1 . Today, poetry and science are often considered to be mutually exclusive(互相排斥)career paths. But that wasn’t always the case. The mathematician Ada Lovelace and the physicist James Clerk Maxwell were both accomplished poets. The poet John Keats was a licensed surgeon. Combining the two practices fell out of favor in the 1800s. But translating research into lyrics, haiku, and other poetic forms is resurging(再现)among scientists as they look for alternative ways to inspire others with their findings.

“Poetry is a great tool for questioning the world,” says Sam Illingworth, a poet and a geoscientist who works at the University of Western Australia. Through workshops and a new science-poetry journal, called Consilience, Illingworth is helping scientists to translate their latest results into poems that can attract appreciation from those outside of their immediate scientific field.

Stephany Mazon, a scientist from the University of Helsinki in Finland, joined one of Illingworth’s workshops. In the workshop, she was grouped with other scientists and tasked with writing a haiku, a 17-syllable-long poem, which spotlighted water, a fluid that featured in all of the group members’ research projects. “It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly easy to write the poem,” Mazon says. She plans to continue writing. “We do a disservice(伤害)to ourselves to think that scientists can’t be artistic and that art can’t be used to communicate scientific ideas,” Mazon says.

That viewpoint is echoed by Illingworth, who thinks science communication initiatives are too often dominated by public lectures with their hands-off PowerPoint slides. “Actually, when science communication involves writing and sharing poems, it invites a two-way dialogue between experts and nonexperts,” he says. Scientist-poet Manjula Silva, an educator at Imperial College London, agrees. Poetry provides a way to translate complex scientific concepts into a language that everyone can understand, Silva says.

Scientists and poets are both trying to understand the world and communicate that understanding with others. The distinction between scientists and poets is less than people might think. We’re all just people with hopefully really interesting things to say and to share.

A group of 10 high-profile figures and common citizens gifted with wisdom, bravery and determination, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Yang Zhenning included,     1     (honor) as inspiration-al role models in this year’s Touching China awards announced by China Central Television on Thursday this March.

Yang Zhenning, a     2     (respect) Nobel Prize-winning physicist, became the first Chinese-American scientist to return to China after the US just lifted the ban on     3     (visit) to China in 1971. Yang also sponsored a number of Chinese scholars so they could have opportunities     4     (further) their studies in the US.

Another nominee was Su Bingtian, the first Chinese athlete     5     competed in the men’s 100-meter sprint final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. At     6     age of 32, he shocked the world by finishing first in his group     7     a time of 9.83 seconds on the semi- final.

This year’s Touching China awards also focused on China’s space community for opening new horizons in the starry ocean of the cosmos,     8     (include) building China’s own space station, Tianwen-1, and the exploration of Mars.

In 2021, the war epic film, The Battle at Lake Changjin,     9     (take) the Chinese audiences to the site of a battle during the War to Resist the US Aggression and Aid Korea. Moviegoers learned about Zhu Yanfu, the only     10     (survive) of the battle and one of the winners for this year’s Touching China awards.

3 . As you walk around the UK in March, you might notice that some people are wearing a daffodil(水仙花) on their coats. The British wear these yellow flowers to show they support one of this country’s best-known charities: the Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The Marie Curie Cancer Care tries to ensure everyone diagnosed with cancer is cared for in the best possible way. It also helps fund research into possible cures through other organizations. Founded in 1948, it has been continuing with its goal ever since.

The charity was named after Marie Curie, a renowned scientist. She experimented with newly-discovered elements to create the theory of radioactivity. Unfortunately, over-exposure to the radioactive elements made her develop a disease and die in 1934. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in two different fields. Because of her pioneering work which led to chemotherapy (化学疗法), the charity shared the name of Marie Curie.

The daffodil is one of the first plants to flower during spring in the UK, which marks the return of flowering plants to the ecosystem after winter. Because of this, the charity uses the daffodil as a metaphor for bringing life to other people through charitable giving.

Everyone you see wearing a daffodil has donated money to the charity, but each daffodil is worth only what you want to pay for it. The charity does ask that you stick to a minimum amount of £1.

The charity encourages people to start wearing their daffodils at the start of March, when the “Great Daffodil Appeal” kicks off. But that doesn’t mean you can only wear them in March. People are sometimes seen walking around with daffodils on their clothes all year round.

Five outstanding researchers received this year’s L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award at a ceremony in Paris, France     1     Friday evening for their pioneering research in the life sciences. One of the     2     (receive) was Chinese ancient vertebrates (脊椎动物) scientist Zhang Miman.

82-year-old Zhang, also     3    (know) as Meemann Chang, is a palaeontologist (古生物学 家) at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP). Many species, such as the extinct fish Meemannia, have been named in honor of her. In 2016, Zhang     4     (give) the Romer-Simpson Lifetime Achievement Award,     5     is the highest prize in vertebrate palaeontology.

“She was appointed for her pioneering work on fossil (化石) records     6     (lead) to a clear understanding of how oceanic vertebrates adapted to life on land.” UNESCO said in a statement. Zhang is the     7     (five) Chinese female scientist to win the award. The other four winners     8    (be) from South Africa, the UK, Argentinaand Canada.

As     9     result of a partnership between French company L’Oreal and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science foundation was founded in 1998     10     (encourage) equality in science. Each winner will be awarded $100, 000 as part of their prize.

A Respectable Watermelon Expert

China     1    (be) the largest producer and consumer of watermelons in the world since 2018. And Wu Mingzhu, 92 years old now, is the unsung hero who has helped make this possible. It’s fair    2    (say) that about 80 percent of the watermelons served at people’s dining tables every day are the result of great efforts made by Wu and her team over more than 60 years.

Admitted to Southwest Agricultural College in Chongqing in the late 1940s, Wu is an alumnus (校友) of Yuan Longping, the “father of hybrid rice”. After two years of application failures, Wu succeeded in     3    (realize)her dream of starting her career in Xinjiang in 1955. Since then, she has put     4    (she)to growing sweet melons.

Wu’s efforts to grow quality melons began paying off in 1973,     5    she set up an off-season growing base in Hainan. Going and returning between Xinjiang and Hainan     6    (frequent) for many years, Wu developed more than 20,000 of China’s new seed     7    (kind) through off-season growing.

Wu’s contribution has won her many praises. She became     8    member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1999 and an honorary citizen of Sanya in 2004. In addition, growers call her the “Queen of Melons”.

Now suffering from Alzheimer’s (阿尔兹海默) disease, Wu is often     9    (able)to recognize her former colleagues or even her family members. However, the memory of her melon work     10    (remain) in her mind.

10 . It’s said that Thomas Edison found an unusual way to enjoy piano music. As someone played, the famous inventor, who had been deaf, would move close to the instrument and bite it. In his own words, it allowed him to “hear through his teeth”.

Robert Friedman, who was in the business of buying and selling pianos, recently showed off marks on a piano that was once owned by Edison. The piano had groups of small marks above the keyboard. He was surprised by the tooth marks left by the inventor of the phonograph (留声机) , a music playing device.

Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Edison ever asked for the piano at the lowest price. When he bought the piano and put it in the lab, he was experimenting with sound recording. He owned the instrument for many years, so it was possibly used in early recordings.

There aren’t photographs of Edison biting this piano. But he was thought to bite into phonographs and pianos to help him experience music as his hearing worsened. His daughter once remembered that a guest cried on the spot at the sight of Edison biting into a piano as someone played it.

Friedman calls himself the piano hunter. He finds and buys the famous pianos from people and then sells them, usually to dealers. But this piano is more complex. He is now looking for the right home for the instrument. Friedman says that he believes that it belongs to someplace where many people can see it. Friedman does not want it to go back into private hands because of its connection to Edison. He has to find a historical group that will buy the piano, which he is offering to sell for what it cost him.