2 . Science is increasingly central to our lives — from its role in creating day-to-day objects such as the smartphones in our pockets, to the big challenges of tackling disease, addressing climate change and focusing on biodiversity loss.

Many of the changes that the discipline brings are hugely beneficial, but they often come with potential downsides that demand public debate. Will artificial intelligence take people’s jobs or destroy elections with false news? How fast can we practically achieve a net zero economy?

For the crucial public debate that is needed on all this to take place, we must have a scientifically literate population. But there is a divide between the scientifically minded and those who choose not to engage with science.

It saddens me that our culture now views science as difficult, which discourages many from taking an interest in it. A British Science Association (BSA) survey recently suggested that only around a third of 14- to 18-year-olds find scientists inspirational or consider the subject to be relevant to their lives.

In fact, science is interlinked with every aspect of our existence and people from all walks of life and of all ages should be able to access it easily. The invention of the printing press was crucial to the Enlightenment because it democratised (普及) knowledge. So, in this increasingly science-centred world, the same attention should be given to popular science writing as is given to other forms of literature.

The Royal Society Science Book Prize is the only one in the world to promote popular science writing. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, which was shortlisted (把……列入入围名单) for the prize in 1989, was written for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics and has since become a universally recognised text on the universe.

Democratising science has never been more important. There are so many scientific stories to be told that can help us better understand ourselves. A society equipped with a solid understanding of the issues of the day is a society more able to respond to them in a better way.

4 . If you frequent any kind of public transportation, then you’re well aware of certain types of passengers and passenger habits that are annoying. But it’s not just other passengers that get angry, there are certain things that drive the train attendant crazy.     1    . Maybe next time you’ll be able to spot the people doing some of these on the train.

We’ve all been there in that moment when someone boards a train trying to take several huge items with them to wherever they’re trying to go. They wind up taking up way too much space and blocking seats.    2    . Train attendants are the ones who bear the brunt of it (首当其冲) because they have to figure out how to deal with this person’s stuff without upsetting all the other passengers. It adds unnecessary conflict and makes the attendant’s job much harder.

    3    . It’s a totally different thing to be eating a big meal consisting of last night’s dinner leftovers. Not only is it typically unsettling for other passengers who then have to smell leftover chicken and whatever else you’re eating, but it’s bound to make a mess that attendants will then have to clean up after they depart the train.

For some reason, people have a bad habit of talking very loudly to one another to a point where you can hear them from opposite sides of the train cart (车厢). This goes for playing music as well. Some people like to play music through their phone. This really bothers fellow passengers on the train.     5    ? The train attendant.

5 . Airports are finding new ways to reduce travel stress, from eye-catching aesthetics (美学) to improved passenger flow. At Singapore’s Changi Airport, passengers get a close-up view of the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.

As you enter the airport, you look up at a large screen. Rather than showing dozens of arrivals and departures, the monitor greets you by name and tell you where and how far to walk to catch your flight. That’s the scene today in an area of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The personalized screens are part of a new generation of technologies rapidly being used in airports around the world as cities make up for delays (延误) and compete for travelers.

“Every airport wan wants a ‘wow’ factor — something people will remember after passing through,” says Darin Friedmann, Vice President and Head of Transportation Systems for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, a leader in automated people movers (APMs) at airports. The automated I people movers built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries move more than 100 million people worldwide each year. New generations of these driverless electric trains feature oversized windows on all sides (including the doors), and HD video screens.

“In the past airports planning for people movers were focused just on getting people from here to there reliably,” says Friedmann. “Now they’re really taking the aesthetics seriously, too. After all, these trains provide travelers’ first and last impression of a city.”

Detroit’s personalized monitors are just one of many innovations designed to increase the flow of travelers through key airport choke points (阻塞点). Already, biometrics (生物识别技术) can help speed passengers through security. Before long, auto main and AI will route luggage more efficiently and reduce human error, while apps using geolocation will shout the information travelers need in real time: Exit the train at the next station; walk to the right for seven minutes to reach your gate,

In other words, today’s air travelers may be waiting in long lines, but they have something to look forward to. The airport of the future, a destination offering less stress, moments of beauty and all-around smarter travel, is arriving now.

6 . Most of us have at least a few prized possessions we’d have trouble letting go of. But those with a hoarding disorder are forced to hold onto the majority of their belongings, even when doing so means severely messy surroundings that decrease their quality of life and threaten their safety through the risk of fire or personal injury.

The hoarding disorder is an under-recognized condition. “People with a hoarding disorder are often hesitant to seek or stay in treatment because of anxiety,” says Marla Deibler, a clinical psychologist based in Princeton, New Jersey. Now scientists at Stanford University are exploring a new treatment to help individuals with a hoarding disorder.

The recent pilot study shows that therapy powered by a virtual reality headset and handheld controllers can help those who hoard to practice letting go of their possessions using a simulation (模拟) of their homes before they clean the space in real life.

The study was conducted over 16 weeks and allowed its participants — all diagnosed with a hoarding disorder — to enter virtual models of their homes to practice sorting and discarding (丢弃) items to which they felt attached. The virtual layout of their homes and possessions was created with photos uploaded to create a 3D simulation, so the items were known and valued by each participant before they practiced throwing them out.

“Seventy-eight percent of participants noted virtual reality helped them increase real-life discarding,” says Carolyn Rodriguez, the lead author of the study. Such results are promising, especially when the study’s participants ranged in age from 60 to 73 years old — the group in which hoarding is most common.

The Stanford study builds on work done at the University of Chicago, published in 2020, which also showed that individuals struggling with a hoarding disorder were motivated to have a clean environment by using virtual reality to explore their homes. The uniqueness of the Stanford research, however, lies in the opportunity it has provided for participants to take part in the discarding process — a crucial step in emotionally separating themselves from each item.

7 . Volunteers are the lifeblood of nonprofit (非营利的) organizations, but COVID-19 makes it difficult for them to take part, especially for older people. As a result, nonprofit organizations are meeting the challenge of finding new, safe ways to engage with older volunteers.

“COVID-19 has been a real blow to most communities, seriously blocking volunteer participation, but our society needs the talent of these people,” said Marc Freedman, the founder of Encore.org, a nonprofit trying to bridge generational divides. “We know from decades of research that strong social connections and a reason to get up in the morning are key to our well-being as we age,” he added. “So we need to give up the idea of ‘stay safe and stay out of the way.’”

Like so much of life in COVID-19, volunteer work has largely moved online. But technology can be a barrier for many older adults — both those who offer and those who receive volunteer services. They are less likely to get and take advantage of the latest technology. Last year 59 percent of Americans age 65 and older had broadband (宽带) Internet connections, about 20 percentage points fewer than those in younger age groups.

None of that has stopped elderly volunteers like Paula Brynen, a 65-year-old Los Angeles resident. Before COVID-19, she volunteered for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS’s) Light The Night, an annual fund-raising walk at which participants carry glowing lanterns. Ms. Brynen would help out with setting up the event; nowadays, she focuses on another task. “They usually give volunteers a small list of calls to make,” she said, “but because I worked in fund-raising and have no problem ringing up, they gave me 50 names this year.”

Meanwhile, she is working as a mentor (导师) with Table Wisdom, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that matches older adults with students and young professionals. She connects each week via Zoom with a young environmental engineer in Colombia. “We talk about politics and movie recommendations — I’ve learned a lot about Colombia, and she’s learned about things like Los Angeles’s culture.”

8 . When is a kid not a kid anymore? If you asked my 12-year-old daughter, the magical age would be 13, when you can no longer be considered a “child”. If you asked my 15-year-old niece, the age would be 16, when she will be able to drive a car and get an after-school job. According to the U. S. government, a child officially becomes an adult when they turn 18. That’s when they can vote. But even though an 18-year-old starts paying taxes, the government does not consider that person mature enough to buy a beer. Still, even a kid who can buy a beer is not old enough to rent a car.

Scientists have learned from a new study that when kids are around 18, their prefrontal cortex, which helps control impulses, solve problems, and organize behavior, is only halfway developed. That’s not to say that kids in their late teens and early 20s can’t take on these tasks, but it means that it’s harder for them to do so - at least until around age 25 or so when this area of the brain fully develops.

“What we’re really saying is that to have a definition of when you move from childhood to adulthood looks absurd,” Peter Jones from the University of Cambridge said. “It’s a much more nuanced (微妙的) change that takes place over thirty years.”

This isn’t a news flash for parents who have watched their teens take crazy risks while seeming unable to get their lives together until they’re older. But this information throws new light on the way kids without as much support are treated. In the foster (寄养的) care system, once a child turns 18, he can no longer receive state-backed support. And many people think this is too early for a teen to be on his own, especially a teen who has experienced a painful childhood. Because of this, some foster care advocates think it makes more sense for 25 to be the new legal age of adulthood.

9 . While an analysis of the Global Dietary Database for the years 1990, 2005, and 2018 found overall consumption of sweetened drinks increased—by nearly 16% worldwide over the 28-year period studied—regional intake widely varied, researchers say.

Sugary drinks have been widely associated with overweight and heart related diseases, which are among the leading causes of death and years lost to disability globally. Many national guidelines recommend limiting added sugars to less than 5% to 10% of daily calories, and because sodas (汽水) add no nutritional value, some countries tax their consumption to help their residents meet this goal.

The study, published in Nature Communications, is the latest presentation of how adults in 185 countries drink sugar-sweetened beverages (饮料). Intakes varied widely by world region. In 2018, the average person consumed 2.7 servings of sugary drinks per week, but this ranged from 0.7 servings per week in South Asia to 7.8 servings per week in Latin America. And some of the highest sugary drink intakes in the world were among urban, highly educated adults in Sub-Saharan Africa (12.4 servings per week) and in Latin America (8.5 servings per week). “We were struck by the wide variations by world regions in 2018; that Latin America had the largest intakes at all time points despite an overall decrease overtime; and that Sub-Saharan Africa had the greatest increases across all time points,” says Laura Lara-Castor, a PhD candidate at Tufts University.

“These results suggest that more work is needed such as marketing regulations, food labeling, and soda taxes.” Information from the Global Dietary Database, which gathers hundreds of survey results, also revealed a relationship between sugary beverages and socio-economic status. “Sugar-sweetened beverage intake has increased in the past few decades despite efforts to decrease their appeal,” says researchers. “Some populations are especially easily affected, and our findings provide evidence to inform the need and design of national and more targeted policies to reduce their intake worldwide.”