3 . The conventional wisdom about insects has been that they are unthinking, unfeeling creatures whose behavior is entirely hardwired (天生的). But in the 1990s researchers began making surprising discoveries about insect minds. Some species of wasps (黄蜂) recognize their nest mates’ faces and acquire impressive social skills. For example, they can infer the fighting strengths of other wasps relative to their own just by watching other wasps fight among themselves.

Given the substantial work on the complexity of insect cognition (认知), it might seem surprising that it took scientists so long to ask whether, if they are that smart, could also be sentient, capable of feeling. Since we have no direct window into the inner world of an animal that cannot verbally communicate its thoughts and feelings, the question of whether insects are sentient remained academic.

15 years ago, I performed an experiment in which we asked whether bumblebees could learn about threat from their natural enemies. We built a plastic spider model with a mechanism that would briefly trap a bumblebee between two sponges before releasing it. The bumblebees showed a significant change in their behavior after being attacked by the robotic spider. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they learned to avoid flowers with spiders and meticulously scanned every flower before landing. Curiously, however, they some times even fled from imaginary threats, scanning and then abandoning a perfectly safe, spider-free flower. Although this incidental observation did not constitute formal evidence of an emotionlike state, it did open the door to the idea that such states might exist in insects.

Some research suggested that insects might have positive states of mind. Researchers discovered that bees actively seek out drugs such as nicotine and caffeine when given the choice and even treat themselves with nicotine when sick. Male fruit flies stressed by being robbed of mating opportunities prefer food containing alcohol, and bees even show withdrawal symptoms when removed from an alcohol-rich diet.

Why would insects consume mind-altering substances if there isn’t a mind to alter? But these suggestive hints of negative and positive mind states still fell short of what was needed to demonstrate that insects are sentient.

4 . Light pollution is a significant but overlooked driver of the rapid decline of insect populations, according to the most comprehensive review of the scientific evidence to date.

Artificial light at night can affect every aspect of insects' lives, the researchers said. "We strongly believe artificial light at night — in combination with habitat loss, chemical pollution.invasive (入侵的) species, and climate change — is driving insect declines, " the scientists concluded after assessing more than 150 studies.

Insect population collapses have been reported around the world, and the first global scientific review published in February, said widespread declines threatened to cause a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems".

There are thought to be millions of insect species, most still unknown to science, and about half are active at night. Those active in the day may also be disturbed by light at night when they are at rest.

The most familiar impact of light pollution is moths (飞蛾) flapping around a bulb, mistaking it for the moon. Some insects use the polarisation of light to find the water they need to breed, as light waves line up after reflecting from a smooth surface. But artificial light can scupper (使泡汤) this. Insects are important prey (猎物) for many species, but light pollution can tip the balance in favour of the predator if it traps insects around lights. Such increases in predation risk were likely to cause the rapid extinction of affected species, the researchers said.

The researchers said most human-caused threats to insects have analogues in nature, such as climate change and invasive species. But light pollution is particularly hard for insects to deal with.

However, unlike other drivers of decline, light pollution is relatively easy to prevent. Simply turning off lights that are not needed is the most obvious action, he said, while making lights motion-activated also cuts light pollution. Shading lights so only the area needed is lit up is important. It is the same with avoiding blue-white lights, which interfere with daily rhythms. LED lights also offer hope as they can be easily tuned to avoid harmful colours and flicker rates.

5 . previous recessions (经济衰退), billionaires were hit along with the rest of us; it took almost three years for Forbes’s 400 richest people to recover from losses caused in 2008’s Great Recession. But in the coronavirus recession of 2020, most billionaires have gotten richer than ever before.

Billionaires increased their new billions just as millions of other Americans ran into terrible financial problems. More than 20 million people lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic. Food banks across the country are preparing for another great increase in demand. Why are American billionaires doing so well while so many other Americans suffer? People may find part of the reasons from the following fact. Stocks (股票) are overwhelmingly owned by the wealthy, and the stock market has recovered from its early-pandemic depths much more quickly than other parts of the economy.

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6 . New bio-plastics are being made in laboratories from straw, wood chips and food waste, with researchers aiming to replace oil as the source of the world’s plastic.

The new approaches include genetically modifying bacteria to eat wood and produce useful chemicals. But the bio-plastics are currently significantly more expensive to make than fossil fuel-based plastics.

Land and seas around the world, from high mountains to deep oceans, have become polluted with plastic, prompting major public concern. The world has produced 8bn tons of plastic since the 1950s and demand is still rising.

While some waste plastic is recycled, much of it is burnt to produce electricity, resulting in carbon emissions that drive climate change. In contrast to plastic made from oil, plastics made from plant-based materials only release the carbon the plants absorbed from the air as they grew. Bio-plastics will also give more options for products that biodegrade (生物降解) in the environment, although they can be made very long-lasting if required.

“Plastics are an incredible enhancement to our daily lives,” said Paul Mines, CEO of Biome Technologies in the UK, which has spent t5m in the last five years on bio-plastics research. “But we can’t go on using fossil fuel-based materials. About 6-7% of every barrel (桶) of oil is used to make plastics.”

“Using plant materials is feasible,” said professor Simon, at the University of York. “Replacing half of the nation’s plastic bottles could be done using just 3% of the sugar beet crop, 5% of wheat straw or 2.5% of food waste,” he said.

Currently, just a few thousand tons of bio-plastic are used in the UK each year, compared to millions of tons of conventional plastic. Mines said this could rise to about 20,000 tons in the next five years.

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10 . As a kid growing up in a suburb of London. I loved to go looking for the perfect park bench. Some Sunday mornings, my dad could be persuaded to drive to new parks. We’d have a kick-around with a soccer ball, share a bag of Doritos and check out all the benches in the area, reading the words on them.

The good park bench leaves me in a state, somewhere between nostalgia (怀旧) and eager anticipation. Where once I was excited by the words carved on wood, I now find, as a 10-year-old, that I’m more appreciative of each bench’s quiet stoicism (坦然淡定), the way they are willing to wait out their turn in every weather, remaining available to all-comers. Like a good book or piece of music, a park bench allows for a sense of solitude (独处) and community at the same time, which is crucial to life in a great city.

Part of my obsession with park benches is as spaces where history settles. By planting seeds of curiosity, and making space for reflection, park benches become doors to the past. Maybe that’s the greatest power of the park bench: its capacity encourages the art of observation. A good bench catches us in our quietest, most vulnerable (脆弱的) moments, when we may be open to imagining new narratives and revisiting old ones. Our masks are taken off, hung from the bench’s wrought iron. On other nearby benches, babies are being burped. Glances exchanged. Sandwiches eaten. Newspapers read it .

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