【推荐2】Morpho butterflies are some of the most beautiful butterflies in the world, thanks to their shining blue wings. Now, a new material inspired by butterfly wings was developed by researchers from Shenzhen University in China. This material, a type of colored film, can help keep the objects it is attached to cooler than the temperature around it.

The problem of color and the absorption of heat has troubled scientists for centuries. Any object that contains color will heat up faster. This somewhat complex issue has implications for a surprising number of real-world issues. In buildings, large amounts of energy are used for cooling and running the air conditioner in electric cars can greatly reduce the driving range.

In order to create a material that could avoid these issues, Dr. Wanlin Wang and his team looked to nature for inspiration, as is often the case in science research. Specifically, they looked at the Morpho butterfly. According to New Scientist, the wings of this brilliantly blue butterfly are made of nanoparticles (纳米级颗粒) arranged in a particular way that bend and bounce lightwaves to create color as opposed to absorbing them. This allows them to keep cool.

Wang and his team are not the first team to create materials that allow for passive cooling using the properties of light; however, they are the first to do so in color. All other materials have been white or clear, while the new film comes in bright blue, yellow and red.

In order to test their new material, Wang and his team placed sheets of film in various colors on cars, clothing, cell phones, and roofs, from 9am to 4pm, both in winter and summer. They discovered that the films were more than 59^∘ F cooler in the winter and 95^∘F cooler in the summer.

Their hope is that eventually this type of film will be used to cover electric cars, but intruth the possibilities are endless: stained glass windows that keep skyscrapers cool, self-cooling camping tents, cool-looking computers that don’t overheat, etc. All of these mayone day be a reality thanks to the beautiful morpho butterfly.

【推荐1】A quick look at Instagram will show you thousands of girls sharing their clothing of the day. Many of these girls are sharing completely new clothes every day. And they’re feeling the pressure to never repeat clothes. This attitude of not being able to wear something again after sharing it on Instagram is far too common. It is a sad thing when some girls feel sorry for appearing in the same clothes more than once on Instagram.

Clothes businesses push new “must –haves” every week, which adds to the pressure to keep up. Clothes have been so cheap because of the competition between clothes businesses that it’s shockingly easy to buy new clothes every day. These clothes businesses have made it possible for a normal person to never be seen in the same clothes twice. Often the quality of these clothes is so low that they don’t even survive the wash so there is no chance of that second wear.

Consider everything that goes into making a single piece of clothing-for example: plenty of water, energy and petrochemicals, finishing and labor of each worker throughout making it. It’s shocking to think after all this, a piece of clothing might be worn once, maybe twice, and then thrown away so that they can follow fast fashion.

The fashion of throwing clothes away after use needs to change. Proudly post the same clothes you’ve worn before online. Get creative with mixing and matching, and borrow from friends for special times. The possibilities are endless so there’s no need to shop frequently.

【推荐3】When it comes to selecting a hiking companion, cats are usually far down on the list. Unless, of course, your name is JJ Yosh. JJ is an adventure filmmaker and social media influencer from Boulder, Colorado. He adopted a cat named Simon from his neighbor a year ago and they’ve been inseparable ever since !

When he adopted Simon, JJ had big plans. He immediately started training the cat to become his sidekick (伙伴) through countless adventures. Luckily, Simon proved to be a quick student who loves the great outdoors just as much as his owner!“ Simon’s favorite places are his backyard hiking spots in Boulder, Colorado,” JJ said.“ He loves exploring the nearby mountains where we have caves and rocks to climb.” While hiking, Simon chose between riding in a backpack and simply resting on JJ’s shoulder. When they camped overnight, they slept in a shared sleeping bag.

There’s nothing Simon wouldn’t do to stay close to his favorite human! Everywhere they go, JJ and Simon get plenty of attention from curious strangers.“ The reaction is usually amazement and surprise that I would be taking a cat into the back country, and that Simon would sit so gracefully on my shoulder like a parrot,” JJ said.

The cat’s owner hopes to encourage more people to train their pets to join them out in the world as well. “On top of getting outside, I want people to realize cats can be just as adventurous as dogs if given the proper training,” he said. This is one of the best romances we have ever seen! Simon and JJ are giving us serious goals. Somehow we think our lazy house cats are a bit too set in their ways to try this, but you never know !

【推荐1】The process by which rich land becomes desert is called desertification(沙漠化).     1    The U. N. says up to 45 percent of Africa’s land is impacted by desertification, worse than any other continent.

Africa’s Great Green Wall is a project to build an 8000-kilometer-long forest across 11 of the continent’s countries. The project is meant to contain the growing Sahara Desert and fight climate change.     2    They include limited political support, lack of money, weak organizational structures, and not enough consideration for the environment. Just 4 million hectares of land have been turned into forest since the work on the Great Green Wall began 15 years ago.     3    

Launched in 2007, the project aims to plant a forest from Senegal on the Atlantic Ocean in western Africa to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti in the east.     4     It could also reduce levels of climate-related migration in the area and capture hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air.

    5    They say some progress has been made in recent years in the east of the continent. For example, efforts in Eritrea and Sudan have resulted in nearly 140, 000 hectares of newly planted forest.

The U. N. desertification agency says the project will need to plant an average of 8. 2 million hectares yearly to reach its goal of 100 million hectares by 2030.

【推荐3】Oceans hold a lot of mystery, even for people who study them. But it's no mystery why they're in trouble. We've been using them to hide our waste -such as pouring oil, plastic, and poisonous chemicals into them for decades. We've over exploited (剥削) many fish stocks to levels so low that they can no longer be harvested.

Oceans are also a primary source of protein for millions of people worldwide. If we want to continue to enjoy what oceans provide, we need to do everything we can to protect them and the life they support. We should ensure the seafood we eat is sustainable.

Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to catch their own fish, which means having sustainable options at the store is critical. As public and companies awareness about the risks caused by overfishing and uncontrolled sea farming expansion have grown, food tradesmen in Canada have developed sustainable seafood policies and commitments.

Seafood Progress, an online resource, is designed to help provide rewards to tradesmen and information to seafood lovers. It makes it easier for consumers in Canada to find out tradesmen's policies on sourcing sustainable seafood, whether they're sticking to those policies and how they're performing compared to their peers.

But tradesmen must do more to ensure their seafood products are environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. This means expanding the scope of their commitments to cover all seafood products they sell, in all their stores. It also requires continuing to work with suppliers and producers to improve practices and make sure the sustainable seafood supply meets consumer demand.

It's no mystery that if we want to continue to eat fish, we must do it responsibly. Seafood Progress has invited seafood tradesmen, suppliers and consumers to join in pushing to this goal.