4 . In times of stress, particularly when the water gets too warm, the coral(珊瑚)erupts the algae(海藻), and the coral turns white, causing a state called coral bleaching(漂白). Just a few degrees of heat can lead to coral bleaching, putting the coral on a path to starvation and death.

Driven by climate change, marine heat waves are becoming one of the greatest threats to the existence of coral, which is important to the ocean ecology. But in some rare good news researchers have discovered coral can recover from bleaching even before a heat wave ends, suggesting it has the potential to survive long heat waves. Coral was thought to survive only if a heat wave lasted just a few weeks.

But no one had studied this process during a longer heat wave. Then in 2015, Julia Baum, a marine ecologist at the University of Victoria, began a survey of two common species: brain and star coral around Kiritimati in the central Pacific Ocean. They checked the condition of the coral as the heat wave struck and disappeared.

Starting in May 2015, the temperature rose about 1 ℃ within 2 months. As expected, coral that housed heat-sensitive algae bleached sooner than those housing the heat-tolerant kind of algae. As the water continued to warm, even heat-tolerant algae erupted.

Many brain and star coral on Kiritimati recovered from bleaching while the water was still unusually warm. Baum said, "The unexpected recovery provides new hope, because it means that even under lasting heat waves, there's a path forward for some of them."

An unusual feature of the recovery is that brain coral that started out with heat-sensitive algae had a higher survival rate(82%)than coral that began with heat-tolerant algae(25%). "That finding is surprising," said Baum, expecting that heat-tolerant algae would be better suited for helping coral survive a heat wave. But during a longer heat wave, it might be more advantageous to start with a heat-sensitive algae.

5 . Children's average daily time spent watching television or using mobile device increased from 53 minutes at 12 months old to more than 150 minutes at 3 years old, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Children aged 7 were more likely to spend the highest amount of screen time if they had been in bad home-based childcare or were born to first-time mothers.

“Our results indicate that screen habits begin early,” said Edwina Yeung, an investigator in National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), “This finding suggests that interventions to reduce screen time could have a better chance of success if introduced early.”

In the research, mothers of 4,000 children responded to questions on their kids' media habits when they were 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding digital media exposure for children under 18 months of age, introducing children 18 to 24 months of age to screen media slowly, and limiting screen time to an hour a day for children from 2 to 5 years of age. In the current study, researchers found that 87% of the children had screen time exceeding these recommendations. However, while screen time increased throughout infancy, after 8 years of age, screen time fell to under 1. 5 hours per day. The researchers believe this decrease relates to time consumed by school-related activities.

The study authors classified the children into two groups based on how much their aver- age daily screen time increased from age 1 to age 3. The first group, 73% of the total, had the lower increase, from an average of nearly 51 minutes a day to nearly an hour and 47 minutes a day. The second group, 27% of the total, had the higher increase, from nearly 37 minutes of screen time a day to about 4 hours a day. Higher levels of parental education were associated with the lower odds of inclusion in the second group.

7 . What is PayQwiq?

PayQwiq is a fast and secure payment service that helps you go quickly through the Tesco checkout. It lets you add your credit or debit card details to the app so you can use your smart phone to pay for your shopping with just one scan. Not only that but it collects your Clubcard points automatically. This means you can now go wallet-free in all UK Tesco stores. So why not give it a go? It only takes a moment to download and you will receive these benefits.

●Collect your Clubcard points automatically

●Pay for your weekly shop up to £250

●Use PayQwiq offline, even with no signal

●Track your spending in Tesco

Sign up to PayQwiq and collect 100 extra Clubcard points for each week you pay with the app, for up to 5 weeks—that’s up to 500 extra points.

Available to new customers who sign up by 3 September 2020 and make all payment by 31 October 2020.One offer per customer. Only one qualifying deal per week will collect the extra points. Additional payments in the same week will not receive extra points. Clubcard points will be added to a future Clubcard statement.

How does it work?

Head to the App Store or Google Play to download the PayQwiq app.

As soon as you’ve added your card details, you’ll be ready to shop using just your phone.

And there’s no need to worry about your bank details being stored on your phone—they’re all securely protected in our data centers. So not only is it quicker and easier, it’s safer too.

8 . I bought several packs of seeds, 24 small plastic seed pots, plant fertilizer and potting soil. I made sure the soil didn't contain added fertilizer. I wanted something that I could grow quickly, that wouldn't take up a lot of space and that wouldn't get too big. I ran this experiment in early fall in Maryland. So I knew I needed a plant that could grow when it's cool. I picked radishes (小萝卜), which grow well in the early fall or spring. Some varieties can grow a full radish in only 21 days.

I kept 12 of the pots and one pack of seeds for myself. I gave the other 12 pots and the other packet of seeds — along with some fertilizer and soil — to my editor, Sarah. This was to provide an additional control for location. After all, what if my yard just happens to be much better for growing plants? What if it's worse? By dividing the plants up between my yard and Sarah's, I hoped to make sure that any difference with the plants came from the fertilizer.

Sarah and I planted our seeds. Sometimes, seeds don’t sprout (发芽). So we carefully planted four evenly (相等地) spaced seeds in each pot. Six of my pots (and six of Sarah’s) served as controls — pots that would not get fertilizer. Our other six were treated with fertilizer. For each of us, this added up to 24 control seeds, and 24 seeds that would get fertilizer.

We watered all the plants equally with clean water every other day (unless it rained). Once a week, we applied fertilizer to half the pots. We also took pictures every day, so we could see the plants change over time. As I expected, many of our seeds didn't sprout. In fact, only about a fourth of mine sprouted. Sarah has a greener thumb. She successfully grew half of hers.

9 . I stood behind the curtain, my hands shaking. As I listened to the crowd laugh at the host's jokes, I thought about why I believed I could do that. Two months earlier, I had signed up for improv（即兴表演）classes at a local theater, along with four other graduate students.

When I first heard about the improv classes, I was torn. I feared getting on stage and performing in front of strangers. However, I knew I wanted to work as a science communicator after finishing my Ph.D., so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to improve my communication ability and gain confidence thinking on my feet.

During our first class, we learned the key concept of improv: “yes, and”. If someone says that rhinos are librarians, for example, then rhinos are librarians. We don't question the logic; we say “yes” and continue with the scene as if nothing is wrong. To do this effectively, we have to avoid second-guessing ourselves. Sometimes scenes go in unexpected directions. The best improv happens when performers stay open to different possibilities. Over time, I started to enjoy our classes. I also became better at listening and communicating clearly in the moment.

That training came in handy 6 months ago, when I was giving a seminar about my science research. An audience member surprised me with a question that didn't grow out of the information I had presented. Instead of getting perplexed, I used that approach, and it helped me find an appropriate answer.

Last year, I used that approach when dealing with confusing data. Instead of getting discouraged, I kept exploring the data and ended up identifying a new type of cell — one that wasn't behaving as expected. If I hadn't stayed open to the possibility that the results were real, I would have missed out on the most exciting finding of my Ph.D. program so far.

10 . As many areas have encouraged people to stay put during the Spring Festival holiday, it would be a great idea if you could go to the cinema to enjoy a wonderful movie, wearing a mask. Here is a brief lineup of the latest films to share with you.

Detective ChinatownⅢ

Following their adventures in Bangkok and New York in the first two movies, the amateur detective duo portrayed by Wang Baoqiang and Liu Haoran travels to Tokyo as they try to solve a murder mystery, which could earn them a huge bonus.

Hi, Mom!

As the directorial debut of comedy actress Jia Ling, the film reflects on how she misses her late mother Li Huanying, who encouraged Jia to pursue her artistic dreams. Interestingly, she fictionalizes time-travel story to depict her mother’s love story set in 1981.

A Writer's Odyssey

As the latest film directed by Lu Yang, best known for the Brotherhood of Blades franchise, the film is highly anticipated. The fantasy tale centers on a novelist amazed to find that the fictional world under his pen is surprisingly influencing the real world.

The Yin-Yang Master

Adapted from the mobile game Onmyoji, the film centers on the Yin-Yang master Qingming, a genius wizard who lives in a fictional world where monsters and human beings coexist. Most monsters from the trailers appear cute and chubby, making the film more appealing to families.