3 . Vaccination(接种疫苗) is among the most effective ways to help us prevent diseases. For viruses that don't change too much—the measles virus(麻疹病毒), for example—getting vaccinated is a once-and-for-all method to prevent you from becoming infected with the virus. If you had two measles vaccines when you were a child, you would be protected for life.

However, it's a different story when it comes to influenza(流行性感冒), commonly known as “the flu”, which generally peaks between December and February. Flu vaccines cannot protect us in the long term.

There is no long-term immunity(免疫), according to Theodore Strange, associate medical director at Staten Island University Hospital in New York. “The virus essentially ‘changes its coat’—H1N1, H2N3, and so on,” he told the website Healthline.

Apart from a person's immune protection from flu vaccination declining over time, flu viruses are also constantly changing. So the vaccines are likely to be updated from one season to the next to protect against the viruses that research suggests may be the most common during the upcoming flu season.

Thus, to develop effective flu vaccines, over 100 national influenza centers around the world conduct year-round surveillance(监测) for influenza. Researchers will test thousands of influenza virus samples from patients, according to the official website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC). The World Health Organization also suggests there are three or four influenza viruses that are most likely to spread among people during the upcoming flu season.

But even when a vaccine is developed, getting it can prove to be difficult, as it is in high demand and short supply. The timing of influenza vaccine production and distribution is unpredictable, thus the availability of the flu vaccine supply does not always meet peak demand.

So scientists prioritize access to the vaccination. The CDC recommends key populations, such as medical staff, teachers, students, children and those aged 60 and above, receive flu vaccines.

This year the situation seems more complicated, as the upcoming flu season coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic. This could overwhelm hospitals, straining(过度使用) resources and healthcare workers, time.

7 . Humans make mistakes. Even very experienced surgeons are not infallible. But what if these doctors could combine their knowledge with experience together and create a surgical standard of care, to be performed by machines?

That's the idea behind surgical robots, which may soon carry out most surgeries, from sewing up tiny wounds to performing heart procedures. Lots of these operations are actually already completed with the assistance of robots. However, a recent test suggests that robots in the operating room may soon go a step further, performing on soft tissue completely on their own, from the beginning to the end.

The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot(STAR) has succeeded in completing surgeries on pigs. "We're the first to test out autonomous robotic surgery with soft-tissue surgery, and when compared to standard operation, it's better," says Peter Kim, a professor of surgery. "Our purpose is not to replace surgeons, but it will make the surgeons better and make the procedures safer."

A recent Mayo Clinic study discovered that most surgical errors-including operating on the wrong site or side of the body, or even leaving tools or objects inside the patient-occur every one out of 22,000 procedures. Though that's rare, robots like STAR would aim to lower the number even further.

In the surgical system called da Vinci, surgeons lay their arms inside instruments and use their hands to control the movement of robotic tools on the operating table from afar. Surgeons control the robot's every major move, and thus its results may vary based on the surgeon's training or experience.

On the other hand, STAR is entirely autonomous. Not only is it able to work on its own and perform surgeries with a more flexible "hand", but it's also able to react to the unexpected incidents. Cutting into hard tissue like bones is one thing, but operating on moving soft tissue is far more complex. STAR can respond to a changing environment, which is similar to how self-driving cars are programmed to not only drive on the high way, but also react to another driver who makes a mistake and gets in your way.

10 . Scientist at University College London have discovered sets of regulatory genes, which are responsible for maintaining healthy hearing. The finding, made in fruit flies, could lead to treatments for age-related hearing loss (ARHL) in humans.

Globally, one-third of people aged over 65 experience hearing impairment, and while there are thought to be more than 150 genes that may affect hearing loss, there is no unified (统一的) view on how to use these to develop hearing loss treatments.

In the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers are at the UCL Ear Institute assessed the hearing ability of the common fruit fly across its life span (around 70 days) to see if their hearing declines with age.

A fruit fly’s ears share many molecular (分子的) similarities with the ears of humans, making it an ideal tool for the study of human hearing loss.

Researchers found that the antennal ears of fruit flies also display ARHL with nearly all sensitive hearing measures starting to decline after 50 days of age. This made the researchers want to know if there were any “age-variable” genes in the flies’ inner ears which have kept the ears healthy for 50 days of their lives.

After closer examination, researchers identified a new set of regulatory genes-homeostasis genes. These genes are often responsible for picking up sound and the overall sensitivity of the ear. Using this information, scientists were then able to genetically modify (修改) the genes and prevent the flies from getting ARHL.

Professor Joerg Albert, lead author of the study, said: “While many studies have been conducted into the hearing function of fruit flies, ours is the first to look at the mechanistic and molecular detail of their auditory life course.”

“The fact that these genes are conserved in humans will also help to focus future clinical research in humans and thereby accelerate the discovery of new pharmacological or gene-therapeutic strategies.”