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People now keep flat-faced dogs such as French bulldogs as pets because they are cute. Some people call these dogs “lazy” because they get sleepier more easily than other dogs during the day. However, these cute dogs are having a hard tıme, according to a recent study.

Scientists at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary watched 92 family dogs of different types while they were sleeping.

During the study, the dogs spent about three hours with their owners in the sleep lab. With nothing special to do, the dogs soon fell asleep. At that time, the scientists recorded the dogs’ brain activities by an electroencephalogram (EEG, 脑电图), which doesn’t hurt the dogs.

The study found that the flat-faced dogs slept more than the other kinds. This may be because they don’t get enough sleep at night. The scientists explained that this is due to sleep apnea (睡眠呼吸暂停症), which only happens in French bulldogs.

During their sleep, they can’t get enough air and may find it difficult to breathe, which makes them constantly wake up.

Some French bulldogs may sleep while holding a toy ball in their mouths. Owners may think this is funny. But they’re actually doing it to keep their airways (呼吸道) open so they can breathe more easily.

This, however, is only one of the health problems dogs have because of breeding (培育). According to the website Pet Helpful, a lot of pet dogs are bred based on what people like, such as shorter legs, heavier bodies, and larger ears. Bulldogs are one of the victims.

Lots of pet lovers are calling for people to respect dogs as they are. Breeders must take the health of their dogs seriously instead of just for cuteness, Australian vet Karen Hedberg told ABC News.

【推荐2】Most people will tell you that they can’t work without a cup of coffee in the morning. Research has shown that a cup of coffee does give a person slight excitement.

Legend said that Kaldi, an Ethiopian, found his goats happier while enjoying coffee plants. Curiously, he tasted the leaves and began to dance around. Whether the Legend was true or not, the discovery of coffee dates back to 800A. D. Soon Arabians were roasting coffee beans. Muslims were drinking coffee to stay awake by 1000 A.D. A merchant from Venice introduced coffee to Europe in 1615. By 1696, the Dutch started growing the coffee bush in Java. By 1723, coffee plants were introduced to the Americans. Today, coffee is the most popular drink in the world.

Caffeine is the major chemical in coffee. It blocks(阻止) adenosine, a chemical that makes you sleepy. People can get a pick-me-up or stimulation(刺激) from the drink. The stimulation does not last long. Caffeine poisoning can occur if more than 400 milligrams of caffeine is drunk in a short period, which is about four to five cups of coffee. Caffeine will also cause sleep difficulty, so it should not be drunk before bed.

Caffeine has many advantages. Studies have shown that it helps improve some skills in elderly women. Women who drank three cups of coffee daily scored higher on memory tests than women who drank one cup of coffee. According to newser.com, one cup of coffee a day protects the brain. Coffee also can help people keep away from many diseases according to webmd.com.

Large amounts of coffee can cause nervousness, worries and a fast heartbeat. However, if you mix coffee with milk, it’s fine. Caffeine can be addictive like any drug. The more you drink, the more you depend on it. For some people, just one cup of coffee a day is OK.

【推荐3】Some people may sneeze (打喷嚏) after touching a cute dog. Others may find it hard to breathe after eating a certain food. Why does this happen? That’s because they have allergies (过敏).

When a person is allergic to something, his or her immune system (免疫系统) mistakenly believes that this thing is harming the body. Some allergies may cause uncomfortable eyes or sneezing. Others may even make people stop breathing.

But why do people have allergies?

It can be because of their genes (基因), which control what they look like, how they grow and how they develop.

You may be at risk of developing allergies yourself at some point in your life if one of your parents has eczema (湿疹) or food allergies, and they may develop in a certain order, Ogden told Gizmodo, a US technology and science website. A person may first have eczema in his or her childhood, and later see it develop into a food allergy.

But not all allergies are caused by genes. Some experts say that if we experience fewer infections (感染) when we are young, we are more likely to have allergies when we grow up.

According to Matthew Greenhawt from the University of Colorado, our immune system deals with infections and allergies. It tries to keep a balance between the two. But modern medicine protects us from developing all kinds of infections. This breaks the balance. It may think that normal things, such as certain foods, are dangerous and will try to protect us with an immune response (反应).

【推荐1】Japanese researchers say they are working to build the world’s first satellite (卫星) made of wood. The goal is to help fight the problem of space trash. Space trash includes things like dead satellites, lost pieces of equipment (设备) and some other things. Such objects can be dangerous to satellites running in space. The wooden satellite will not produce such space trash.   

The project is the effort of the company Sumitomo Forestry and Japan’s Kyoto University. The team states their plans for the satellite in a news report. The researchers say the wooden satellite, which they call LignoSat, is one of the projects that try to explore how wood might be used in space in the future. 

The design of a wooden satellite model is now being developed by the researchers. The developers say wood offers several advantages over other materials commonly used to build satellites, such as aluminum (铝) and other materials. For example, the researchers say wood does not stop electromagnetic waves (电磁波).

Wooden structures are also simpler to design and weigh less than present satellite equipment, the researchers add. Such wooden satellites are better for the environment because they will burn up when they return to Earth. They will not release very small pieces of polluting things into the air and oceans. 

Although the wooden satellite model is still under development, the project is attracting attention from all over the world. It is an exciting time for space exploration, with researchers finding new ways to build satellites that are more friendly to the environment.

【推荐3】Getting electricity has always been a problem for the 173 people living in Nuevo Saposoa, a small village in Peru, South America. However, things went from bad to worse in March 2015 after heavy rains damaged the only power cables in the area. The villagers were forced to use oil lamps, which are not only expensive but also dangerous because of the harmful gases they produce.

Luckily, researchers at the University of Technology (UT) in Lima, Peru heard about their problem and found a wonderful solution. They made a lamp that can be powered by plants and soil, both of which can be easily found in the Amazonian rainforest where the village lies. The lamp takes energy from a plant growing in a wooden box and uses it to light up an LED light bulb.

While that may sound amazing and even impossible, the science behind the idea is quite simple. As plants create their food ( using the sun’s energy, water and chemicals from the soil), they also produce waste which they return to the soil. Tiny animals in the soil eat this waste and they produce electrons—the building blocks of electrical energy. The UT team put special sticks inside the soil to capture the energy and keep it in the lamp’s batteries for later use. The researchers say a single charge can power a 50-watt LED light for two hours—enough time for local villagers to get their evening work done.

The university gave ten plant lamps to the villagers of Nuevo Saposoa in October 2015. So far, they have been a huge success! Elmer Ramirez, the UT professor who invented the lamp, believe the Plant Lamp could help improve the lives of many people, especially small rainforest communities, 42% of whom have no electricity.

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Have you ever shouted at your computer because it wasn’t working? Of course, your computer can’t “shout” back. But AI researchers have been working on computers that can argue and perhaps even win debates (辩论) with humans.

IBM scientists recently published a paper in Nature about their new AI system—Project Debater. It can debate with people in front of a live audience. After listening to arguments from its opponent (对手), the system can search around 400 million online articles in less than five minutes. And then it looks for ideas that can support its own argument.

Testing on the system began in 2019. When it debated with Harish Natarajan, a professional debater who holds the world record for the most debate competition victories. The topic was about subsidizing preschool (资助幼儿园)—and Project Debater argued to support this idea. Although Project Debater lost the debate in the end, the audience said it performed very well. Interestingly, 58 percent of the audience said that Project Debater increased their knowledge about the topic—only 20 percent said the same about Natarajan.

According to Scientific American, results show that the system is able to form logical statements (有逻辑的陈述). However, ★ . Their goal is to help humans make better decisions, according to Ranit Aharanoy, manager of the Project Debater team. “It can debate both sides, so it can very quickly help you understand both sides of the problem, so you can have a wider view of the problem and make a more thoughtful decision.” Aharanoy said.

Let’s wait and see how the Project Debater will develop in the near future.