【推荐1】California’s snowpack is more than two-and-a-half times larger than average (平均水平) right now, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources. As the weather gets warmer, it’s going to melt (融化). Scientists say there’s no question we need the snow.

“The melting of snow has always been important every single year in California,” said scientist Dr. Pat Abbott.

This comes as the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report shows almost two-thirds of the state is not experiencing drought (干旱), a huge improvement over the past few months. Unluckily, the snowpack can’t make certain that we’ll stay that way.

“Drought is part of California,” said Dr. Abbott. “We’ve had a temporary respite. That doesn’t mean it has gone away completely. It will be back sooner than we would like.”

The snow can be a valuable protection against wildfires, but only if it melts slowly. “Plants stay healthy. They have taken in enough water and are less likely to catch on fire for a longer time,” said Dr. Abbott. “If it becomes too hot, say in early June, and all that snow is melted and gone, the plants don’t get more water and start drying out. By the time we get to the end of the summer, it’s easier for them to catch fire. The bigger the fires are, the greater the challenge is for our firefighters.”

A quick melt can also flood places near the Sierra Nevada (a mountain range in eastern California) that got more rain than they could deal with this winter. That includes places like Tulare Lake (in the Central Valley of California), which was dry for years until this winter. Now, it’s more than 100 square miles in size and flooding communities around it.

The area is expecting even more flooding when the snowpack melts. But Dr. Abbott says floods like this are a necessary risk for water the state has needed for years. “The snow we’ve gotten this winter is highly positive,” said Dr. Abbott. “On the other side, nothing is ever 100%.” Dr. Abbott says the snow is also helping to fill Northern California’s man-made lake, which helps provide water we need.

【推荐3】Scientists are racing to study the volcano in Tonga that erupted just before sundown on January 15, 2022.

“Everything so far about this eruption is really strange,” said Janine Krippner, a scientist with Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program. “The sound of the explosion, the tsunami (海啸) waves that followed the eruption and the huge energy of this explosion, which equals to five to six million tons of TNT, are unlike any seen in recent decades.”

The sound of the latest eruption could be heard on distant shores around the world. According to Geoff Kilgour, a scientist from New Zealand, water likely has had a hand in it. “Perhaps the recent explosion had just the right mix of magma (岩浆) and water. Either more or less would have led to a quieter explosion,” he said.

The tsunami waves that followed the eruption were even stranger. Tsunami waves usually start from the center of the eruption. Yet this time, waves appeared in other places, such as the Caribbean, far earlier than would be expected of a classic tsunami. In addition, as tsunami waves travel further, they usually become weaker. While the waves that hit the islands in Tonga were damaging, they weren’t high enough to account for the surprisingly larger waves across the ocean.

Although many of the volcanoes in deep oceans usually aren’t deadly, the recent event reminds us that how dangerous they can be and that how little we know about them.

However, monitoring underwater volcanoes is a complex task. GPS—which is frequently used to track changes in the surface as magma moves underground—doesn’t work on the seafloor. And obtaining real-time data from seismometers (地震检波器) on the ocean floor is expensive and technologically difficult.

The situation in Tonga has also shown how well the Tonga Geological Services (TGS) has dealt with the latest eruption. “They don’t have a huge amount of money. They don’t have a huge amount of staff,” Janine Krippner added. “But they’re asked to do a huge amount and they have done a really nice job to reduce the possible damages.”

【推荐1】It is reported that rail industry bosses are planning to phase out paper train tickets and shut almost 1 ,000 station ticket offices in England. The government says nothing has been decided. But the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, points out some stations sell only a handful of tickets each week and the vast majority of transactions( 交易) have moved online.

Regardless of the outcome of the plan, the direction of travel is clear. In the name of modernization and cost-cutting, station ticket offices are likely to follow many high street bank branches and rural post offices into memory. For those who have grown used to the advantages of organizing travel via a smartphone, there will be little to mourn( 哀悼). But for people without online access or skills, another small social barrier will have emerged. A recent report estimated that around 6% of households—1.5m homes—have no internet access. Millions more of us remain irregular and unconfident users of the internet. Most likely, as digital technology becomes the gatekeeper to everyday life, a significant minority risks being left behind.

The shift online is unavoidable, but its fallout needs to be managed with more care. Technology should not be allowed to drive people to the side of their own lives, as anecdotal evidence suggests is increasingly the case. Ros Altmann, the former pensions minister, recently wrote of being contacted by an elderly woman who no longer drives to her local park, because she cannot download the car parking app required.

The debate over ticket offices offers an opportunity to reflect more broadly on the increasing role of technology in our social landscape. Clearly, much more needs to be invested in helping marginalized(边缘化的) groups gain easy online access. Alternative offline options must be maintained for important services. Contactable telephone numbers and staffed public access points should always be available. This will cost more. But that is the price of being fair to those who find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.