Nuclear power's danger to health, safety, and even life itself can be summed up in one word: radiation.

    Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery about it, partly because it cannot be detected by human senses. It can't be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we can't detect them, sense them, without a radio receiver. Similarly, we can't sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things.

    At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or human being immediately by killing masses of cells in vital organs. But even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no levels of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be serious. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and if they are killed immediately. Your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.

    This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the victim being aware at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated(辐射)and feel fine, then die for cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. Or a child can be born weak as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents.

    Radiation can hurt us. We must know the truth.

    The Intelligent Transport team at Newcastle University have turned an electric car into a mobile laboratory named “DriveLAB” in order to understand the challenges faced by older drivers and to discover where the key stress points are.

    Research shows that giving up driving is one of the key reasons for a fall in health and well-being among older people, leading to them becoming more isolated(隔绝) and inactive.

    Led by Professor Phil Blythe, the Newcastle team are developing in-vehicle technologies for older drivers which they hope could help them to continue driving into later life.

    These include custom-made navigation(导航) tools, night vision systems and intelligent speed adaptations. Phil Blythe explains: “For many older people, particularly those living alone or in the country, driving is important for preserving their independence, giving them the freedom to get out and about without having to rely on others.”

    “But we all have to accept that as we get older our reactions slow down and this often results in people avoiding any potentially challenging driving conditions and losing confidence in their driving skills. The result is that people stop driving before they really need to.”

    Dr Amy Guo, the leading researcher on the older driver study, explains, “The DriveLAB is helping us to understand what the key points and difficulties are for older drivers and how we might use technology to address these problems.

    “For example, most of us would expect older drivers always go slower than everyone else but surprisingly, we found that in 30mph zones they struggled to keep at a constant speed and so were more likely to break the speed limit and be at risk of getting fined. We're looking at the benefits of systems which control their speed as a way of preventing that.

    “We hope that our work will help with technological solutions(解决方案) to ensure that older drivers stay safer behind the wheel.”

Introduction of Holi

    Holi is an ancient festival of colours and love. It is celebrated in India and many parts of South Asia. There are lots of Holi celebrations. It is becoming more and more popular.

The festival of colour

Holi means the beginning of spring. It is a time to give thanks for the good harvest. The dates change each year according to the full moon, but it is usually in March and sometimes in late February. People go outside and throw coloured paint powder(粉) at each other. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, old or young—everyone can throw colours. It is a time to forgive people and repair broken relationships, as well as meet other people, play and have fun.

    Traditional Holi

    Traditional Holi celebrations start the night before the throwing of colours. People meet around a bonfire(篝火) and hope that the bad will be destroyed. The next day is the festival of colours. There is music playing, and people run and laugh in the streets and parks. Holi is celebrated outside.

    Other Holi events in the UK

    Holi celebrations began as early as the fourth century. It is thousands of years old! But recently, Holi-themed events have become popular with a new generation in Europe and North America. Every year, many people go to Holi events in London and all over the UK. They dress in white T-shirts and return covered in bright colours. There are paint-throwing parties at music festivals and races like the five-kilometre 'Colour Run'. In the UK, restaurants and cultural organizations also offer their own Holi celebrations, with special dishes, Indian music and dance.

Bruce, a parrot missing part of his beak （喙）,  creatively uses stones to clean feathers （羽毛）,  highlighting advanced intelligence in parrots. 

Bruce lost the upper part of his beak in 2012 and was sent to live at a reserve in New Zealand. The defect made Bruce unable to search for food on his own, let alone keep his feathers clean with his beak. But in 2021, when comparative psychologist Bastos arrived at the reserve with colleagues to study parrots, zookeepers reported something strange：Bruce had seemingly figured out how to select and use small stones to clean his own feathers with his beak. 

Over nine days, the team kept a close eye on Bruce, quickly taking, videos if he started cleaning his feathers. It turned out that Bruce had indeed invented his own way to do so, the researchers reported in Scientific Reports. 

"It's crazy because the behavior was not from the wild, " Bastos says. When Bruce arrived at the reserve, he was too young to learn how to clean his feathers. And no other bird in the reserve uses stones in this way. "It seems like he just invented this tool use for himself, " she says. 

Tool use is just one of parrots' many talents. They're famous for copying and even understanding human speech. Some species can also solve complex puzzles, like how to enter a covered rubbish bin or practice self-control. 

For a concept as abstract （抽象的） as intelligence, it's challenging to develop a definition that applies across animals. Researchers often point to features once thought to make humans special—enhanced learning, memory, attention and movement control—as signs of advanced skills. However, many of these abilities can also be seen in parrots, as well as other animals like chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants. 

"Parrots are our evolutionary （进化的） mirror image. These brilliant birds may teach us about how humanlike intelligence can appear, " behavioral ecologist Antone wrote in his 2022 book The Parrot in the Mirror. With powerful brains and a preference for words, these birds are "the very best example, " he writes,  "of nature's 'other try' at humanlike intelligence. "

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F.blame  G.pore over  H.conclusion I.maturity  J.lay aside K.promised

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