【推荐1】Mom and dad are two of the first words we learn. But exactly how old are they? And just why do we call our parents by them?

According to Carrie Gillon, a linguist（语言学家），the exact word of “mom” is actually fairly “recent”. The first documented use of it dates back to just 1867. Before that, we’d say “mommy”(dating from 1844), or, if you go further back, “mamma”(first used in the 1570s), and even further, “mama”(4500 B.C.E.).

Gillon explains that “mamma” is a “reduplication”(or a repeated sound) from Indo-European, a root language for English, Greek, and more. That’s why the common origins of “Mom” can be found in languages, both ancient and modern, throughout Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.

While the first known use of “dad” is about 1500 B.C.E., Gillon says it is likely much older. Again, there are forms in lots of Indo-European languages, such as the Greek (“tata”), Irish (“daid”), and Welsh (“tad”). “There may be other words for ‘dad’ that I don’t know in these languages,” Gillon emphasizes. “And it’s really unclear how universal dad is, or how far back it goes.”

These words are thought to grow out of the fact that babies tend to make similar sounds as they begin to speak-usually using softer consonants（辅音）produced by the lips, such as B.P and M, making words like “baba,” “papa,” and “mama” early “protowords,” which developed into the words we used today.

Linguist Roman Jakobson has stated that babies make the sounds for “mama” as a “slight nasal（鼻音）murmur” naturally while breastfeeding, which might explain why there is such similarity even between countries and cultures with little else in common.

【推荐1】In recent years, our in-person interactions went down, and the time we spent on screens went up. The relationship between tech and mental health is a tricky (微妙的) one. A growing number of facts suggest possible connections between the amount of time we spend on social media and a negative impact on our well-being.

Many apps are designed to draw our attention and not let go for as long as possible. “Like” buttons, bright red notifications (通知) and never-ending news keep us focused. Studies show that if you look at your phone when you get a new notification, you are likely to check other things too. These are called within-phone interruptions (干扰) and you can lose most of your day to them. It has been found that when a task is interrupted by push notifications, it can end up taking four times longer to complete than it would do otherwise.

For most people, the answer to this issue is a digital detox: deleting as many apps as you can or cutting yourself off from your devices. However, balance is what will help avoid tech overload, and there are many ways that we can make that easier for ourselves.

Some apps can help you focus by visualising (可视化) something that only grows when you have long time working, not scrolling. Others block attractive apps for a short time so you don’t fall into endless scroll-holes, which is a lot easier than repeatedly deleting and redownloading your favourite apps. I also recommend limiting push notifications and moving your phone away when you need to focus, for a 2017 study found that the presence of only a phone can easily take your attention away, even when it isn’t in your line of sight.

Getting rid of social media or your devices altogether was once a fashionable piece of advice, but not only is it unworkable for most of us, it isn’t advisable either. As much as tech can be a source of stress, in a time when the world feels more difficult to navigate (应对) than usual, it can also be a much-needed source of relief, joy and connection.

【推荐2】For more than a decade, a team of researchers have studied the dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet as it responds to a warming climate. But while much of their focus has been on waters impacts on ice sheet change, their most recent research findings have overturned the order of their thinking. Meierbachtol, Harper and their team discovered that changes in the ice sheet have a real impact on the massive groundwater system underlying Greenland.

This latest discovery occurred thanks to a marriage of drilling techniques. International cooperators made an angled hole 650 meters through bedrock underneath a Greenland glacier (冰川)to measure groundwater conditions under the ice. Meanwhile, researchers drilled 32 holes from atop the glacier, through nearly a kilometer of ice, to measure water conditions at the area between ice and bedrock, which forms an important boundary controlling groundwater flow below. After drilling, the team fixed sensors in the ice column and at the ice sheet bed to measure ice dynamics and water conditions as water flows under the ice.

“By studying areas covered by ice 10,000 years ago, we have known that the huge mass and vast amounts of water from melting ice can impact the underlying groundwater,” Meierbachtol said. “It’s generally accepted that the groundwater is sleeping over decades to centuries and its response to ice sheet change is long: thousands of years. But what we’ve shown here is that it is immediate.”

This new understanding could have important subsequent effects on how Greenland’s thinning impacts the Arctic. The thinning ice could reduce the rate of groundwater flow to the ocean, changing the water temperature and salinity (盐度)balance that is important for ocean circulation (循环)patterns. “In thinking about the complex feedbacks from Greenland’s ongoing change, we have really ignored the groundwater component,” Harper said.

【推荐1】Ask bacteria where they’d like to live, and they’ll answer: a kitchen sponge (海绵), please.

Sponges are the best place for bacteria, capable of housing 54 billion bacteria per cubic centimeter. In addition to being damp, airy and loaded with food remains, sponges provide a perfect physical environment for bacteria.

Just like humans, bacteria prefer different levels of interactions with their peers. Some bacteria are more social, while others prefer staying alone. Researchers found that middling levels of separation—similar to that found in a sponge—maximize the diversity of the community.

Scientists separated different bacterial strains(菌株), which had been engineered to give light, into compartments(隔间). The work showed that an environment with a middling number of compartments promotes the most diversity.

Kitchen sponge, with all kinds of large and small holes, not only offer an ideal number of compartments for bacteria, but also provide a range of varying-sized parties that can suit more of the bacteria’s needs. In experiments with a kitchen sponge, the researchers found that the resulting bacterial community was more diverse than those produced in liquid cultures, a common method of growing bacteria in a laboratory.

Fortunately, the bacteria partying in your sponge are mostly nonpathogenic. But if dangerous bacteria do show up, the sponge’s special structure will probably help them thrive.

“Sponges are not really well-suited for kitchen,” says Markus Egert, a microbiologist, who did not take part in the study.“There is hardly any surface without bacteria at home, but the kitchen sponge is probably the most populated item at home.”

The good news is that it’s easy to solve the problem. Brushes are a much safer alternative. And if you love your sponge, don’t use it for meat juices. No need to invite bad bacteria to the party.

【推荐2】From ordering food to buying a new book to making a charitable donation. More and more decisions that used to be made on paper are now being made on digital devices like tables, phones, and computers. And this trend toward digitalization has many advantages, in particular when it comes to efficiency and sustainability but could it also be negatively influencing how we make decisions?

We conducted a series of studies with more than 2,500 participants across the U.S. and China to explore the impact of the medium they use to make a decision, with a particular focus on decisions with some sort of moral component. We asked the participants to make a variety of choices using either a paper form or a digital tablet, and found that people who used paper made more virtuous decisions than those than used a digital device.

Why might this be? Our research suggests that the key factor driving this effect is how “real” the decision feels. We asked participants to describe how real a decision felt, as well as the extent to which they perceived the decision as representing who they wore, and they consistently indicated that making a choice on paper felt more real and representative than making the same decision on a digital device. Follow-up analyses confirmed that when a decision felt more real participants were more likely to go with the moral or responsible option.

It may seem like a minor detail, but our research shows that the medium with which your customers, employees, or community members make a decision can have a major impact on the choices they make. This has implications for marketers, policymakers, and anyone seeking to encourage any sort of virtuous behavior.

Of course, using paper is far from a guarantee of virtuous behavior and a certainly doesn’t make sense in every context. There were businesses for which papers just isn’t practical, such as e-commerce platforms. In these contests, managers may want to explore other strategies that could potentially make decisions seem more real in digital contexts.

【推荐3】Piñatex is made from pineapple leaves that are left over after the fruit is harvested. It is an innovative way of using a product that would otherwise be thrown away, which reduces the amount of organic waste going to landfill and thus the methane emissions (沼气排放) that would result. Tough and durable, it is commonly used as an eco-friendly material for vegan leather by fashion designers.

Piñatex was developed by Dr. Carmen Hijosa, a Spanish leather goods expert who grew horrified at the environmental impact of leather production while working in the Philippines in the 1990s. Nor did she approve of the petroleum-based alternatives that are commonly used. At the same time, Hijosa noticed how some traditional Filipino garments（服装）were made from pineapple fibers, which kickstarted her research into how such a resource could be transformed into something more widely usable.

The fabric is made by extracting (提取) fibers from the pineapple leaves after harvest. They are washed and dried in the sun, then undergo a purification process that results in a soft fiber. This is mixed with corn-based polylactic acid (PLA) and turned into a non-woven product called “Piñafelt”, which is the base for Piñatex products.

Around 480 leaves from 16 pineapple plants go into the creation of a single square meter of Piñatex, which weighs and costs less than a comparable amount of leather. Because the fabric is natural, it is breathable, as well as flexible; it can easily be printed on and sewed. It’s produced in a roll, which means less waste than when an irregularly-shaped animal hide is used. But best of all, it can replace animal leather.

Piñatex is a multi-use material that is suitable for footwear, bags, clothing, pet leashes, and more. It has already been adopted by 1,000 shoe companies, fashion labels, and hotel chains around the world, including Hugo Boss, H&M, and the Hilton Hotel Bankside. The number of partnerships is likely to grow as more designers and consumers discover its benefits.