【推荐1】It was an autumn day, and I was standing in the kitchen, hanging my head over the counter and trying to figure out how many calories were in a bowl of homemade yogurt and fruit. And I felt annoyed.

I was 16, and my best friend and I had gone to our first Weight Watchers meeting. It was the trend in the mid-1980s, and even though I was an athlete, like many teen girls, I didn't necessarily like what I saw in the mirror. But after a week or so of recording every meal and snack and calculating the calories, I had had enough. I went back to my routine of chewing whatever I wanted, running and skiing, and let that be that. And it's still pretty much what I do;as long as the workouts are regular and the food is whole and balanced, my body's set point hasn't varied for years.

The weight loss trend of three decades ago—full of scales and counting calories—has fallen away. Now fasting (禁食) is popular. The ways to keep fit vary: on the 5:2 diet a person eats for five days and fasts for two days each week, while the 18:6 refers to fasting for 18 hours and then eating within a six-hour window each day.

In this issue, associate editor Mark Barna tries to understand the science behind the fasting plans. Researchers have found that animals like monkeys age more slowly after years of eating less, and in the lab in humans, they saw improvements in a number of signs that indicated the risk of some diseases hard to cure. The hope for healthy weight loss isn't over yet, but at least now the calculators don't have to be on at every meal.

【推荐2】Genetically Modified (GM) food is unfortunately becoming more popular among farmers and food processors. Crops are being genetically modified to resist insects, plant diseases, insecticides(杀虫剂). Plants are also modified to look bigger and better. Unfortunately the end goal isn’t providing nutrition for people, it’s to increase profit margins and to make food look better. In fact many modern fruits and vegetables are twice the size of what they used to be while having far less vitamins, and not tasting good either. Now research is showing that genetically modified food might even be bad for you.

GM organisms are organisms that have genes inserted into their DNA in order to offer certain characteristics. In this way you can make it better, or make it last longer.

Jeffrey M. Smith has published a study about the dangers of GM food. It was discovered that when GM soy was fed to female rats they found that all their young died within 3 weeks compared to a natural 10% death rate. Their young were also born smaller and they later had problems becoming pregnant. A study of pigs found that they also became infertile(不育) after eating GM corn.

Many people are eating GM food without even realizing it. The solution to this problem is simple. Human beings existed in their current form for hundreds of thousands of years. For most of that time we ate a diet consisting of meat, fruit, vegetable, fish, eggs and nuts. This is our optimal diet which leads us to live a healthy and long life. But over the last 30 years North America has experienced diabetes, cancer and heart disease. All due to the misinformation provided by groups who work on behalf of the manufacturers of GM food. The way to avoid obesity, heart disease and cancer is by eating like our stone-age ancestors.

【推荐3】If you really want to go green, here’s good news: eating green is good for you. The very foods with a high carbon cost — meat, pork, dairy products, processed snacks — also tend to be filled with fat and calories. A green diet would be mostly vegetables and fruits, whole grains, fish and lean meats like chicken — a diet that’s eco- and waistline-friendly. Eating green can be healthier and beneficial to the climate.

It may be hard to believe that a meal at McDonald’s produces more carbon than your trip to a far away place. More than 37% of the world’s land is used for agriculture, much of which was once forested. Deforestation (砍伐森林) is a major source of carbon. The fertilizer (化肥) and machinery needed on a modern farm also have a large carbon footprint, as does the network of ships and trucks that brings the food from the farm to your plate.

The most efficient way to reduce the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef. Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent (相等的) amount of grains, fruits or vegetables. What’s more, the majority of cattle in the U.S. are fed on grain and loads of it — 670 million tons in 2002 — and the fertilizer used to feed that creates separate environmental problems.

Focus on eating lower on the food chain, with more plants and fruits and less meat and dairy. It’s simple. We can change today what goes into our bodies for the health of our planet and ourselves.

【推荐1】Art researchers have found a hidden painting of a man under one of Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces, The Blue Room. By using infrared (红外线的) imagery they discovered that the hidden man under the painting was a man with his face resting on his hand. Now the question that scientists at The Phillips Col-lection hope to answer is simple.Who is he?

The finding of the hidden man in The Blue Room leads to new research about the 1901 painting, which was created by Picasso in Paris at the start of his blue period of unhappiness. Researchers discovered that the hidden man was painted in a reworked composition by Picasso. They are sure that it is not a self-portrait. They think it might be the Paris art dealer Ambrose Villard who hosted Picasso’s first show in 1901, but there’s no record or evidence to prove this, so the research continues.

Hidden pictures have been found under other important Picasso paintings, such as La Vie and Woman Ironing. A technical analysis of La Vie at the Cleveland Museum of Art also found that Picasso reworked the painting’s composition. And scientists found a portrait of a man under Picasso’s painting Woman Ironing at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan.

Dorothy Kosinski,director of The Phillips Collection,said more new knowledge about Picasso’s paintings can be discovered through high-tech cooperation among museums. “Our audiences are curious about the high-tech research because it can help them know more about the paintings. It’s giving them a doorway to make them understand Picasso’s paintings more,” she said. “The more we can understand, the greater our appreciation of the paintings will be.”

【推荐2】A new concept vehicle, Pod was introduced by Toyota and Sony at the Tokyo motor show. The car is intended as a four-wheeled friend. It aims to provide affection, sympathy and encouragement. Like a dog welcoming its master, the car sits up, wags its tail and acknowledges its owner’s presence using hydraulics(液压装置) and a multi-coloured LED display panel(引擎) across the front.

While on the road, the car constantly monitors the driver’s mood with pulse and sweat sensors on the joystick(操纵杆). Cameras focused on the eyes keep watch for any sigh of drowsiness. If a driver appears to be losing his or her cool, Pod will display warnings, play soft music and blow cold air at the face. Drivers are shaken awake with loud music and a shaking chair.

To improve driving skills, Pod uses a comparison to score drivers, offer advice and rank all Pod owners. Toyota claims that the car will eventually be able to learn its owner’s likes and dislikes by monitoring passenger conversations. If the car hears a favorite song being discussed, it will download the track from the Internet and play it without being asked. It will also recommend restaurants that might suit the driver’s taste and take photographs of passengers when they sound particularly happy.

In keeping with the moodiness that is the car’s main selling point, Pod expresses a form of road anger. If a driver brakes or swerves(急转弯) suddenly, the LED panel shows an angry red and the tail rises at the back.

Anger is one of the car’s ten “emotional states”. Another is sadness — a blue front with tear-shaped lights seemingly dropping from headlights — which appears after a flat tire or when gas is low.

“We wanted to show that the cars can be cheerful and entertaining,” said Yasunori Sakamoto, part of the Toyota design team. Mr Sakamoto said Toyota has no plans to put Pod on the market. Sad, really.