1 . Artificial Intelligence (AI) has greatly sped up how long it takes to sort, label and analyze(分析) animal sounds—as well as to figure out which aspects of those sounds might carry meaning. One day we’ll be able to use AI to build a chat box that translates complex(复杂的) animal sounds into human language. Project CETI is just one organization working toward this goal.

“AI could eventually get us to the point where we understand animals, but that’s hard to deal with and long-term,” says Karen Bakker, a researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. “Some species have been on the planet longer than humans. Some species could go extinct before we figure out their language,” Bakker adds. “Besides, the idea of walking around with an animal translator may seem cool, but many animals might not be interested in chatting.”

“Why would a bat want to speak to you?” she asks. What interests her is what we can learn from how bats and other creatures talk amongst each other.“We should listen to nature and ask the animals’ requirements in order to better protect them,” she argues. For example, a system set up to record whales or elephants can also track their locations. This can help our boats avoid whales or protect elephants from poachers (偷猎者).

Protection is one goal driving Project CETI. “If we understand sperm whales better, we will be better at understanding what’s troubling them,” says Gašper Beguš, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley. Learning that a species has something very similar to language or culture could also inspire people to work harder to protect it.

When we protect an animal that has some version of language or culture, we’re not simply protecting nature and we’re also saving a way of life. Marine biologist Denise Herzing says that animals are supposed to have a healthy environment so that their cultures can develop well.

2 . Bad news for banana lovers: A fungus (真菌) that’s particularly good at killing the fruit has finally reached Latin America — a major supplier of the world’s bananas.

Recently, officials in Colombia announced a national emergency after confirming the presence of this fatal fungus, known as Fusarium oxysporum Tropical Race 4 (TR4), in the country. This is the first time the fungus has been found in Latin America. However, the fungus isn’t new. Over the past years, it has been destroying banana plantations in Asia, Australia and East Africa.

Although this fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it is a “serious threat” to banana production. The fungus attacks the plants’ roots and blocks their vascular (维管的) system — the network used to transport water and nutrients (营养物) and finally kills the plants. Once the fungus finds its way into soil, it can’t be treated with fungicides, and it’s very difficult to remove.

What’s more, the fungus attacks the most commonly exported banana — the Cavendish banana. “For Western countries, the vast majority of the bananas we eat are from the same Cavendish subgroup,” said Nicolas Roux, a senior scientist.

Sarah Gurr, Exeter University’s chair in food security, continued to explained to Wired, “Cavendish bananas are in effect clones of their parents. So the similarity in their genes makes them easy targets of the disease. Actually, we are likely to lose the Cavendish banana.”

Officials reported that the TR4 fungus was found in a l75-hectare area in the La Guajira region of northern Colombia. The country has separated affected areas and destroyed some of them in an effort to fight the fungus. A number of ideas have come up to help save the Cavendish banana, including genetically engineering plants that will not be affected by TR4.

3 . Are you a fan of birds? If so, you may have admired their beautiful colors and sweet songs. But do you know these feathered friends can actually do more than that?

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports finds that exposure to birds, either in the home or outdoors, can boost people’s moods.

Researchers at King’s College London used a smartphone app built by the school’s Urban Mind project to collect the real-time feelings of study participants upon seeing or hearing a bird. A total of 1,292 people living in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States participated in the study which was conducted between April 2018 and October 2021.

The app asked participants three times a day whether they could see or hear a bird followed by a series of questions on their mental well-being. Participants were also asked questions about whether they could see trees, plants or hear any water to see if people were experiencing better mental well-being due to being in or seeing nature, and not just because of exposure to birds.

According to the study, the mental well-being of study participants with and without depression was significantly improved after seeing a bird or hearing birdsong compared to not seeing or hearing a bird.

There is a growing number of studies that link spending time outdoors (either in green leafy places or next to bodies of water) to improved mental health. But there are few studies that look at how different aspects of nature can play into humans’ mental well-being.

And while the study adds to the small pile of research on birds and mental health, the report marks the first time researchers have studied the responses to birds and mental well-being in real-time, according to Ryan Hammoud, lead author of the study.

“They kind of examine nature as a single object when nature includes many different characteristics and features like trees, plants, water, birds,” said Hammoud, “We choose to focus on bird life to try and understand which specific characteristics of nature benefit mental well-being.”

4 . Do Animals Have Friends?

When you see little animals playing together around a tree, or a cat and dog sleeping together in the living room, do you ever think — are they friends? One expert, Mike, believes that many animals do have friends. If they’re in the same group, they greet one another, travel together, play together and even share food with each other.     1    

Playing together helps animals keep them close to the group. Wild dogs who don’t play much are more likely to leave the group on their own.     2     If an animal has a special friend, both friends benefit by having someone to watch out for them. In the case of a young rhino (犀牛) going on its first journey, it may look for an older travel friend.     3    

Sharing is another important part of friendship. For all animals, finding food is a matter of life and death. For some bats in Central and South America, if they don’t get a blood meal every three days, they die of hunger.     4     If a bat doesn’t find food, a full bat will throw up some blood from its stomach into the mouth of the hungry friend.

But sometimes members of a group also compete for food and mates, which can lead to fights. So making up after fights is a key skill. Sometimes after two male monkeys have a fight, they will sit apart, avoiding each other.     5     An older female monkey may need to step in to play peace-maker. She will walk up to one of them, kiss or touch him, then slowly walk toward the other. Then she sits close to the second male. Both start grooming (梳毛) her. When she leaves, they continue to groom each other, as if to say, “We’re cool now.”

5 . Rescue Dog Frida played an important role in many natural disasters. She saved many people during her working life. Now she has moved on to a more peaceful life after her huge contribution.

Frida is a 10-year-old yellow dog. She spent her life helping rescue survivors around the world after natural disasters. And now she’s finally exchanging her working equipment for something else: a dog toy.

After a long career saving people’s lives, Frida has retired from rescue work, according to Mexico’s government. While she has found at least 41 bodies and a dozen people alive over her career, the dog became well-known after a deadly earthquake in Mexico in 2017.

Frida and her trainer were called in after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that rocked Mexico City in 2017. The dog worked with other rescue dogs and became a symbol of hope for many in the area during the time. Fifteen dogs were called in during the search, but Frida was the most popular on social media.

Last summer, a statue of her was shown at a park in Puebla City. Next to her statue (雕像) is a statue of her trainer, Israel Arauz. A plaque (牌匾) in front of the two reads: “Memorable symbols of the strength Mexicans can have when we decide to come together for great causes.”

In addition to her famous work after the 2017 earthquake, she also worked on two international groups after earthquakes in Haiti and Ecuador. Frida’s retirement was part of the navy’s “International Day of the Rescuer”. She was given a toy at the ceremony to celebrate her retirement. Frida stole the heart of all Mexico and thousands more abroad. Her bark (犬吠声) always gave hope.

7 . Researchers in Israel have found that tomato and tobacco plants that are dealing with stress factors make a popping sound that can be detected over 3 feet away, a reaction that seems similar to a human yelling in pain.

Plants were previously known to produce ultrasonic vibrations (超声波振动), but the new work notes that the sounds produced by at least two plants are airborne. The team’s work is published in Cell. “We know that there’s a lot of ultrasound out there—every time you use a microphone, you find that a lot of materials produce sounds that we humans cannot hear-but the fact that plants are making these sounds opens a brand new access of opportunities for us to eavesdrop (窃听)and use these sounds,” said Yossi Yovel, a neuro-ecologist and a co-author of the paper.

The researchers recorded tomato and tobacco plants in a soundproof room and in an ordinary greenhouse. They troubled the plants by not watering them for a few days and by stem cutting; both approaches caused pop- or click-like sounds from the plants. Unstressed plants also made sounds, but far fewer; the stressed plants sent out between 30 and 50 clicks per hour.

The team thinks the sounds may be caused by air bubbles in the plants’ vascular systems. It’s not clear whether the sounds serve any purpose, such as an attempt to communicate with other organisms. The pop sounds are beyond human ear frequencies but fall within the range that other mammals, insects, and perhaps other plants could pick them up.

“For example, a moth that intends to lay eggs on a plant or an animal that intends to eat a plant could use the sounds to help guide their decision.”

Besides tomato and tobacco plants, the corn, wheat, grape and cactus plants were also found to make sounds.

The researchers are still out on plant intelligence, but some experts do think that plants are conscious in their own way. Plenty more work will need to be done to understand the exact nature of these sounds.