【推荐1】Breathing dirty air can cost someone’s lifespan (寿命) months—even years, a new study finds. Worldwide, air pollution lowers average lifespans by a year. Scientists shared their new findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

Air pollution (污染) has been linked to many health problems. Most earlier studies have looked at how tiny air pollutants affected rates of illness or death. But now an environmental scientist, Joshua Apte, is going even further. He works at the University of Texas, Austin. He together with his team is looking at life expectancy, hoping to make the threat easier to understand.

PM 2.5 is what scientists call tiny particles of pollution in the air. Higher levels of PM2.5 can cause health problems and cut months, if not years, from the average lifespan. This analysis shows pollution affects life expectancy in different parts of the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting PM 2.5 to 10 micrograms (微克) per cubic (立方) meter of air. Apte’s group used data to try to find how this low level would help people. But meeting the WHO standard won’t get rid of health damage from dirty air. That’s because even below 10 micrograms per cubic meter pollution still causes huge risks.

Reducing air pollution could increase life expectancy. The scientists also compared how other threats shorten life spans across the globe. These risk factors included smoking and cancer.

These results show that in poor countries, cleaning up dirty air could greatly increase lifespans. It could have as big an effect as cleaning up drinking water, or curing lung cancer. However, in wealthier countries air pollution shortens life expectancy by less than half a year. All forms of cancer, in fact, shorten the average life expectancy by more than 3.5 years. “Knowing this can really help people or policymakers, decide where to spend their money.” says Kirk Smith.

【推荐2】Politicians and officials across the world — at local, regional (区域性的) and national level — have been coming up with new ideas to reduce air pollution. More recently, some have pointed the finger at countryside “contributions” to air pollution in the developing world, especially in India and China. During Diwali celebrations at the end of October last year, New Delhi’s pollution level was off the charts, cementing (巩固) the Indian capital’s status as the world’s most polluted large city and causing a nationwide debate on India’s killing smog (雾霾).

Official data from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee showed dangerous levels of smog, with concentrations (浓度) of both PM2.5 and PM10 hitting levels more than 30 times the World Health Organization’s recommended 24 hour average limit. Over the last few years India has held many conferences and workshops to find a solution to the smog. A regional approach is the most common suggestion to have appeared from these conferences, but the situation on the ground has not changed. In fact, it is getting worse with each passing year.

India has more than 100 coal-based power factories with old technology, with burning of crop remains adding to the emissions (排放物). And New Delhi’s grievous pollution is the result of a harmful mixture of emissions from vehicles and coal-fired power factories, fumes (烟) from cooking stoves and crop-burning in neighboring provinces. In Beijing, where air pollution is being treated as a health emergency, the government can order cars off the road and shut down schools and industries if particulates (微粒) threaten to rise to the highest WHO level — New Delhi’s level of pollution is unimaginable in Beijing.

North China, which battles smog in the winter, also has the problem of crop burning. Some local governments in China are punishing farmers who burn their crop remains and thus contributes to the air pollution in nearby cities. The problem is, farmers often burn crop remains as it is the only way to treat remains, and they have to burn coals to keep warm during the freezing winter in North China because they lack other means of heating.

Some will say this reflects elements of unbalanced economic development and the unfairness between countryside and urban areas is at the heart of the issue. Many people ask what options farmers have to keep themselves warm in the winter except by burning crop remains. Ideally, they should be provided with alternative energy sources, solar power or natural gas for example, to keep their homes warm in the freezing winter.

This can be achieved by China without much difficulty, because the country leads the world in investment in renewable energy. The plan, however, needs to be targeted at countryside farmers if we want them to stop adding to the air pollution of cities. Such a development is something I look forward to during my visits to China.

【推荐3】Composite image of Europe and North Africa at night, 2016. Credit： NASA Earth NPP Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi VIIRS data from Miguel Roman, is oftenNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Artificial light seen as a sign of progress: the march of civilization shines a light in the dark； it takes back the night； it illuminates. But a chorus of scientists and advocates argues that unnaturally bright nights are bad not just for astronomers but also for nocturnal (夜间活动的)animals and even for human health.

Now research shows the night is getting even brighter. From 2012 to 2016 the earth's artificially lit area expanded by an estimated 2. 2 percent a year (map), according to a study published last November in Science Advances. Even that increase may understate the problem, however. The measurement excludes light from most of the energy-efficient LED lamps that have been replacing sodium-vapor technology in cities all over the world, says lead study author Christopher Kyba, a postdoctoral researcher at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam.

The new data came from a NASA satellite instrument called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). It can measure long-wavelengths of light, such as those produced by traditional yellow-and-orange sodium-vapor street lamps. But VIIRS cannot see the shortwavelength blue light produced by white LEDs. This light has been shown to disrupt human sleep cycles and nocturnal animals^, behavior.

Credit: Mapping Specialists ； Source: Artificially Lit Surface of Earth at Night Increasing in Radiance and Extent," by Christopher C. M. Kyba et al. , in Science Advances, Vol. 3, No. 11, Article No. E1701528 ； November 22, 2017.

The team believes the ongoing switch to LEDs caused already bright countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U. S. to register as having stable levels of illumination in the VIIRS data. In contrast, most nations in South America, Africa and Asia brightened, suggesting increases in the use of traditional lighting. Australia actually appeared to lose lit area一but the researchers say that is because wildfires skewed the data.

"The fact that VIIRS finds an increase (in many countries) , despite its blindness in the part of the spectrum that increased more, is very sad," says FabioFalchi, a researcher at Italy's Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute, who did not participate in the study. In 2016 Falchi, along with Kyba and several other members of his research team, published a global atlas of artificial lighting that showed one third of the world's population currently lives under skies too bright to see the Milky Way at night.

The data also cast doubt on the idea that the LED lighting revolution will lead to energy cost savings. Between 2012 and 2016 the median nation pumped out 15 percent more long- wavelength light as its GDP increased by 13 percent. And overall, countries^, total light production correlated with their GDP. In other words, Kyba says, "we buy as much light as we are willing to spend money on."

【推荐1】As scientists around the world race to find a treatment for the coronavirus, a young girl among them stands out.

Anika Chebrolu, a 14­year­old from Frisco, Texas, has just won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge ­­ and a $25,000 prize ­­ for a discovery that could provide a potential therapy to Covid­19 (or SARS­CoV­2 virus).

Anika's winning invention uses in­silico methodology to discover a lead molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of the SARS­CoV­2 virus.

"The last two days, I saw that there is a lot of media hype about my project since it involves the SARS­CoV­2 virus and it reflects our collective hopes to end this pandemic as I, like everyone else, wish that we go back to our normal lives soon," Anika told CNN.

The coronavirus has killed more than 1.1 million people globally since China reported its first case to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December. The United States has more than 219,000 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Anika, who is Indian American, submitted her project when she was in 8th grade ­­ but it wasn't always going to be focused on finding a cure for Covid­19. Initially, her goal was to use in­silico methods to identify a lead compound that could bind to a protein of the influenza virus.

"After spending so much time researching about pandemics, viruses and drug discovery, it was crazy to think that I was actually living through something like this," Anika said.

"Because of the immense severity of the Covid­19 pandemic and the drastic impact it had made on the world in such a short time, I, with the help of my mentor, changed directions to target the SARS­CoV­2 virus." Anika said she was inspired to find potential cures to viruses after learning about the 1918 flu pandemic and finding out how many people die every year in the United States despite annual vaccinations and anti­influenza drugs on the market.

【推荐1】A British hospital director told me he was hunting for staff to replace the foreign doctors and nurses leaving because of Brexit(脱欧). He hadn’t found many qualified Britons queuing to replace them.

In an age when the “war for talent” is a global business trend, the UK is fighting a war against talent. But if I were a Brexiter, I’d say: Brexit Should be the prompt for Britain to finally start training enough of its own talent. If UK wants to avoid economic decline, it will need to train far more of its own nurses, construction workers, architects, etc. For a country whose policy has always been not to educate the working class, that would be a reversal of history.

Before Brexit, high-skilled immigrants staffed world-class British sectors such as the City of London and the creative economy. In healthcare, the UK developed a brilliant way: let a poor country like Romania fund a nurse’s education, then underpay her to look after sick Brits. Low-skilled immigrants eager to work all hours for little money gave the UK cafes and corner shops that seldom closed. Low-skilled Britons could have done these jobs, but mostly didn’t.

The coming wave of British talent is largely immigrant too: the kids who have made London’s state schools the UK’s best, plus the offspring of Russian, Chinese and other foreign elites(精英)who fill private schools. Many of these would love to stay and make the UK richer.

But Brexiters want to cut immigration. The obvious solution: equip working-class Brits to do jobs from nursing to banking. Jonathan Portes, economics professor at King’s College London said: “The problem of UK vocational education has been known for at least a century. We’ve always neglected it.” In fact, in August the UK removed the state bursary(助学金)for people training to be nurses, midwives and speech therapists. Students now have to fund courses themselves, then earn a low salary for a lifetime.

If Britain doesn’t upskill its workers fast, it will lose skilled jobs. It will continue to have the world’s best universities per capita only if it can find enough Britons to replace foreign academics who leave the UK. Much the same applies to finance or design. Meanwhile, low-skilled foreign fruit pickers have already melted away since the pound plunged. With few Britons queuing to replace them, much of this year’s produce rotted in the fields. So the likely post-Brexit outcome is a UK that cannot keep itself in the style to which it has become accustomed. The war against talent will probably leave Britain looking a bit more like today’s English seaside towns, or most of the country in the 1970s: culturally homogeneous(同种类的), relatively poor and under-serviced.

【推荐2】Most people have been taught that losing weight is a matter of simple math. Cut calories—specifically 3,500 calories, and you’ll lose a pound. But as it turns out, experts are learning that this decades-old strategy is actually pretty misguided. “This idea of ‘a calorie in and a calorie out’ when it comes to weight loss is not only outdated, it’s just wrong,” says Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity specialist at Harvard Medical School. The truth is that even careful calorie calculations don’t always yield(产生) uniform results.

How your body burns calories depends on a number of factors. Three factors affect how your body processes calories.

Your gut microbiome (肠道微生物). Trillions of organisms live in your gut, and the important types may influence how many calories your body absorbs from food. This may occur because some types of organisms are able to break down and use more calories from certain foods than other types of organisms. Researchers have found that people who are naturally thin have different types of organisms living inside them than those who are overweight.

Your metabolism (新陈代谢). Each body has a “set point” that governs weight, says Dr. Stanford. This set point reflects several factors, including your genes, your environment, and your behaviors. A region at the base of your brain stands guard to keep your body weight from dipping below that set point—which is not really a bonus if you’re trying to lose weight.

The type of food you eat. Your food choices may also influence your calorie intake, and not just because of their specific calorie content. One 2019 study published in Cell Metabolism found that eating processed foods seems to spur people to eat more calories compared with eating unprocessed foods.

If counting calories isn’t a dependable way to manage your weight, what can you do to shed extra pounds? Dr.

Stanford recommends the following.

Focus on diet quality. When planning your meals, focus on choosing unprocessed foods, including lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruits and vegetables in their natural form.

Exercise regularly. Aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. Moderate exercise is done at a level where you can talk, but not sing.

Consult a professional. “A lot of people believe it’s a moral failing if they are unable to lose weight,” says Dr. Stanford. But it’s not. As with other medical conditions, many people will need help from a doctor. Successful weight loss may require more than just diet and exercise. “Only 2% of people who meet the criteria for the use of anti-obesity medications actually get them. This means that 98% of people who could be treated aren’t,” she says, “Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it.”

【推荐3】Albert Einstein was probably the most famous scientist of the twentieth century. He changed scientific thinking in the modern world. He is generally considered as the greatest physicist who ever lived. What’s more, he devoted a lot of his time and energy to working for human rights and progress.

In 1933, while Einstein was visiting England and the United States, the Nazi government of Germany took all his things away, including his position and his citizenship. Einstein then settled down in the United States. In 1934, Einstein, who loved peace — afraid of a world in which only Hitler would have an atomic bomb (原子弹) — tried hard to persuade President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a famous letter to have the United States start uranium (铀) research. That Germany, after all, had no bomb, and that the first bomb would fall on Japan, could not have been expected. After the war, Einstein never stopped working for peace and reducing the number of soldiers in the world.

Although he wasn’t connected with any accepted religion (宗教), Einstein felt that trusting in a personal God was too special an idea to be suitable to the God at work in this universe, but he never believed that the universe was one of chance or disorder. The universe to him was one of pure law and order. He once said, "God may know everything, but he is not hateful."

【推荐1】The Good Gym was created by Ivo Gormley, 29, who discovered that combining a weekly run with a visit to a housebound（足不出户的）friend of the family was just the inspiration he needed to keep him exercising. It helped that his elderly friend was a former boxer who could offer training tips. As Gormley did his suggested sit-ups, he thought about this: how few people have the time or energy to volunteer and yet use gyms to burn off energy, and how little dialogue there is between working people and the elderly.

Through working with charities and local community centers, the Good Gym matches runners with an individual（个人的）coach 一 a housebound elderly person who would like a regular visitor. They are encouraged to take a newspaper or a modest gift to the value of £1.

Cawley, 38, a hairdresser, heard about the Good Gym through Twitter. "It seemed such a great idea," she said. It took four months for her to be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau・ Then she got Mulcahy to run to, based on the distance she requested.

Having a break in her running works well from a training point of view: she does a speed run to Mulcahy's house, rests there, then does a more gentle, warm-down jog on the way home. Cawley is from Stockport and has no grandparents in London, so she enjoys chatting to her elderly coach. While the Good Gym advises runners to stay for about 10 minutes, Cawley sometimes chats to Mulcahy for an hour. Although he has family, and regular visits from professional carers, Cawley thinks he enjoys a visit from someone who does not worry like relatives and is not there out of professional duty. She didn't really know what he thought of "this person turning up and chatting to him” until she told him she was going away on holiday. He said, "I'll really miss you."

【推荐2】The 1953 painting"Goyita"by Rafael features his mother with a red scarf on her head,a determined look on her face,and heavy expression lines,a portrait(画像）of a working-class woman that broke from traditional ones of the time that focused largely on wealthy men.

“Goyita"is one of more than 350 paintings from Puerto Rico that Google Arts&Culture digitized(数字化）for the first time with help from"Hamilton"creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who started the online exhibition that features works from four Puerto Rican art institutions.

The aim is to expose the world to Puerto Rican art,preserve it,and help museums in the U.S.that are struggling to exhibit paintings because of limited space and budget cuts.

Puerto Rico's artwork joins Google's current online exhibitions and stories from around the world.As part of the project,Google brought its so-called"art camera"for the first time to Puerto Rico.The camera has an extremely high resolution(分辨率）thanks to a 400 millimeter zoom(镜头）that uncovers details invisible to the human eye,including brush strokes(笔法）。It also allowed those at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to find the signature of a pioneering female artist.

The camera took thousands of pictures to digitize 48 pieces of Puerto Rican art as it went inches by inches to cover an entire painting,a job that took 30 minutes to several hours depending on the size of the artwork,said Simon Delacroix,U.S.lead for Google Arts&Culture.

As Mr.Delacroix showed the power of the zoom on a painting called"El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz",a collective"Wow"escaped from the audience attending the project at the Museum of Puerto Rico.The crowd could appreciate details in the background including someone that appears to be laughing from a balcony.

Google Arts&Culture already allows users to explore more than 2,000 museums and historic sites including Nelson Mandela 's prison cell.In total,it offers more than 6 million photos,videos,and other documents.

【推荐3】A few hours after my first mission, returning to Earth on the space shuttle Endeavour, I completed all of my medical tests after flight, met with NASA officials, and reunited with my family. Finally, I was alone in my office room in astronaut crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center, exhausted and ready for bed. And I did what anyone does when they return to their hotel room on a business trip: I turned on the TV. The television news started up: Such and such had happened, people were shocked, blah blah blah. Sports scores. Silly commercials.

It didn’t take more than a minute before I had to turn it off. It felt like my body was rejecting all this input, just as it would reject an organ donation that had the wrong blood type. All of this noise was just completely foreign to who I was—or, more appropriately, who I had become. A few hours before, I had been orbiting Earth, seeing our planet from space, flying the most amazing machine ever built by human hands, working with a team that was the absolute success of human. And now here in my room watching what was being sold as news, and with my newfound perspective, I just could not stomach it. My worldview was changed forever in a profound (深刻的) way.

The biggest change by far and the one for which I will always be most grateful is this big-picture perspective. That will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Whenever I feel the pressure of modern life, the stress about work, or worry about the future, I remember my time in the space station. Back to seeing the sun set Or watching our galaxy rise on the horizon. Or seeing a sea of lightning flash a hundred times a second. Or simply back to floating weightlessly.

When I’m there in my mind and realize how many billions of these beautiful sunsets there have been and will be in the future, the cares of the world just don’t seem that pressing. It goes that, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Living daily life down here on the planet is so much better with this attitude!