Jennifer Fish, a weather forecaster may soon be replaced by something truly fishier—the shark.

    Research by a British biology student suggests that sharks could be used to predict storms.

    Laura Smith, 24, is close to completing her study on shark's ability to sense pressure.

    If her studies prove the theory, scientists may be able to monitor the behaviour of sharks to predict bad weather.

    Miss Smith had previously studied the behaviour of lemon sharks in the Bahamas.

    She then used their close relatives, lesser spotted dogfish (猫鲨), for further research at Aberdeen University.

Her work—thought to be the first of its kind to test the pressure theory—resulted from the observation that juvenile blacktip sharks off Florida moved into deeper water ahead of a violent storm in 2001.

    Miss Smith said: “I've always been crazy about traveling and diving and this led me to an interest in sharks.”

“I was delighted to have been able to research in the area for my degree. I know there's so much more we need to understand—but it certainly opens the way to more research.”

    It has been discovered that a shark senses pressure using hair cells in its balance system.

    At the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas, Miss Smith fixed hi-tech sensors to sharks to record pressure and temperature, while also tracking them using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.

In Aberdeen, she was able to study the effects of tidal (潮汐的) and temperature changes on dogfish—none of which were harmed. She also used a special lab which can mimic (模拟) oceanic pressure changes caused by weather fronts.

    She is due to complete her study and graduate later this year. She says she will be looking for a job which will give her the chance to enrich her experience of shark research.

    Smoking is harmful. But as soon as you quit the habit, everything will be OK, right?

    Wrong

    New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes(基因) will stay there for a much longer time. In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16,000 people. Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers. Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7,000 genes of smokers had changed—a number that is one-third of known human genes.

    According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes. Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like smoking.

    When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years.

    This means your body is trying to heal (治愈) itself of the harmful effects of smoking. But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer. They can stay for as long as 30 years. It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement (水泥)—it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

    Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer risks.

    It seems that no one can live a happy life without friendship. While a great number of people expect others to be their friends, they don't give friendship back. That is why some friendships don't last long. To have a friend, you must learn to be one. You must learn to treat your friend the way you want your friend to treat you. Learning to be a good friend means learning three rules: be honest; be generous; be understanding.

    Honesty is where a good friendship starts. Friends must be able to trust one another. If you do not tell the truth, people usually find out. If a friend finds out that you haven't been honest, you may lose your friend's trust. Good friends always depend on one another to speak and act honestly.

    Generosity means sharing and sharing makes a friendship grow. You do not have to give your lunch money or your clothes. Naturally you will want to share your ideas and feelings. These can be very valuable to a friend. They tell your friend what is important to you. By sharing them, you help your friend know better.

    Sooner or later everyone needs understanding and help with each other. Something may go wrong at school. Talking about the problem can make it easier to solve. Turning to a friend can be a first step in solving the problem. So to be a friend you must listen and understand. You must try to put yourself in your friend's place so that you can understand the problem better.

    No two friendships are exactly alike. But all true friendships have three things in common. If you plan to keep your friends, you must practice honesty, generosity and understanding.

    A British-designed electronic newspaper which is made of plastic and no larger than a table mat(垫子) is to enter the market next year. The new newspaper was conceived(想出) by Cambridge University scientists. They came up with the idea of replacing silicon chips (硅片) with plastic ones. It is being developed by Plastic Logic, a company based in Dresden, Germany.

    "It looks just like a table mat, and is as light as a magazine. But you can download hundreds of newspapers at the touch of a button, and read them quite safely," the BBC reported on its website.

    The plastic paper is produced in a safe "clean room" at the Plastic Logic factory, which opened last month as the world's first plastic-electronics factory. Every part of the product, from the screen to the electronics, is made of plastic. And it is described by engineer Dean Baker as "top quality". Baker says the plastic newspaper could help solve the problem of waste material associated with traditional newspapers.

    "There's a huge amount of waste. We have paper distributed（分发）all over the country each day and then thrown into the bin. This doesn't need to happen any more. All of the copies could be made electronically and stored on a single ereader with the appearance of paper." he says.

    People can expect to see the plastic newspaper next year, the BBC says.

Delicate strokes(笔画), carved onto wood, with ultimate precision. This is woodblock printing, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} ancient printing technique that has promoted human civilization.

Certain people are believed{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (bring) Buddhism into China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907),when there was a strong need to produce a large number of Buddhist scriptures(经文)，and copying by hand could not meet the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (rise) demand. Ancient Chinese craftsmen thus came up with a novel way to create printed works massively. Hence came the{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (origin) version of woodblock printing.

Traditional woodblock printing can be divided into four major steps: writing, engraving, printing, and binding. With each step then sub-divided into several procedures, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} takes roughly 30 steps to produce a woodblock print. Characters and images{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (carve) to produce raised areas or lines, which calls for skilled hands.

The Buddhist scripture Diamond Sutra, the "earliest dated printed book", can only be seen in the British Library,{#blank#}7{#/blank#} a lot of Chinese treasures are stored. It is just one example of ancient works of art that not only tells the{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (wise) of our ancestors, but also is a witness{#blank#}9{#/blank#} the pursuit of beauty by Chinese craftsmen throughout centuries.

The invention of writing gave life to great thoughts,{#blank#}10{#/blank#} it was the invention of printing that made knowledge a shareable fruit for all humankind.

Within the cinematic universe of "The Martian," Matt Damon embodies the role of an astronaut who cultivates sustenance on the Martian terrain, a testament to human ingenuity in the face of isolation on the crimson celestial sphere.

Following their cinematic enlightenment, Michael Allen, a physicist hailing from Washington State University, and Helen Joyner, a food scientist from the University of Idaho, resolved to initiate a pedagogical exploration. They devised an instructive scenario aimed at guiding students through the complex process of agricultural endeavor on the Martian surface. Envisioning themselves as interplanetary miners, students are tasked with devising a strategy for sustenance prior to embarking on their extraterrestrial expedition. Allen and Joyner proffer a proposal outlining the selection of crops and the enduring trials of cultivating them in the Martian environment over extended periods. Utilizing a scoring mechanism, students are challenged to identify and propagate three varieties of nourishment on the Martian terrain.

Allen encountered a remarkable diversity in outcomes: among a cohort of thirty students, "there has not been a single instance of identical responses," he remarked.

Future Martian voyagers will, in all likelihood, be compelled to harness the native resources of the planet rather than transporting all necessities aboard a spacecraft. This implies the necessity of cultivating their own nourishment on an extraterrestrial sphere, one that boasts an ecosystem markedly divergent from that of Earth.

One formidable impediment for prospective Martian habitués is the absence of agricultural implements. In congruence with actual astronauts, student participants in the study are precluded from amassing an extensive array of farming tools. As Joyner articulated to his student space explorers, "You commence your journey with a vacuum of resources."

Furthermore, students are confronted with the predicament of a severely restricted dietary selection. "Could I endure a diet confined to a single sustenance for the entirety of my existence?" posed Joyner.

Nevertheless, Allen perceives the case study as transcending the realms of agriculture and nutrition on the Red Planet.

"I am not imparting knowledge solely on the cultivation of food on Mars," Allen declared. "I am imparting knowledge on coexistence with choices. I am imparting knowledge on the resolution of complex issues."