【推荐1】Speaking in an interview, Naveen Jain, founder of a space exploration company called Moon Express, said that he believes moon travel is just a decade away. And his company, which is the first private firm to get approval from the U.S. government to carry out the project of moon travel, wants to play a role in helping people get to the moon surface.

''I believe in the next ten years, there is going to be gentlemen on their knees asking their sweethearts, honey, will you go to the moon with me for honey moon?'' Jain said in the interview.

Many people in the technology and scientific communities are crazy about space exploration. Space presents an unprecedented(史无前例的)number of chances for scientific and human advancement. Companies, big and small, are determining how they can create technologies that would allow people to explore space, the moon, and even Mars. Other companies are eyeing ways to play a role in space travel.

The key of that gold rush has been the declining cost of actually getting to space. Jain said that while it once cost billions of dollars to go to the moon, his company's unmanned space flight next year will cost just 7 million. As costs continue to decline(减少),he believes that within the next decade, getting to the moon will cost just $10,000.Better yet, it'll take just four hours to get there.

Still, Mars is the final prize. And even Jain, whose company will focus on moon travel, said that ''Mars is certainly the right place to be finally. '' When asked if he'd like to stage space fights to Mars, Jain said ''of course'', adding that he believes Moon Express could partner with Elon Musk's SpaceX to make that happen.

''Elon will build the rocket and we do the travelers,'' Jain said of a theoretical partnership. ''Generally, he lays the cables and we do the last mile.''

SpaceX and Musk have not said whether they would work alongside Jain and Moon Express. Either way, it looks like hopping from the moon to Mars (and back) might be just a part of our lives.

【推荐2】Every day, people come into contact with thousands of chemicals. These chemicals are said to be harmless to human health. In fact，the chemicals are considered so safe that we wash with them. We put them on our bodies and even our faces. Other chemical products are used throughout our homes.

By the time you walk out of your front door, you have already been exposed to thousands of chemicals.

On its own, each chemical seems harmless. But in combination with other chemicals, they may become deadly. That is the finding of a two-year study by a high-profile task force of scientists. The task force was told to investigate the cancer-causing possibility of chemical mixtures.

Linda Gulliver was one of 174 scientists on the task force. Their job was to study the cancer-causing potential of 85 chemicals. All 85 are said to be common in the environment.

Ms. Gulliver explains that chemicals have the potential or y to form dangerous mixtures. Even simple minerals can become dangerous when mixed with chemicals found in plastics or beauty products.

Working in groups, the scientists explored how different chemical mixtures could lead to cancer. Ms. Gulliver’s team looked at the ability of different combinations to support the in- crease of malignant (恶性的) human cells.

She says the current way to identify whether chemicals cause cancer is to test them one at a time. This method leads, she adds, to a long list of supposedly “safe” chemicals. She and her team say that approach needs to change.

“We definitely need certain research… to find out what mixtures of chemicals would be more harmful than others; what groups of chemicals, when together, would produce more harmful effects. And at the moment, that is not known.”

An estimated one in five cancers has been linked to chemical exposure. It may turn out that the cancer-causing villain (恶棍) is not a single chemical at all.

【推荐3】Known as GC-1, the drug reportedly speeds up metabolism（新陈代谢）, or burning off, of fat cells. “GC-1 dramatically increases the metabolic rate, essentially transforming white fat, which stores extra calories and is associated with obesity and metabolic disease, into a fat like calorie-burning brown fat,” said Kevin Phillips, a researcher in Houston.

Until several years ago, scientists thought that only animals and human babies have energy-burning, "good" brown fat. “It is now clear,” Phillips said, “that human adults do have brown fat, but appear to lose its calorie-burning activity over time.” White fat has a bad effect on people when the body has too much of it. Some published research shows that people who have more brown fat have a reduced risk of obesity. Researchers are now working on ways to “brown” white fat, or change it into brown fat.

GC-1 works, according to Phillips. He said he and other researchers have tested the drug in hundreds of mice. Obese mice, both genetically obese and those with diet-induced obesity, received GC-1 treatment daily. Genetically obese mice lost weight and more than 50 percent of their fat mass in approximately two weeks, Phillips reported. He said mice with diet-induced obesity experienced similar improvements. The drug also caused adaptive thermogenes（适应性发热）in fat cells from mice. Cells grown in a dish, as well as tissue samples taken from obese mice, showed evidence of white-fat browning. “Our data prove that GC-1 is a novel fat-browning agent that may have use in the treatment of obesity and metabolic disease,”Phillips said.

The drug has not yet been tested for weight loss in humans. However, Phillips said it wouldn’t be long before it was used as a way of losing weight.