【推荐1】Most people who own iPhones use them as their alarm clocks — making it very easy to check emails one last time before falling asleep and hard to ever feel away from work and social networks.

Several years ago, my boss fainted due to exhaustion after staying up late to catch up on work. She banged her head and ended up with five stitches (缝针) — and became what she calls a “sleep evangelist (传教士).” Now she leaves her phone charging in another room when she goes to bed and   encourages her friends to do the same.

“I sent all my friends the same Christmas gift — a lovely alarm clock — so they could stop using the excuse that they needed their very attractive iPhones by their beds to wake them up in the morning.” she said.

If your phone wakes you up in the morning, it may also be keeping you up at night. A 2008 study showed that people exposed to mobile radiation took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in deep sleep. “The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals, components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are severely affected,” the study concluded.

A quarter of young people feel like they must be available by phone around the clock, according to a Swedish study that linked heavy cellphone use to sleeping problems, stress and depression. Unreturned messages carry more guilt when the technology to deal with them lies at our fingertips. Some teens even return text messages at midnight.

Most of us choose not to set limits on our nighttime availability. Nearly three quarters of people from the age of 18 to 44 sleep with their phones within reach, according to a 2012 Time poll. That number falls off slightly in middle age, but only people aged 65 and older are leaving the phone in another room as common as sleeping right next to it.

【推荐2】If you think that running marathons will help you live a long and healthy life, new research may come as a shock. According to a recent scientific study, people who do a very strenuous workout are as likely to die as people who do no exercise at all.

Scientists in Denmark have been studying over 1,000 joggers and non-joggers for 12 years. The death rates from the sample group indicate that people who jog at a proper pace two or three times a week for less than two and a half hours in total are least likely to die. The best speed to jog at was found to be about 5 miles per hour. The research suggests that people who jog more than three times a week or at higher speeds of over 7mph die at the same rate as non-joggers. The scientists think that this is because strenuous exercise causes structural changes to the heart and arteries (动脉). Over time, this can cause serious effects.

Peter Schnohr, a researcher in Copenhagen, said, “If your goal is to decrease risk of death and improve life expectancy (寿命), jogging a few times a week at a proper pace is a good strategy. Anything more is not just unnecessary, and it may be harmful.”

The implications (暗示) of this are that moderate forms of exercise such as taichi, yoga and walking may be better for us than “iron man events, triathlons and long-distance running and cycling. According to Jacob Louis Marott, another researcher involved in the study, “You don't actually have to do that much to have a good impact on your health. And perhaps you shouldn’t actually do too much”.

【推荐3】A team of Japanese scientists has discovered genes that enable rice to survive high water, providing hope for better rice production in lowland areas that are affected by flooding.

The genes, called SNORKEL genes, help rice grow longer stems to deal with higher water levels. Deepwater rice generally produces low-yield (低产的) rice plants. But the researchers report they have succeeded in introducing the genes to rice varieties that are higher-yield.

According to the report, as water levels rise, accumulation of the plant hormone (激素) ethylene (乙烯) makes the SNORKEL genes start working, making stem growth more rapid. When the researchers introduced the genes into rice that does not normally survive in deep water, they were able to rescue the plants from drowning.

Motoyuki Ashikari, who headed the project, said his team is hoping to use the gene on long grain rice widely used in Southeast Asia to help stabilize production in flood areas where rice with the food-resistant gene is low in production — about one-third to one-quarter that of regular rice. “Scientifically the gene that we found is rare but clear proof of a biological ability to adapt to a difficult environment,” he said. “It’s a genetic strategy specifically to survive flooding.”

High water levels in rice field can be a serious problem. In some areas, rains can cause water levels to rise dangerously high during the growing season and flash flooding can fully cover plants for days or even weeks.

Rice is a main food for billions, and while productivity has increased dramatically since the 1960s, yields must be doubled to meet projected requirements by 2050. More than 30 percent of Asian and 40 percent of African rice land is either lowland field or deep water field.

Laurentius of Utrecht University said the study is significant because high-yield rice varieties cannot survive extremes of floods. “The introduction of these genes into high-yield varieties, using advanced breeding strategies, promises to improve the quality and quantity of rice.” he said.

【推荐1】Before she leaves home in San Francisco, California, Jennifer Schaefer, puts on long sleeves and a big hat she calls her “personal umbrella.” With her fair skin, red hair, memories of bad childhood sunburn, and a family history of skin cancer, Schaefer is painfully aware of the danger of exposure to ultraviolet(紫外线) radiation, which accounts for the vast majority of skin cancers.

So she finds it unbelievable how few people bother with sun safety, with most preferring sun worship to sun protection. “In our culture, it’s almost funny to be too protected,” she says, highlighting the way her friends tease her when she puts on her bathing suit-a protective 'rash guard' top and knee-length board shorts.＂We're slowly starting to become aware of the long-term effects of the sun, but it's like global warming-people are not going to make serious changes until they feel a direct impact."

That impact has helped push Australians, who are famous for sun loving, into changing their behavior. With its high solar ultraviolet levels and mostly fair-skinned population, Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. But after decades of increase, the melanoma(黑色瘤) rate began to stay at a steady level in the mid-1990s.The incidence of melanoma among young people's is now falling, as national surveys show that most Australians-more than 70% of adults and 55%of adolescents-no longer prefer a tan(棕褐色).

A 2013 study shows that, in addition to Australis, a handful of countries-notably New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Norway, the Czech Republic(for women)and the United States(for white men)-have melanoma rates that are declining or stabilizing among young people.

Back in San Francisco, Jennifer Schaefer is doing her best to educate the next generation. Her eldest daughter automatically puts on a hat to go outside. “Habits really start in children-it is like brushing your teeth,” she says.

【推荐2】Research suggests public support for spanking (打屁股) has been falling over the years. But surveys also show that 75 percent to nearly 90 percent of parents admit spanking their child at least once.

I was raised in a zero-tolerance home for disrespect, and my parents often turned to physical punishment. And, no, I don’t feel I was damaged by it.

Nothing is more annoying than watching ill-mannered behavior from children.

But two years ago, Newsweek reported that it had found data suggesting that teens whose parents used physical punishment were more likely to become aggressive.

Murray Straus, professor at the University of New Hampshire in America, has studied the topic of children and spanking for decades. He said that children who were physically punished have lower IQs than their peers. It may be that children with lower IQs were more likely to get spanked, but the punishment may have been counterproductive (反作用的) to their mental development, as well.

Some researchers make the argument that occasional open-handed smacks (用巴掌打) on the bottom are not only harmless but can have some benefit.

Last year, Marjorie Gunnoe, a psychologist at Calvin College, studied teens who have never spanked. There are a greater number of children growing up without ever having been physically punished. Gunnoe’s research suggests they don’t turn out any better than those who were sometimes spank.

There are some parents who simply cannot control their tempers. But I still believe that the best parents are the ones who are able to offer fair and firm discipline without ever turning to physical punishment.

【推荐3】The idea of people taking photographs in front of Van Gogh’s Sun flowers or Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus was once considered so unsatisfactory that galleries banned visitors from using selfie sticks (自拍杆). However, the annoyance at social media platforms such as Instagram has turned into a bit of a love affair—with one gallery creating a period of time to help visitors take better photos and videos to share with their followers.

The Old Royal Naval College, in Greenwich, southeast London, is reducing visitor numbers on Mondays for its Museum of the Moon artwork “for those looking for the perfect Insta shot”. It will sell 400 tickets a session in its Painted Hall rather than the usual 800, so influencers (网红) can show their best sides without the crowds. The college, which is displaying a seven-metre model of the moon, created by the artist Luke Jerram, tells ticket holders, “Posing, influencer photo shoots and selfies are encouraged.” Sarah Codrington, head of marketing at the college, said, “Social Media Mondays” were partly about appealing to influencers but also freeing up the rest of the week for visitors who might be inconvenienced by people dressing themselves up for their Instagram feed.

Jerram, whose Museum of the Moon has been displayed in numerous venues (场馆); said, “I had not been consulted about Social Media Mondays but approved. People sometimes complain that there are so many people there that they weren’t having the best experience. People were lying on the floor and doing selfies. Part of the fun of the artwork is watching others interact with it.” He said he welcomed selfie-takers because they usually put away their cameras after ten minutes and engaged with the work. “People are going to have their close encounter with the moon, not necessarily to see an artwork,” he said.

Brian Sewell, the late art critic, once was disappointed that it was impossible to see paintings “because people are too busy taking photos”. But Jerram said galleries should accept it. “Now everyone is their own media and broadcasting company,” he said. “They are broadcasting their experience of the world.”

【推荐3】There have been many problems with our schools today, the biggest of which is closely related to our culture. In general, our culture, as represented in the media, gets excited by famous stars, and constantly stresses that it’s what you have, not what you are, that counts. Parents are encouraged to be away from even very small children for most of the day. Too many voters go for politicians who would rather cut school funding than to get rid of tax cuts for the wealthy. All contribute greatly to the problems of educating our children.

Today’s teachers have to deal with a culture that is vastly different than in the past. They report that there is, among more children than ever, a lack of motivation, no drive to succeed or even try. The role models that boys view in the media mostly consist of men in comedies and other shows who are rude and often extremely immature; self-centered overpaid athletes; men in movies, television dramas, video games, etc. who are preoccupied with violence and power. As Leonard Sax wrote in “Boys Adrift”, “Teenage boys are looking for models of mature adulthood, but we no longer make any collective effort to provide such models.” Girls are attacked not only with such annoying images of males, but also with women who are preoccupied with appearance and are extremely materialistic.

In such a cultural environment, it is more important than ever to have responsible, loving and caring parents who have enough time and motivation to devote to their children and see to it as their duty to model for them and raise them with high standards of honesty and responsibility along with tending to their physical needs. They need to care enough to see that their children are not attacked with the garbage that comes from movie, television and computer screens. In today’s culture, they are basically alone in this effort since, unfortunately, so much is working against them.

Until we, as a culture, face the truth about ourselves — that we are not providing adequately for a great many of our children — the storm will continue to rage over our education system.