What is “Dads Make a Difference”?

    A service-learning opportunity for teens that deals with fatherhood, parenting, and so on.

    Older teens, grades 10—12, teach younger teens, grades 6—9, about the importance of fathers in children's lives, the legal and financial responsibilities of parenting.

Teen teacher training goals & objectives

    The goal of the teen teacher training is to better understand the complex problems surrounding legal fatherhood in our society. By discussing what makes healthy families, explaining the meaning of paternity（父亲的身份）, and examining the risks people take in their lives, teens will develop the skills needed to make informed decisions in their own relationships and, finally, teach this information to others.

What's in it for me?

An opportunity to:

Learn life skills like communication, decision making, and problem solving.

    Get the chance to use knowledge in meaningful and effective ways.

    Develop leadership, planning, teamwork, time management, and organizational skills to help you in every aspect of your life.

    Forming lasting relationships with adult mentors（导师）.

Comments from teen teachers

    “ 'Dads Make a Difference' made me realize how permanent and expensive parenthood is.”

    “Speaking in form of groups and directing people in activities, I feel, is a valuable skill to have that I will use throughout my life.”

    “I wish I would have gone through this program when I was in Junior High. I know it would have helped me to really think about the future and to make good decisions.”

    “ 'Dads Make a Difference' has helped me to know the effects of my actions before I take them and I know what risks not to take to protect my future.”

    As we know, DNA testing is very useful for crime fighting. But now crime fighters could have a new tool at hand. Researchers have developed a cutting-edge (前沿的) technique to identify human hair. Their test is quicker than DNA analysis techniques currently used by the police.

    DNA testing is commonly used for identification because DNA is unique to each individual. However, environmental and chemical processes can degrade(降解) DNA, limiting its usefulness over time. Protein (蛋白质) in hair, on the other hand, is more stable than DNA but can also have variations (变异体) that may be unique to the individual.

     “Our analysis process can be used universally,” says Ms. Huang, “One of our samples even included dyed hair and the test was 100 per cent accurate. The test was able to distinguish East Asians, Caucasians and South Asians.”

    Dr. Beauchemin says she has got in touch with law enforcement agencies about using the new technology. She is also planning to collect more hair samples and continue her research with a goal of finding where exactly in the world hair sample is from, to look for more races and determine specific age.

     “We are in a very similar place with protein-based identification to where DNA testing was during the early days of development,” said chemist Brad Hart. “This method will be a game-changer, and while we've made a lot of progress toward improving it, there are steps to go before this new technique is able to reach its full potential.”

    The values of artistic works, according to cultural relativism（相对主义）, are simply reflections of local social and economic conditions. Such a view, however, fails to explain the ability of some works of art to excite the human mind across cultures and through centuries.

    History has witnessed the endless productions of Shakespearean plays in every major language of the world. It is never rare to find that Mozart packs Japanese concert halls, as Japanese painter Hiroshige does Paris galleries. Unique works of this kinds are different from today's popular art, even if they began as works of popular art. They have set themselves apart in their timeless appeal and will probably be enjoyed for centuries into the future.

    In a 1757 essay, the philosopher David Hume argued that because “the general principles of taste are uniform（不变的）in human nature,” the value of some works of art might be essentially permanent. He observed that Homer was still admired after two thousand years. Works of this type, he believed, spoke to deep and unvarying features of human nature and could continue to exist over centuries.

    Now researchers are applying scientific methods to the study of the universality of art. For example, evolutionary psychology is being used by literary scholars to explain the long-lasting themes and plot devices in fiction. The structures of musical pieces are now open to experimental analysis as never before. Research findings seem to indicate that the creation by a great artist is as permanent an achievement as the discovery by a great scientist.

    I'll never forget the day when Mary came into my office and said, I am too old to learn how to use a computer. I shook my head. Here was a woman who had raised 6 children and who had made great progress in her career telling me that she was too old to learn something new. I told her that I always believed people were never too old to learn.

    Mary followed my advice and did learn how to use the computer. Now, she is retired and leading a very active life volunteering in her community( 社区 ),using her computer skills and helping anyone that needs help.

    When she was in her sixties, one day she called me and said she had played the piano for others all her life, and now she was going to make a CD of her own. My mind flashed back to the day when she told me she was too old to learn. You can imagine my surprise and delight.

    To produce the CD, she had a lot of things to learn. It was not just sitting at the piano and playing. She had to research the songs, learn about copyright(版权),and learn about marketing. It was pretty amazing for someone who once said she was too old to learn. And finally she made it. Now she has her own CD-Mixed Blessings.

    Most of you probably have heard about some people who have gone back to university in their seventies and have also graduated. They are on their way again to charging themselves with a new skill and a new attitude towards life. The point is you are unable to learn anything at any age if you believe you are too old. On the contrary, you can achieve anything at any age if you believe you can.

A video of dolphins playing in the wake of the waves near a man-made island, east of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, has caught the attention from netizens across China.

The 55-km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the world's longest cross-sea bridge, connecting the mainland province of Guangdong with the country's two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macao.

During the nine-year bridge construction period, researchers have identified and registered a total of 2,367 dolphins, with no injuries of any dolphins reported.

According to local authorities, the Pearl River Estuary Chinese White Dolphin Reserve has supported more than 100 researchers in studying and protecting the mammal and trained thousands of dolphin watchers. Luo Guocai, a certificated dolphin watcher, said his duty was to conduct a 10-minute observation of the sea each time before construction started. The dolphins have to breathe every few minutes above the water, and in order to prevent potential harm, the watchers would knock on their boat a few times to scare them away.

The preservation efforts never stopped even after the construction was completed. "Managerial personnel will continue to monitor the nearby environment and the dolphins via intelligent equipment including the bridge video surveillance(监控) system, the underwater tunnel's environmental monitoring as well as specially established research and observation stations on the man-made islands," said Yu Lie, deputy director of the bridge management bureau.

"Currently, Hong Kong, Macao, the country's two special administrative regions, and Guangdong plan to establish a conservation alliance for the dolphins, involving non-governmental organisations in the routine rescue, information sharing, and scientific research," said Chen Hailiang, head of the administration of the reserve. "We are constructing a bigger rescue and conservation base as well as increasing tissue samples and gene banks in a bid to better preserve the dolphins for generations to come," Chen said.