【推荐2】Ever been hungry enough to eat a house? Now, you actually could.

Food waste is a big problem in Japan and globally. Japan produced around 5.7 million tons of food waste in 2019. The government plans to reduce that by around 2.7 million tons by 2030. Tokyo University researchers Kota Machida and Yuya Sakai have developed a way to transform food waste into cement (水泥) for construction use and more. This is the first-ever process created for making cement entirely from food waste. The researchers say their product is four times as strong as traditional concrete. This particular cement can be used to make things like tea cups or chairs as well. However, there’s one additional feature — it’s also eatable.

Kota and Yuya are the intelligence behind the formation of Fabula Inc., a company with purposes of reducing food waste, and helping fight global warming. As expected, something this unique took years to develop. It took a few attempts to find just the right process. Kota and Yuya created the unique technology while researching possible environment-friendly materials to replace cement-based concrete. Cement production accounts for 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide release.

After a few failures, they realized they could get the cement to bind (黏合) by adjusting the temperatures. “The most challenging part was that each type of food waste requires different temperatures,” Yuya said. So the researchers had to observe them and respond in time. In the experiments, Kota and Yuya have successfully made cement using tea leaves, coffee grounds, cabbage and even lunchbox leftovers.

Fabula Inc. is currently working to make tea cups and furniture, but Yuya is thinking a little bit bigger. Their product could provide relief in the form of eatable emergency shelters in disaster ones. “For example, if food cannot be delivered to the people, they could eat makeshift beds made out of food cement,” he said. To eat the material, a person needs to break it apart and boil it.

【推荐3】Late last spring,a student worked late into the night,and as she painted,her chemistry took on a life of its own, transforming into a comic book.Veronica Berns,28,was working on her Ph.D.in chemistry.Berns quickly concluded that she would be best able to describe the difficult concepts with illustrations."They're not very well-polished illustrations—that's on purpose,"Berns said.

In the beginning,it was on the back of an envelope or on a napkin that she doodled（涂鸦）the chemical bonds to better explain her parents what she was working on in the lab.Jody Berns,Veronica's mother,said their family has a history of doodling and has shared comics for years.

Veronica Berns surprised her family with her comic book "Atomic Size Matters" at her graduation last year.The book typical shows cartoons of Berns wearing various costumes and uses humor as well as simple comparisons to describe simple chemistry."We're just really proud that she can take something so complex and put it into an amusing visual（视觉的）explanation that everyone can enjoy,"Jody Berns said.

Veronica Berns’ teacher said Berns was the first of his students to construct her knowledge in an artistic way and he acknowledged that it is difficult for scientists to explain what they do with proper context.“If it's worth doing, we should be able to explain it,”Fredrickson said.Fredrickson said she hopes other scientists will learn to find ways to illustrate what they're doing in the lab.Berns now lives in Chicago as a chemist and also writes a blog in which she uses comics to explain the work of Nobel Prize winning scientists.

Berns started a fundraising campaign on the Internet to finance printing the books.She said she wanted to raise $5,965 to cover the costs of professional printing and the website says she has raised more than $14,000.

【推荐1】On September 29, 2021, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared it would be removing 23 species from its Endangered Species Act, including the ivory-billed woodpecker, various Hawaiian birds and freshwater fish, not because they had pulled back from the edge of extinction, but because the USFWS believed these species would never recover, and were most likely extinct, therefore not requiring protection.

In April, 195 countries are getting together in China for a UN conference to discuss global agreements to protect nature and biodiversity, with the hope of finalizing an agreement to safeguard plants, animals, and ecosystems. However, the new strain(毒株)of Covid-19, Omicron, has potentially thrown the plans into a mess, and negotiators may switch to online talks if travel restrictions to China are put in place again.

“We can’t go another four months without any progress” said Georgina Chandler, senior international policy officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Conservationists are urging the talks to go ahead—online if necessary—as the biodiversity crisis shows no sign of slowing up.

“Nature loss has not gone away and threatens both human lives and the global economy,” said Lin Li, director of global policy at the organization. “With one million species currently in danger of extinction, delaying action is not an option.”

Improving conservation and management of natural areas, such as oceans, forests, and wildernesses is crucial to safeguarding the ecosystems on which humans depend. However, forests are still being devastated, often for farming or commercial use. As trees absorb about a third of planet-warming emissions produced worldwide, stopping deforestation is key. At COP26 in Glasgow last November, world leaders plan to invest $19 billion in public and private funds to protect and restore global forests.

It’s easy to feel disheartened by the disappointing news, but the only way to stop more species suffering the same fate is to pay attention and take actions.

【推荐1】If he’d survived his sudden illness in 1990, Jim Henson might be turning 79 years old on September 24, 2015. He would probably still be at work. We can only guess where his imagination would have taken him — and us — in the 25 years we missed. There’s no doubt that he would have broken new ground, for Henson was a never­stopping innovator (创新者)．

His long career began far back in 1955, when he created Sam and Friends for a Washington D．C. television station. The programmes were just five minutes long and scheduled in the no­man’s­land between afternoon and evening programming. Yet the show won an Emmy for best local entertainment programme in 1958.

When it ended in 1961, Henson struggled to find work. He could only get brief appearances on other programmes like The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live.   Only in 1976 did a British producer finally give Henson the green light to start a full­scale television show. The Muppet Show was produced and broadcast in Great Britain before finally arriving on prime time (黄金时间) US television. The network continued to identify it as a children’s programme, though the programme won a wide following of adult viewers.

One reason for its appeal to grown­ups was the obvious skill in catching the imagination. Henson’s talent was so great that it’s difficult to think of Kermit or Miss Piggy as nothing more than piles of cloth when they aren’t being operated. But Henson himself never forgot how much work went into creating his characters.

Way back in his early days, Henson created Kermit the Frog. His body was made from a green coat his mother had thrown away and his eyes were two halves of a ping­pong ball. Over the years, his shape became more expressive. “Kermit is the character through whose eyes the audience is viewing the show. He’s a nice guy，” Henson said.

【推荐2】When a child is choking, it means that an object is stuck in the trachea. When this happens, air can't flow normally into or out of the lungs, so the child can t breathe properly.

The trachea is usually protected by epiglottis(喉头盖) . It allows food to pass down and go into our stomach and it also prevents food from going down the trachea. But every once in a while, the epiglottis doesn't close fast enough and an object can slip into the trachea. This is what happens when something goes down the wrong pipe.   

Most of the time, the food or object only partially blocks the trachea. If coughed up, breathing returns to normal quickly. Kids who seem to be choking and coughing but still can breathe and talk usually recover without help. It can be uncomfortable for them, but they're generally fine after a few seconds.

Sometimes, an object can get into the trachea and completely block the airway. If airflow into and out of the lungs is blocked and the brain will become short of oxygen, choking can become a life-threatening emergency. A child may be choking and need help right away if he or she can’t breathe or can’t talk or make noise.

If you have kids, it’s important to get trained in both CPR（心肺夏苏）and the technique of abdominal thrusts (腹部施压). Even if you don't have kids, knowing how to perform these first-aid procedures will let you help if someone is choking.

All kids are at risk for choking, but those younger than 3 are especially at risk. Young kids tend to put things in their mouths, have smaller airways that are easily blocked, and don't have a lot of experience chewing, so they might swallow things whole.

Take the time now to become prepared CPR and first-aid courses are a must for parent, other caregivers, and babysitters. To find one in your area, contact your local American Red Cross, YMCA, or American Heart Association, or check with hospitals and health departments in your community.

【推荐3】Movies on TV this week

Sept. 17 Rosewater

Jon Stewart's strong directorial debut dramatizes(使戏剧化) the true story of an Iranian-born journalist who risked his life when he returned to Tehran. With Gael García Bernal. (2014) 5:45 p.m., Showtime

Sept. 18 The Debt

Helen Mirren, Ciarán Hinds, and Tom Wilkinson co-star in a thriller about Mossad agents harboring a secret about their Nazi-hunting heroics. (2010) 10:05 p.m., the Movie Channel

Sept. 19 Ocean's 11

Frank Sinatra leads his Rat Pack workmates in the film about a big theft on the Las Vegas Strip. (1960) 8 p.m., TCM

Sept. 20   Hoosiers

Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper, and a bunch of teenagers team up for an unlikely run at a state championship in a sports drama that justifies Indiana's love of basketball. (1986) 8 p.m., Epix

Sept. 21   Nighthawks

Sylvester Stallone and Billy Dee Williams are New York police officers tasked with taking out a European terrorist. (1981) 10:35 p.m., Starz Encore

Sept. 22   The Shape of Water

A voiceless cleaning lady falls in love with a merman (人鱼) held inside a government lab in the story that won 2018's Best Picture Oscar. Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon co-star. (2017) 8 p.m., HBO

Sept. 23 Far From the Madding Crowd

Julie Christie plays an heiress loved by three men in a standout adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel. (1967) 5 p.m., TCM