks International, which aims to identify and preserve the planet’s last quiet places.

Recently, this took him to Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. No cars, motor boats, electricity or telephone lines are allowed in the one-million-acre area,making it a strong candidate for Quiet Park status. But listening back to the recording, Mikkelsen can hear the low hum (嗡鸣声) of a commercial plane flying far away.

Quiet Parks hasn’t yet decided if Boundary Waters meets its criteria — it’s one of 260 potential sites around the world that the organization is currently exploring. The team will analyze the sound recordings from each location and consider them alongside other data.

In recent years, the world has been getting louder, with cities and towns expanding and an increasing number of noises from cars, airplanes or ships. But during the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病), there has been momentary delay.In2020,global air travel was down by 60% and road transport decreased by almost half. Scientists in Europe found that noise caused by humans fell by up to 50% after lock downs were carried out.

“People enjoyed the silence,” says Mikkelsen. “There were no airplanes in the sky and cars weren’t on the street. It was an incredible thing to be able to hear the world, all of a sudden, free from noise pollution,” he says. Since the start of the pandemic, Quiet Parks says it has experienced a huge increase in interest for quiet places. “I hope that we can take that desire for a world with less noise forward,” says Mikkelsen, “and appreciate the spots we have, where we can go and not experience noise pollution.”

【推荐3】It is a well-known fact that plastic bottles, which take hundreds of years to rot, are harmful to our environment. However, efforts by environmentalists to encourage consumers to switch to alternatives, like water fountains or reusable bottles, have not been very effective. The U.S. alone uses over 50 million plastic bottles annually, 80% of which end up in landfills.

To try to stop that, Rodrigo García González, Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche from the Imperial College London have been working on a revolutionary solution — water wrapped inside an eatable container made mostly from seaweed. All the customer has to do to relieve his/her thirst is pop the entire drop into the mouth.

The inventors, who have been working on the Ooho bubble since 2014, use a simple two-step cooking process called spherification (球化) to create the delicate container. They begin by dipping a frozen ball of water or juice into a chemical solution (溶液). This helps form a layer around the liquid. The ball is then absorbed in a solution made from seaweed extract. This creates a second layer, helping strengthen the structure so that the water or juice does not leak. In addition to saving our environment, the biodegradable (可降解的) packaging costs just two cents each, making it cheaper to produce than plastic.

After three years of perfecting the design, the inventors, who recently raised over 1 million USD from a financial activity, are ready to bring the Ooho bubble to local market. However, there are a few challenges that still need to be overcome before the product’s launch. In addition to getting accustomed to the taste of the covering, each eatable container contains just a mouthful of water, requiring consumers to drink multiple bubbles to relieve their thirst. There is also the issue of finding an eco-friendly packaging to transport the bubbles so that they remain clean and do not burst. Hopefully, the inventors will find ways to handle the issues so that we can reduce, or perhaps even remove, plastic bottles.

【推荐2】A hungry fly speeds through a forest. It smells nectar (a liquid that insects feed on) and lands on a green leaf. It starts to drink the sweet liquid. Suddenly, the fly's world turns green. The two sides of the leaf close against each other. Long green teeth lock together around it. The fly has been caught by a Venus flytrap. There is no escape.

The Venus flytrap is perhaps the most famous killer plant. However, scientists have only recently started to understand how it hunts and eats. After years of study, plant scientist Alexander Volkov believes he now knows the Venus flytrap's secret. “This,” says Volkov," is an electrical plant."

There are three small hairs along each of the Venus flytrap's two leaves. When an insect touches a hair, it creates an electrical signal in the leaf. The insect can continue feeding—for now. But if it touches another hair within 20 seconds, the trap snaps shut. This system allows the plant to tell the difference between a drop of water, for example, and a moving creature.

Once trapped, an insect has little chance of survival. Instead of nectar, the Venus flytrap now releases a different liquid —one that slowly eats away at the insect. Ten days later, almost nothing is left. The plant's leaves open again, and the Venus flytrap is ready for its next meal.

Besides the Venus flytrap, there are around 700 species of killer plants around the world. Some are deadly. Sundews catch insects using a sticky liquid on the end of long hairs. A butterwort's leaves are covered with tiny, gluey hairs that trap small insects. Pitcher plants have long tubelike leaves into which insects fall and die. Some pitcher plants are large enough to catch and eat small animals like frogs and mice.

【推荐3】Fig trees are native to Europe around the Mediterranean Sea, Asia and Arica, but they can grow in much cooler climates.

Once big enough, fig trees can accept temperatures even a few degrees below freezing. Some kinds of fig trees do better in such environments than others.

Depending on the weather and pruning (修剪), a fig can grow into a bush or a tee. Bushes with several stems (茎) growing from the ground do best if covered for the winter.     1    Either way, wait until the trees have dropped most of their leaves.

One popular method for burying trees for their protection involves digging a narrow, shallow area.     2    The space should be about 30 centimeters deep, 60 centimeters wide and as long as the height of the tree. To prepare the tree, gather its branches and tie them together with soft rope.

Next, push a shovel (铲子) into the soil about a half-meter from the trunk (树干) on the side opposite the hole. Lift that side of the tree’s root ball out of the ground. Then, gently push the tree toward the hole.    3    

Pack soil around the exposed side of the roots, and around the length of the tree. Load soil over the tree. Make it at least 30 centimeters deep. You will need more soil than you removed from digging.

    4    In this case, you should work upwards from the bottom and put cloth around the tree. Then put heavy brown paper around the cloth and tie it into place. Remove some soil from around the base of the tree. Place a large piece of cardboard into the space.     5    Tie the cardboard into place.