Plastic-Eating Worms

    Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

    Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

    Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. “Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well,” she explains, “The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ”

    Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

    Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply “millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”

    At a daycare center in Texas, children were playing outside. One of the children was Jessica Mc Clure. She was 18 months old. Her mother, who worked at the daycare center, was watching the children. Suddenly Jessica fell and disappeared. Jessica's mother screamed and ran to her.

    A well was in the yard of the center. The well was only eight inches across and a rock always covered it. But children had moved the rock. When Jessica fell, she fell right into the well.

    Jessica's mother reached inside the well, but she couldn't feel Jessica. She dialed 911 for help. Men from the fire department arrived. They discovered that Jessica was about 20 feet down in the well. For the next hour the men talked and planned Jessica's rescue.

    "We can't go down into the well," they said."It's too narrow. So, we're going to drill a hole next to the well. Then we'll drill a tunnel across to Jessica. When we reach her, we'll bring her through the tunnel and up through our hole."

    The men began to drill the hole at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 14, 1987. The men had a difficult job; they were drilling through solid rock. During her days in the well, Jessica sometimes asked for her mother. Sometimes she slept, sometimes she cried and sometimes she sang.

    All over the world, people waited for news of Jessica. Everyone worried about her.

At 8 p.m. on Friday, October 16, men reached Jessica and brought her up from the well. She was soon sent to hospital. Jessica was dirty, hungry, thirsty and tired. Her feet and forehead were badly injured. But Jessica was alive.

    After Jessica's rescue, one of the rescuers made a metal cover for the well, saying," To Jessica, with love from all of us."

    If you want to convince the boss you deserve a pay rise or promotion, the solution could be simple—eat the same food as they do. Psychologists have discovered managers are much more likely to instantly trust us if we choose the same dishes as them.

    During experiments, discussions over wages and work conditions were much more successful if both sides chose to snack on the same treats. And shoppers were much more likely to buy a product advertised on TV by someone eating a similar food to them at the time.

    The reason is thought to be the so–called similarity attraction theory—where people tend to like others who have similar tastes or habits to themselves. But this is believed to be one of the first studies highlighting the role of food in this relationship. Researchers at Chicago University in the US conducted a series of experiments to examine food's role in earning trust.

    In a test, participants were told to watch TV—where someone pretending to be a member of the public praised a certain product. The volunteers were given Kit Kat bars to nibble, while the TV people ate either a Kit Kat or grapes as they talked.

    The results showed viewers were much more likely to express an interest in buying the product if the TV showed the other person eating a Kit Kat too. The researchers added, "Although similarity in food consumption is not a sign of whether two people will get along, we find consumers treat this as such. They feel more trusting of those who consume as they do. It means people can immediately begin to feel friendship and develop a bond, leading to smoother transactions from the start."

    Harley Street psychologist Dr. Lucy Atcheson said it was already known that wearing similar clothes could instantly create trust. But this was the first report that food had the same effect. She said, "This is really interesting. It makes sense as people feel they have common ground and can trust the other person. That means negotiations are more likely to be successful."

    It is never too early, or too late, to encourage a child to read. With the chill (寒冷)of winter upon us, the following is a list of wonderful stories with winter and or snow themes.

    Waiting for Winter

    It was written by Sebastian Meschenmoser. A little squirrel(松鼠), who has never seen snow, is determined that he will not miss it this year. He gets the help of his good friends, a bear and a hedgehog, trying to stay a- wake until they can all see the first snowfall of winter. This book is a wonderful story to read aloud to young children or for older children to read by themselves.

    The Snowy Day

    The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is a short read, but since its first publication it has been loved by millions. It tells about a beautiful story about the magic and possibility of the first snowfall of winter, which appeals to young and older children.

    The Polar Express

    Popularized by the 2004 Warner Brothers all-digital film, The Polar Express was first published in 1985. The hero of this story is a boy who is given the opportunity to receive a gift from Santa himself. A magical train appears outside his bedroom window» taking him away on a fantastic journey to the North Pole.

    Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree

    It was written by Robert E. Barry. Mr Willowby orders a lovely new Christmas tree, and when it is delivered to his home he finds it far too tall. He has the top of the tree cut off in order to make it just the right height. This book follows the treetop on its journey through the forest, where it brings the joy of the holidays for some woodland creatures. This book teaches us a valuable lesson about the joy of giving, and happiness that it can bring to the hearts of recipients (接受者).

WHO'S WHO IN THE ZOO?

    Is it amazing that the WHO'S WHO IN THE ZOO makes it fun for young children to save? With the help of Standard Bank's Kidz APP and the Big Five animal friends, teaching your children about managing their cash has never been more fun. Let the WHO'S WHO IN THE ZOO show your little ones what it means to earn and save money as well as share in the enjoyment of spending their well－earned cash.

Elephant

    As your children use the mobile app to complete various actions—achieving savings goals, completing missions and achieving wishes—here various medals will be rewarded.

    Earned medals are displayed in the elephant habitat as well as locked medals still to be achieved.

Leopard

    Reward your kids with pocket money for completing 'missions': household chores, achievements, etc.

    You can create a mission for your child, or your child can request a new mission. Once created, it must be accepted. The mission needs to be completed by your child and approved by you before you can pay him or her.

Lion

    Help your children create and fulfil wishes. Wish cards and their savings progress can be tracked from your banking app.

    Once their savings goal is reached, lion will inform you of their achievement.

Buffalo

    Kids can request to withdraw cash or purchase airtime and data using their savings.

Rhino

    Rhino shows your child's latest account balance and transactions.

    Download the Standard Bank's Kidz APP from Apple App Store on the phone. Use the comment section to interact with other Standard Bank customers and bank consultants.

    We discuss the issue of when to help a patient die, which was not talked about openly and little was written about it.

    The best way to bring the problem into focus is to describe two patients whom I cared for. The first, formerly a nurse, had an automobile accident. And there she was: in coma, on a breathing machine. One day, her husband and son came to see me. They told me their wife and mother was obviously going to die; she was a nurse and had told her family that she never wanted this kind of terrible death, being maintained by machines. I told them that while I respected their view, there was nothing deadly about her situation. The kidney(肾) failure she had was just the kind for which the artificial (人造的) kidney was most effective. While possibly a bit reassured, they were disappointed. Here was the head surgeon seemingly determined to keep everybody alive, no matter what.

    Within a few days the patient awoke from her coma. About six months later, the door of my office opened and in walked a gloriously fit woman. After some cheery words of appreciation, the father and son asked to speak to me alone. As soon as the door closed, both men became quite tearful. All that came out was, "We want you to know how wrong we were."

    The second patient was an 85-year-old lady whose hair caught fire while she was smoking. She arrived with a deep burn; I knew it would surely be deadly. At the time, there was a class discussing medical ethics(道德). The instructor asked me if I had any sort of ethical problem I could bring up for discussion. I described the case and asked the students their opinion. After the discussion, I made a remark that was, when looking back, a serious mistake. I said, "I'll talk with the nurses before we decide." The instructor and the students were shocked: "You mean this is a real patient?" The teacher of ethics was not accustomed to being challenged by actuality.

    A day or two later, when the lady was making no progress and was suffering terribly, we began to back off in treatment. Soon she died quietly and not in pain. As a reasonable physician, you had better move ahead and do what you would want done for you. And don't discuss it with the world first. There is a lesson here for everybody. Assisting people to leave this life requires strong judgment and long experience to avoid its misuse.