1 . Moscow-based photographer Anastasiya Dobrovolskaya is not a typical “pet photographer.” Her trademark photos look like something out of a fairy tale, but everything is real - from beautiful and unique people to breathtaking landscapes, and various animals you wouldn’t expect to pose alongside people. Tigers, owls, horses… anything you can think of is featured in Dobrovolskaya’s incredible portfolio, including the most wanted bear model, Stepan, who was rescued as a cub and raised by loving humans.

In July of 2018, Anastasiya started taking photos by accident. After three failed attempts at photography, giving up trying, and finding her way to photography again, she received a message from a woman who wanted a photo shoot with a rooster. Although she had never photographed people with animals and didn’t have much experience altogether, she took on a challenge and fell in love. In a week, she photographed an owl, then a horse, and it kicked off from there with some of her photos going viral online. It was enough to quit her job and pursue a career in commercial photography.

The 30-year-old photographer takes dreamlike photos that capture the magical bond between animals and humans and show how beautifully diverse, yet similar they are. “In my work, I want to show common features between people and animals so that animals become more respected by people and people will do their best to minimize the harm they do to nature.” She says.

However, some people accuse her of using animals - animals suffer during photoshoots, and so on. But they don’t even know how far they are from the truth. In most cases, the animals were rescued from poor conditions, from fur factories, or were abandoned by the owners. Almost all large animals live in the countryside, in spacious areas, in specially equipped enclosures (场所) with regular walking. Each animal feeds on the basis of its species. “Only those animals with a certain character are selected for the photoshoots, and the process is almost always very comfortable.” explained the photographer.

The photographer now has an astonishing 179,000 followers on Instagram—an audience that has become a source of endless support, energy, and inspiration.

4 . Recently, a research on how a new virtual reality (VR) experience educated primary children about the fire disasters was done. It was developed by the University of South Australia, aiming to educate children to learn how to be safer in a fire.

Focusing on children aged 10-12 years old, the new VR experience presents a situation where children are tasked to look after a friend’s dog just before a fire event begins to unfold. They participate in a series of problem-solving activities to help save and protect themselves and the dog.

The findings showed that more than 80 per cent of children reported that they felt more confident to calmly evaluate the options and make wise decisions to protect themselves from a fire. This is especially significant considering that 91 per cent of participants originally lacked any knowledge of fires, and that 67 per cent had said that they were too young to make safety decisions in a fire.

The researchers believed such immersive (沉浸式的) VR experiences had real potential to engage, educate and empower the young. “As children born in digital times, they are engaged by such technology and they can experience events realistically yet within the safe environment,” said Delene Weber, one of the researchers. “Well-designed VR can provide an opportunity for children to apply newly acquired knowledge, strengthen their learnt concepts, and enable immediate feedback — all incredibly valuable learning tools.”

Meanwhile, because children have fewer life experiences, aren’t as physically strong, and are less likely to have learned much about fire safety, they’re often most at risk. Yet the capacity for children to contribute to fire safety at their household should not be underestimated.

“Children do not need to be passive victims of disasters and with purpose-built virtual reality experiences such as these, we can help empower children to understand the risks and realize they can help,” said Weber.

5 . Extreme heat can kill people, even though most of the deaths are preventable. It is reported that in the 24 years between 1979 and 2003 more people died in the United States of extreme heat than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes,     1     ? The golden rules are to drink plenty of water, dress in cool clothes and stay in the shade if possible.

    2    . Often after many months without rain, single spark is all that is necessary to create a big fire. Wildfires can move at great speed and will destroy everything in their path. They can quickly change direction, which makes it very difficult for someone on the ground to escape.     3    , great damage can be caused in a short time. In 2010 such fires in Russia killed 62 people and destroyed about 23, 000 square kilometers. A recent UN report suggests that the growing number of wildfires around the world may be contributing to global warming. Very often you can see such a terrible circle!     4    . Climate change causes drought; drought causes wildfires; and wildfires cause further climate change.

It is clear that the world is getting warmer.     5    , but it is reasonable to assume that this process is being speeded up by mankind’s release into the atmosphere of large amounts of greenhouse gas.

6 . The Earth is facing a climate crisis, but it’s also getting greener. According to a new research, the rise is largely because of China and India. A study by NASA, based on extensive satellite imagery, has revealed that the two countries with the world’s biggest populations are also responsible for the largest increase in green plants.

A third of the leaf increase is attributable to China and India, due to the implementation of major tree planting projects as well as a vast increase in agriculture. “China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9% of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation — a surprising finding, considering the large populations in the countries need much land,” Chi Chen, the study’s lead author said in a statement.

Between 2000 and 2017, a NASA sensor gathered data of the Earth’s surface from aboard two satellites, the Terra and the Aqua. Using the data, researchers discovered that China is the source of a quarter of the increase in green leaf area, despite possessing only 6. 6% of the world’s vegetated area. Forests account for 42% of that increase, while croplands make up a further 32%. China’s increase in forest area is the result of forest conservation and expansion programs, established to combat the impacts of climate change and air pollution.

Rama Nemani, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said in a statement, “When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate from the added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests, for instance. Now, with the data, we see that humans are also contributing,” Nemani said. “This will help scientists make better predictions about the behavior of different Earth systems, which will help countries make better decisions about how and when to take action.”

7 . The moment you open your eyes in the morning, you can feel sweat running down your body, even if you’re barely moving at all. That’s what most people in China felt like this summer. In fact, the entire northern hemisphere(半球)saw high temperatures in July.

The Arctic Circle was no exception. Temperatures in the city of Norilsk, which is in the Arctic Circle, reached a record high of 32℃, the Atlantic reported. Temperatures there are usually just 10℃ at this time of the year.

The heat wave in the Arctic is mainly a long-term result of global warming, according to the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. Actually, while the whole world is getting warmer, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This is called the polar amplification effect(极地放大效应).

The most direct impact of Arctic warming is the melting of Arctic ice. According to NASA, Arctic sea ice is now disappearing at a rate of 13.2 percent every 10 years. NASA said that if this continues, the Arctic will have no ice by the year 2040. This has put some Arctic animals, like polar bears, in danger. The ice that the bears live on has shrunk, the Toronto Star reported. Melting ice can also cause sea levels to rise in the long term. Since 1993, sea levels have risen at a rate of 3.2cm every 10 years, the Guardian reported. Some countries, such as Tuvalu(图瓦卢)in the South Pacific Ocean and Maldives(马尔代夫)in the Indian Ocean, are at risk of disappearing into the sea.

8 . Ninety-seven percent of Earth’s water is ocean. No blue, no green. If you think the ocean isn’t important, imagine Earth without it. Fifty years ago, when I began exploring the ocean, no one realized that we human being could do anything to harm the ocean.

For me, as a woman scientist, it all began in 1953 when I first tried diving. In 1979, by using a submersible, I had a chance to reach the ocean floor which was six miles offshore and 1,250 feet down. Since then, I’ve used about 30 kinds of submarines. We need new deep-diving submersible. We need to see the undersea mountains and understand life in the deep sea. Exploring and protecting the wild ocean is my big wish.

What’s worrying us is that an ice free Arctic Ocean may happen in this century. That’s bad news for the polar bears. Additional CO₂ is not only driving global warming, but also changing ocean chemistry, making the sea more acidic. That’s bad news for coral reefs and oxygen-producing plankton(浮游生物). Actually, nearly half of the coral reefs have disappeared. We’re putting hundreds of millions of tons of plastic and other rubbish into the sea. We’re blocking the ocean, poisoning the planet’s circulatory system. Most of the turtles, sharks, tunas and whales are way down in numbers. All of these are part of our life support system.

Health to the ocean means health for us. I wish we would use all means—films, explorations, the web, new submarines—and campaign to stimulate public support for ocean protected areas. My wish is a big wish, but if we can make it happen, it can truly save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet. For the children of today, for tomorrow’s children: as never again, now is the time.

9 . Scientists believe they could bring the likes of dodos (渡渡鸟) back from the dead through cloning experiments in the near future, which could see the flightless birds revived from their extinction.

The big bird, which was about a metre tall and weighed up to 18 kilograms, was native to Mauritius but became extinct in the 1600s, shortly after humans discovered the island. However, 400 years later, scientists now believe that they could bring the dodo back to life through cloning of some of its closest living relatives.

Scientists recently published a paper which identified the overall genomic structure of dinosaurs. The team achieved this by tracing the ancestors of birds — the dinosaurs closest living relatives — to create the genomic structure. Researchers involved in the study say it is an emphatic “no” when it comes to the possibility of ever being able to clone dinosaurs. But they do say that more recently extinct birds like the carrier pigeon and the dodo could be brought back due to the fact that they have such close living relatives.

University of Kent scientists Darren Griffin and Rebecca O’Connor wrote in an article for The Conversation: “We discovered that birds and most flightless dinosaurs had a lot of chromosomes (packages of DNA). Having so many allows animals to generate variation, the driver of natural selection.”

“However, though it is a long shot, it may be possible in future to use Jurassic Park technology to help avoid some of the harm that humans have caused. Mankind has seen the extinction of well-known avian dinosaurs such as the dodo and the passenger pigeon.”

“Recovery (恢复) of DNA that is a only few hundred years old from these birds is a far more realistic way. It may also be that eggs from closely related living species might just be good enough. In the right conditions we may be able to use them to resurrect some of these species from extinction.”