【推荐1】When you’re on a fishing boat, you may see flocks of birds following your tracks, hoping to catch a snack. Now scientists say they can use those birds’ behavior to track illegal fishing boats.

Here’s how it worked: Researchers attached data recorders to the backs of 169 albatrosses (信天翁) in the Southern and Indian oceans. The devices weighed only an ounce and a half, but they included a GPS and were able to detect the presence and intensity of radar signals coming from boats. That information was then transmitted by satellite, so the researchers could track the locations of the birds — and thus the radar-emitting boats — in real time.

The scientists then cross-checked the data against the known locations of boats, gathered from a system that boats use to declare themselves, called the Automatic Identification System (AIS). And differences appeared frequently.

More than a third of the times the birds’ recorders detected radar signals, and therefore a boat, no such boat appeared in the official log — meaning that the vehicles had likely switched off their Automatic Identification Systems — something the researchers say probably happens in illegal fishing operations.

The work suggests birds could be an effective boat-monitoring tool, as long as illegal fishing operations don’t target the birds. Fortunately, such a task would be difficult.

“Around fishing boats, you can get hundreds of birds at any one time that are all flying around. So it’s not really possible to target a specific bird. And the birds with recorders on are not marked in any way. So it’s difficult for fishermen to pick out a specific bird,” said study author Samantha Patrick, a marine biologist at the University of Liverpool.

Patrick’s bigger concern is that albatrosses are often trapped by fishing lines. And though regulations have been established to prevent that happening, illegal boats don’t necessarily obey.

【推荐3】Although it has been shown in recent years that plants can see, hear and smell, they are still usually thought of as silent. But now, for the first time, they have been recorded making ultrasonic（超声的）cries when stressed, which researchers say could open up a new field of agriculture where farmers listen for water-hungry crops.

Itzhak Khait and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University in Israel found that tomato and tobacco plants made cries that humans cannot hear when stressed by not having enough water or when their stem is cut.

Microphones placed 10 centimeters from the plants picked up sounds in the ultrasonic range of 20 to 100 kilohertz, which the team says insects and some mammals would be able to hear and respond to from as far as 5 meters away. A moth may refuse to lay eggs on a plant that sounds water-stressed, the researchers suggest. Plants could even hear that other plants are short of water and react accordingly, they infer.

On average, drought-stressed tomato plants made 35 sounds an hour, while tobacco plants made 11. When plant stems were cut, tomato plants made an average of 25 sounds in the following hour, and tobacco plants 15. Unstressed plants produced fewer than one sound per hour, on average.

Enabling farmers to listen for water-stressed plants could “open a new direction in the field of agriculture”, the researchers suggest. They add that such an ability will be increasingly important as climate change make more areas dry.

“According to the new research, it seems possible that the sounds that drought-stressed plants make could be used in agriculture if it is not too costly to set up the recording in a field situation." says Anne Visscher at the royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK.

She warns that the results can't yet be broadened out to other stresses, such as salt or temperature, because these may not cause sounds. Besides, there have been no experiments to show whether moths or any other animal can hear and respond to the sounds the plants make, so that idea is still based on guesses for now, she says.

【推荐2】The world’s top automakers are increasingly offering more electric vehicle models. This growth is expected to continue， with more people choosing to hit the road with clean-running electric- powered cars.

Environmentalists have praised the automakers for taking major steps to limit harmful pollutants linked to worldwide climate change. But electric vehicles are also known for not producing another kind of pollution—noise. They run on batteries instead of fuel， and can operate in silence.

While many people might consider this a good thing， quiet cars can also cause problems. The main danger is that people walking in areas around electric vehicles face a greater risk of being hit if they cannot hear the cars coming.

Governments in the United States and Europe have recognized this problem. So， they have set requirements for manufacturers to add warning sounds to vehicles operating on electricity.

The U.S.Department of Transportation finalized its rules a year ago. The rules require electric and hybrid (混合能源) vehicles to be equipped with some kind of warning sound when moving at speeds up to 30 kilometers per hour. The rules are aimed at preventing injuries among people walking or riding bicycles and to protect the blind.

So what kinds of sounds can we expect to hear from the next generation of electric vehicles? One of the easiest solutions would be for carmakers to simply reproduce the sound a car would make if it actually did run on fuel. But many industry officials believe this would be a mistake.They say this would not support the electric vehicle’s true identity. It would also limit great possibilities to link the car’s sound to a whole new image, which could help increase sales.

Frank Welsch is head of technical development at Germany’s Volkswagen. He said that finding the perfect sound mix is not an easy process. “The electric vehicle sound is its identity,” he said. “It cannot be too annoying. It cannot sound like anything we had in the past.”

An official from Mercedes-Benz said the sound was designed to provide a safe warning without annoying passengers inside the vehicle. He said the goal was to create a car that remains completely quiet on the inside, but fills the sound requirements and supports the model’s image on the outside.

It might seem strange to think that part of our automotive future is currently being developed in the same kinds of recording studios used by musicians. But that is exactly what is happening.

【推荐3】On a cold day in early November 2015 I went outside to get our New York Times from the driveway and noticed a large cardboard box tied to the familiar blue bag. In the cardboard box was a pair of Google cardboard goggles (护目镜) for watching VR videos. Upon reading the introductions, I downloaded (下载) the VR app and set up the Google cardboard goggles.

That Sunday, the app showed three pieces about the imaginary war damage. I remember very well standing in my kitchen with my wife and three children as we each took turns trying on the goggles and watching the short VR video of an airdrop (空投) of food. I couldn’t help shaking while I looked around and saw people running to collect rice bags being dropped at my feet, which was so clear and seemed real.

It was a moment I will not forget, for in that moment I knew the future, my children’s future, would look greatly different from what I had at that age. It must have been like the excitement my grandparents had when TV changed to color.

More importantly, I realized what effect these devices (设备) would have on my teaching. That Monday I brought my pair of goggles in and a few pairs I borrowed from my neighbors to share the experience with my students. The purpose of the first lesson was pretty simple: to share this cool new experience with my students. The students were amazed and couldn’t wait to use the goggles. And that was what I had expected

【推荐3】The Winter Olympics is also called the White Olympics. At this time, many colorful stamps are published to mark the great Games. The first stamps marking the opening came out on January 25, 1932 in the United States for the 3rd White Olympics. From then on, publishing stamps during the White Olympics became a rule. During the 4th Winter Olympic Games a group of stamps were published in Germany in November 1936. The five rings of Olympics were drawn on the front of the sportswear. It was the first time that the rings appeared on the stamps of the White Olympics. In the 1950’s, the stamps of this kind became more colorful.

When the White Olympics came, the host countries(东道国) as well as the non﹣host countries published stamps to mark those Games. China also published four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sports men began to take part in the White Olympics. Japan is the only Asian country that has ever held the White Olympics. Altogether 14,500 million stamps were sold to raise money for this sports meet. Different kinds of sports were drawn on these small stamps. People can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful movements of some sportsmen.