1 . Bonobos often form friendly relationships with other bonobo s in separate social groups — the first time this has been seen in non-human primates (灵长类). This is in line with humans, but in contrast to chimpanzees, another primate, which frequently kill chimps in other groups. The findings challenge the idea that humans evolved (进化) from violent apes, says Surbeck at Harvard University. “This potential to form cooperative links between different groups is not uniquely human and it might have occurred earlier than we thought,” he says.

Many animals cooperate, but they seem to do so only with those within their social circle, or in-group. Hostile (敌对的 ) interactions between groups are common among animals, including chimpanzees, so scientists have often assumed that hostility towards other social groups in humans is natural, says Samuni, also at Harvard. However, humans also often cooperate with people in different social circles, for example, by trading or teaching.

Bonobos are one of our closest living relatives. They are less studied than chimpanzees, but are known to be more peaceful, says Surbeck. To learn more about interactions between groups, Surbeck and Samuni observed 31 adult bonobo s from two social groups in Congo over a two-year period. The pair documented 95 encounters between the groups, which represented about 20% of their total observation time. Unlike chimpanzees observed in previous studies, they showed cooperation with out-group members. In fact,10% of all mutual grooming (梳毛) and 6% of all food sharing occurred among members of different social groups.

While bonobo s that groomed others usually got an immediate benefit, food sharing rarely resulted in a gift in return. This suggests that their actions were “not just motivated by selfish interests or immediate rewards”, Surbeck and Samuni report.

Otten, a researcher from the Netherlands, finds the study “exciting”, especially as it “challenges the idea of human exceptionalism” with regard to out-group cooperation. Otten says the bonobo s that were most cooperative within their groups were the same ones that cooperated more with out-group members. This agrees with findings from humans. “Scholars used to believe that in-group ‘love’ goes together with out-group ‘hate’, but recent research suggests that often in-group cooperators are also out-group cooperators,” he says.

2 . Have you ever wondered what happens to your mobile phones and laptops after you throw them out to make way for a newer model? According to its latest Global E-Waste Monitor, India is the third top producer of e-waste in the world. E-waste in Indian landfill goes on to pollute soil and groundwater, affecting food supply systems and water sources.

Thankfully, the country has a new group of artists who are changing these thrown mechanical items-from mobile phones to old televisions- into large murals (壁画) and artworks to creatively show their concern for the waste problem.

Over the past quarter of a century, Mumbai’s Haribaabu Naatesan has transformed hundreds of tonnes of e-waste into art, integrating elements from nature and industry. “I get my waste material from friends, relatives and neighbours who know my interest in e-art and send me bags of thrown electronic appliances,” says Naatesan. Over his career, he has created huge murals for several companies. He has also showed his work at the India Art Fair, as well as several other national displays.

Another artist Vishwanath Davangere has also long worked with e-waste. He likes to take apart old laptops and reassemble (重新组装) them into birds, animals and plants. After retirement, he started pursuing this hobby more seriously and started selling his creations across the world. His most outstanding works include a robotic Egyptian statue with glowing red eyes and a Milky Way made from keyboard keys. He hopes to enable others to reconsider their own consumption habits and make more environmentally conscious choices.

“By giving e-waste a second chance, I aim to raise awareness about the environmental impact of electronic waste.” says Davangare, who today has a collection of more than 600 eco-art objects.

4 . Sleep is so important that it has long interested scientists. Scientists have studied everything from mice to fruit flies in the lab to get a better understanding of what happens when animals sleep and why they do it. However, gathering data (数据) on how animals sleep in their natural habitat has always been hard to do.

But scientists did just that with wild chinstrap penguins in Antarctica. In doing so, researchers found the birds took over ten thousand microsleeps throughout the day — adding up to a 11-hour-long sleep.

To study the penguins, scientists put devices (设备) into a small group of penguins’ brain and neck muscles, which provided the brain wave and location data. The devices had never been used before, so this data collection was only supposed to be a test. However, the process went so well and the data was published in this study.

Researchers found that the microsleeps last only seconds. Researchers think that being able to sleep for such a short time might help the animals avoid predators (捕食者) that might more likely attack if the penguins were asleep for longer — especially when one parent goes out feeding in the ocean for days, leaving the other parent to protect the eggs from predatory birds.

The study is an early insight into a relatively large missing scientific knowledge about sleep.

“Almost every study on sleeping birds discovers something new, something we didn’t know about before,” says study co-author Paul-Antoine Libourel.

Vladyslav Vyazovskiy, a sleep neuroscientist at the University of Oxford who didn’t join in the study, is excited about this new data because “most of what we know about the animal sleep was gained in laboratory conditions, which are totally different from conditions where sleep developed”.

5 . San Francisco’s waterfront (海滨) is on the National Register of Historic Places for good reason.

Its beautiful old landmarks, like the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge, have been seen in many books, TV shows and movies—from the stories and novels of Jack London to the 1970s TV series The Streets of San Francisco. The future of San Francisco’s waterfront, however, isn’t safe.

In 2016, the National Trust for Historic Preservation put part of the city’s shoreline on its list of the U. S.’s most endangered historic places, in part because of the threat of sea level rise. The waterfront landmarks of many cities are under increasing threat from floods and rising sea levels brought on by human-driven climate change. St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy and the Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles face similar challenges to San Francisco.

“The whole issue of climate change and historic preservation intersects (交织) right at the waterfront,” said Elaine Forbes, director of the Port of San Francisco. As she watched the boats come and go on a sunny afternoon, Forbes said, “Sea level rise hasn’t historically been as much of a threat to San Francisco as major earthquakes.” However, that’s changed. Parts of the main road that runs along the waterfront have flooded from heavy rains in recent years. The state estimates (预估) the water could rise up to about two and a half feet above its present level by 2060, and possibly up to seven feet by the turn of the century.

Now, San Francisco is considering measures to save its historic shoreline. But the growing magnitude and frequency of the climate-related threats, the high costs and effort needed in saving heritage sites, and competing ideas about what’s worth saving and what isn’t, can make it hard for cities to know what to do first.

8 . Mary thought she had seen it all when it came to horse behavior, but Stardust made her ______. The horse was always sniffing (嗅) her behind. No matter what she did, Stardust just wouldn’t ______. Her husband Jason finally ______ her confusion when he figured out the reason behind Stardust’s sniffing her ______. He knew there must be something wrong. But what could it be? ______, Jason drove Mary to the doctor for a checkup.

After a brief ______ with Jason, the doctor decided to do some tests ______ Mary to see what was really going on inside her body.

As Jason sat there, ______ waiting for the result, Mary couldn’t help but wonder what was causing him to be so on edge. She had asked him several times ______ everything was alright, but Jason had been ______. He wished he could tell her what was going on, but the ______ was that he didn’t want to scare her-the news would come soon enough.

A doctor rushed back into the room out of breath. Jason shot Mary a ______ look. As it tuned out, his guess was ______ justified-the doctor had found something! Mary was diagnosed with skin cancer! The couple couldn’t ______ it-Stardust had done something ______. They knew that Stardust’s efforts would never be forgotten.