A new camera made by a company named Netatmo has facial recognition software(识别系统)that can tell parents at work that their children have returned from school, or that a package has been taken to their home. It can also tell them if a stranger has entered their home.
Janina Mattausch is a product marketing manager for Netatmo.
“The common security(安全)cameras at present are not that smart. So, they can tell you if something is moving but they don't necessarily know if it's a human being or, ah, if it's your kids—they don't' know the difference, so they will warn you all the time.”
When family members enter a home, the new camera "recognizes" (识别 ) them and sends information to the owner's smartphone. The owner can choose to see the video then or later. But if an unknown person enters a home, the camera will send the owner a warning that will cause an alarm to sound on the owner's smartphone.
That is what happened recently to a smart home camera owner named Darrmen. He lives in Paris.
"On a Friday I was at work, attending a big monthly meeting when my phone warned. At first I told myself 'Oh, it must be a mistake, maybe I have to set the system again. “But the notice on my phone was telling me that there was a movement in my flat and also a face that the software did not recognize.”
He watched the video and was very surprised by what he saw.
"I saw a person I did not know with his shoes on. I was watching it live on video. So I felt totally unbelievable, frozen. I asked a workmate to take me back home as fast as possible and I called the police on the way. "
With the help of the video, the police found the intruder (闯入者) later that day.
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The world's most human-like robot has begun work as a university receptionist. And scientists positively predict the new technology will 1 provide childcare and offer 2 to lonely elderly people.
With her soft skin and flowing dark-brown hair, Nadine does not only meet and greet3, smile, make eye contact and 4 hands, but she can even5 past guests and get into conversation based on 6 chats.
Unlike 7 robots, Nadine has her own personality and 8 . She can be happy or sad, 9 on the topic.
Powered by intelligent 10 similar to Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana, she is the creation of scientists at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and is based on her creator Prof Nadia Thalmann.
Prof Thalmann, the director of the Institute for Media Innovation who led the development said robots such as Nadine are bound to become more visible in offices and 11 in future.
“Robotics technologies have 12 significantly over the past few decades and are already being used in manufacturing and logistics,” she said.
“As countries worldwide face 13 of an aging population, 14 robots can be one solution to 15 the shrinking(缩小的) workforce, become personal 16 for children and the elderly at home, and 17 serve as a platform for healthcare services in future.”
“Over the past four years, our team at NTU have been 18 cross-disciplinary(跨学科的) research in social robotics technologies— involving engineering, computer science, linguistics, psychology and other19 — to transform a virtual human(虚拟的人), from within a computer, into a 20 being that is able to observe and interact with other humans.”
Just as we take care of our friends and families, our homes and Mother Earth take care of us. Our homes give us a place of shelter (庇护物) that 1 between us and the rest of the world. The earth is a(n) 2 giver of life and the keeper of our physical and spiritual needs. Her rich 3 bring us up, give us air, and offer us cooling shade. Her waters 4 our thirst. Yet it is easy to take both of these wonderful 5 of our gifts for granted. 6 the thanks you feel toward your home and Mother Earth for the gifts each 7 you. It can help you stay 8 of where many of the gifts in your life come from. Each time you give thanks, you'll be 9 of the importance of caring for your home and for Mother Earth. There is a simple and beautiful 10 you can find to show your thanks. Begin by finding a 11 place where you can be alone. Sit comfortably and breathe deeply 12 you feel relaxed and then read the following out loud:
"Thank you, home, for allowing me to live 13 your walls. Thank you for allowing me to stay strong and 14 me. Thank you, Mother Earth, for the land I 15 on and farm. Thank you, plants, minerals, and animals on the land for allowing me to 16 your beauty and your amazement of life, and for the 17 of living with all of you on this earth. Thank you for the wisdom and 18 you bring to us."
You can do so as often as you like and anytime you feel particularly thankful for the many gifts that you have 19. Each time you do, you'll strengthen your connection with all that 20 and supports you.
Why did the orangutan（猩猩）cross the road? That's not the start of a joke, but a question being asked by scientists studying these brilliant apes.
Brent Loken, who runs a group called Integrated Conservation, used camera traps to research into orangutans. That group protects 1 animals in Borneo, the largest island in Asia. Camera traps work by taking a quick photo, when something moves in front of them. In Borneo, scientists use the photos to 2 what the rare orangutans do when people aren't 3?
Scientists have been studying orangutans in the rainforests for decades. And their data had suggested that the animals almost always traveled through the 4. They were 5seen walking on the forest floor. Yet when Loken looked at the photos from his team's camera traps, he got surprised that the apes were walking on the ground, 6 using logging roads（运材道路）and paths built by people.
Were these animals simply 7to walk on the ground because logging had left too many 8? Or did they 9 down logging roads as convenient shortcut? “More10 is needed,”
People are removing trees for logging, plantations and the building of the cities. The new findings suggest orangutans might be able to learn to 11with some of these changes in their 12. It doesn't mean the animals can survive 13 forests. But it does suggest there might be ways to log forests in a way that won't greatly14 these apes.
Stephanie Spehar, primatologist at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, agrees. “The new study doesn't mean they're fine in areas with no trees,” she says. “Orangutans clearly need the forest to 15.
Almost everyone wants to get smarter. We struggle to improve our 1, intelligence and attention. We drink cup after cup of coffee to help us 2 the day.
3, a new study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science warns that there are 4 to how smart humans can get.
Each of our body parts develops in a certain way for a reason. 5 we are not 3 meters tall 6 most people's hearts are not strong enough to send 7 up that high. Scientists say that our thinking ability works in the same way. A baby's brain size is limited by a series of 8 , such as the size of the mother's pelvis(骨盆). If our brains developed to be bigger, there could be more 9 during childbirth.
The study of Jews, who have an average IQ much 10 than other Europeans, showed they were more 11 to develop diseases of the 12 system. This might be because of their increased brainpower.
If intelligence cannot be improved, can we at least get better at 13? Not really, say scientists. They studied 14 like caffeine(咖啡因) that improve attention. They found the drugs only helped people with serious 15 problems. For those who did not have trouble paying attention, the drugs could have the 16 effect. Scientists say that this suggests there is a(n) 17 limit to how much people can or should concentrate.
Our memory is also a "double-edged sword". People with extremely good memories could 18 having a difficult life because they cannot 19 bad things that happen to them.
Thomas Hills, one of the authors of the paper, said that 20 all the problems in trying to get smarter, it's unlikely that there will ever be a "super mind".
Keeping The Taps Running in Thirsty Cities
Water covers 71% of Earth's surface yet only 2% of it is accessible as a source of fresh water. 1 on this limited resources is rising, a trend likely to continue.
It is important to recognize that it is not just city residents who 2 water. Agriculture, industry and tourism often require more water than the municipal water supply. Globally, 70% of fresh water is 3 for agriculture, but locally in heavily irrigated(灌溉)areas this can increate to 90%. A healthy environment also requires fresh water, and the quality of available water is as important as its 4.
Water stress is not always caused by physical shortages in dry areas. 5 for water resources between different users within river catchments or basins can also be a cause.
Every thirsty city operates within its own context, 6 to the challenge of providing adequate water supplies. Cape Town, 7, has faced three years of drought during which winter rains failed to materialize. At the end of the 2017 rainy season the city faced the 8 of its dams running dry during 2018. The dams were only 37% full—in the same week four years before they were full to the top. In January 2018, it was 9 that Cape Town would reach Day Zero, when it would be forced to turn off the taps, in April. This was despite the city reducing its water use by more than half, from 1.2 billion litres a day in 2015 to fewer than 600 million litres, and working 10 with industry and agriculture to reduce demand.
On February 1, the authorities put in place a strict limit of 50 litres of water per person per day. 11, in Britain this is considered enough for a five-minute shower of half a washing machine cycle on full load.
In addition, a ban was placed on using 12 water for gardens, water management devices were installed at household with a high water use and the water pressure was reduced to cut demand and leaks. At the same, the city launched a media 13 to change habits and introduced higher duties. This is not without its costs; agriculture and tourism, both significant areas of employment, have 14. It is a classic example of the problem of water economics-the cost of water is low but the cost of a lack of water is very high.
Crises such as the Cape Town drought are in danger of becoming the new norm. The 15 of Day Zero must serve as a wake-up call for cities across the world to develop cost-effective water management strategies to cope with an uncertain future.
She wasn't aiming to make history. But in the late 1990s, when Sumita Mitra, a chemist at 3M, 1 to use nanotechnology(纳米技术) to improve dental (牙齿的) fillings, that's exactly what happened. Now 2in dental offices— and almost every mouth, her fillings are certainly one of the life-changing 3.
Any invention starts with a 4 and so did Mitra's fillings. Before the mid-1990s, fillings came in two different 5. One wasn't strong enough for stress-bearing 6 of the teeth like biting surfaces, and the other was strong but could become rough from 7 and chewing. Dentists often had to use two types of materials for every filling, which 8 problems.
In the 1990s, nanotechnology became a growing field for scientific advances. Mitra thought that 9 nanoparticles(纳米粒子) could be used to make a filling, the result would both look nice and be able to 10 wear and tear. Mitra didn't have much 11 with nanotechnology, but scientists at 3M's research labs were 12 with it for other uses. She joined them and 13 some very unique combinations of nanoparticles. Realizing that nanoparticles could 14 all the requirements was one significant moment, but the 15to combine nanoparticles was the big breakthrough. Nanoparticles are all the same size, and Mitra realized that she could 16them like a bunch of grapes. The work was groundbreaking and 17 the creation of a famous product— the 3M Filtek Supreme Universal Restorative. The product was the first successful 18of nanotechnology in dental material and the first commercial application of nanotechnology at 3M.
Though the invention isn't 19 used in other fields, it has really taken dentistry by storm. Patients and dentists are 20with it.
What's all this tree一 planting for? "I was asked when I began writing about 1 a piece of land I had bought in Somerset. The truth is, I just love trees. And I am not 2. As I get older, all I really 3 is to plant trees , Prince Charles says in a BBC documentary in which he is 4 in the wood he planted on the day Prince George was born.
There are 5 and wonderful trees in our cities and villages. They were planted, or self- sown, years, even centuries ago. We take them for granted, 6 the creatures living among them, remain in ignorance of the 7 trees are doing us(cleaning the air, for instance) and cut them down for new 8. Yet we keep a feeling of 9 for them. This may account for the 10 the government faced in 2010 when it sought to sell off publicly owned woods, and for the wide support that the Woodland Trust (a tree-protecting charity) 11.
Trees need 12, which is why I, a city-resident, bought my Somerset woodland in 1999. At that time, climate change was already well proved, 13 my hopes of planting long-lived oaks and pines gradually developed into anxiety about their 14. Tree diseases new to the UK, wind, drought and flood were all 15 against them.
But I did not 16 things to move so fast. The woodland is still good, the new trees are growing like mad, but the creatures are 17. The rabbits have disappeared and the owl has moved. The bees and butterflies are 18 there but in smaller numbers. How can this happen on land 19 pesticides (杀虫剂)? Surely, it indicates we need to give nature the chance to restore its own 20. Meanwhile, I love my wood, and so do many of its visitors. And tree-planting has done wonders for restoring my balance town and country.
Making choices is hard. That would be why researcher Moran Cerf has 1it from his life. As a rule, he always chooses the second menu item at a restaurant.
This is2by his research in neuroeconomics(神经经济学) (a somewhat new, divisive field) at Northwestern University. As Business Insider describes, Cerf has extended his ideas--which draw on some controversial ideas in psychology, including ego depletion out--into a piece of advice that, to 3 happiness, people should "build a life that requires 4 decisions by surrounding themselves with people who possess traits they prefer.
On an instinctive level, Cerf's idea 5: Many choices people make are the product of social pressures and the inputs of 6 people around them. One example Cerf furnishes is that, 7 consistently ordering the second menu item, he never picks where to eat. Rather, he 8 his decision to his dining partner--which friend he plans to eat with, probably one he trusts--and always lets them pick.
While it's 9 what, if any, scientific principles underlie those pieces of advice, there is no shortage of research showing that choices can sometimes feel more 10 than liberating. An example from Quanta poits (假设) : If you have a clear love of Snickers(士力架), choosing that over an Almond Joy(杏仁巧克力) or a Milky Way(牛奶巧克力) should be a 11. And, as an experiment conducted by neuroscientist Paul Glimcher at NYU shows, most of the time it is, 12 you introduce more choices. When the participants were offered three candy bars (Snickers, Milky Way, and Almond Joy) they had no problem picking their favorite, but when they were given the option of one among 20, including Snickers, they would sometimes drift away from their 13. When the choices were taken away in later trials, the participants would wonder what caused them to make such a bad decision.
As Quanta details, according to a model called "divisive normalization(分裂归一化), which has gained some popularity, the way the brain encodes choices has a lot to do with how it values all its options. So, if you have two things that are clearly 14, brain areas involved in decision-making fire in a pattern that makes the decision clear. When the choices are comparable, the brain does its best to focus on the distinctions between the two, but more choices 15 that ability out.
Ask people to name the world's tallest peak and anybody with sound general knowledge will name Mount Qomolangma. But quiz them on its exact 1and many will be not sure.
In 1975, Chinese surveyors 2 that Mount Qomolangma (Mount Everest) was 8848. 13 meters high. As 3 improved, satellites, photoelectricity, radars and gravity measurement technologies were 4 to get more exact figures. Of course, someone still had to carry 5 to what is the world's rooftop.
In 2005, a Chinese team scaled Qomolangma and found that it was not as high as that, as they 6 the height to be 8844. 43 meters. Scaling Qomolangma is no 7 task. The average air temperature there is -29 degrees Celsius, even four degrees8 than in Antarctica. The snow there is 4 —5 meters thick and hurricane-like 9 blow all the time. Team members were training to 10 the extreme conditions.
In a nutshell, measuring the Qomolangma's height is a tall order, 11 huge amounts of money and human resources, But it is worth the12. Qomolangma is the perfect 13 for observing crustal (地壳的)movements. And changes to the peak's height could 14 whether the two plates are heading toward or away from each other.
Besides, the condition of snow and other natural materials at the top is an indicator of upcoming climate change on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau. That's 15 measuring the Qomolangma's height is so significant. Put to good use, it can benefit mankind.
When we clean the bathroom, we've got all kinds of stuff to help us out: a cleaning solution that removes dirty marks from the shower walls and something in a squeeze bottle that makes the toilet sparkling clean. When all is done, the room is neat and clean,1dirt and bacteria. There's just one problem—the2we used to clean can be harmful to people and the environment. For this reason, many people say that traditional cleaners should be3and replaced with less harmful "green" products.
The problem4the fact that some cleaning products contain harsh chemicals that just aren't healthy for humans, animals, or the planet. Think of the5coming from a factory and getting into the air. The smoke creates air pollution, which harms the environment and makes us feel ill when we breathe it in.6, the chemicals in cleaning products pollute the air and can hurt us when we breathe them in or when they get on our skin. However, not all cleaning products are harmful. Green products, which do not contain harsh chemicals, are said to be good7because they are effective at cleaning and are safe for people and for the planet.
8about chemicals has led many states to require schools and government buildings to use environmentally friendly cleaning products instead of products containing poisonous chemicals. Last year, 10 states required the use of green products and at least 5 other states were considering9in support of these products. A proposed bill would apply to bathroom and floor cleaners, hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels, and etc.
Many green cleaning products are widely available at prices10traditional products. In some cases, manufacturers receive green certifications for products they have long had on the market, and the prices of these products remain low. But not everyone shares the view about the 11of green products. Toilet paper, trash bags and paper towel made from recycled materials can cost up to 20% more than traditional products, said Stephen, director of the Green Cleaning Network.
So,12of the proposed legislation are concerned about the potentially higher costs for some green products. These critics say that states should not determine which products13institutes and agencies must buy, especially if they increase costs, since many universities are already struggling financially. Some states have made compromises (妥 协) to help14concerns about costs. In Wisconsin, a recent adjustment to the bill would give schools and agencies three years instead of one to begin using green products. It would also15 them to quit if they could show that their costs would increase.
Nature Therapy
We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.
—Thoreau
One major difference between our current lifestyle and those of our evolutionary past is an increasing 1 from natural settings with increased urbanization. But does this change have a major impact on our mental health? 2 , a remedy for ill health or low spirits, if the means were available, would be to send someone to the quiet of the country or seashore and away from the bustle of city. The popularity of vacations to beautiful national parks, camping, outward bound, and even breaks for a picturesque walk in a 3 greenspace to clear the mind would speak to some empirical(经验主义）4 that nature does soothe the savage beast. And recently, scientists have been studying the idea of nature therapy with a bit more seriousness than a dashed-off prescription (处方）for a 5.
We are now far 6 from the natural world of our ancestors.... more than 50% of people live in urban areas (increasing to >70% by 2050) increased urbanization is associated with increased levels of mental illness, particularly anxiety and depression. Growing up in a setting correlates with a 7 severe stress response, and exposure to greenspace 8 correlates to a positive effect on well-being in a large two-decade study. Images and sounds of a natural environment can decrease stress in people exposed to negative stimuli. A large survey of mental health and neighborhood greenspace in Wisconsin showed significant correlation between the 9 of nature and lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. There are many studies showing a similar relationships between nature exposure, relaxation, and well-being. But how does exposure to green space help us relax and 10, exactly?
Dr. Gregory Bratman's group at Stanford has published a couple of papers following a small group of healthy volunteers told to for a 5 kilometer walk in the San Francisco Bay area. Half walked along a busy street while the other half went for a/an 11 walk with beautiful views of the mountains and the bay. The nature walk compared to walk along a busy street. Later, the same researchers did MRIs and measured blood flow in brain areas of healthy people who went on a 90 minute walk in the same urban vs. more natural setting. They found that the nature walkers had 12 activity in a particular brain region, the subgenual prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is associated with rumination, or worrying on the same issues over and over, a problem described often in depressive and anxiety disorders.
So there we have it in a world and environment where our brains are working overtime and we think and 13 ideas and worry, exposure to nature seems to get us out of our heads, with likely positive longitudinal benefits. In the hyper-urban world to come, designing accessible, safe 14 may help the mental health of the population, and preserving our natural landscapes to be enjoyed by our descendants will continue to be a national must. 15, a prescription for a nice weekend hike could have some real measurable brain benefits.
It is proved that a young scientist named Will Smith has invented a kind of advanced and intelligent robot. The small robot may help children who are1from a long-term illness in hospital or at home.
Whoever has had a long-term illness knows that recovering at home can be 2, as everyone can't keep them3, especially when their family go out to work. These children may feel4from their friends and classmates, which can be particularly 5 of children. They may feel 6. Now these children may have a high-tech friend to help7the sense of loneliness. The friend is a robot, which takes their8at school. Through the robot, the children can 9 teachers and classmates. They10 participate in class from 11 they are recovering. Mr Smith, the inventor12how it works. He says the child uses a tablet or phone to start the robot. Then the 13 uses the same device to control the robot's movements at school; the robot becomes the ears and 14 of the child, so that he or she can take part in classroom activities— 15 he or she is at home or from a hospital bed. The robot is 16with microphones that make 17 easy. It will become 18 to the public, for not only does it look simply cool but people can afford it. 19, it will help some children feel 20 lonely while they are absent from class.
Scientists in Norway have some good news for coffee drinkers. Researchers have already found evidence that the drink or the beans can help with weight loss, 1 one's risk of developing some diseases, promote muscle growth, protect against certain types of cancers and can even reduce one's risk of premature(早于预期的) death, among many other 2. Now it is said that a cup of 3 reduces physical pain.
The surprising finding is 4 a study involving 48 volunteers who agreed to spend 90 minutes performing computer tasks meant to finish office work. The tasks were known to 5 pain in the shoulders, neck, forearms and wrists. The researchers wanted to 6 how people with pain and those who were pain-free tolerated(忍受) the pain of such tasks. As a matter of convenience, the scientists allowed people to drink coffee before taking the test "to avoid 7 effects of caffeine lack, e.g. decreased vigor, sleepiness, and exhaustion." they reported.
When it came time to analyze the data, the researchers from Norway's National Institute of Occupational Health and Oslo University Hospital noticed that the 19 people who drank coffee reported a 8 intensity(强度) of pain than the 29 people who didn't. In the shoulders and neck, 9 the average pain was rated 41 (on a 100-point scale) among the coffee drinkers and 55 for the non-coffee drinkers. Similar gaps were found for all pain sites measured, and coffee's obvious pain-reduction effect 10.
However, the authors of the study, which was published this week in the journal, BMC Research Notes, warn that the results of the study come with many 11. For starters, the researchers don't know how much coffee the coffee drinkers consumed(消耗) before taking the computer tests. 12, they doubt whether the coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers were 13 in all aspects except for their coffee consumption. Problems like these tend to 14 the importance of the findings. But those doubts are 15 to trouble the coffee drinkers looking for any reason not to cut back on their daily caffeine habit.
Many things happen when people are ageing. Apart from the greying hair and wrinkled skin, there is a(n) 1 change which comes with older age. When humans reach their later years, they favour more long-term 2 and their social cirele is reduced.
Now, for what appears to be the first time, scientists have seen the same 3 in another species. Twenty years of observations of chimpanzees (猩猩) reveal that older males choose to keep contact with their 4 friends at the expense of other relationships.
The researchers studied 78,000 hours of observations made between 1996 and 2016 that followed the social 5 of 21 male chimpanzees between the ages of 15 and 58 years old. They classified the chimps' 6 depending on the amount of time they sat with others and groomed (梳毛) them. They then rated (分类) the various pairings as mutual (相互的) friendships, where both chimps seemed to enjoy the relationship; 7 friendships, where one chimp was more keen to be friends than the other; and non-friendships, where neither chimp showed 8 the other.
When the scientists looked at the 9 of friendships, they found that the older chimps had more mutual friendships and fewer one-sided friendships than younger chimps. Another 10 seen in older humans was also spotted in the chimps. As the males got older, their levels of 11 gradually become less, meaning they started fewer fights and tended to threaten others in their group less often.
The observations have left the researchers 12. According to an idea in psychology known as socio-emotional selectivity theory, older humans prefer more 13 relationships because they are aware that time is running out. However many animal experts argue that chimpanzees 14 the human sense of mortality (死亡) , suggesting something else is driving the behaviour.
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford, said in humans, the 15 social circles with age is due to declining social motivation to get out and meet people combined by lack of opportunity. In chimpanzees, as older males compete less for mates, they may focus on close, reciprocal (互惠的) relationships with trusted partners, he said.
Jane Goodall, the well-known scientist, is starting Trees for Jane on Tuesday, joining a global campaign to fight1change by planting a trillion trees by 2030.
Goodall made it2that planting is just one part of Trees for Jane. "The key is3existing forest because those big trees4have stored CO2,"she said in a National Geographic interview. 5to Trees for Jane will support local groups working to stop destroying trees. And those who plant are asked to agree to6the trees and monitor them7they're mature.
Of course, tree planting is not a8for reducing emissions(排放）, said Susan Cook-Patton, senior forest restoration scientist for The Nature Conservancy. " The most important action is to reduce fossil fuel emissions. 9,even if we rapidly reduce emissions, we're still going to need to10carbon from the atmosphere to prevent catastrophic warming. That's11carbon removal approaches like re-growing trees remain important. "
Some tree-planting12have come under fire from some scientists as being13,since many programs don't plant native species, essentially creating tree farms, not helping forests. And Cook-Patton's14is clear: "Plant the right trees, in the right places, in the right way. " This means planting native trees where they15lived.
Goodall said this16with the goal of Trees for Jane. She, noting that Trees for Jane17people to plant trees themselves or donate to support global efforts, said her love for18dates back to her childhood. Nearly eight decades later, she is19tirelessly and selflessly to share the20of trees with the entire world, for the good of the planet.
Ask people to name the world's tallest peak and anybody with sound general knowledge will name Mount Qomolangma. But quiz them on its exact 1and many will be not sure.
In 1975, Chinese surveyors 2 that Mount Qomolangma （Mount Everest） was 8848. 13 meters high. As 3 improved, satellites, photoelectricity, radars and gravity measurement technologies were 4 to get more exact figures. Of course, someone still had to carry 5 to what is the world's rooftop.
In 2005, a Chinese team scaled Qomolangma and found that it was not as high as that, as they 6 the height to be 8844. 43 meters. Scaling Qomolangma is no 7 task. The average air temperature there is -29 degrees Celsius, even four degrees8 than in Antarctica. The snow there is 4 —5 meters thick and hurricane-like 9 blow all the time. Team members were training to 10the extreme conditions.
In a nutshell, measuring the Qomolangma's height is a tall order, 11 huge amounts of money and human resources, But it is worth the12. Qomolangma is the perfect 13 for observing crustal (地壳的)movements. And changes to the peak's height could 14 whether the two plates are heading toward or away from each other.
Besides, the condition of snow and other natural materials at the top is an indicator of upcoming climate change on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau. That's 15 measuring the Qomolangma's height is so significant. Put to good use, it can benefit mankind.
Almost all animals sleep, but do they dream? We certainly can't ask animals if they dream, but we can at least1the evidence that they might. There are two ways in which scientists have gone about this seemingly 2 task. One is to look at their physical behavior during the various stages of the sleep cycle. The second is to see whether their sleeping brains work similarly to our own sleeping brains.
The story of how we 3 how to look into the minds of sleeping animals begins in the 1960s. Back then, reports began to appear in medical journals describing people acting out 4 in their dreams. This was curious, because during so-called REM sleep (rapid eye movement), our muscles are usually paralyzed.
Researchers realized that causing a similar state in 5 could allow them to explore how they dream. In 1965, French scientists Michel Jouvet and J F Delorme found that removing a part of the brainstem, called the pons, from a cat's brain6 it becoming paralyzed when in REM. The researchers called the condition "REM without atonia "or REM-A. Instead of lying still, the cats walked around and behaved aggressively. This hinted they were dreaming of 7from their waking hours.
8 movement is not the only way of looking into dreams, though. Researchers can now 9 look into the electrical and chemical activities of brain cells in animals while they sleep. In 2007, MIT scientists Ken way Louise and Matthew Wilson recorded the activity of neurons in a part of the rat brain called the hippocampus, a structure known to be involved in the formation and encoding of memories. They first recorded the activity of those brain cells while the rats ran in their mazes. Then they looked at the activity of the very same neurons while they slept. Louise and Wilson discovered similar patterns of firing during 10 and during REM. 11 , it was as if the rats were running the maze in their minds while they were sleeping. The results were so clear that the researchers could infer the rats' precise 12 within their mental dream mazes and map them to actual spots within the actual maze. Does the behavior of cats in science experiments actually 13 dreaming? Do rats have any subjective awareness that they're running their mazes in their minds while they nap? We can say with a reasonable amount of 14 that the physiological and behavioral features of dreaming in humans have now been seen in cats, rats, and other animals. Yet what it's actually like to 15 a dream if you're not human remains a mystery.
When discussing the causes of animal endangerment, it is important to understand that individual species are not the only factors involved in this difficult situation. Endangerment is a broad 1, one that involves the habitats and environments where species live and interact with one another. Although some measures are being taken to help specific cases of endangerment, the universal problem cannot be solved until humans 2 the natural environments where endangered species live. There are many reasons why a particular species may become endangered, but habitat destruction is on top.
Our planet is continually changing, causing habitats to be altered and modified. Natural changes tend to occur at a (n) 3 pace, usually causing only a slight 4 on individual species. However, when changes occur at a fast pace, there is little or no time for individual species to 5 and adjust to new situations. This can create disastrous results, and for this reason, rapid habitat loss is the primary cause of species endangerment. The strongest 6 in rapid habitat loss are human beings. Nearly every region of the earth has been affected by human activity, particularly during this past century. The loss of microbes in soils that 7 supported tropical forests, the extinction of fish and various aquatic species in polluted habitats, and changes in global climate brought about by the 8 of greenhouse gases are all results of human activity.
It can be difficult for an individual to 9 the effects that humans have had on specific species. It is also hard to identify or 10 human effects on individual species and habitats, especially during a human lifetime. But it is quite 11 that human activity has greatly contributed to species endangerment. 12, although tropical forests may look as though they are thick and healthy; they are13 highly susceptible (易受影响的) to destruction. This is because the soils in which they grow 14 nutrients. It may take centuries to re-grow a forest that was cut down by humans or destroyed by fire, and many of the world's severely threatened animals and plants live in these forests. If the current rate of forest 15 continues, huge quantities of plant and animal species will disappear.
