【推荐1】Pets can add extra fun to your everyday life.     1     More importantly, you need to take care of its nutrition and health.

    2     While your pet’s diet will be different depending on what type of animal it is, it’s important to feed it fresh food regularly. Choose food that’s fit for your pet, and only give your pet treats (美味食物) occasionally. If you have any questions about what to feed your pet, consult your veterinarian (兽医).

Feed your pet the suggested amount of food at each meal. Be sure to follow the suggestions on how much your pet needs to eat each day. Feeding too much leads to becoming too fat.     3     These could include heart disease, kidney (肾) problems, and so on.

Know what foods you should never give your pet.     4     So be sure you know what you can and can’t give your pet before you offer it a treat. For example, while it’s perfectly fine to give you dog small bits of chicken or fish, you should never give them food containing chocolate or garlic, as these can be harmful.

Give your pet fresh water every day. All animals require water to live, although some will need much more than others. No matter what the size of your pet is, make sure that it always has access to fresh, clean water. Check or refill the water once or twice a day and if they drink from a bowl, wash out the bowl every 2 to 3 days.     5    .

【推荐2】The world can be a scary place when you’re young. It can be even scarier when you’re a young little blue penguin, the tiniest of the penguin species. Luckily, there are some humans willing to help. They stepped in to protect Billy, a blue penguin that appeared on a beach in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Spotted on November 29 at the slipway at Moncks Bay, near Sumner, in Christchurch, the little penguin immediately attracted a small crowd. Jeff Mein Smith saw the crowd while he was bicycling that afternoon, and he biked home to get his camera. When he returned to the scene, he found that the penguin had received a little sign, one that read, “Hi, I’m waiting for my mum to come back.DOC (Department of Conservation) knows I’m here. Please leave me alone. Keep your dogs away. Thanks, Billy the baby blue penguin.”

Billy didn’t move away from the sign. The DOC arrived later that afternoon to pick up Billy, though they were surprised to see it on the beach. “It’s unusual for a blue penguin to be out in the open on the beach during the day,” Anita Spencer, a DOC senior ranger, told Stuff.

Billy was taken to the Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation Center after being brought back from the beach. Volunteers believe the bird may actually be a female penguin, and is around 2 months old. The chick weighs merely 550 grams, less than a standard basketball. A blue penguin should weigh around 900 grams at this age. Most little penguins grow up to weigh 1 kilogram.

The center will help the little penguin gain some weight by feeding it with fish juice, before it’s set free into the ocean.

This photo taken on Feb 19,2023 shows giant panda Xiang Xiang at Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, Japan. People flocked to Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens to see Xiang Xiang on Sunday, the final day for public viewing for the beloved five-year-old female giant panda before her return to China.

Giant pandas are among the most lovable animals alive today.Unlike their relatives, such as the polar bear, pandas don’t eat meal but survive on a diet of only bamboo. So why and how have pandas abandoned their taste for meat to pick up a vegetarian diet?

Pandas today don’t eat meat. However, they’ve kept much of their meat-eating adaptations from times past. Their digestive systems have not changed much from their meat-eating days. Out of the huge 12.5 kg of bamboo they eat in a single day, only about 17%of it is digested. To survive, pandas eat large amounts of bamboo while having a low-metabolic(新陈代谢的), lazy lifestyle to make up for the poor energy return.

The giant panda’s shift to a vegetarian diet is in line with the inactivation of a specific gene-Taslrl, which provides them with the ability to taste certain amino acids(氨基酸) abundant in meat. Its inactivation in pandas would lead to their dietary change.

Pandas have evolved(进化) to a great degree to cope with their relatively recent bamboo-eating lifestyle. Pandas must seize long and thin pieces of bamboo shoots. To help with this, they have developed a long “fake-thumb”(伪拇指). So giant pandas have six fingers in each paw which provides better support for them to seize objects such as bamboo in one paw quickly. Researchers have found that the surface of the panda’s tongue is different. While other bears and many meat-eating animals have smooth tongues, pandas have evolved tiny projections on the surface of their tongues that serve to file down food. This is especially useful for pandas as they remove the outer cover of bamboo.

Time will tell if pandas will adapt and survive, go back to eating meat, or disappear in the wild. Whatever the future holds, we can be grateful that, for the time being, we get to share our planet with these adorable animals.

【推荐2】The African penguin lives on St. Croix island off the east coast of South Africa. A new study has found that African penguins are leaving their natural environment to escape noisy ship refueling activities.

The island once held the world’s largest reproducing (繁殖) population of the animals. But the population has dropped sharply since South Africa started permitting ships in the area to refuel at sea six years ago, the study found.

Lorien Pichegru, acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University, which led the study, said the organization had found that noise levels in the area had doubled since the refueling activities began. Scientists say high noise levels affect the ability of ocean animals to find and catch other animals for food. Noise also makes it more difficult for the animals to communicate with each other and map travel paths. “This year we are at 1,200 breeding pairs at St Croix from 8,500 pairs in 2016,” Pichegru said.

The study recently appeared in the publication Science of the Total Environment. The researchers said the study is the first to explore the effects of ocean traffic noise pollution on a seabird.

Nelson Mandela University’s study collected data from ship identification tools to estimate underwater noise from passing ships. Oil-covered penguins were found in 2019 in Algoa Bay after an oil spill (泄露) from ship-to-ship refueling. Environmental groups have called for the activities to be stopped in the bay.

Pichegru said penguins in the area were already struggling to survive because of a series of issues, including industrial fishing activities. She added that the refueling activities did not kill all the penguins. However, “It was just the thing that made the whole ecology tip over and then the penguins couldn’t deal with that,” she said.

【推荐3】Every year migratory(迁徙的) bats travel from Mexico to Bracken Cave, where they spend the summer consuming insects that would otherwise hungrily eat common food crops. But the bats have been showing up far earlier than they did two decades ago.

In a study, scientists at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural laboratory in England, used radar data from 160 U.S. weather stations to analyze activity in the Texas bat colony from 1995 through 2017. They discovered the creatures were leaving their winter quarters in Mexico earlier and reproducing sooner. They were also astonished to find increasing numbers of bats overwintering(过冬) at Bracken Cave instead of heading back to their cold weather quarters in Mexico. Overwintering is a sign that warmer temperatures change the bats’ annual rhythms, Rothamsted biologist Phillip Stepanian says.

A separate study of migratory bats in Indiana, published last year, found that temperature variations affected arrival and departure times—likewise hinting at the potential influence of climate change. Joy O’Keefe, a biology professor at Indiana State University and co-author of that study, says early arrival at their summer habitats(栖息地) could expose these bats to cold snaps(寒流), and they could freeze to death.

Joy O’Keefe and her colleagues also found that changing bat migration times can also clash with rainfall patterns. Many insects that bats eat breed in seasonal lakes and puddles. If the bats arrive too early to benefit from summer rainfall and the resulting abundance of insects, they may struggle to feed their pups(幼崽) or skip reproduction altogether, O’Keefe says. She fears this shift could cause Midwestern bats to decrease toward extinction, which would be bad news for humans. “Declines in bat populations could have severe effects for crop success,” she says, adding that bats also “control significant disease vectors, such as mosquitoes.”

However, scientists are not certain that climate change alone is causing the Bracken Cave bat colony to migrate earlier. They have found a direct link between seasonal temperatures and bird migration, but bats are also influenced by factors such as changes in wind speed and direction. And there are other complications. “Bats are mysterious little animals that move mostly at night and are difficult to observe and track,” Stepanian says. “We have this conceptual picture of what might be happening, but really tying it to the cause is the next step.”

【推荐1】Bee venom (毒液)is a highly sought and expensive ingredient for specialized medical treatments and now Australian scientists have discovered that when the industrious insects become annoyed, their venom becomes even more powerful.

Researchers at Curtin University have noted how behavioral and ecological factors can influence the quality of the venom which is used to treat serious and infectious diseases. Their study, published in the scientific journal PLOS, analysed protein (蛋白质)found in the venom of western honeybees.

The more proteins found in the venom, the higher the potential quality and effect. To understand the protein diversity of venom and find out what impacted this, the researchers looked at a range of factors including the behavioral patterns of the bees.

“We classify the bees’ anger according to their response to the stimulating (刺激)devices that collect the venom,” said Dr. Daniela Scaccabarozzi, who led the project.

The bee venom collector has a tiny charge that shocks any bees landing on it and they release information that forces the rest bees of the hive (蜂窝)to sting (螫). “Interestingly, we discovered that the ‘angry bees’ produced a richer, more protein-dense venom. And we found that there was no visible harm to the bees.” Scaccabarozzi said.

The team also confirmed that temperature impacted the venom’s strength. “High temperatures can be detrimental to bees’ activity in and out of the hives,” Scaccabarozzi said. “Of the 25 hives tested, we discovered that the sites with higher temperatures recorded lower venom production.” Further findings also indicated that geographical location had an impact on the composition of bee venom, as well as what stage the flowers were at during harvest when they were taken in by the bees.

Expecting the research to be useful to the medical field and the beekeeping business, Scaccabarozzi says further research will help beekeepers collect a normal quality of venom to meet growing demand in clinical and therapeutic fields, as well as help design cost-effective strategies for venom harvest to secure its position in the global market.

【推荐2】It is a known fact that colors have an impact on our health.     1     We could be ‘in the pink of health’. However, we could be ‘off-color’ or we may be ‘feeling blue’. Sometimes, you may catch someone ‘in a black mood’.

    2     If you go to a room that is painted just black, it can lead to depression. Experts have warned that we should avoid decorating any room entirely in black, however many teenagers want to, especially during the more troublesome years. A room that is painted totally white is also depressing, as white is associated with sterile (无菌的) environments like hospitals and bathrooms. It can make the room feel a bit cold, and the mood of the person will be low.

Research into the physiological effects of color has shown our spirit is lifted by warm colors.       3     People just feel stimulated and better. Cool colors like blue and green are comforting and calming. Doctors often use these colors to relieve tension and stress. Blue, for instance, is associated with tranquil surroundings.     4     Other hospitals are now using soft green, blue, peach, and sunny yellow on walls and even sheets and gowns. These colors seem to help patients to get well quicker.

Nutritionists and medical researchers have emphasized that we should take in a rainbow of colors.

    5     We should consume fruits and vegetables of five different colors in each meal. This is why we are encouraged to eat green vegetables, tomatoes and pumpkins.

【推荐3】“You’re so smart!” This encouraging response to children’s math performance is commonly heard. Recently, a new study, conducted by the University of Georgia, found that encouraging children with responses related to their personal characteristics or inborn abilities might weaken their math achievement over time.

Parents who make comments connecting their children’s performance with personal qualities like IQ are using what’s referred to as person responses. In contrast, parents who connect their children’s actions, such as efforts or strategy use, to their performance are using process responses.

For the study, researchers asked more than 500 parents to report on how they responded to their children’s math performance and their math beliefs and goals. Children were divided into two groups across a year to measure their math achievement.

The results show that parents who view math ability as changeable are more likely to give process responses focused on their children’s strategy use and efforts rather than their IQ or other personal qualities. In contrast, parents who believe math ability is unchangeable and that math failure can’t be constructive give more person responses. Parents with high expectations for their children give both responses. While responses focused on strategy and efforts are not related to any achievement results, children who receive more responses about their personal qualities — especially, related to failure — are more likely to avoid harder math problems, show higher levels of math anxiety, and score lower on math achievement tests.

Because person responses mean poor math change in children over time, researchers suggest parents limit this type of responses at home. Another recommendation for parents is to think about their own beliefs and goals for their kids and examine how these might lead them to respond in person or process ways. Simply telling parents to avoid talking about math ability may not be enough. Focusing less on how children perform and more on their strategy and enjoyment of math might be a more effective way to encourage children.

【推荐2】You may not know that up to 40 percent of college students at some schools usually don't get enough to eat. Though some receive assistance through social services and colleges’ food pantries (储藏室）,it often isn’t enough. In fact, almost 600 colleges and universities across the U.S. belong to the College and University Food Bank Alliance(CUFBA) and it is likely that even more have food pantries for their students. Along with community colleges, CUFBA members include private colleges, well-respected state universities and Ivy League schools.

The problem can lead to bad consequences. Like other young adults, these students worry about how they are regarded and know that not having enough money for food results in pity or worse, being looked down on. To be honest I had been judgmental before. I questioned the ability of the other students to manage their resources (财力)and how their parents could ignore the fact that their child was mooching off (乞求）others. I never thought about the money simply not being there. Few will share details of their situation, never mind asking for help. Many of these students finally drop out of school, finding the challenges insurmountable.

One would think that our children would see this need and act correctly, whether by helping personally or starting programs, but teens and young adults rarely see beyond their own experiences. This is not a criticism—it is simply where most are;they haven’t yet had life experiences to show them things can be different. As awareness of this problem has increased, more resources have been made offered, some organized by student groups. But more still needs to be done.

Since awareness of a problem is the first step in solving it, talk to your kids. Ask them to pay more attention to see it, talk to your kids. Ask them to pay more attention to see if they have any classmates in need. Talking openly and non-judgmentally about the problem is important.

【推荐3】In 1901, H. G. Wells, an English writer, wrote a book describing a trip to the moon. When the explorers landed on the moon, they discovered that the moon was full of underground cities. They expressed their surprise to the “moon people” they met. In turn, the “moon people” expressed their surprise. “Why,” they asked, “are you traveling to outer space when you don’t even use your inner space?”

H. G. Wells could only imagine travel to the moon. In 1969, human beings really did land on the moon. People today know that there are no underground cities on the moon. However, the question that the “moon people” asked is still an interesting one. A growing number of scientists are seriously thinking about it.

Underground systems are already in place. Many cities have underground car parks. In some cities such as Tokyo, Seoul and Montreal, there are large underground shopping areas. The “Chunnel”, a tunnel (隧道) connecting England and France, is now complete.

But what about underground cities? Japan’s Taisei Corporation is designing a network of underground systems, called “Alice Cities”. The designers imagine using surface space for public parks and using underground space for flats, offices, shopping, and so on. A solar dome (太阳能穹顶) would cover the whole city.

Supporters of underground development say that building down rather than building up is a good way to use the earth’s space. The surface, they say, can be used for farms, parks, gardens, and wilderness, H. G. Wells’ “moon people” would agree. Would you?