Have you ever wondered what happens to your mobile phones and laptops after you throw them out to make way for a newer model? According to its latest Global E-Waste Monitor, India is the third top producer of e-waste in the world. E-waste in Indian landfill goes on to pollute soil and groundwater, affecting food supply systems and water sources. 

Thankfully, the country has a new group of artists who are changing these thrown mechanical items-from mobile phones to old televisions-into large murals( 壁 画 )and artworks to creatively show their concern for the waste problem. 

Over the past quarter of a century, Mumbai's Haribaabu Naatesan has transformed hundreds of tonnes of e-waste into art, integrating elements from nature and industry. "I get my waste material from friends. relatives and neighbours who know my interest in e-art and send me bags of thrown electronic appliances, "says Naatesan. Over his career, he has created huge murals for several companies. He has also showed his work at the India Art Fair, as well as several other national displays.

Another artist Vishwanath Davangere has also long worked with e-waste. He likes to take apart old laptops and reassemble(重新组装)them into birds, animals and plants. After retirement, he started pursuing this hobby more seriously and started selling his creations across the world. His most outstanding works include a robotic Egyptian statue with glowing red eyes and a Milky Way made from keyboard keys. He hopes to enable others to reconsider their own consumption habits and make more environmentally conscious choices. 

"By giving e-waste a second chance, I aim to raise awareness about the environmental impact of electronic waste."says Davangare, who today has a collection of more than 600 eco-art objects.

Legend has it that centuries ago, manatees(海牛) used to be mistaken for mermaids, so a sight last week at one Florida state park would have put ancient sailors in shock.

Blue Spring State Park is home to one of the largest winter gathering sites for manatees in Florida, and recently, the park reached a new record when the number of manatees spotted in one group was nearly 1,000.

Manatees typically flock to the park during the winter months. According to a Facebook post from the non-profit Save the Manatee Club, January 21 was one of the coldest mornings of the Florida winter season so far. The temperature of the St. Johns River, which Blue Spring sits on, was recorded at 14.9℃.

To survive the cold winter weather, manatees will seek out water that is typically warmer than 20℃. This is because despite their thick-looking bodies, the blubbery animal affectionately known as the sea cow only has "about an inch of fat and a very slow metabolism(新陈代谢),meaning they cannot easily stay warm," says the state park.

Since their spring water remains at a constant 22.2℃, and is protected from human recreational activity, Blue Spring makes the perfect manatee shelter during the colder months. "What's more, many manatees rely on artificial warm water sources from power plants, and these might be going offline in the near future. So having some of these manatees come to these natural warm water sites and finding them is really encouraging," says Cora Berchem, a research associate and the director of multimedia at Save the Manatee Club.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there are anywhere between about 7,000 to 11,000 manatees in Florida, which represents a large increase over the past 25 years.

The taste of champagne as we know it could change beyond recognition in the coming years. As global temperatures continue to rise, the climate crisis poses a threat to the production of wine. 

The supply of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, among other popular wine-making grapes, are at risk. By 2050, about 85% of the lands that we grow good wine grapes on will no longer produce suitable wine grapes. 

Grapes are susceptible to even the most subtle changes in weather. "Wine is kind of the canary （金丝雀） in the coal mine for climate change impacts on agriculture because so much of the character of wine is tied to the local climate. said Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist. He published a paper in 2020 examining the effects of climate change on agriculture and how the diversity of grapes can increase their resilience to such changes. 

He adds that scientists are "seeing pretty much all plants, including wine grapevines, start their lifecycle in the growing season earlier, and often finish up earlier. You basically ripen your fruit earlier and typically you harvest earlier. In the Champagne region of France, these changes can alter the distinctive personalities of grapes grown there. "If it matures too quickly, the ratio of acidity and sugar might be different. "Cook said. 

A grape's qualities are dependent on its environment. With a warming planet, it's harder to produce grapes that make champagne taste sweeter and boozier （酒精浓度高的）. "For instance, in a chardonnay grape, what you're looking for in a cooler climate is generally an apple taste, whereas in a warmer climate the warmth can change the grapes qualities to be more like a tropical fruit, or even banana-like. "said Spiess. 

One of the many ways farmers and winemakers are trying to alleviate the effects of climate change on grape production is site selection. "Places like Belgium and the Netherlands and Sweden, they're experiencing positive effects of climate change as the planet is warming. Spiess said. As different regions in the world experience the effects of climate change differently, they may start to have more ideal climate conditions for wine making. 

The downside for those Swedish winemakers? If those champagne grapes aren't grown in the Champagne region of France, you can't call it champagne, which is a protected designation of origin. 

So how do you say "bubbly" in Swedish? 

Many years ago, my dad was facing a serious heart condition. He was unable to do a steady job. He fell suddenly ill and had to be admitted to the hospital.

He wanted to do something to keep himself busy, so he decided to volunteer at the local children's hospital. My dad loved kids. It was the perfect job for him. He ended up working with the seriously ill children. He would talk, play, and do arts with them.

One of his kids was a girl with a rare disease that paralyzed (瘫痪) her from the neck down. She couldn't do anything, and she was very depressed. My dad decided to try to help her. He started visiting her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn't use his hands at all. All the while he would tell her, "See, you can do anything you set your mind to."At the end of the day, she began to paint using her mouth, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was sent home because the doctors felt there was nothing else they could do for her. My dad also left the children's hospital for a little while because he became ill. Some time later after my dad had recovered and returned to work, in came the little girl who had been paralyzed and only this time she was walking. She ran straight over to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave him a picture she had done using her hands. At the bottom it read: "Thank you for helping me walk."

My dad would cry every time he told us this story and so would we. He would say sometimes love is more powerful than doctor, and my dad—who died just a few months after the little girl gave the picture—loved every single child in that hospital.

When delivering medications to patients, one of the most effective methods is direct injection （注射） into the bloodstream using a needle. But this can be an uncomfortable experience, especially for kids or adults with a fear of needles. While patients do have the option to take oral pills instead, drugs containing large molecules（分子） are not absorbed effectively this way. 

Now, inspired by octopus suckers（章鱼吸盘）, researchers from China and Switzerland have designed a needle-free alternative: a tiny, drug-filled, cup-like patch （贴片） that sticks to the inside of the cheeks. The device is easily accessible, and it can be removed at any time and the drug gets absorbed through the lining of the inner cheek, the team reports in a paper in Science Translational Medicine. 

To test the design, the team 3D printed the suckers. They loaded each with the drug and stuck them inside the cheeks of three beagles, a kind of dog which has a similar inner cheek lining to humans. For comparison, they also delivered the drug to beagles via a pill. After three hours, the team found that drug blood concentrations in dogs with the patch were more than 150 times higher than in the dogs that took a tablet. They also found patches worked effectively for drugs with large molecules. 

40 healthy human volunteers self-applied water-filled patches to see how well they would stay on while talking and moving their mouths. After 30 minutes, only five of the 40 patches had fallen off, which was because of improper placement. Most volunteers said they would prefer a patch over injections for daily applications. 

Still, the team only tested the patch for a short time so they would need to find out what would happen if it was used repeatedly. They'd also need to determine which drugs would work with the technology: the target is large molecules, such as those used to treat obesity or osteoporosis, but they can't be too large to fit in the cup. 

3M and Discovery Education announced Sean Jiang from Gilman School as one of the top ten finalists from across the nation for the 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge. It's a competition that encourages students to identify an everyday problem and submit a video showing the science behind the solution he or she came up with.

14-year-old Jiang decided to help those who can't see. Blind people had a hard time navigationg （导航） objects that are medium to far range. So Jiang wanted to design something to give them aheads-up on obstacles （障碍） that may be incoming.

Jiang's inspiration came from the powers of the hearing system. "I learned in school that bats and whales are able to use echolocation （回声定位） to help them navigate and just use their sense of hearing and I also saw on YouTube some very skilled blind people that use echolocation to help them walk," said Jiang.

Jiang started with a virtual reality setting and then made it a reality. His creation uses a depth camera that can detect how close objects are, thus giving enough time to avoid the obstacles. When a blind is walking with the device, the sensor of the depth camera gathers the information regarding the obstacles' position and distance. Then the AI system in it will turn the distance data into musical sound guidance. This could significantly increase the walking speed of a blind person as well as decrease the number of obstacles they hit.

Some other similar programs were alright at finding objects that were in close range, but Jiang still wanted the blind to experience the world even fuller so they were able to see stuff that was much further away than their circle of reach.

In October, the top ten finalists will compete in person in Minneapolis for the title of "America's Top Young Scientist" and a $25,000 prize.

It is no secret that China has an amazingly rich history and culture. My first exposure (接触) to Chinese culture came totally by chance. One day, I entered my grandfather's personal library and took a book named Tao Te Ching from one of the shelves. As an 8-year-old, the book's content completely confused me, but it provided me with an early connection to a beautiful and great philosophical (哲学的) tradition that still influences me today. 

Around this time, I also came across several cartoons heavily inspired by traditional Chinese culture and martial arts such as Avatar: The Last Airbender and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. Both cartoons describe beautiful landscapes and buildings similar to those found in classical Chinese paintings. This further developed my love of the rich and beautiful culture. 

At school I began studying Chinese. My interest in the language developed early on, combining my love of travelling with my love of meeting new people. Later on, my interest in the language developed into exploring widespread Chinese culture. I wanted to challenge myself in a totally new linguistic (语言的) landscape and listen to the lives and stories of others in their own language. I have been lucky enough to have lived in China for around three years. I loved every second I spent there and there is never a shortage of things to see and do, people to meet, and foods to enjoy. 

It is safe to say that my journey to studying Chinese has only just begun and these first steps are only a drop in the ocean of lifelong learning, but as the Chinese philosopher Laozi says, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. " 

Despite its benefits, drinking milk into adulthood, let alone other animals' milk, is a strange behavior in the animal kingdom. What makes it even stranger is that an estimated 68 percent of the global human population is actually lactose (乳糖) intolerant. Scientists are still getting to the bottom of why the practice began and continued. This research could unlock new understandings of our food cultures and even our DNA．

The earliest evidence of animal milk drinking dates back almost 

9. 000 years to modern-day Turkey near the sea of Marmara. where milk fats have been found on ancient pottery. According to Jessica Hendy. a scientist at the University of York. then milk would have been part of a diverse diet for it was mixed with other food. From its origins, the technology of making use of milk spread into the Caucasus and then across Europe. By the Bronze Age, people may have been using cow's milk to feed their babies.

For a long time, researchers believed that milk drinking changed as a cultural practice hand in hand with the spread of genetic mutations (变异) that allowed people to tolerate milk into adulthood. But one recent finding suggests milk drinking occurred before these mutations and might not even require them. In Europe. people appear to have been drinking milk for thousands of years before any genetic ability to drink milk became common. The ancient cheese making equipment might offer part of the solution: Fermenting (发酵) milk into yogurt. cheese, or other products reduces the amount of lactose. In Mongolia. researchers have not yet found a genetic mutation that allows people to digest lactose, despite the major role of milk in that culture. So some scientists held that there might be other potential factors helping. 

What we do know about the history of milk reveals how wrong-headed one-size-fits-all nutritional guidance can be. In modern America. milk drinking has been presented as a universal good. In reality, how milk is prepared can change the nutritional picture, and how much our bodies process depends, at least in part. on our own genes.

If you want to travel to a unique place to see some fall leaves, you might want to visit Mt. Koya in Japan. Koyasan is home to 117 temples（寺庙）. In the fall, the Japanese maple （枫树）leaves turn deep red and orange colours. Among them are the 1,200-year-old temples and halls that were designed by Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism.

Visitors to Koyasan can spend the night at a temple. For dinner there is traditional Buddhist food called shojin-ryori. In the evening you can enjoy the gardens or relax in the baths before bed. The rooms have the paper doors typical of traditional Japanese buildings, often with a garden view. If you wake up early, there is a morning prayer（祈祷）at 6 a. m. and anyone can join before heading to breakfast.

In the centre of the temples is a cemetery（墓地）. As you walk on the path you'll see a deep well. The legend says that if you can see your face clearly in the water, you will live a long life. Further on there is a special stone which they say is as heavy as your crimes. You can try to liftit with one hand to see how heavy it is!

As you pass through the cemetery you will see some small stone men wearing bibs（围裙）and hats to keep them warm in the cold air. These are called Jizo, and they stay between Earth and the afterworld. They protect travellers, pregnant women, and also young children and babies before birth, during life, and after death. The reason they wear red bibs is because of their connection with the pronunciation of baby in Japanese.

Some of the monks at the temples speak English, and there are English-speaking guides who do tours of the cemetery, so you can practise your English on your trip.

While broccoli（花椰菜）is typically considered a safe vegetable for dogs, there are still risks that you should know about.

Is broccoli healthy for dogs? Generally, yes, broccoli is safe and even beneficial for your dog to eat, but it's still a vegetable that you should only feed to your dog in moderation. When it comes to how healthy broccoli is for your dog, it has some benefits that you definitely want to take advantage of during snack time. Broccoli is filled with vitamins and minerals, low in calories and packed with fiber（纤维）to help the digestive（消化的）system. There's a reason that it's just as good for us as it is for dogs!

When giving your dog broccoli, it's important that you always feed it to your dog plain-meaning you aren't giving your dog broccoli that's been seasoned or cooked in butter or oil. This is because spices（香料）and fats aren't good for your dog and can cause an upset stomach.

Can dogs eat raw broccoli? Broccoli given in its raw form is fine, but cooked broccoli is more widely recommended since it's easier for a dog to digest. While raw broccoli still contains beneficial vitamins and minerals, it can also be more difficult to digest. Raw broccoli can also be tough to chew on. Cutting the broccoli into smaller pieces, whether cooked or raw, will be much easier on your dog and ensure it passes through their digestive tract more smoothly.

Of course, it's always best to talk with your veterinarian（兽医）before adding new foods to your pup's（幼狗仔）diet. Your vet can give you a good idea on how much and how often your dog can enjoy broccoli.