2 . Scientists have been trying to figure out how to alter the genes of humans for many years, and it looks like they’ve finally cracked (破解) the code. But while this may seem like a great step forward in science, some also believe that it’s one step back when it comes to ethics (道德准则). In August, a group of scientists from the USA and South Korea worked together to successfully edit a human embryo (胚胎) and remove a genetic mutation (突变) that would have led to heart disease, reported The Guardian. This was done with the help of CRISPR, a gene-editing tool that allows scientists to “cut and paste” human DNA.

Although this was the first example of an embryo’s genes being changed successfully, the advantages of gene editing have already been tested in living patients. In 2015, a five-month-old girl from the UK was saved after doctors used edited cells to fight off her cancer. As of today, she’s alive and well. And in the USA last year, scientists managed to remove HIV cells from several patients by editing the genes inside their bodies.

Some people hope that in the future, diseases or birth defects could simply be "edited out”. However, others believe this could lead to so-called designer babies, giving parents the option to choose everything from eye color to intelligence. “You could find wealthy parents buying the latest “upgrades” for their children, leading to even greater inequality than we already live with,” Marcy Camovsky, director of the San Francisco Center for Genetics, told BBC News.

In spite of these ethical concerns, experts say it’s not possible to create the “perfect” human being. Despite the progress scientists have made, we don’t understand human genes enough to give all unborn children great brainpower or amazing singing abilities. “Right now, we know nothing about genetic enhancement,” Hank Greely, a director at Stanford University, USA, told The New York Times. “We’re never going to be able to say, honestly, this embryo looks like it would score high on the two-part SAT.”

So it looks like if we want good exam results, or to impress people with our piano skills, we’ll have to stick with the old fashioned method of plain hard work---at least for now.

3 . Technology is a double-edged sword(双刃剑)— while it brings convenience, it also brings new problems. The sword of “social media” even has its preference: It cuts deeper into girls than boys.

Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University in the US, recently discovered an alarming trend: Since 2010, the number of teenage girls who suffer from major depression, showing signs like self-harm and suicide (自杀), has increased much faster than that of boys. It is social media again that is to blame.

Statistically, girls use social media more than boys. Boys tend to spend their screen time on games, where they talk to their teammates through headphones. Though not directly, this still counts as real human contact. Girls, however, simply type and browse through posts, which is a much more isolated (孤立的) experience. “They're not having a real-time conversation with someone most of the time,” Mary Fristad, psychologist at The Ohio State University, told NPR.

And when it comes to online shaming, girls are also more vulnerable than boys. “Girls face more pressure about their appearance, which could be exacerbated (加重) by social media,” wrote Twenge. Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is an 18-year-old from Blackburn College in the US. She shared with the Guardian how social media made her feel depressed.

But McLaughlin found a solution. She started volunteering with the National Citizen Service, where she made face-to-face contact with people. "It's so easy to forget the importance of real connections when we have hundreds of people that we' re trying to impress at our fingertips," she told the Guardian. And she hopes that others "look up from their phones and focus more on the world around them".

4 . For decades, Americans have been sorting their trash believing that most plastic could be recycled. But the truth is that the vast majority of all plastic produced can’t be or won’t be recycled. In 40 years, less than 10% of plastic has been recycled.

A news programme Frontline, by NPR and the PBS. found that oil and gas companies—the makers of plastic—have known that all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite. The plastics industry officials said the industry is providing money for new technology that they believe will get recycling plastic up to scale. The goal, they said, is to recycle 100% of the plastic they make in 5 years.

But the more plastic is recycled, the less money the industry will make by selling new plastic. And those profits have become increasingly important. Companies have told shareholders that profits from using oil and gas for transport are expected to decline in coming years with the increasing use of electric cars. The industry leaders expect oil and gas demands from the chemical industry will be much greater than the demand from the transport side in the coming decade. Plastic production overall is now expected to rise three times by 2050, and once again, the industry is spending money on advertisements and public relations to promote plastic recycling.

Plastic is now more common than it’s ever been and harder to recycle. Gas prices remain at historic lows, making new plastic cheaper than recycled plastic. And the industry now produces many more different—and more complex—kinds of plastics that are more costly to sort and in many cases can’t be recycled at all. Efforts to reduce plastic use are mounting nationwide, but any plan to slow the growth of plastic will face an industry with billions of dollars of future profits to lose.

5 . Harvard University, which is facing claims of racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in its admission process, has announced that its early acceptance rate for Asian Americans for the Class of 2022 has hit 24.2 percent, up from 21.7 percent a year earlier. The figures were released on Dec 12, 2017 by the school on its official website, the Harvard Gazette.

The early enrollments for the Class of 2022 also reflect an overall increase in other nonwhite students from previous years, the famous university said. African-Americans make up 13.9 percent of students admitted early, compared with 12.6 percent last year. At the same time, Latinos account for 9.8 percent, up 1 percentage point last year, and Native Americans and Native Hawaiians account for 1.8 percent, up from 1.1 percent.

“From small towns, suburbs, and cities — from throughout the United States and around the world — the Class of 2022 promises to be among the best classes in Harvard’s long history,” said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard University.

Harvard is facing scrutiny from the Department of Justice and a separate lawsuit accusing the college of discriminating against Asian-Americans in its undergraduate admission process.

In November, 2017 the Justice Department cited a 2015 lawsuit that charges Harvard’s affirmative action policies discriminating against Asian-American applicants, in a letter setting a Dec 1 deadline for Harvard to hand over documents on its admission policies. Responding to that deadline, Harvard offered a compromise position in which the government’s lawyers would be able to examine all the records, including an electronic database, in the offices of Harvard’s lawyers, with some personal information redacted, according to The New York Times.

Harvard University reported that 16.6 percent of a total 29,652 students are Asian, according to college factual.com. Over the past five years, the total international population of students on campus has grown at an average rate of 6.8 percent. China is the largest contributor to this growth, with about 1,263 students.

7 . In the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, scolds her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashion doesn’t affect her, Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistant’s sweater descended over the years from fashion shows to departments stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment.

This top-down conception of the fashion business couldn’t be more out of date or at odds with the feverish world described in Overdressed, Elizabeth Cline’s three-year indictment of “fast fashion”. In the last decade or so, advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such as Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo to react to trends more quickly and anticipate demand more precisely. Quicker turnarounds mean less wasted inventory, more frequent release, and more profit. These labels encourage style-conscious consumers to see clothes as disposable-meant to last only a wash or two, although they don’t advertise that-and to renew their wardrobe every few weeks. By offering on-trend items at dirt-cheap prices, Cline argues, these brands have hijacked fashion cycles, shaking an industry long accustomed to a seasonal pace.

The victims of this revolution, of course, are not limited to designers. For H&M to offer a $5.95 knit miniskirt in all its 2,300-plus stores around the world, it must rely on low-wage overseas labor, order in volumes that strain natural resources, and use massive amounts of harmful chemicals.

Overdressed is the fashion world’s answer to consumer-activist bestsellers like Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “Mass-produced clothing, like fast food, fills a hunger and need, yet is non-durable and wasteful,” Cline argues. Americans, she finds, buy roughly 20 billion garments a year—about 64 items per person—and no matter how much they give away, this excess leads to waste.

Towards the end of Overdressed, Cline introduced her ideal, a Brooklyn woman named Sarah Kate Beaumont, who since 2008 has made all of her own clothes-and beautifully. But as Cline is the first to note, it took Beaumont decades to perfect her craft; her example can’t be knocked off.

Though several fast-fashion companies have made efforts to curb their impact on labor and the environment—including H&M, with its green Conscious Collection line—Cline believes lasting change can only be affected by the customer. She exhibits the idealism common to many advocates of sustainability, be it in food or in energy. Vanity is a constant; people will only start shopping more sustainably when they can’t afford not to.

9 . As Valentine’s Day approaches, many people with dogs will not care one bit whether they get a card. A survey by the Kennel Club has found almost one in five said they were so attached to their pet because “dogs don’t let you down” in the same way that other people might.

Hollywood legend Glenn Close took her Havanese dog Pip to the Oscars last year, describing her pet as “the best date a girl can have”. Comedian Miranda Hart and racing driver Lewis Hamilton have gone on holiday with their dogs, and actor Ryan Gosling has taken his cross-breed George, who he describes as “the great love of my life”, on to chat shows for moral support.

This could be due to the numerous benefits that come with dog ownership — from the psychological to the physical. Dogs help their owners unwind, whether that’s with a daily walk in fresh air, or with a cuddle(依偎) on a sofa. They can also be great listeners, help their owners release stress, and can play a part in improving their health and fitness.

Nevertheless, for those dog owners who are still looking for love, the research suggests their pet might help. More than a fifth of those questioned said they had been asked out on a date with their dog appearing best for attracting a potential partner. Among those responding to the survey, 21 percent said they were more likely to date someone who also had a dog.

Mr. Lambert, a spokesman for the Kennel Club, said, “This is quite unsurprising when you consider that dogs are a great ice-breaker, when strangers may otherwise not look twice at each other, and that we tend to have more associations about people who love dogs.”

People who owned a pet dog were also very likely to say their pet may have helped them out romantically.