Plants Scream in the Face of Stress
For the first time, researchers appear to have evidence that like animals, those plants deprived of water or (force) to endure bodily harm can let out their pain. The study, has yet to be published in a scientific Journal, adds another dimension to scientists (grow) understanding of how plants detect and interact with their surroundings.
In recent years, it has become very clear that plants are more sensitive than researchers (think). They respond when touched by insects and turn toward sources of light. "Plants are not just robotic stimulus-response devices," said Frantisek Baluska of the University of Bonn in Germany. "They're living organisms which have their own problems."
Actually making their suffering hearable, however, is another matter entirely. (test) that possibility, a team led by Itzhak Khait, a plant scientist at Tel Aviv University in Israel, placed microphones capable of detecting ultrasonic frequencies (超声波频率) four inches from tomato and tobacco plants. The researcher then either stopped watering them or cut their stems.
Measuring in the range of 20 to 150 kilohertz (千赫), the researchers found that even happy, healthy plants made the occasional noise. But when cut, tobacco plants emitted average of 15 sounds within an hour of being cut, tomato plants produced 25 sounds.
researchers aren't yet sure how plants produce these sounds, Khait and his colleagues proposed one possibility in their paper as water travels through the plants' tubes, air bubbles will form and explode, producing small vibrations.
All this "screaming" caused by stress wasn't in a range detectable by human ears. But organisms that can hear ultrasonic frequencies--like mice, bats or perhaps other plants-- possibly hear the plants cries from as far away as 15 feet.
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A. essentially B. round C. stuck D. spirits E. encouraging F. desperately G. strengths H. frustrating I. spilling J. collective K. sealed |
Italians find "Moments of Joy in this Moment of Anxiety"
It started with the national anthem. Then came the piano chords, trumpet blasts, violin serenades (小夜曲) and even the clanging of pots and pans--all of it from people's homes, out of windows and from balconies, and resounding across rooftops.
Finally, on Saturday afternoon, a nationwide of applause broke out for the doctors on the medical front lines fighting the spread of Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak.
Italians remain under house arrest as the nation, the European front in the global fight against the coronavirus, has ordered extraordinary restrictions on their movement to prevent infection.
But the music and noise erupting over the streets, from people in their homes, reflects the spirit, resilience and humor of a nation facing its worst national emergency since the Second World War.
To the extent that this is a virus that tries people's souls, it has also demonstrated the of those national characters.
In China, patriotic truck drivers risked infection to bring needed food to the people of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. In Iran, videos show doctors in full combat dress and masks dancing to keep up. And in Italy, the gestures of gratitude and music ring out above the country's empty streets, while social media feeds fill with , sentimental and humorous web videos.
Images of nurses collapsed from exhaustion or their faces bruised(使受瘀伤) from tightly masks have also spread across the web in recent days. Parents posted pictures of unicorns and rainbows drawn by young children with the title "It will all be OK."
"We're Italians, and loving singing is part of our culture," said Giorgio Albertini, 51, an archaeology professor who clapped from his apartment balcony in the university district of Milan, calling it a way "to feel a community, and to have the grief."
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.
One spring day, once the flowers have begun to open, a bee will hover (盘旋) and zip through your yard and dive-bomb your picnic table. While you're thinking about avoiding an attack, that bee is focused on something else entirely: me.
A honeybee has about six weeks to live. Today, like most days, her task is to fly as many as three miles from home, stick her long, straw-like tongue into a hundred or so flowers. When the bee has had her fill, she'll fly home. There the bee will deposit what she has got into the mouth of one of her co-workers, who will relay it to another, and so on for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is ready to be placed into the comb. Then she and her 50,000 or so mates will hover in the dark all night every night, flapping their wings to create hot, breezy conditions to remove the water from the mixture. Several sunrises later, they will seal me off in a golden cell of beeswax. In her lifetime, our bee may visit 4,000 flowers, and yet will produce only one-twelfth of a tea spoon of me.
The average American consumes nearly a pound and a half of me every year, in tea, on toast, and beyond. If I do say so myself, I am a timeless treasure. Literally--I never go bad.
Unfortunately, my good health is not guaranteed. The problem lies in the growth of industrial agriculture and the use of pest control chemicals, as well as changes in weather patterns, all of which reduce the number of flowers bees have to visit. I'd appreciate your letting your own garden grow just a little wild. My future depends on all of us fostering spring and summers wild flowers, thus helping the bees, who give so much--to you, to me--without ever asking for anything in return.
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A rare hole has opened up in the ozone layer above the Arctic, in what scientists say is the result of unusually low temperatures in the atmosphere above the north pole.
The hole, which has been tracked from space and the ground over the past few days, has reached record dimensions, but is not expected to pose any danger to humans unless it moves further south. If it extends further south overpopulated areas, such as southern Greenland, people would be at increased risk of sunburn. However, on current trends the hole is expected to disappear altogether in a few weeks.
Low temperatures in the northern polar regions led to an unusual stable polar vortex(极地漩涡), and the presence of ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorine(氯) in the atmosphere – from human activities – caused the hole to form.
"The hole is principally a geophysical curiosity," said Vincent-Henri Peuch, director ofthe Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. "We monitored unusual dynamic(动态的) conditions, which drive the process of chemical depletion of ozone. Those dynamics allowed for lower temperatures and a more stable vortex than usual over the Arctic, which then triggered the formation of polar stratospheric(平流层的) clouds and the catalytic(催化的) destruction of ozone."
The hole is not related to the Covid-19 shutdowns that have dramatically cut air pollution and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. It is also too early to say whether the unusually stable Arctic polar vortex conditions are linked with the climate crisis, or part of normal stratospheric weather variability.
Peuch said there were no direct implications for the climate crisis. Temperatures in the region are already increasing, slowing the depletion of ozone, and the hole will start to recover as polar air mixes with ozone-rich air from lower latitudes. The last time similar conditions were observed was in spring 2011.
While a hole over the Arctic is a rare event, the much larger hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has been a major cause for concern for more than four decades. The production of ozone-depleting chemicals has been dramatically reduced, under the 1987 Montreal Protocol(蒙特利尔协议), but some sources appear still to be functioning--in 2018, unauthorized emissions were detected from some areas .
New sources of ozone-depleting chemicals were not a factor in the hole observed in the Arctic, said Peuch. "However, this is a reminder that one should not take the Montreal Protocol measures for granted, and that observations from the ground and from satellites are central to avoid a situation where the ozone-destroying chemical level in the stratosphere could increase again."
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A. Taking selfies is definitely one experience that many people like doing and sharing with the online world. B. People who post group selfies also show a need for popularity and a need to belong to a group. C. Narcissists are people who think very highly of themselves, especially how they look. D. That was the old way of "clicking like". E. The drive to take selfies can nevertheless do some good to society as a whole. F. But men who post selfies showed more of a need to be seen as popular than women did. |
People like to post their selfies(自拍照) on social media. To know more about it, scientists at Syracuse University in New York recently did a research and came up with some surprising findings.
People who post selfies and use editing software to make themselves look better show behaviors connected to narcissism, the researchers said. Makana Chock, a professor from Syracuse University, said because social media is mostly used by people to share unimportant information about their lives, it is a good place for people to "work towards satisfying their own vanity." Those "likes" under their Facebook selfies make them feel good.
Some people feel "peer pressure" to post selfies and some follow the popular belief that if there is no picture of an event or experience, it did not really happen. "Anyway, it shouldn't be seen as negative. People get sense of satisfaction especially when they get likes. And it does no harm," Chock said.
Other findings from the study include: There are no major differences on how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software.
Chock said posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years. On trips and special events, our parents and grandparents used cameras instead of phones to take photos. They would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them. You probably commented about how nice everyone in the photos looked, especially children and the person showing the photos. They were happy to hear your comments. On social media, however, people can decide not to look at photos --even if they click "like".
It's natural to feel the need to control something when everything around you feels out of control, and you feel helpless. When a friend of mine first heard about the coronavirus outbreak, she got down on her hands and knees and cleaned her kitchen floor. She told me," My floor wasn't even dirty, but doing something constructive made me feel in control and that I was holding on to my power, despite the desperate circumstances."
Your most powerful weapon against uncertainty is your perspective because nobody and no situation can take that from you unless you give it away. Your perspective can victimize or empower you. When you look for the upside in a downside situation and figure out what you can control and what you can't, it's easier to accept whatever is beyond your control.
Small gestures during hard times gentle worry and concern. Often during emergencies and crises, people start performing acts of kindness at random. Helping others through a crisis by performing good deeds can make you feel in control. The obvious benefit when you reach out to help someone else is that you get a break from your own worries for a while. Contributing, giving, volunteering, donating and performing kind acts, no matter how small or brief, connect you to other people (and animals) in a deeply meaningful, humane way. So practice doing small gestures for others and yourself.
Positive action is supposed to be taken to ensure you a sense of control. Make "cans" out of "cannots" and focus on what you can control. Take advantage of this restrictive time to clear clutter out of your basement, pull weeds in the garden, organize drawers, closets, and bookshelves, or get caught up on fun hobbies you've neglected for a while. Focus on a thought, person, pet, or object that stir hope and positivity within you. Hope always exists alongside of despair.
