【推荐1】A teen had a 265-pound gift for his teacher if he could overcome his stage fright enough to pull it off. He succeeded — and the gift really brought home the bacon.

A shy 15-year-old boy was heartbroken to hear that his favorite teacher was retiring (退休). Kim — or “Miss K” as he called her — was stepping down from her position as an educator so she could devote her time to Beat Nb: a charity that raises money for medical research.

To help Miss K, Waylon decided to take the pig he'd raised and auction (拍卖) it off at the county fair and donate (捐赠) all the money — but after several people heard about his unselfishness, the auction took a very unexpected turn.

The boy had emailed his situation to several companies who would be buying — hoping they would bid (出价) higher than the usual price of $3-to-4 per pound. His plan worked. When the bidding kicked off, the price jumped to $11, but then one of the bidders, Dan, had an idea and struck a deal with his competition. He won the bidding on the pig, then he donated it back to be auctioned again. The second winner bought it for $10 a pound, but then he gave it back, too.

Finally，a third competitor, Dave Moll, was free to buy — then, he, too, unexpectedly donated the pig back — for a third time. Dave Moll, who is Waylon's father's employer, said, “I hadn't planned to spend that much money or give the pig back. But that's what the people ahead of me did, and I felt like it was the right thing to do, so I did.”

The pig was finally bought and sold a fourth time for $5.50 per pound，meaning that Waylon managed to raise $10, 070 for his teacher's charity. “I did not see that happening,” Waylon said. “Usually, they just sell it once! My dream got bigger and bigger every time they said, ‘Give it back.’”

“I'm so proud of him,” Miss K said. “He doesn't know the influence that he is having. Someday he will.”

【推荐2】Nowadays most people spend four hours every day staring at the television! With adults spending so much time on it, little wonder that kids too spend more time in front of the television than outdoors.

With families becoming more and more nuclear, most mothers start off by using the television as a “babysitter”.     1     However, most parents would rethink their strategy if they are aware of the side effects of over exposure to the television.

Children watch on an average around 28 hours of television per week.     2     By the age of eight, aggression becomes so rooted in a child that it predicts adult aggression. Besides, it has been found that children who spend a lot of time in front of the television do poorly in school.       3     Consequently their social development will be affected.     4     So it’s almost impossible to completely ban it from our children’s life. However, as parents we could:

• Get children interested in sports.

• Encourage children to cultivate the reading habit.

• Set a good example by limiting our own television viewing.

• Help children develop other hobbies such as building models and drawing.

• Choose the programs our children will watch, and stick to the schedule.

Television eats up the time our children are not studying or sleeping. All those things we want them to be: a wild teenager, a scholar, a lover——when are they going to do all that?     5     Help them get a life——a real one!

【推荐1】Chinese scientists have created a breakthrough fibre that can be woven into warm, lightweight clothing using aerogel, a thermal insulation (热绝缘) material mainly used in the aerospace industry.

Aerogel, notable for their performance and durability, could have various applications. As the world’s lightest solid material, it has long been valued for its thermal insulation properties. Traditional aerogel, made by replacing the liquid in aerogel with air, is extraordinarily light, resembling a solid cloud of smoke. Its high porosity (多孔性) gives it exceptional heat resistance, but this also makes it fragile and challenging to process, limiting its use in civilian applications.

But now, researchers at Zhejiang University have overcome aerogel’s fragility and designed an encapsulated aerogel fibre ( EAF) with similar thermal insulation mechanisms-after being inspired by the structure of polar bear hair.

The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation as well as Nasa have used EAF in Mars rovers, which endure extreme temperatures ranging from thousands of degrees during the Martian landing to -130 degrees Celsius (-202 degrees Fahrenheit) on the planet’s surface.

In an experiment, a volunteer wore textiles (纺织品) made of EAF, down, wool, and cotton in a-20 degree Celsius environment. The surface temperatures of these materials were 3.5 degrees, 3.8 degrees, 7.2 degrees, and 10.8 degrees respectively, indicating the superior insulation of EAF. They showed the practicality of EAF by weaving a jumper and comparing its thermal insulation to common textile materials.

As well as being strong and stretchable, EAF can also be washed and dyed, improving its use in practical applications. Traditional silica aerogel will absorb water and collapse on itself. As a result, it quickly loses its thermal insulation qualities in wet or humid environments. However, EAF maintains its performance even after machine washing.

Professor Zhang Xuetong of the Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlighted the potential of the aerogel fibres in advanced thermal textiles. As well as its potential for civilian use, EAF fibre also holds promise for industries that are already familiar with aerogels. “EAF textiles feature excellent thermal insulation and multifunction and have great potential in areas such as military uniforms and spacesuits in extremely cold environments,” professor Zhang noted in a paper. However, he also noted the gap between existing technology and capacity for mass production. Challenges exist regarding how to develop fast spinning technology and resolve the continuous fabrication that is necessary for mass production.

【推荐3】Scientists have created an "artificial leaf" to fight climate change by inexpensively changing harmful carbon dioxide into a useful alternative fuel. The new technology was inspired by the way plants use energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into food.

Scientists call it an artificial leaf because it mimics real leaves and the process of photosynthesis(光合作用). A leaf produces glucose(葡萄糖) and oxygen. Scientists use an artificial leaf to produce methanol(甲醇) and oxygen. Making methanol from carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to global warming, would both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a substitute for the fossil fuels.

The key to the process is a cheap, fully used red powder called cuprous oxide. Engineered to have as many eight-sided particles as possible, the powder is created by a chemical reaction when four substances are added to water that has been heated to a particular temperature. The powder then serves as the catalyst(催化剂), or trigger, for another chemical reaction when it is mixed with water into which carbon dioxide is blown and a beam of white light is directed with a solar simulator(模拟器). "This is the chemical reaction that we discovered," said Wu, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, has worked on the project since 2015. He added, " Nobody has done this before." The reaction produces oxygen, as                                        in photosynthesis, while also changing carbon dioxide in the water-powder solution into methanol. The methanol is collected as it evaporates when the solution is heated.

Next steps in the research include increasing the methanol yield and commercializing the patented process to convert carbon dioxide collected from major greenhouse gas sources such as power plants, vehicles and oil drilling. "I'm extremely excited about the potential of this discovery to change the game," said Wu, "Climate change is an urgent problem and we can help reduce CO₂ emissions while also creating an alternative fuel."

【推荐1】Origami (折纸工艺) is now pushing the limits of what scientists think is possible, particularly at the tiniest of scales.

I know Miskin, an electrical engineer at University of Pennsylvania. He and his students have been using a clean room to make an army of robots no bigger than dust. Such tiny robots require big creativity. That’s where origami comes in. Fold patterns will bend and move the same way at any size, at least theoretically. Created by using the same techniques as the computer chip industry, Miskin’s robots look like pieces of fat with arms and legs. When the robots are exposed to electricity, their arms and legs bend easily, helping them walk through a drop on a glass slide.

Miskin sees a world of possible ways these tiny robots can be used, from industry, tourism, service to other fields. Indeed, the art form, origami, holds particular promise for many fields. For example, Rus, an AI engineer developed a robot that can fold to fit into a pill capsule. After the capsule is swallowed, the robot unfolds and can be directed around the digestive system using programmable magnetic fields. An initial test demonstrated one possible use: removing the swallowed button batteries from the stomach, a potentially deadly condition experienced by thousands of children each year. “Just imagine using it to repair a wound,” Rus says. “We’ll see a future of surgeries with no pain and no risk of infection.”

These types of big dreams are where origami seems to help science flourish most. Origami has provided d new tool to fire the imagination and create technologies once thought impossible, including a boat that folds down to be small enough to fit in a car’s trunk.

On a bright fall afternoon, I took my boat for a spin on Virginia’s Lake Accotink. The plastic suitcase drew curious looks from passers-by as I unfolded it. Perhaps one day, folding forms will be considered prosaic. But for now, origami will continue to spark wonder and excitement as it pushes science, medicine and technology into the future and keeps me afloat as I leave the lakeshore.

【推荐2】Shizo Kanakuri, known as the “father of the Japanese marathon”, was one of only two Japanese athletes to compete in the 1912 Stockholn Olympics. The media gave little attention and the government did not cover athletes’ travel costs. As a result, Kanakuri’s fellow college students organized a nationwide fundraiser (资金筹集活动) to collect money.

The trip to Sweden took 18 days, first by ship and then by the Trans-Siberian Railway. At stations, whenever the train stopped, Kanakuri would jump for a quick workout before hurriedly getting on the train again. The difficult journey had taken its toll, and when he finally arrived in Sweden, he discovered that the local food didn’t agree with his stomach. To make matters worse, Kanakuri’s coach had to stay in bed due to a serious disease which prevented him from giving two athletes, including Kanakuri, enough pre-race training.

On the day of the race, the heat was scorching (灼热的). One Portuguese runner was hospitalized and died the next day, the first reported death during the Olympics. About halfway into the race, suffering from the heat, Kanakuri stopped at a house and asked the locals for a glass of water. After drinking, Kanakuri lay down and against his better judgment fell asleep. When he woke up, it was the next morning.

Kanakuri wrote in his journal the next day, “It’s the morning after my defeat. My heart is aching with regret for the rest of my life. I was a weak quitter.” Kanakuri did not tell the race officials, and quietly returned to Japan, thus many people thought he “disappeared” in the middle of the race.

Once back in his country, Kanakuri renewed training and determined to race again in the future. In 1967, Kanakuri returned to Stockholm and finished the race. When he finally crossed the finish line, his time was announced as 54 years 8 months 6 days 5 hours 32 minutes 20.3 seconds. Kanakuri joked, “It was a long trip. Along the way, I got married, had six children and 10 grandchildren.”