1 . The project, called Nemo’s Garden, is the brainchild of Sergio Gamberini, a chemical engineer who runs a scuba (水肺) diving business. In 2013, he was chatting with local farmers when he came up with the idea. Several days later, he dived to the bottom of Noli’s bay and placed a vase with seeds inside a plastic balloon. After 48 hours, the seeds were coming up and Gamberini decided to scale up the experiment.

Nemo’s Garden’s key innovation, a sub-water biosphere, is a unique type of underwater greenhouse. It can use the ocean’s positive environmental factors, temperature stability, evaporative water generation, CO₂ absorption, the abundance of oxygen, and inherent protection from pests, to create an environment ideal for crop cultivation. The plants are fed by a hydroponic (水耕法) system. Water is generated from salt-water evaporating and then condensing (冷凝), so no additional fresh water source is required. Additional power for lighting, pumps and sensors is provided by wind generators and solar panels situated on the surface. This makes the entire set-up completely eco-friendly and self-sustaining.

Inside the biosphere, it is even more impressive. Each dome has a shelf running the entire circumference on which plants, equipment and tools can be placed. There is oxygen, carbon dioxide and humidity sensors, radio communication, lights, a fresh-water hose and to top it all off, Wi-Fi. You can control everything in the dome via an app on your phone from the surface. You can turn the lights on, check the conditions and even watch a live video stream of the plants growing.

Gianni Fontanesi, Nemo’s Garden project manager, has logged nearly a thousand dives to perform underwater farming. He says that being inside the greenhouse is like being in an aquarium turned inside out: “You are the fish looking out into the outside world.”

2 . Despite the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines (疫苗), so many people died in the second year of the pandemic in the US that the nation’s life expectancy dropped for a second year in a row last year, according to a new analysis.

The analysis of government statistics found US life expectancy fell by just under half a year in 2021, adding to a dramatic drop in life expectancy that occurred in 2020. Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of population health and health expert at Virginia Commonwealth University, who helped conduct the analysis, said many of the deaths occurred in people in the prime of their lives. And Woolf added that it drove the overall US life expectancy to fall to 76.6 years—the lowest in at least 25 years.

“Shame on the US,” said Noreen Goldman, a professor at Princeton University. The 2021 drop came after US life expectancy fell in 2020, dropping by almost two years. It’s unclear why this happened, but Woolf and others thought it may be due in part to some Americans more likely to live in states with fewer restrictions, so they let down their guard more, while often refusing to get vaccinated.

“The deaths that occurred in 2021 were a product not only of a lack of COVID-19 vaccines, which was a factor, but also being in places that didn’t observe policies like masking and social distancing that prevented spread of the virus, which was the main reason,” Woolf said.

The 2021 drop also widened the gap in life expectancy between the US and other countries, the analysis found. That was due primarily to lower vaccination rates in the US, researchers said. The researchers also said a big part of that was fewer restrictions and more vaccine hesitation in the US, which resulted in lower vaccination rates and a much higher death number. The other health problems like heart attack and overweight also played a role, they said.

“We spent a fortune on medical care and we’re a high-income country. Our government should be able to do far better,” Goldman said.

3 . The garment (服装) industry is one of the largest carbon polluters on planet Earth, and one of the greatest producers of waste. Three out of five of the 100 billion garments made in 2018 ended up in landfill within a year. Toxic chemicals land in the environment and worker communities, and the production of cotton uses up vast amounts of water.

The business model of fast fashion has led to an enormous increase in the amounts of clothes that are produced, sold, and thrown. According to McKinsey, clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, and the average consumer buys 60% more garments each year. At the same time, these clothes are kept only half as long as they were a mere fifteen years ago.

About 100 billion items of clothing are produced each year; that’s nearly 14 items for every human being on the planet. Some of those never even reach the consumers; it caused a minor anger when in 2018 a luxury brand admitted to burning clothes just to protect the brand.

Yet, with clothes being so cheap, people do not wear at least 50 percent of their wardrobes, according to this study. The clothing and footwear industries together account for more than 8 percent of global climate influence, greater than all international airline flights and oceanic shipping trips combined. Water usage for growing cotton has led to huge lack of water, and coloring and treatment of garments make up 17%—20% of all industrial water pollution.

An industry that makes billions on the use of the planet does not suddenly become more sustainable (可持续的) when they start using organic cotton, or start burning their unsold goods (remember—people worked really hard for very little money on those clothes!) as a green fuel…

4 . Children’s books for those under age five often embrace science. Well before they enter their first classroom, children eagerly explore their environment in search of answers to an endless stream of why and how questions.

Roughly 1,100 books begin with “How do...”. Of those, approximately one tenth are about engineering and science (e.g. How Do Airplanes Fly? and How Do Animals Move?). In that tenth, the vast majority (well over 90%) are children’s books.

Children seem to be more interested in the hows and whys of the world than adults. A burst of research in the last decade confirms the apparent pattern in book titles. From three to six years of age, children ask many how and why questions, but then those questions decrease quickly during the elementary school years and beyond.

Most children’s spontaneous (自发的) love of science fades by adulthood. Is it a problem with science itself? Despite some claims to that, the real cause is a decline in wonder. Wonder is the engine that drives exploration and discovery, and when it disappears, a strong feeling of love for the workings of the world melts away.

Every child wants to know how the world works. We are all born with wonder — with curious minds, fascinated by the world around us. Young children and even infants are naturally engaging in intuitive science every day, often with complex methods.

This loss of wonder is not because we suddenly understand everything — we don’t — but because distrust, disengagement, and denial can become embedded into many aspects of our lives. Besides, the consequences (影响) of this loss of wonder are profound. Because loss of wonder can lead to especially poor understandings of underlying mechanisms, we become vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation (操纵) by others. Even worse, abandonment of wonder will take away the rewarding joy of discovery from us.

This loss of wonder, however, is not inevitable. We can all take simple action to reawaken that initial spark and live lives lit by wonder.

Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Education announced a new policy focusing on the reduction of exams to ease the burden on students.

6 . Generation Z athletes have emerged in 2021 as global well-being leaders and advocates, challenging outdated ideas about what it takes to be an athlete. Many of these young sportspeople have gone beyond their sport. Through social media, they have opened up conversations about performance, mental health and the impact of the media.

Performing at the highest level can put huge amounts of pressure on young athletes. Simone Biles decided to put her mental health first at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when she withdrew from an event.

The emergence of the athlete’s authentic voice during their career is new and growing. Social media has expanded and accelerated a properly authentic voice that is also more personal and openly political. These generation Z players, born into or at the top of the social media boom, can connect directly with their millions of followers on social media to share personal insights.

It is unusual for active athletes to be so transparent about their health — particularly, their mental health. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Biles made a rare exception. She used social media to explain an attack of the “twisties” and the impact on her performance and mental health. This disrupted the narrative of victory at all costs.

By taking control of their own stories, these athletes have broken the idea that top sports stars — with their extreme athleticism, dedication and seeming invincibility — are somehow superhuman. Elite athletes carry enormous burdens of responsibility and winning doesn’t come before everything else. As Simone Biles made clear: “We are not just entertainment. We are human.”