I was living a life in my screen and hardly noticed what was around me. So when my friends invited me to go camping for a long weekend without the cell service, I thought this was exactly what I needed. Here's how keeping away from my phone for 48 hours changed me.

    I realized my bedtime routine was usually centered on one thing: my phone. Right before I went to sleep, I browsed through news websites and checked my emails. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I did the same thing. The problem with this was I felt anxious every night. I felt free without my phone at that weekend camp. I felt asleep listening to the sound of crickets.

    When I had my phone, I was always checking the time and thinking of future plans. My thought was: “Who's going to text me now? What will I do next?” Without my phone, I truly savored what I was doing in the moment, sitting by the river, riding a bike, or singing the old songs. There was no need to rush through any of it. I listened to what my body wanted instead of what my phone was telling me to do.

    You know that moment when you're hanging out with a group of people and no one has anything to say? The typical response: Everyone immediately pulls out their phones. So what did we do without a phone to avoid embarrassing silences? We actually talked to each other. Instead of burying our faces in our screens, we looked one another in the eye, had a moment of pure human connection and then continued talking. And you know what? People actually listened.

    So, now what? Now I'm back to the real world.

    Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in order to cut the greenhouse gases they send out, which is thought to be responsible for global warming.

    Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence (肠胃气胀) contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who produce large quantities of the harmful gas.

    While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack, pushing out carbon dioxide, farm animals' passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.

    “Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia are from enteric methane from cattle and sheep,” said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the greensland state government. “And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they are actually up around 50 percent,” he said.

    Researchers say the bacteria also make the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers. But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.

    Another group of scientists, meanwhile, have suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos. And about 20 percent of health-conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

    It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels and it is very clean in the sense that basically it is free-range(放养的) animal,” said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales' institute of environmental studies.

    I was never very neat，while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place，but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled(贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time，Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over，and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

    War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon，I heard her screaming，“Take your shoes away！Why under my bed！” Deafened，I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

    The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation，I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up，she quickly crawled(爬) under her covers，sobbing. Obviously，that was something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden，a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.

    Slowly，I collected the pencils，took back the books，made my bed，cleaned the socks and swept the floor，even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn't notice Kate had sat up. She was watching，her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then，she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me，“Thanks.”

    Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn't always agree，but we learned the key to living together：giving in，cleaning up and holding on.

    Green tree ants are important builders in the rainforest. They're like the worker bees of the ant world. The native forest of Thala Beach Nature Reserve is the natural home of these insects.

    They climb all over the tree that contains their nest and protect it from enemies with great fierceness. The ants are often in the fruiting trees of Tropical North Queensland. When an animal tries to help themselves to some tasty fruit, they find themselves attacked by a powerful, frightening army of green tree ants! Their bite is not very painful but many ants attacking at the same time can be extremely uncomfortable.

    The nests are large and constructed by sticking the leaves at the end of branches together to create a home looking roughly like a globe. Most of the nest construction and weaving is conducted at night. A mature colony of green tree ants can hold as many as 100,000 to 500,000 workers and may include as many as 12 trees and contain as any as 150 nests. Green tree ant colonies have one queen and a colony can live up to eight years.

    However, the ants are so busy that they fail to spot a dishonest figure. There is a spider called the Salticid spider, or the jumping spider, as they are sometimes referred to, which has excellent eyesight and is only active during daylight, weaving a protective covering of silk to spend the night in. Interestingly, the Salticid spider does not look like a green tree ant. Instead, it chemically copies green tree ants' smell. Effectively pretending to be an ant, it goes into the green tree ants' nest, enters the nursery and feasts on their babies. Green tree ants don't have good eyesight and smell everything with their antennae (two long thin parts on an ant's head). Therefore, the ants think the spider is another ant and ignore its presence within the nest.

    Next time, as you wander around Thala's native forest, keep an eye out for these busy little creatures. Look up into the trees and you'll likely spot their nests.

    Growing up in the mountainous Sierra de Penamayor, in Asturias, northen Spain, Aladino Montes had been shooting deer ever since he was a child, but his life as a hunter came to an abrupt end 10 years ago, when he met Bambi, an adorable deer that has remained by his side ever since. Aladino has never shot an animal since.

    53-year-old Aladino recalls driving through the mountains in his little jeep, ten years ago, when he saw a couple of cows being followed by a skinny little deer. Deer don't usually hang out with cows, so he approached the animals for a closer look. That's when he noticed that the deer had several wounds and would have probably died without proper medical care. He put the injured animal in his car and drove back to his house when he nursed it back to health. But instead of running back towards the forests, the deer stayed by Aladino's side. They've been best friends ever since.

    He always loved animals, but his father had taught him to hunt deer as a child. He did it for food, not sports, but ever since he adopted Bambi, he hasn't shot a single animal.

    Aladino's cabin sits at 1,140 meters above sea level, offering tourists a beautiful view of the surrounding mountainside. On clear days, one can see all of central Asturias all the way to Gijon, but most people don't travel to Les Praeres for the view, they come to see Bambi, the friendly deer.

    Sometimes, Bambi will elk straight into the bar in search of Aladino and leave everyone with their mouth open, or even let people pet her. But she's always most comfortable at the side of her rescuer. She's so relaxed around him that she makes other deer feel safe as well.

    Have you ever learned about F. Scott Fitzgerald? F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896, an American novelist, was once a student of St. Paul Academy, the Newman School and attended Princeton. University for a short while. In 1917 he joined the army and was posted in Alabama, where he met his future wife Zelda Sayre. Then he had to make some money to impress her.

    His life with her was full of great happiness, as he wrote in his diary:" My own happiness in the past often approached such joy that I could share it even with the person dearest to me but had to walk it away in quiet streets and take down parts of it in my diary."

    This side of paradise, his first novel, was published in 1920. Encouraged by its success, Fitzgerald began to devote more time to his writing. Then he continued with the novel the Beautiful and Damned (1922), a collection of short stories Thales of the Jazz Age (1922), and a play The Vegetable (1923). But his greatest success was The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, which quick brought him praise from the literary world. Yet it failed to give him the needed financial security. Then, in 1926, he published another collection of short stories All the Sad Young Men.

    However, Fitzgerald's problems with his wife Zelda affected his writing. During the 1920s he tried to reorder his life, but failed. By 1930, his wife had her first breakdown and went to a Swiss clinic. During this period he completed novels Tender Is the Night in 1934 and The Love of the Last Tycoon in 1940 while his wife was in hospital in the United States, he got totally addicted to alcohol. Sheila Graham, his dear friend, helped him fight his alcoholism.