3 . Vaccines (疫苗) may soon make their first film appearance. Led by expert Maria A. Croyle, researchers have developed a thin sheet that preserves vaccines for long periods without using the cooling system. This means the carefully cooled small bottles now used to ship vaccines could potentially be replaced by lightweight films that can be mailed in an envelope and stored on a shelf.

Croyle’s laboratory began developing the technology in 2007. Inspired by amber’s ability to preserve the DNA of insects, the researchers set out to create their own version of the substance by mixing “a lot of sugar and a little bit of salt, much like hard candy,” Croyle explains. The vaccine-containing film is administered by mouth—sweet news for many who dislike needles.

The film is tailored to suit each specific vaccine candidate and provide a protective coating. “We’ve learned over time that the key to really stabilizing whatever the film holds is to have it intermixed with all the components,” Croyle says, adding that the process is quick and uses affordable, standard equipment. “We really wanted to come up with something that would be transported to developing countries.”

Immunization (免疫) programs depend heavily on keeping vaccines cold (2℃—8℃) as they are transported, sometimes over thousands of kilometers to far-away locations. Delivery can be difficult and costly, and transport delaying can cause the vaccines to be ineffective.

But this new product can store live viruses, bacteria and antibodies for several months at 20℃. In a paper published in Science Advances, the scientists show that the live viruses in one vaccine were preserved in the film even after 36 months. They also find that a flu vaccine suspended in their film compares favourably with a traditional flu shot. “The study demonstrates early proof of concept for an exciting platform for vaccine product development,” says Lisa Rohan, who was not involved in the study. She also notes that each vaccine type would need a custom formulation (配方) for future stages of development.

“Finding partners to mass-produce for clinical trials is the researchers’ most pressing problem,” Croyle says. They are also exploring packaging methods to keep their films stable up to 40℃.

Size is a major advantage—a letter-sized sheet of the film can carry more than 500 doses (剂) of vaccine, about 1/900 the weight of the same amount of traditional doses. “By making it easier and cheaper to ship and preserve vaccines efficiently,” Croyle says, “the technology could vastly improve immunization rates the world over, particularly in middle-to-low income countries.”

6 . An international team of scientists says it has discovered two new “super-Earth” type planets about 100 light-years away, one of which may be suitable for life.

Unlike any of the planets in our solar system, the nearly 1,600 known super-Earths are larger than Earth, but lighter than icy planets like Uranus and Neptune.

Researchers at Belgium’s University of Liège said that they found another one while using Earth-based telescopes to check the existence(存在) of a different planet first discovered by a NASA satellite in the same solar system.

NASA’s satellite found planet LP 890-9b, which is about 30% larger than Earth and orbits its sun in just 2.7 days. ULiège researchers used their telescopes in Spain to take a closer look at the planet. That’s when the stargazers(天文学家) discovered another planet, LP 890-9c, which is 40% larger than Earth and takes 8.5 days to orbit its sun.

Francisco Pozuelos, a researcher, said that the planet could be suitable to life though being a 3.7 million miles from its sun. Earth, by comparison, is located over 93 million miles away from our sun. “Although this planet orbits very close to its star, at a distance about 10 times shorter than that of Mercury around our Sun, the amount of stellar irradiation(照射) it receives is still low, and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planet’s surface, if it has enough air,” Pozuelos said. “This is because the star LP 890-9 is about 6.5 times smaller than the Sun and has a surface temperature half that of our star.”

7 . If you’re indoor lowers, the following places may have more fun for you to visit.

Scotwood Manor

The rooms in Scotwood Manor are made as they were 100 years ago. The workers spend the day as people did then and are happy to explain what the life in the town was like. There are activities for children and shops with books, gifts and cards, as well as a good cafe and car park.

Woodlands Museum

Set in beautiful countryside, the Woodlands Museum is built like a village of 100 years ago. To learn more about it, visitors are encouraged to spend time doing practical things such as making pots and cooking. There is a playground with picnic area.

Charberth Museum

Charberth Museum is near the main bus station and has rich collections, 19th-century paintings and photos showing life in the town over the centuries. There is no cafe, but there is an activity room for young children with DVDs.

Westerleigh Museum

Westerleigh Museum is near the bus and train station. It includes exhibitions showing people’s life and the development of the town. In a special room, there are works by some famous artists. The museum has an excellent cafe house.

The science fiction movie The Wandering Earth Ⅱ has been quite popular since its release on Jan 22. The space elevators in the movie are quite impressive—elevator cars travel quickly between the cables hat connect Earth’s surface and the space station. This device may not only be imagined in the future.

Early in 1895, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the Eiffel Tower. He pointed out that if humans could build a tower high enough to reach space, people would be able to travel by space elevators. However, such a tower is impossible because no matter how large its base is, it would not be able to support the whole system.

Scientists then considered the idea in a different way. Earth’s satellites, about 36, 000 kilometers high in the sky, appear to be fixed in space. They rotate around Earth once every day. According to Scientific American, if such a satellite could drop cables towards Earth, and the cables could be fixed to Earth’ surface, then the whole system would rotate along with Earth.

This seems possible, but one of the challenges that stop engineers from building the elevators is the cables’ material. According to an article by the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, a carbon nanotube might be the most proper material. It weighs 1. 6 grams and it can hold more than 800 tons which is about the weight of 160 elephants. Since its discovery in 1991, scientists have been trying to create a carbon nanotube as long as possible. However, the longest carbon nanotube with a perfect structure was only about half a meter. It was developed by a team at Tsinghua University in 2013.

Space elevators require far less energy and money than rockets. With space elevators, space tasks would be carried out more easily and more frequently. Although scientists have not solved the key problem, they will continue doing research on carbon nanotubes. Maybe one day the space elevator will enter our life.

10 . Can you read the air?

The words we say are important. They tell a listener about our thoughts and emotions. But words may not be the most important way to communicate meaning. According to one study, only seven percent of the meaning comes from words. Instead, meaning comes mostly from non-verbal communication (非言语交流), because non-verbal communication includes your tone of voice and your body language and it can cause misunderstandings when you are talking to someone from a different culture.

In Japan, for example, non-verbal communication is very important. Business speaker Erin Meyer once gave a presentation to a group of people in Japan, and at the end, she asked if anyone had any questions. No one raised their hand, so she sat down. A Japanese colleague (同事) told her that he thought some people did have questions. She was surprised. So he asked the group if they had any questions, and again, no one raised their hands. But then the colleague looked closely and asked a woman if she had a question. She did. Afterwards, Meyer asked her colleague how he knew that the woman had a question. He explained that in Japan, people who are looking at you directly often have questions.

Meyer’s experience shows it is necessary to “read the air”. Then how can people read the air? Here are some ways. Pay attention to non-verbal cues. They often reveal more about a person’s mood or attitude than their words do. Observe (观察) the social context and cultural norms of the situation. Different cultures have different levels of directness in communication, so it’s important to know how people in that culture usually express themselves. Listen carefully to the tone and style of language used. It may indicate a more serious and respectful context or request.

In fact, reading the air is a social skill that people in certain cultures or situations use to understand the unspoken emotions, thoughts, or intentions behind what someone says or does.