【推荐1】In the spring and summer months, thunderstorms are common.     1    . However, in thunderstorms, lightning can strike people and buildings and is very dangerous.

It was reported that a man was struck by lightning when he was making a phone call under a tree. He died at once. You may not know it, but nearly 1,800 thunderstorms are happening at any moment around the world.    2    . So what should you do during a lightning storm? Scientists say that a person’s chances of being struck by lightning are 1 in 600,000.     3    .

If you are indoors during a thunderstorm:

·Stay away from anything that is metal because lightning can come into the house through it.

·Don’t stand near the windows.

·Don’t take a shower or bath. Lightning can travel through water.

·Never use the phone.    4    .

If you are caught in a thunderstorm outdoors:

·    5    . If there’s no building around, try to find a low place to stay in.

·Do not go under a tree because the lightning could hit the tree and travel through the tree to hit you.

·Never use a cell phone.

【推荐2】This season, the bushfires in Australia have burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people have been killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, this is the most casualties (伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.

Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather have made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. “The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia’s fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia,” Hausfather added on Friday.

Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.

Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled burns and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).

【推荐1】We eat plants and juice them, and now it seems we can mine them too!

After a successful experiment on the island of Borneo, the botany professor Alan Baker and a group of researchers want to introduce phytomining (harvesting minerals from plants) as a better and partial substitute (代替物) for traditional mining.

Phytomining means collecting metals from live plants. However, this can only be done with a group of plants known as “hyperaccumulators (超富集植物)”. There are around 700 identified types worldwide, and what makes these hyperaccumulators special is that they naturally attract and absorb minerals through their roots — metals poisonous to other plants — and then store huge and pure concentrations of these minerals in their bodies. The metals can then be extracted from the plants’ sap (汁), oil, or sometimes even live tissue.

Baker and his colleagues see a lot of potential in phytomining. Not only can it help meet the growing global demand for metals, but it is a way of reducing some of that damage to the environment caused by traditional mining.

One of the biggest problems with traditional mining is that it pollutes the surrounding area. Phytomining can extract metal waste, plus planting the hyperaccumulators would regrow the deforested areas caused by mining operations. Aside from this, if phytomining is able to replace part of traditional mining, then there will be fewer instances of bad mining practices like abandoned mines, which pollute the nearby waters. Also, since phytomining provides metals that are already naturally pure, there is no need to use huge amounts of energy to purify them.

Phytomining has its drawbacks. Harvesting plants on a large scale is expensive today, compared to traditional mining. Besides, plants can be wiped out by diseases or unexpected weather conditions.

However, there are many reasons to consider phytomining. After all, we need to make sure that our planet can exist persistently and sustainable practices like phytomining give us the hope that our advancement doesn’t mean sacrificing Mother Earth.

【推荐2】Here’re some of the excellent inventions in 2023. Which one do you like most?

Whiter Paint

The paint on a white building reflects 80 to 90% of the sunlight that strikes it. The rest of the light warms the surrounding area, raising air-conditioning bills. But the Whiter Paint is made of chemicals that better reflect UV rays. It reflects up to 98% of the sunlight, which could reduce AC use by 40%. “The heat is reflected into deep space,” says Xiulin Ruan, who led the Purdue University team that created the paint.

Duolingo app

Now you can take music lessons on a smartphone, using this app, which uses an on-screen piano to teach basics such as harmony and beat. You learn by interacting with more than 200 popular pieces of music. Just match sounds to notes and play along. “You don’t need natural talent to learn music,” says Karen Chow, who’s a learning scientist at Duolingo.

Model A

Model A, developed by Alef Aeronautics, is a two-seat all-electric vehicle with a flight range of 110 miles. And it looks as if it were made to be parked in a garage. In July, 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration gave Alef permission to take the vehicle on test flights. The company hopes to deliver the first Model A by 2026.

Moonwalkers

They’re actually battery-powered shoes with wheels. They let you walk normally—just faster and more easily. Moonwalkers, made by Shift Robotics, use AI to sense when you’re speeding up or slowing down, and adjust themselves accordingly. With it, you can walk at speeds up to seven miles per hour.

【推荐3】An experiment which saw salad seeds sent into space has given hope for the future of growing food on another planet, according to a recently-published study.

The findings have appeared after two kilograms of seeds spent six months on board the International Space Station(ISS)with British European Space Agency(ESA)astronaut, Tim Peake, as part of his Principia mission.

There, the seeds could have absorbed up to 100 times more radiation(辐射)than on Earth while being influenced by the violent shaking from the stresses of space travel.

When the seeds returned to Earth in 2016,600,000 children from schools across Britain took part in an experiment, supported by the UK Space Agency, to plant them and monitor their growth, comparing it to that of seeds that had remained on Earth.

The results showed that, while the space seeds grew more slowly and were more sensitive to ageing, they were still able to survive.

Peake said, “When humans travel to Mars, they will need to find ways to feed themselves, and this research helps us understand some of the biology of seed storage and germination(发芽) which will be important for future space missions.”

The Royal Horticultural Society(RHS)tasked 8,600 schools and groups across Britain to take part in the controlled study, recording their results as a scientist would.

It was part of a project called Rocket Science, led by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, in partnership with the UK Space Agency.

RHS manager Alana Cama said, “The Rocket Science experiment opened a window into space biology and allowed young people to be at the forefront of creative research.”

“This research project did more than just inspire; it furthered our understanding of the challenges around growing plants in unusual environments and the possibility of growing food on long-term space missions in the future. Inspiring a new generation of botanists and biologists will remain our goal to enrich everyone’s lives through plants.”