【推荐2】As people panicked upon empty supermarket shelves in the early days of the pandemic, there was renewed attention to farmworkers’ critical role in our society. But the labor conditions that farmworkers endure have further worsened since then, and many of these essential workers have had their lives endangered by a devastating combination of the COVID-19 and mental-health challenges.

A dairy farmworker in Vermont, who told us that his mental state was fraying, recalled spending 12 hours milking cows only to later have to dump gallons of that milk because the farm didn’t have a buyer. It’s hard to imagine the cruel reality of being forced to get rid of perfectly good milk while struggling to provide your own family with much-needed food and money due to shortened work hours throughout the pandemic. His story is heartbreaking and unthinkable but all too common.

Farmworkers have always faced trauma, anxiety and stress from their jobs. They and their families have historically struggled with substandard, overcrowded living and working conditions, exposure to harmful pesticides, risk of serious injuries, poor access to health care and poverty-level wages. According to data from the most recent National Agricultural Worker Survey, 33% of farmworkers earn incomes well below the poverty line.

And through these enduring injustices, they have also been harmed by the pandemic and left out of federal COVID-19 relief programs. Researchers have estimated that hundreds of thousands of farmers and farmworkers in the U.S. have contracted the virus and more than 10,000 have died. Efforts to organize farmworkers to fight for better conditions have been hindered by COVID-19, as it has sharply limited survivors’ access to help.

No lesson from the pandemic is clearer than that our physical and mental health are closely linked and equally important. The stressors and mental health issues farmworkers face must be considered occupational health issues. The path forward is to create programs and opportunities for workers to receive mental-health support and treatment as it relates to workplace stressors, prioritizing essential workers like farmworkers and low-wage workers.

【推荐3】If you have ever had the flu, you know just how down and out you can feel, and it is important to do what you can to lower the number of days spent sick and in bed, including taking flu medicine. If you have mild symptoms, you may not need to take flu medicine. However, the medicine is recommended for certain groups of people. These include:

●People who are in the hospital with the flu

●People who aren’t in the hospital but are very sick with the flu

●People who are at high risk because of flu complications (并发症)

The Food and Drug Administration has approved four antiviral drugs for the flu. Each flu medicine is a little bit different, but they work in mostly the same way.

●Oseltamivir is a pill or liquid given by mouth that is approved to treat the flu for people 14 days and older. This is a common flu medicine. Side effects of Oseltamivir include feeling sick, vomiting, and diarrhea.

●Xofluza is a single-dose pill or liquid given by mouth and is approved for people aged 5 years and older. Side effects of Xofluza include coughing, feeling sick, and diarrhea.

●Relenza is an inhaled (吸入的) powder that is approved to treat the flu for people aged 7 years and older. This flu medicine tends to be less common because of how it is given. Side effects of Relenza include diarrhea, and feeling sick.

●Peramivir is injected through Ⅳ needle and is approved for people aged 6 months and older. This flu medicine tends to be less common since it is given as an Ⅳ infusion, usually in the hospital. Side effects of Peramivir include diarrhea, and sleeplessness.

【推荐1】Many of us are lucky enough to have some degree of choice over what we eat. But are the decisions we make about our diet as free as we assume?

It appears we’re hugely influenced by other people — especially those closest to us — when it comes to what we eat. Research has found that the closer and stronger two people’s connection is, the more control they have over each other’s food choices. This means social signals generally encourage us to eat more. Being around healthy eaters may guide you to eat healthier as well, though. Eating habits are also affected by what we see. “There is proof that, if you see pictures of food, that visual stimulation can inspire your desire to eat,” says a UK scientist, Suzanne Higgs.

Social media is one place where visual and social signals meet. Evidence shows if friends in your social network post regularly about particular types of food, it could lead you to copy them, for better or for worse. And research indicates that social media might be changing our relationship with food, making us think differently about what we eat. “If all your friends on social media are posting pictures of themselves consuming fast food, it’s going to set a norm that eating fast food is what people do,” says Higgs.

Research suggests we’re more likely to be attracted by photos of fast food, especially some rich in saturated fat(饱和脂肪), which can make us feel good, says Ethan Pancer, a professor in Canada. Humans are biologically prepared to seek out high-calorie food — an ability that helped our ancestors survive when they searched for food.

“Healthier foods are often seen as boring in comparison, and processed food is considered ‘cool’,” a researcher from France, Tina Tessitore, adds that, “In advertising, you see unhealthy food in social settings --- people having a barbeque with friends, for example, while healthy food usually focuses more on the nutritional value. If you saw friends eating salad together, it wouldn’t seem so true.” All of the findings are bothering researchers about the effects of social media, whether good or bad.

【推荐2】Anyone who’s tried different weight-loss diets is probably familiar with their pitfalls. Low-calorie diets often leave you tired and hungry. Low-fat diets are also tough to follow and, contrary lo popular belief, they do not seem lo prevent heart disease.

Another diet trend, intermittent fasting, takes a different approach. Rather than limiting what you cat, this diet limits when you cat. It normally involves eating only during a certain time window, usually eight hours, over a single day. For example, you would eat only during the hours of 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. and then fast during the other 16 hours. For some people, thal change may be easier to manage,says Dr. Eric Rim, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Short-termism studies suggest that people stick to intermittent fasting diets as well as or better than they do to other diets. And according to a 2019 review article in the journal Nutrients, intermittent fasting promotes weight loss and may reduce risk factors linked to heart disease, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and unhealthy blood lipid levels.

“However, we are currently unsure about how well this diet works over the long term,”says Dr. Rim, noting that there are just two long-term studies of intermittent fasting,each lasting a year. Nor are there large populations of people who’ve followed this eating pattern for years. That’s in contrast to two other diets linked to a healthy heart and healthy body size—the Mediterranean diet and a vegetarian diet.

Some experts add that intermittent fasting diets typically don’t specify what foods you should eat. ”As a nutritional epidemiologist, that makes me a little uncomfortable,“ Dr. David Mushen admits. Eating burgers and French fries five days a week and a single breakfast sandwich on your low-calorie day wouldn’t be-healthy, he says. But with any diet, it’s often a good idea to ease into the changes. You could start by trying a 5:2 diet or time-resisted eating. Once you start losing weight, you can gradually introduce more healthy foods, he suggests.

【推荐2】On an ordinary fossil-hunting (化石搜寻) outing, the members of the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club might expect to find a few interesting shells (壳). But on a 2006 trip to Kawhia Harbour in New Zealand’s North Island, the students discovered the bones of a fossilized huge penguin (企鹅).

“We were expecting to find common fossils — shells, but were hugely shocked to find a huge animal skeleton (骨架) just lying on the beach,” said Mike Safey, president of the club.“Our club’s fossil expert Chris Templer realised immediately that we had discovered something hugely important. We made the decision to rescue this fossil, otherwise it would have been completely destroyed by weather.”

Researchers from Massey University used 3D scanning to compare the fossils to digitalized bones from all over the world. The penguin fossil is between 27.3 and 34.6 million years old, according to Daniel Thomas, a senior lecturer in Massey’s School of Natural andComputational Sciences. It is similar to Kairuku penguins but with longer legs. Researchers named it “Kairuku waewaeroa” for this characteristic.

Around 1.4 meters tall, this penguin was much huger compared to living penguins. We know that body size can be an important factor when thinking about ecology. How and why did penguins become huge, and why aren’t there any huge penguins left? Well-preserved fossils like Kairuku waewaeroa can help us answer these questions.

“The discovery is important for researchers, and it was also rewarding for the students who found it and encourages other young people to go out in nature and make their own discoveries. It reminds us that ancient New Zealand had many kinds of birds, and emphasizes how important New Zealand is for bird diversity today,” Thomas says.

【推荐3】The 2022 World Cup has come to an end. Let’s review some facts about the hi-tech turf (草皮) that Qatar had spent much of its energy on.

Qatar, a desert nation, had three main challenges: water, air and light. It got almost every condition going against it. The water used to irrigate (灌溉) the grass is low quality, mainly treated seawater. Because of the desert sun, Qatar’s stadiums were built for maximum shade—great for preventing heatstroke, but less ideal for photosynthesis (光合作用). Inside the nearly-closed stadiums, there’s very little air movement.

Qatar identified pitch (球场) quality as a particular issue and set up the Aspire Sport Turf Research and Development Centre to find the best types of grass for use in the harsh climate, testing 24 different varieties. Eventually, Atlas Turf’s grass was chosen as much for its appearance as its tolerance for the tough conditions Qatar faces.

The following pictures show some tech facts about the turf, which ensures a consistent and durable surface for the players in all weather conditions.