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      A glass a day keeps obesity at bay. Wine has always been thought to cause weight gain because of its high sugar content, but new research suggests a glass a day could form part of a diet. Looking at past studies they found that, while heavy drinkers do put on weight, those who drink in moderation can actually lose weight.

    A scientist for the research team at Navarro University in Spain says, “Proper drinking may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain.” An official organization reviewed the findings and agreed with most of the conclusions, particularly that present data do not clearly show if proper drinking increases weight.

    Boston University's Dr. Harvey Finkel found that the reasons relating alcohol (酒精) to changes in body weight are not properly understood. His team pointed out the strong protective effects (效果) of proper drinking on the risk of getting conditions like diabetes (糖尿病), which relate to increasing obesity. Some studies suggest that even very fat people may be at lower risk of diabetes if they are moderate drinkers.

    The group says alcohol provides energy that is quickly absorbed into the body and is not stored in fat, and that this process could explain the differences in its effects from those of other foods. They agree that future research should be directed towards assessing the roles of different types of alcoholic drinks, taking drinking patterns into consideration.

    For now there is little evidence that drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol on a regular basis increases one's risk of becoming too fat. What's more, a study three years ago suggested that a chemical found in grapes and red wine, destroys fat cells.

    Please Don't Be Afraid To Travel On Your Own

    You want to travel. You make an unclear plan. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But either way, you're leaving in six months time. You start doing research every single night.

    Of course, as this will be your first ‘real' travel experience, you naturally prefer to travel with other people. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But the first friend you ask, perhaps your closest friend, turns you down and so you move on to the next friend. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The third friend, the fourth friend and even that guy that you don't really like say no as well.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}You hope that one of your friends will change their mind and decide to join you. Maybe you decide to forget about your trip altogether, fully believing that you can only travel so far away from home with a friend or travel companion (同伴) by your side.

    Don't give up just yet. Here's my advice to you. You may be on your own when you board that flight to Bangkok or Mexico City, but believe me, once you arrive, you'll never actually be alone. That's how travel works. Unless you stare at the ground and never talk to anyone, you're going to meet people when you travel, lots and lots of people from all over the world. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Don't give it up.

B. Maybe you'll fly to Thailand or to Mexico.

C. Meeting new people is one of the worst things to do.

D. But they too, tell you they have no interest to join you at all.

E. They will be interested in meeting and hanging out with you.

F. So you start asking your friends to join you in your journey.

G. Maybe you decide to put off your trip for another six months.

    What is the difference between developed and developing countries? The question is quite a difficult one. But we can compare them in two important aspects: people and economy.

    In developing countries there are high rates of both birth and death. Families decide to give birth to more than one child, because many developing countries do not have the systems necessary to guarantee(保证) the life of old people. Raising more children seems to be the only way to make sure that during their later years a person will be taken care of.

    The situation is completely different in fully-developed countries. Those countries have low levels of birth and mortality. Low mortality rate is mainly because of the good health care, but low birth rate is due to the fact that supporting a family with more children is expensive nowadays. Another reason is that more and more women decide to work outside, so there is usually no time and place for a large group of children in their lives.

    In developed countries, most industries have high levels of technological progress, while in developing countries most GDP comes from agriculture. It is mainly due to the fact that services and many branches of industry are in the stage of development. But they have the potential to develop quickly, because they have many things to improve.

    Of course, the difference between developed and developing countries is not that clear, because some countries might be in the middle of great changes. When a country is in that stage, some data can define the country as a developing one, but others may show that it is a developed one.

    After many considerations and years of heated argument, gray wolves were brought back to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.

    Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.

    The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park's red foxes, and completely drove away the park's beavers.

    As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.

    The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.

    In 1972, a social worker named Sanjit Bunker Roy founded Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan. Today the college trains women from villages for six months to build and maintain solar panels and other instruments. Barefoot College also offers education to the younger generation both during the day and at its solar bridge schools that meet by lamplight at night.

    The philosophy of Barefoot College is largely inspired by the principles of Gandhi, starting with equality beyond caste (种姓), gender or religion. As a matter of fact, women are prioritized (优先考虑) as an underserved population that is essential to bringing villages together. Another central principle of the college is self-reliance, teaching students to support and think for themselves.

    After the college's female students have completed their half-year of training, they return to their villages where they wait for solar panel parts to arrive from the college. Once they have all the pieces they need, they construct the panels and begin collecting solar energy. For each village, the college also provides solar lamps. Villagers can, in addition, order parts for other solar-powered devices, such as water heaters and cooking stoves. Once assembled, they and the lamps are powered by the solar panels.

    The effect on the villages is huge. Before the solar panels and lamps arrived  villagers had only candles to light their homes. This prevented adults from doing serious work at night, and it made studying difficult for children as well. As for physicians, they had difficulty treating patients and performing operations at night because they had to rely on flashlights.

    Now there is power for not only the electrical appliances that the college provides but also devices like televisions, radios and computers. For the first time, the villagers can even connect to the world through the Internet.

Smart and highly sensitive （灵敏的）, a new soft sensor developed by UBC (University of British Columbia) and Honda researchers opens the door to a wide range of applications in robotics and prosthetics （假肢）.

When applied to the surface of prosthetic or robotic arms, the sensor skin provides touch sensitivity and flexibility, making it possible for difficult tasks to be completed by machines, such as picking up a piece of soft fruit. The sensor is also soft to the touch, like human skin. which helps make human interactions safer and more lifelike.

"Our sensor uses weak electric fields to sense objects, even at a distance, much as touchscreens do. But unlike touchscreens, this sensor is soft and can detect forces into and along its surface," explained Dr. John Madden, senior study author and a professor of electrical and computer engineering who leads the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory at UBC.

The UBC team developed the technology in cooperation with Frontier Robotics, Honda's research institute. Honda has been innovating in humanoid robotics since the 1980s, and developed the well-known ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) robot. It has also developed devices to assist walking and the emerging Honda Avatar Robot.

"Dr. Madden's lab has significant expertise in flexible sensors and we're happy to cooperate with this team in developing touch sensors that can be applied to robots," said Mr. Ishizaki Ryusuke, one of the study's lead authors and chief engineer at Frontier Robotics.

Dr. Madden said, "Human skin has a hundred times more sensing points on a fingertip than our technology does, making it easier to light a match or sew. As sensors continue to develop to be more skin-like, and can also detect temperature and even damage, there is a need for robots to be smarter about which sensors to pay attention to and how to respond. Developments in sensors and artificial intelligence will need to go hand in hand."