The Boy Made It!         

    As the population of the planet increases, so does the number of homes, business, parking lots, schools, airports and roadways. All these structures use electricity and need to be lighted. Humans demand light. They want their homes more comfortable and they want their streets safe. The problem is that researchers are finding that all the light is having a negative effect on humans and wildlife as well.

    Less than 10 years ago I drove to a thinly populated section of my own, lay down in the middle of the road and watched an attractive meteor shower(流星雨). If I did that today, I wouldn't be able to see the meteor shower.

    Nowadays scientists are finding light pollution can be almost as bad as carbon dioxide （二氧化碳）pollution. One of the saddest parts of light pollution is that most of it is unnecessary and most of the outdoor light that we use is wasted. One only needs to look at a row of street lights to see how much of the lights shines upwards and lights the sky: a total waste of electricity.

    Additionally, the production of electricity creates pollution by releasing greenhouse gases. This affects the air we breathe and our quality of life.

    Scientists are also studying the effects of light pollution on wildlife. Thousands of birds die each year when they crash into highly lighted buildings, as they become puzzled by the light. It has been long known that tiny baby sea turtles become lost and follow the light on the shore instead of heading towards the sea.

    Fortunately, light pollution is one of the easiest sources of pollution that can be corrected without a negative effect. Following some guidelines and a little searching on Google can give you many ideas on how to reduce your contribution to light pollution.

It took multiple weddings for Christine Law to realize what she needed to do. In the summer of 2014, her schedule was packed with friends, marriage celebrations—flowers — filled occasions that got her thinking, “Where do all the flowers go after the party?” More often than not, they were thrown out. Law, then 27, was confident she could find a better use for them.

    By August, she had a plan: convince couples and companies hosting events to donate their flowers, which she would pick up and deliver within 48 hours to seniors across the city. She wanted to bring beauty into the lives of the elderly. She drew on her experience volunteering with non-profits in order to set up her own organization, which she called Floranthropie. Not having enough bouquets (花束) for all 150 people of a health center, Law asked the staff to provide a list of patients who needed cheering up most, “The first woman I approached thought it was a mistake, and that the flowers couldn't possibly be for her,” says Law. “I said they were a gift, and we talked for a half hour.”

    In addition to health centers, Floranthropie focuses on community groups devoted to the elderly. Theleme is a volunteer for Les Petits Fieres, an organization that aims to help the elderly who don't have a support system. The group receives a dozen or so bouquets from Floranthropie monthly, and then redistributes them. “Our motto is 'flowers before bread,” says Theleme. “We don't focus on primary care, but rather on nourishing (滋养) the spirit. Floranthropie helps that. It's amazing what a big difference a small bouquet can make.”

    In the beginning, most of Floranthropie's donations came through word of mouth. These days, Law receives messages from strangers via her organization's Facebook page and has connected with corporations and flower wholesalers. Law hopes to expand Floranthropie nationally, but at this point is happy to be able to oversee each delivery personally.

    People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

    Rachael Jack from University of Glasgow, said that rather than scanning evenly across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.

    "We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," Jack said. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, while Easterners favor the eyes and ignore the mouth."

    According to Jack and his colleagues, the discovery shows that communication of human emotions is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used reliably to convey emotions in cross­cultural situations.

    The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the facial movements of 13 Western people and 13 Eastern people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, or angry. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.

    It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. "The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions," Jack said. "Our data suggests that while Westerners use the whole face to convey emotions, Easterners use the eyes more and the mouth less."

    In short, the data shows that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotions. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotions. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.

    At 17, Mark Merwitzer might be Florida's youngest lobbyist (游说者). The Miami high school junior appeals to authorities to keep drivers from texting behind the wheel.

    Over the past year, the teen has met with county officials and state legislators (立法者)to argue that the police should be able to pull drivers over just for using their phones. Efforts in past years have struggled to advance, but recently, the bill got full support from the Senate Transportation Committee (参议院交通委员会).

    Like many US people, Merwitzer has seen countless drivers texting behind the wheel. But last spring, while he was riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle, he saw drivers using smartphones in almost every car. A few drivers even appeared to lose control of their cars as they sped along. It dawned on (突然想到) Merwitzer that no one was doing anything to fix the problem.

    We need to teach drivers how to properly and safely use technology behind the wheel which is not using it at all,” said Merwitzer.

    For the 17-year-old teenager, advocating a new state law has been a crazy experience.

    In order to carry out his plan，he put his focus on drumming up (争取)local support by starting an online petition (请愿)and speaking to village councils,

    Merwitzer said the first time he spoke at a council meeting “was a complete stutter fest (口吃表演)，” but he quickly adapted to it.

    “It really creates some standards that help everybody realize the importance of keeping their eyes on the road,” said Miami-Dade Commissioner (专员)Levine Cava.

The commissioner has been so impressed with Merwitzer's understanding of the political process. “He really learned very quickly how to be an effective citizen lobbyist,” she said.

    So far, opposition to the bill has come mainly from police departments. Some are worried about the possibility of lawsuits (诉讼)if officers are accused of racially profiling (按种族形象定性) drivers when accusing them of texting and driving，Merwitzer said. The bill also has critics in the House, where lawmakers have yet to make plans for a hearing.

    Merwitzer said he would one day like to be a state legislator, but in the meantime he has a few short-term goals, like finishing school and going to college. Once the legislative session (期间) is over, Merwitzer plans to turn his attention to another local problem: public transportation. “I'd like to focus on that，” Merwitzer said. “It seems like it's a giant mess,”

Rescue workers and thousands of volunteers are not the only ones who have won hearts and minds for their heroic efforts in the search for survivors after Tuesday's powerful earthquake in

Mexico. Fifteen dogs from the navy's canine (军犬) unit have assisted this week in the rescue efforts at the sites of collapsed buildings across Mexico City, where more than 50 people have been pulled alive from the ruins.

Of the canine heroes none is more famous or loved than Frida, a six-year-old white Labrador who in her distinguished service has won praise for her ability to detect people who have been trapped by various natural disasters. Over her admirable career she has found 52 people including 12 survivors in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

This week, Frida and Evil and Echo—two Belgian Shepherds that have also been specially trained for rescue efforts一were sent to the site of the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen School in southern Mexico City.

Equipped with goggles that protect her eyes from dust and smoke, boots to prevent damage to her paws while she climbs over rough ruins, Frida took to her work looking every bit the part of the ruins.

If Frida detects the presence of a survivor, she is trained to bark to alert rescue workers but if she detects a corpse she stops suddenly before proceeding, her handler explained.

Eleven children were rescued from ruins at the school but this time human rescue workers rather than the dogs were the ones who located them.

However, that hasn't stopped Frida from becoming a social media star and reaching a new level of fame this week. Videos and other social media posts that highlight the work of Frida and her impressive record of detecting people trapped by natural disasters spread quickly online.

While she has yet to detect anyone trapped in the ruins this week, she and other rescue dogs are continuing to work tirelessly, searching through spaces that humans cannot reach. With the possibility that there are still people trapped alive, time will tell whether she adds to her rescue record.