Wilderness

    “In wilderness(荒野) is the preservation of the world.” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism. The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection: whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved.  

     As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly. The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation(开发) brings to such landscapes(景观) is real. Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities. To Mr.Sauven, these ”ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation.

    Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view. He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation. But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation. There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival. While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance. If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so. Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others.

    I look forwards to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants. One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly. And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.

    This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason. What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking.

    A machine that takes sweat-laden (浸满汗水的) clothes and turns the sweat into drinking water is in use in Sweden. The machine makes the clothes turn round quickly, heats them to remove the sweat, and then passes the steam through a kind of special material to make purified water.

    Since it has been brought into use, its creators say more than 1000 people have drunk others' “sweat” in Gothenburg. They add the liquid is cleaner than local tap water.

    The device was built for the United Nations' child-focused charity UNICEF to promote a campaign highlighting the fact that 780 million people in the world lack access to clean water.

    The machine was designed and built by the engineer Andreas Hammar, known locally for his appearances on TV tech show “Mekatronik”. He said the key part of the sweat machine was a new water purification part developed by a company named HVR.

    “It uses a technique called membrane distillation (膜蒸馏),” he told the BBC. “We use a special kind of material that only lets steam through but keeps bacteria, salts, clothing fibers and other things out. They have something similar to the International Space Station, but our machine is cheaper to build. The amount of water it produces depends on how sweaty the person is, but one person's T-shirt typically produces 10ml, about a mouthful.”

    The device has been put on show at the Gothia Cup-the world's largest international youth football tournament. Mattias Ronge, chief executive of Stockholm-based advertising agency Deportivo, said the machine had helped raise awareness for UNICEF, but in reality had its limitations.

    “People haven't produced as much sweat as we hoped – right now the weather in Gothenburg is lousy,” Mattias Ronge said. “So we've equipped the machine with exercise bikes and volunteers are cycling like crazy. Even so, the demand for sweat is greater than the supply. And the machine will never be produced in large numbers, since there are better solutions out there such as water purifying pills.”

    When John was growing up, other kids felt sorry for him. His parents always had him weeding the garden, carrying out the garbage and delivering newspapers. But when John reached adulthood, he was better off than his childhood playmates. He had more job satisfaction, a better marriage and was healthier. Most of all, he was happier. Far happier.

    These are the findings of a 40-year study that followed the lives of 456 teenage boys from Boston. The study showed that those who had worked as boys enjoyed happier and more productive lives than those who had not. "Boys who worked in the home or community gained competence（能力）and came to feel they were worthwhile members of society, " said George Vaillant, the psychologist（心理学家）who made the discovery. "And because they felt good about themselves, others felt good about them."

    Vaillant's study followed these males in great detail. Interviews were repeated at ages 25, 31and 47. Under Vaillant, the researchers compared the men's mental-health scores with their boyhood-activity scores. Points were awarded for part-time jobs, housework, effort in school, and ability to deal with problems.

    The link between what the men had done as boys and how they turned out as adults was surprisingly sharp. Those who had done the most boyhood activities were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid and 16 times less likely to have been unemployed. The researchers also found that IQ and family social and economic class made no real difference in how the boys turned out.

    Working—at any age—is important. Childhood activities help a child develop responsibility, independence, confidence and competence—the underpinnings（基础）of emotional health. They also help him understand that people must cooperate and work toward common goals. The most competent adults are those who know how to do this. Yet work isn't everything. As Tolstoy once said, "One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love, to work for the person one loves and to love one's work."

    In 2016, designer Liz Ciokajlo received a task from the Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York: revisit the Moon Boot, a fluffy-looking snowshoe inspired by the footwear used by the Apollo astronauts.

    Launched in 1972 at the height of the lunar missions, the Moon Boot is an icon of the 20th Century's “plastic age” and the museum administrators wanted a new take on it.

    Ciokajlo set out to reimagine it. She knew only a biomaterial would work in a “post-plastic age”, but the designer also wanted a new destination to inspire it. Our generation's space travel obsession is not the Moon, she thought, but the red planet Mars. And Mars allows you to really think outside of the box.

    The task led her to an amazing biomaterial that had already attracted the attention of engineers innovating m building materials and of top space agencies like NASA and ESA. Her final design, a tall, female, rough-looking boot, can be made on board a spaceship with almost only human sweat and a few fungus spores (真菌孢子), ideal for a seven-month trip to Mars with limited check-in luggage.

    This magic biomaterial is mycelium (菌丝体), the vegetative part of the fungus It looks like amass of white thread-like structures, each called hyphae. Collectively, these threads are called mycelium and are the largest part of the fungus.

    Mycelium has amazing properties. It is a great recycler, as it feeds off a substrate to create more material, and has the potential of almost limitless growth in the right conditions. It can endure more pressure than conventional concrete without breaking. It is a known insulator and fire-retardant and could even provide radiation protection on space missions.

    On Earth it's currently used to create ceiling panels, leather, packaging materials and building materials, but in outer space it stands out for its architectural potential, says artist and engineer Maurizio Montalti, who has teamed up with Ciokajlo.

    For her revisited boot, Ciokajlo wanted to use the human body as the source for some of the building materials and decided to employ sweat. Reusing sweat is not entirely new in space exploration but a novelty approach for footwear. She thinks it might make astronauts feel closer to home during the long journey to Mars.

    The design is still hypothetical, because the real boot submitted for Moma and currently in display at the London Design Museum did use mycelium but not human sweat, as their deadline was too tight, but the science checks out.

15 years ago, Erin Merryn met a kitten who needed a home when she was a college student.

He jumped into her arms and refused to let her go.

"I was attached immediately and decided that I would take a risk and try hiding a kitten in my college dorm where animals are obviously not allowed," Erin recalled.

A week later she was caught and given 48 hours to remove the cat. After several phone calls, Erin was able to find an old lady to take Bailey, the kitten. But Bailey did not get along with his new housemate. As soon as Erin learned that he would be sent away, she immediately offered to take him back. "I plotted for a month to convince my parents to let me keep him." said Erin.

Six years ago, Erin had Abby, her beautiful daughter. She didn't know what Bailey would think about the new addition when she brought her home from the hospital.

"But it was love at first sight." Erin said. Bailey stayed by Abby's side, guarding and showering her with love and purrs. As Abby grew, he became her protective brother, watching over her every step of the way. Abby picked up a book one day and tried to read it with Bailey by her side. He became her perfect audience, and the sweet boy was completely attracted by Abby as she told him stories of wonder.

A video showing Abby reading to Bailey went viral on the Internet in 2018. Numerous people followed Erin on social media platforms.

Unfortunately, on December 8, 2018, just months after becoming famous, the 14-year old cat passed away from kidney failure.

A full month after Bailey's passing, Erin still got cards and gifts from caring individuals. It is this love that Erin hopes Bailey's fans hold on to. She wants her furry "first-born" to be remembered as a symbol of compassion that inspires others to treat the world with love.

Few people enjoyed getting shots at the doctor's office. But many of these shots are important vaccines (疫苗) that help prevent us from getting certain diseases or types of infection.

Vaccines got their start in Europe in the 1720s, when a British woman named Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was visiting Turkey. She saw Turkish doctors purposefully inoculating (接种) people with small amounts of smallpox. Smallpox is a painful, deadly disease that had no cure at the time. But Lady Montagu was amazed that the patients not only recovered, but then proved to be immune (免疫的) to the disease!

Lady Montagu quickly returned to England, excited to share this new procedure. But inoculation took many years to catch on. One problem was that no one had a correct way of inoculating people safely. Occasionally, patients would become fully infected and then begin spreading the disease. However, inoculation eventually saved enough people for it to become the common practice for preventing smallpox.

Some years later, a scientist named Edward Jenner discovered that people who had been infected with a disease called cowpox became resistant to smallpox. Cowpox was less much harmful than smallpox. Jenner convinced doctors to inoculate people with cowpox, which led to a very safe vaccine and far fewer outbreaks of smallpox. Finally, a French scientist named Louis Pasteur realized that Jenner's idea could be used to treat other diseases. Since then, vaccines have been made for many other diseases, such as polio, tetanus, and rabies.

Today, scientists and doctors continue to create new vaccines that could potentially save millions of lives worldwide.