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Wildfire season has begun in many places around the world. The dangerous smoke wildfires produce can spread far and wide. It blocks sunlight, poisons the air, and damages health of people and other living things. Some of those living things could be the plants in your garden, says gardening expert Jessica Damiano. She writes gardening stories for the Associated Press. Damiano lives in New York Cit...

The ability to feel empathy is built into the human brain. We smile or laugh almost instantly in response to others. Until now this ability was thought to extend only to our closest animal relatives such as orangutans and chimps. 感受同理心的能力是人类大脑中固有的。 我们几乎立即微笑或大笑来回应别人。 到目前为止，这种能力被认为只适用于我们最近的动物亲戚，如猩猩和黑猩猩。 Now researchers at the Univ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a spacecraft designed to study the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy across far reaches of the universe. The launch of ESA’s Euclid spacecraft is set for July 1. It will lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral launch center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Euclid is a space telescope built to act as an orbiting observatory. It will gathe...

It's long been known that giving up cigarettes, reducing alcohol intake and avoiding sunburn can reduce the chances of getting certain types of cancer. But this new study suggests that our lifestyle choices could have an impact on between 70% and 90% of all cancer cases. 众所周知，戒烟、减少饮酒和避免晒伤可以降低患某些类型癌症的风险。但这项新研究表明，我们的生活方式选择可能对 70% 至 90% 的癌症病例...

Around 8,000 people gathered Wednesday around prehistoric Stonehenge in Britain to observe the summer solstice. Many wore colorful clothing and even antlers. They stayed overnight to greet the sunrise on June 21. It is the day with the most daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. The crowd greeted the morning sun shining into the heart of Stonehenge with drumming, chanting and cheering. Nichola Taske...

Negotiators here are, in effect, discussing the shape of a new world order. The old rich-versus-poor divisions are now much more complex. 实际上，谈判代表正在讨论新的世界秩序的形态。 过去的贫富之分现在变得更加复杂。 The most vulnerable nations blame the rich for the problem, but also fear the rise in pollution from emerging nations like China, India and Brazil. The Americans partially agree. They...

It is often said that if we dream in a foreign language, it's a sign that we are making progress in learning that language. But is it true? Before we can look at multilingual dreams, first we need to look at sleep. The link between sleep and language can be applied to how we learn any language, including our mother tongue. Even adults still learn about one new word every two days in their first la...

A new study has found that devices used to measure air quality in the environment also take in DNA material from the local area. Scientists say this collected DNA can be useful in identifying what plants and animals have been in the area. It could also help document changes in the environment over time. Researchers say the finding suggests air quality measuring devices have collected large amounts...

In a small office behind London's King's Cross station a band of technology entrepreneurs is setting up a bank with 140 staff to offer what traditional banks need tens of thousands of people to provide. It is Tandem Bank, which will have an app and a small call centre. 在伦敦国王十字车站后面的一间小办公室里，一群科技企业家正在建立一家拥有 140 名员工的银行，以提供传统银行需要数万人才能提供的服...

A new study has found that areas of the brain containing fluid expand when astronauts are on space missions for six months or longer. The American space agency NASA funded the study. The brain areas are called cerebral ventricles. They contain cerebrospinal fluid, a clear and watery liquid that flows in and around the brain and spinal cord. The fluid helps protect the brain against sudden impact....

Researchers say a new method for heart transplants could increase the number of available organs and save more lives. Currently, most transplanted hearts come from donors who have been declared brain dead. This means the person no longer has signs of brain function after suffering a serious injury. In a brain death, machines can keep the body breathing and can provide oxygen to organs until they c...

The WMO says this five-year period has brought record heat to Asia, Europe, South America and Oceania and North America. This latest October was exceptionally warm. 世界气象组织表示，这五年期间给亚洲、欧洲、南美洲、大洋洲和北美洲带来了创纪录的高温。最近的这个十月异常温暖。 The report says 2015 is likely to claim the title of the hottest year recorded, with annual surface temperatures partly fuelle...

Sausage can be made from any kind of meat, along with spices, herbs, sometimes vegetables, and even fruit. My favorite sausage is made from chicken, apple, and the herb sage. To make sausage, the ingredients are mixed together and then shaped into individual servings. High-quality sausage uses high-quality ingredients and costlier cuts of meat. Some sausages are made from parts of the animal that...

Bacteria becoming completely resistant to antibiotics could plunge medicine back into the dark ages. It would affect not only infections but also surgery and cancer treatment. 对抗生素产生完全耐药性的细菌可能会使医学重新陷入黑暗时代。 它不仅会影响感染，还会影响手术和癌症治疗。 Resistance to colistin has emerged in isolated cases before, but this time it is in a form that can spread easily between...

Reddit is a social media website where people with common interests can have conversations by posting comments, videos and images. Posts are grouped into communities, called subreddits, based on different subjects. Thousands of popular Reddit communities, including groups about technology, gaming, and music, locked out their users recently in protest. People who organize the communities, called mo...

We all know children love to play with toys. But as they approach adulthood, they stop being playful and concentrate on grown-up things – or so we believe. However, in recent times at least, adults are revisiting their childhood and buying toys for themselves – and they've been given the nickname 'kidults'. 我们都知道孩子们喜欢玩玩具。但当他们接近成年时，他们不再嬉戏，而是专注于成人的事情——至少我...

The blood-brain barrier does a good job of keeping toxins out. But this tightly-packed layer of cells which separates the brain from its blood vessels is a hindrance if you want to deliver drugs into the brain. 血脑屏障可以很好地防止毒素侵入。但是，如果你想将药物输送到大脑中，这种将大脑与其血管隔开的紧密堆积的细胞层就会成为一个障碍。 The patient – 56-year-old Bonny Hall from Canada – had a brain t...

Many people are allergic to dogs, or at least the dead skin cells and saliva that they shed as they groom themselves. 许多人对狗过敏，或者至少会对它们在梳理毛发时所脱落的死皮细胞和唾液过敏。 But a new piece of research from Sweden suggests early exposure to these pets could cut a child's future risk of allergy. Living with a dog in the home in the first year of life was linked to a 13% lower risk...

This new assessment puts processed meat, such as salami and ham, in the highest category of five possible rankings of cancer-causing agents. And they say that red meat, even if it's not been treated, is in the next highest group, meaning it's probably carcinogenic. 世卫的这项新评估将腊肠和火腿等加工类的肉类列为五种最可能的致癌物质类别。他们说即使没有经过处理的红肉，也属于下一个可能具有致癌性的最高...

Donje Gates is 18 years old and lives in Chicago, Illinois. His family wants him to go to college in the fall. But Gates is thinking about going to a trade school instead. He says he worries about the cost of college and is not sure if it will be valuable to him. Gates was in a group of high school students visiting Chicago’s Malcom X Community College. About 75 percent of the school’s students ar...

Are worms the heroes we didn't know we needed? Silent, slimy and wriggling, you might think that worms are good for nothing except bait on the end of a fishing rod. However, there is more to the humble worm than meets the eye. 蠕虫难道不是我们自己知道所需要的英雄吗？ 它静静的、黏糊糊的、扭来扭去的，你可能会认为蠕虫除了是钓鱼竿的诱饵外，然后就一无是处。 但是，这不起眼的蠕虫远不止这些。 Th...

Earth is now considered to be in a “danger zone,” a new study says. An international group of scientists called Earth Commission did the study. It appeared in the publication Nature. The researchers report that conditions on Earth have pushed past seven of eight safety limits established by science. The experts say the planet is very sick and all life, humans included, face extreme risks as a resu...

From artificial lights to late-night TV and now our smartphones, modern life is often blamed for ruining our sleep. But this study suggests our ancestors didn't get any more sleep than we do. 从人造灯到深夜电视，再到现在的智能手机，人们常常指责现代生活破坏了我们的睡眠。 但这项研究表明，我们的祖先并没有比我们睡得更多。 The researchers monitored traditional societies in Namibia, Tanzania and Bolivia...

A green area of grass called a lawn has been popular in American yards for a long time. But a growing number of gardeners and homeowners now consider the lawn as something that belongs in the past. Dennis Liu of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation in Durham, North Carolina, said “America is unique in its fixation on the monoculture lawn.” Monoculture is a term that means growing only one speci...

Rugby is often played in the wealthy areas outside of Zimbabwe’s major cities. Now the sport has moved into poor areas where young women are playing to escape from poverty and early marriage. Organizers of the rugby clubs say playing rugby will not ease their economic struggles. But, they hope it can provide a place for young women to go instead of spending time in the streets. Zimbabwe’s economy...