The expression "lanshouxianggu" has been quite popular on Chinese social networking sites. You may have used it many times when chatting online. However, did you know that the "blue thin mushroom" was not just magic of Photoshop and was really there in nature?

    Well, let' s meet Entoloma hochstetteri (霍氏粉褶菌).This is a kind of naturally-blue fungus(真菌) The plant looks very small. Its sten' s diameter(梗的直径) measures only about 5 millimeters. Entoloma hochstetteri can be found widely in New Zealand, especially on the west coast. The Maori name for it is "werewere-kokako." It seems New zealand is very proud of producing this unusual species-the country prints the blue mushroom on its $50 notes.

    Athough the species is very unusual, little is known about it. Silas villas-boas is a scientist at the University of Auckland. He said he was very disappointed that nobody had ever tried to test the blue mushroom in the lab, "You can even count the number of scientific articles on it on one hand, he said. The scientist decided to be the first to study the plant. A group of researchers have been helping him with the study.

    In an early test, the researchers found alkaloids(生物碱) and Omega-3 fatty acids(w-3脂肪酸)in the blue mushroom. While the acids are helpful to health, alkaloids soetimes influence how the brain works. However, Villas-Boas said the substance was very common in plants. So far, the researchers have not found any toxins(毒素) in Entoloma hochstetteri, but they are not yet sure if it can be eaten. Villas-Boas said more testing would be required.

    If you travel by air across the center of Africa or South America, you fly over forests for thousands of kilometres．These great forests are the seas of trees．They are full of thousands and thousands of different kinds of plants and animals．However, the world's forests are getting smaller all the time．We are cutting down the trees because we need wood, and we need more farmland as well．Some people say that there will not be any forests like these left in 20 to 30 years．What will happen if they disappear? If we cut down our forests, a lot of plants and animals will disappear from the world, in a lot of places the new farmland will soon look like the old deserts, for example, crops will not grow there．What's worse, it will not rain very often, and the weather will get very hot．Perhaps the climate of the world will change, which will be dangerous for everyone in the world．That is why we must take care of our forests．

    Could smells affect your lifespan? Female fruit flies (果蝇) without the ability to smell food live longer than other fruit flies．The sense of smell may be connected to the cellular ageing (细胞老化) process in many other living things  even people．Such connection has recently been found in both worms and flies．For example, scientists found that removing fruit flies' ability to smell made them live nearly 20 percent longer than flies with a sense of smell．

    They confirmed that food smells were the ones most likely to affect ageing, as nutrition (营养) and lifespan are known to be connected in many living things．To test the idea that food smells affect lifespan, they removed flies' ability to smell carbon dioxide, which is produced by some fly foods．They left the rest of the smelling system．

    This action had no effect on male flies, but the females lived 30 percent longer than normal．Removing the ability to smell CO₂ may stop flies getting information about food availability．This could mean that food is not enough, causing processes that encourage flies to survive．Scientists found that the female flies from stored extra fat and that both males and females immune (免疫) to CO₂ were stronger against the stress than normal flies．It is suggested that females may simply be easily influenced by the smells of CO₂ ．

    Scientists point out that people don't know whether ageing and smell are connected in animals and humans．But they clearly experience physical changes after smelling food．

    How much do you know about air pollution? When people talk about air pollution, they usually think about outdoor air 1. But do you know that there is also 2 pollution inside homes, offices, hotels and other buildings? The air in your home can be 2 to 100 times more polluted than the air outdoors! In fact, some American doctors say that 50％ of illnesses have something to do with 3 indoor air.

    A lot of pollution comes from 4 activities such as smoking and cooking. As most people 5 about 80％-90％of their time inside buildings, it is important to take indoor air pollution seriously too.

    Air pollution influences our health in many ways. When the air is polluted, not only 6 children and old people suffer from it, but people with 7 problems suffer as well. Indoor air pollution can 8 people's eyes, noses and throats. Air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, can also lead to lung cancer and heart disease! In the Great Smog of London in 1952, 4,000 9 died in a few days because of the pollution! It is 10 that half a million young children and women die each year in India because of indoor air pollution!

    Every morning my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every evening my mother looks through magazines at home. And every night, I look at the posters with photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep. Can we imagine life without paper or print?

    Paper was first created about 2,000 years ago, and has been made from silk, cotton, bamboo, and, since the 19th century, from wood. People learned to write words on paper to make a book. But in those days, books could only be produced one at a time by hand.  As a result, they were expensive and rare. And because there weren't many books, few people learned to read.

    Then printing was invented in China. When printing was developed greatly at the beginning of the 11th century, books could be produced more quickly and cheaply. As a result, more people learned to read. After that, knowledge and ideas spread quickly.

    Today information can be received online, downloaded from the Internet rather than found in books, and information can be kept on CD-ROMs or machines such as MP3 players.

    Computers are already used in classrooms, and newspapers and magazines can already be read online. So will books be replaced by computers one day? No, I don't think the Yao Ming posters on my bedroom wall will ever be replaced by a two-metre-high computer!