The Healthy Habits Survey(调查)shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.

    1). How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday?

    Finding：A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day.

    Step：Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day.

    2). How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday?

    Finding：Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30%wash their hands only 4 times a day-half of the number doctors recommend.

    Step：We touch our faces around 3,000 times a day-often inviting germs(病菌)to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds.

    3). How often do you think about fighting germs?

    Finding：Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should.

    Step：Be aware of germs. Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge(海绵)that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.

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    The “24 solar terms” originated and was firstly used in China. It was created thousands years ago on the basis of practical needs of agriculture. Ancient Chinese people used it to guide agriculture production, special climate signs and even healthy living tips. Last year, the 24 solar terms was added to UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritage list. Now, it has been brought to life thanks to a creative designer from Southwest China's Guizhou province.

    On the eve of this year's Qingming Festival, Shi Changhong released his version of re-produced and pack-aged characters for each solar term in the form of “moving art” of gifs. Since their initial release on Zcool on March 29, the gifs have won great acclaim among the general public and quickly engulfed social media with millions of hits during the festival period.

    To maximize publicity, Shi released his work in three forms: video, animation and picture, while, the background sounds add to the brilliance.

    “When I watch the short video, I can strongly feel the Chinese-style elements hidden in them. And it is really cool to rejuvenate Chinese traditional culture in such a unique way.” WeChat user Xiao Feifei said.

    “It is really a comfort to me to see so many people like my latest work. To be honest, it would really surprise me if the work does not arouse a sensation among Chinese people. The 24 solar items is a deeply mooted concept that encapsulates the essence of Chinese wisdom. However, only a small portion of people know all the names or the correct order of those terms. My intention is to increase Chinese people's self awareness to learn more about our traditional fine culture. Actually, the 24 solar items work is only a part of my whole design program ‘Charm China', which I started over a year ago.” Shi told China Daily.

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    What's small, buzzes here and there and visits flowers? If you said bees or hummingbirds, you got it. You wouldn't be the first if you mixed the two up. Now a group of researchers even say we should embrace our history of considering the two together in the same group. The way scientists study bees could help them study hummingbird behavior, too.

    Scientists first compared the two back in the 1970s when studying how animals search for food. The idea is that animals use a kind of math to make choices in order to minimize the work it takes to earn maximum rewards. Researchers at the time focused on movement rules, like the order in which they visited flowers, and where flowers were located relative to others .It was “almost like an algorithm（算法）”for efficient searching, said David Pritchard, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Hummingbirds and bees had similar solutions.

    As the field of animal cognition（认知）appeared, hummingbird and bee research parted. Neuroscientists and behavioral ecologists developed ways to study bee behavior in naturalistic settings. Hummingbird researchers compared hummingbirds to other birds and borrowed methods from psychology to study their ability to learn in the lab. To be fair, hummingbirds and bees differ. For example, hummingbirds have more advanced eyes and brains than bees. Honeybees and bumblebees are social; hummingbirds typically aren't.

    But however they perceive（感知）or process information, they both experience similar information, Dr. Pritchard said. In day-to-day searching for food, for example, hummingbirds may rely on more of a bee's-eye view than a bird's-eye view. Like other birds, they rely on landmarks, distances and directions to make maps when travelling long distances, but they don't use these cues to find flowers. Move a flower just an inch or so away from where a hummingbird thought it was and it will hover over the flower's original location. Dr. Pritchard is investigating if, like bees, hummingbirds engage in view matching — hovering, scanning snapshots of a place to its memory and using those as references later.

    With only about 1,000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone (克隆) the animal and save the endangered species (物种). That's a move similar to what a Texas A & M University researchers have been undertaking for the past five years in a project called "Noah's Ark".

    Noah's Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos(胚胎), semen and DNA of endangered animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct, Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A& M's College of Veterinary Medicine, says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.

    It is estimated that as many as 2,000 species of mammals, birds reptiles will become extinct in over 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years.

    This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal.

    The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete.

    "The nuclear transfer (核子移植) of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available (capable of being used) panda eggs could be a major problem," Kraemer believes. "They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy (having a baby). It takes a long time and ifs difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort, adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Project at Texas A& M, the first-ever attempt at cloning a dog.

    "They are trying to do something that's never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah's Ark. We're both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly appreciate their effort and there's a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. It's a research that is very much needed."

    The month of March was a milestone for supporters of renewable energy in the U.S. For the first time, wind and solar power accounted for more than 10% of the country's electricity—up from less than 1% at the turn of the century. And total wind and solar power-plant capacity(发电量) is expected to grow more than 30% over the course of this year and next, according to the Energy Information Administration.

    Such forecasts have led many scientists and policymakers to think that moving a large part of the nation's power supply to renewable sources—as cities from Miami Beach to Salt Lake City have promised to do—may not be as far-fetched as once thought. But like any debate, there are dissenters, including those inside the federal government. Their argument is that the nation demands an uninterrupted supply of electricity and cannot count on sun, wind and natural gas to provide it. “You need solid hydrocarbons(固体碳氢化合物) on-site for rising peak demand,” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt said on Fox Business in May, referring to the importance of coal as a power source.

    Many experts say the government's concern fails to account for how the power grid(电网) has improved in recent decades. Utility companies(公共事业公司) have developed innovative ways to move electricity from place to place to account for variation in weather. Battery technology can store power for use when renewable sources cannot operate, meaning solar power can be used on days when the sun doesn't shine. And the nation's vast supply of natural gas can be turned into usable energy with the flick of a switch.

    “I don't think 5 or 10 years ago I'd be comfortable telling you we could not sacrifice reliability when we're going to have 35% of our energy come from wind,” said Ben Fowke, CEO of the utility company Xcel Energy, at a recent conference. “I'm telling you, I'm very comfortable with that today.”

    Indeed, many parts of the country are already close to that reality. In some regions, like Iowa and Kansas, renewable energy supplies more than 25% of the electricity. The market has shifted so far in favor of natural gas and renewable energy that even the most concerted federal effort is unlikely to stop its growth. Any attempt to slow the growth of wind and solar will face strong pushback. “If anyone wants to do away with it,” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley told Yahoo News of the federal government's potential cuts to wind energy, “he'll do it over my dead body.”

    But the federal government could slow the acceleration—and with billions of dollars in private and public investments at risk, the pace of change matters. Decisions made today will shape the future of the nation's energy grid for decades to come.

    Do you have a talented young artist, photographer, or designer in your life? It's never too early to start helping them get their work out there! We've rounded up the top art competitions for kids and teens that can help these young creators share their first masterpiece with the world. Most of them are totally free to enter!

Global Canvas Children's Art Competition

    Ages: 16 and under Mediums: drawing, painting

    Organized by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, this art competition wants to inspire the next generation to be more mindful of how we take care of the earth. The judges are looking for artists to discover the wonderful places that wildlife calls home.

    Toyota Dream Car Art Contest

    Ages: 15 and under Mediums: drawing, painting

    Time to design a dream car! Toyota wants to get junior artists thinking about what the future of transportation might look like. Prizes include a chance to tour one of the Toyota car plants and experience various aspects of Japanese culture.

    Advena World Children's Art Competition

    Ages: 15 and under Mediums: drawing, painting, photos and other original artworks

    The competition aims to promote creativity and self-expression. Instead of a theme, it asks the participating artists to simply express their feelings—anything from sadness or joy to anger or excitement—through their chosen medium.

    Progressive Young Artists Awards

    Open to: high school and college students Mediums: drawing, painting, photograph, mixed media, sculpture

    PYAA is all about expressing and celebrating progressive values. So, if there is a creative teen in your life who wants to do good in the world, sign him or her up for this art competition. The prize is a scholarship that winners can put forwards their post-secondary schooling.