2 . The “diet” in diet drinks maybe a false promise for some soda lovers. True, they deliver the taste of a soda experience, without the calories. Yet, new research shows they can also leave people with increased appetite.

A study published recently in JAMA Network open adds to the evidence that drinks made with sucralose, an artificial sweetener (甜味剂), may increase the appetite among some people. “We found females and overweight people had greater brain reward activity after consuming the artificial sweetener,” says study author Katie Page, a physician at the University of Southern California. Both groups ate more food after consuming drinks with sucralose, compared with after regular sugar-sweetened drinks. In contrast, the study found males and people of healthy weight did not have an increase in either brain reward activity or hunger response, suggesting they’re not affected in the same way.

One theory is that it’s not the artificial sweetener itself that has a direct effect on the body. The idea is that artificial sweeteners may confuse the body by tricking it into thinking sugar is coming. “You are supposed to get sugar after something tastes sweet,” explains Swithers, “Your body has been used to that.” But the sugar never arrives, which may lead to the body’s less efficiency in processing sugar that s consumed later.

Swithers’ lab has also documented that when animals with a history of consuming artificial sweeteners get real sugar, their blood sugar levels rise higher than those of animals not fed artificial sweeteners. “It’s a small effect, but overtime this could contribute to potentially significant consequences,” she says. If this is happening in some people who consume diet soda, it could add to the risk of Type 2 diabetes (糖尿病), because when blood sugar rises, the body has to release more insulin (胰岛素) to absorb the sugar. “So what you’re doing is that you are kind of pushing the system harder,” Swithers says.

3 . Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.

One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?

That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.

“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”

4 . Chinese scientists have discovered a new water reservoir on the moon in the form of glass beads (珠子), which could have major significance for finding out the water content of the earth’s only natural satellite and potentially extracting them to support future lunar missions.

A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience last week revealed soil samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe contained impact glass beads that held water in the form of hydroxyl——a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom. Hydroxyl ion (离子) is one of the most common ions found in water.

These glass beads are created when meteoroids (流星体) hit the moon’s surface, throwing up hot molten droplets which then cool and turn solid. They function like a sponge, soaking up hydrogen atoms carried by the solar wind to form hydroxyl, thus playing an important role in the water cycle of the lunar surface.

While each bead only holds a tiny amount of water, these glass balls can be seen everywhere on the moon and researchers estimated lunar soils could store as much as 270 billion metric tons of water. For decades, scientists thought the moon was bone dry until discoveries in recent years revealed its soil could hold water. “The moon potentially holding 270 billion metric tons of water is quite substantial, though it pales in comparison to the amount of water in the earth’s oceans,” said Hu Sen, a researcher from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the key scientists behind the study.

These findings not only provide insight on the origins, storage, and transportation of water on celestial bodies without atmospheres, but they also may prove helpful for planning and building a sustainable human habitat on these planets, he added.

However, the specific origins of the water on the lunar surface remain a mystery. The study presented several potential sources, including solar wind implantation, the release of trapped gas when the moon was hot and volcanically active, and delivery by comets and asteroids.

5 . Reshaping the world for a fossil fuel-free future means working quickly. Climate scientists say carbon emissions must stop by 2025 to minimize environmental damage. And by designing computational materials together with makers who can build and test them quickly, scientists can rapidly develop technologies like more powerful solar cells and car batteries.

Michael is the name of a supercomputer devoted to just one task―discovering the ultimate battery system. Researchers at University College London will use Michael to digitally build and test prototypes (原型) in every new material and type of cell possible to improve battery life, performance and price.

Finding a resilient (弹性的) design for solid-state batteries would be a huge breakthrough for electric vehicles and energy storage. Lighter, longer-lasting and cheaper solid-state technology could vastly improve vehicle range and charging time. And the energy from solar and wind power could be more efficiently stored until ready for use.

Scientists working in the US and the UK led the way in the 1970s in developing the lithium-ion (锂离子) battery used in today’s electric cars, laptops and cameras, But commercial units were only developed once the Japanese electronics giant pushed the technology forward for mass production. Partnerships between companies and universities could ultimately crack solid-state battery design. Oxford University and some companies are looking to win the international race to create a durable product. But they are only one among many.

Replacing liquid used in lithium-ion batteries with a solid conductor may take large digital processing. Electric vehicle makers are working with a computer giant to find successful designs that may include cheap and plentiful materials found in seawater. An electric vehicle maker is partnering with NASA to open a solid-state battery plant that uses no rare or expensive metals. The plan is to create a large database of materials that can be mixed and matched for the best combinations.

But computational materials may be needed in virtually every industry. And by rapidly classifying millions of substances on their ability to conduct electricity, their toughness, or the way they reflect light, AI and supercomputers can speed up the process of creating materials for just about anything.

10 . The world is experiencing a major health crisis. As the new coronavirus spreads, many countries are limiting their citizens’ activities. Travel has been ________ . Many schools are closed. In major cities around the world, restaurants and other businesses are shut down.

Public emergencies ________ a certain type of person—the panic shopper. Some people fear not being able to find basic needs for survival. ________ , they buy everything off supermarket shelves in preparation for the days to come. Bread is often among the first products to disappear in emergency situations.

So, if you have never made bread, now may be a good time to learn. Bread making is a ________ skill. With very few simple things—such as flour, salt and yeast—you can ________ a fresh loaf of bread for your family, neighbours or coworkers.

Baking is not just a useful survival skill. It can make you feel better at ________ times. ________ , baking and cooking have been used to treat people with mental health issues.

Julie Ohana is a(n) ________ worker. She offers what she calls culinary therapy to her patients in New York City. “I say’ therapy’ because to me cooking is so therapeutic. And ‘therapeutic’ really means something that makes you feel ________ , something that is helpful and beneficial to the person doing it.” Julie Ohana uses culinary therapy to help people overcome many kinds of issues. She explains that culinary therapy ________ on many levels.

Baking requires mindfulness. “So when you’re in the kitchen —whether you’re cooking or you’re baking—it really requires a certain level of mindfulness, of being ________ in the moment. Specifically, when you’ re baking. And baking really requires step-by-step, following a ________ , being more precise. Kneading the dough or rolling something out, you really get the full benefit of being present in the moment and being able to relax and ________ all the other thoughts and just focus on the here-and-now. And there really are very strong benefits of being able to do that, to be able to relax, to decompress, destress, and really ________ one’s level of life satisfaction.”

Baking is a labour of love. Ohana also says baking is a process filled with love. It not only makes you feel good, it produces something tangible—something you can touch and eat!

Baking is emotional. Often our food experiences are ________ to family memories and stories. We remember meals our grandmothers made. We teach our children important recipes for family favourites.

Ohana says something that all bakers know—giving delicious, baked goods makes the giver feel as good as the receiver. So, she calls baking a win-win.