Official Weibo: http://weibo.com/u/3476904471
大家好,胖胖翔来啦!speaker部分的原文仍然用白色隐藏,用鼠标选中即可查看。今天的文章科技性比较强,大家耐心读吧!
Part I:Speaker 【Rephrase 1】 Article 1 Food Is Tastier When Part of a Ritual
[Dialog, 1:15]
Transcript hided:
Food can taste better when you’re really hungry. Now a study reveals another condition that can enhance the flavor of a meal: when it’s part of a ritual. Scientists asked volunteers to eat some chocolate. They told one group to relax for a few minutes, then eat the chocolate in any way they wanted. But another group was given these instructions: “Without unwrapping the chocolate bar, break it in half. Unwrap half of the bar and eat it. Then, unwrap the other half and eat it.” And those who went through the more elaborate process rated the chocolate more highly, enjoyed it more, and were willing to pay more for it than the group who just ate it. Another experiment included a delay between the ritual and actually eating the food, and this further increased participants’ enjoyment of the food. [The study is in the journal Psychological Science.] The scientists found that personal involvement in a ritual is necessary. When subjects watched someone else prepare lemonade in an elaborate way, they did not experience an increase in their enjoyment of the drink. So, cut your own birthday cake, then hand out slices to everyone else, then taste your piece. It might seem like best thing you ever ate.
Resource: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=food-is-tastier-when-part-of-a-ritu-13-08-24
Part II:Speed
【Time 2】
Article 2 Map tracks path of dust plume from Chelyabinsk meteor
When an 11,000-metric-ton meteor ripped through Earth’s atmosphere on February 15, 2013, it left behind a streak of dust that encircled the planet, satellite data show. The space rock, which was 18 meters across, sped through the sky at nearly 66,900 kilometers per hour (41,600 miles per hour) and exploded — with 30 times the energy of a World War II atom bomb — in the stratosphere about 23 kilometers above Chelyabinsk, Russia. An instrument on the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite detected the particle plume from the explosion and began tracking it as it rapidly moved east, reaching the Aleutian Islands in just a day. Using the satellite data and atmospheric models, NASA atmospheric physicist Nick Gorkavyi and his colleagues then mapped how the particle plume morphed as the jet stream carried it around the Northern Hemisphere. In four days, the smaller, lighter particles wound their way around the hemisphere and back to Chelyabinsk. And three months after the explosion, scientists could still detect the meteor’s dust encircling Earth. The meteor that ripped through the sky on February 15, 2013, left behind a particle plume that encircled the Earth in a mere four days. NASA scientists used data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite and atmospheric models to map the plume.
字数[217] Resource: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/352753/description/News_in_Brief_Map_tracks_path_of_dust_plume_from_Chelyabinsk_meteor
【Time 3】 Article 3 Coatings have simple recipe for success Cheap approach, natural ingredients may prove useful in foods, medicines
It’s not often that chemists find a quick, simple and cheap method for making things using widely available ingredients, but researchers have done just that: They’ve created elegant little capsules and coatings in water simply by mixing iron and a compound from plants called tannic acid. The soft coatings form on their own around whatever else is in the water — glass beads, bacteria, gold nanoparticles and more. Just changing the solution’s pH can prompts the coatings to disassemble. The coatings’ ingredients are considered safe — tannic acid is found in wine, while iron is an important element for living things. That means the capsules might help in delivering drugs in the body or find use in cosmetics or foods, says bioengineer Gregory Payne of the University of Maryland in College Park. The work fits with an ongoing effort to find biologically friendly, useful materials, Payne says, and it takes advantage of materials that are right under everyone’s noses. “It opens up a lot of opportunities.” Using ordinary lab equipment, the research team, led by materials scientist Frank Caruso of the University of Melbourne in Australia, create the tiny coatings at room temperature. When the researchers add tannic acid to water, it tends to congregate around surfaces, whether they be a piece of polystyrene or an E. coli bacterium. When the researchers add iron ions to the mix, the iron latches onto the tannic acid molecules, connecting them into a thin film. At a pH of 7.4, the capsules were still intact after 10 days; at a pH of 3, they disassembled within four hours, the team reports in the July 12 Science.
字数[271] Resource: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351501/description/Coatings_have_simple_recipe_for_success
【Time 4】 Article 4 US behavioural research studies skew positive Scientists speculate 'US effect' is a result of publish-or-perish mentality.
US behavioural researchers have been handed a dubious distinction — they are more likely than their colleagues in other parts of the world to exaggerate findings, according to a study published today. The research highlights the importance of unconscious biases that might affect research integrity, says Brian Martinson, a social scientist at the HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was not involved with the study. “The take-home here is that the ‘bad guy/good guy’ narrative — the idea that we only need to worry about the monsters out there who are making up data — is naive,” Martinson says.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, was conducted by John Ioannidis, a physician at Stanford University in California, and Daniele Fanelli, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. The pair examined 82 meta-analyses in genetics and psychiatry that collectively combined results from 1,174 individual studies. The researchers compared meta-analyses of studies based on non-behavioural parameters, such as physiological measurements, to those based on behavioural parameters, such as progression of dementia or depression.
The researchers then determined how well the strength of an observed result or effect reported in a given study agreed with that of the meta-analysis in which the study was included. They found that, worldwide, behavioural studies were more likely than non-behavioural studies to report ‘extreme effects’ — findings that deviated from the overall effects reported by the meta-analyses.
And US-based behavioural researchers were more likely than behavioural researchers elsewhere to report extreme effects that deviated in favour of their starting hypotheses.
“We might call this a ‘US effect,’” Fanelli says. “Researchers in the United States tend to report, on average, slightly stronger results than researchers based elsewhere.” This 'US effect' did not occur in non-behavioral research, and studies with both behavioural and non-behavioural components exhibited slightly less of the effect than purely behavioural research. Fanelli and Ioannidis interpret this finding to mean that US researchers are more likely to report strong effects, and that this tendency is more likely to show up in behavioural research, because researchers in these fields have more flexibility to make different methodological choices that produce more diverse results.
字数[371]
【Time 5】
The study looked at a larger volume of research than has been examined in previous studies on bias in behavioural research, says Brian Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. However, he and other researchers say that this study shows only a correlation, so it does not prove that being a behavioural researcher or working in the United States causes the more extreme results. Behavioural studies may report more extreme outcomes because they examine more diverse conditions, researchers argue. “One cannot straightforwardly conclude that the predictors are causes of the outcomes,” Nosek says. “To do an experimental test, we would need random assignment to biological or behavioural research and to US or non-US locations.” Fanelli says that the new paper shows that behavioral research outcomes are more variable than in another fields - genetics — which has tighter methodological standards. A key question raised by this study, Fanelli says, is why such differences lead more often towards favourable extreme results in the United States. “Whatever methodological choices are made, those made by researchers in the United States tend to yield subtly stronger supports for whatever hypothesis they test,” Fanelli says. Fanelli and Ioannidis do not explain why that might be. They found that the ‘small-study effect’, in which overall results are biased towards positive, extreme findings because negative findings from small studies are not published, did not explain their results.
“It has to be because of methodological choices made before the study is submitted,” Fanelli says, possibly under pressure from the ‘publish or perish’ mentality that takes hold when career progress depends on high-profile publications. Zubin Master, a bioethicist at Albany Medical College in New York, finds this explanation credible. “The current economic climate may further add to the pressure on researchers to publish in high-profile journals in order to enhance their chances of securing research funds,” he says. But how to verify that possibility is a bigger question. “The value of this study is not to say that this phenomenon is hugely worse in the United States, or in this field of science compared to that one,” Martinson says. “But the fact that you can show it raises the question of what it means.”
字数[373] Resource: http://www.nature.com/news/us-behavioural-research-studies-skew-positive-1.13599
【Time 6】
Article 5 How to Spot Crappy Coffee
People who enjoy the most expensive coffee in the world can soon sip without worry: Researchers have come up with a way to tell if their cuppa joe is real or faux. The luxury drink in question—Kopi Luwak—gets its name from the Indonesian words for “coffee” and the Asian palm civet, Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, the catlike creature intimately involved in its production. After a luwak consumes the ripe fruits of the coffee plant (image), it digests the outer flesh of the fruit and then excretes the intact beans, which are then collected, washed (thankfully), fermented, sun-dried, and roasted—a time-consuming process that helps contribute to the beverage’s price tag of between $330 to $500 per kilogram. Such a lucrative product is bound to draw counterfeiters and, indeed, the market is flooded with fakes. So, in a new study, researchers chemically analyzed four different blends of coffee—authentic Kopi Luwak, regular coffee, a 50/50 mix of the two, and a brew of coffee beans that producers had chemically treated in an attempt to simulate mammalian digestion. Of the hundreds of organic substances naturally present in coffee, a handful enabled the team to distinguish Kopi Luwak from the other brews, the researchers report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Specifically, Kopi Luwak sports higher concentrations of malic acid and citric acid, as well as a higher ratio of inositol to pyroglutamic acid. Although trained experts and aroma-sniffing devices called “electronic noses” can tell the difference between real Kopi Luwak and other blends, the new study is the first to specifically identify the chemicals that characterize the true brew, the researchers say. The technique may even be sensitive enough to distinguish pure Kopi Luwak from versions adulterated with varying percentages of other coffees—which offers some degree of reassurance when your morning mud costs about $15 a cup.
字数[308] Resource: http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2013/08/scienceshot-how-spot-crappy-coffee
Part III: Obstacle
【Paraphrase 7】
Article 6
Six Stealthy Energy Hogs: Are They Lurking in Your Home?
Does your smartphone use more energy than a refrigerator? A recent report by the Digital Power Group claimed that an average iPhone uses more juice for battery charging, data use, and wireless connectivity than a medium-sized, ENERGY STAR refrigerator. But an iPhone's power requirements vary dramatically depending on how it's used for video, gaming, and other apps. And estimates for just how much data the average owner uses a month also vary widely, so the controversial study has drawn critics who claim that the comparison is greatly overstated. (See quiz: "What You Don't Know About Electricity.") Whether your mobile phone's power use rivals your fridge or not, the chances are good that hidden energy hogs in your home are burning more power and money than that refrigerator—sometimes much more. Here are half a dozen surprisingly power-hungry devices that may be feeding your electric bill. Set-Top Boxes These familiar electronic arrays sit on or near many televisions to connect cable to our entertainment systems. But it's not just their clocks that run when no one is watching. These devices function much like mini-computers that communicate with remote content sources or record favorite shows while you're out. That means they require a lot of energy. "The issue with set-top boxes is that they never power down and they are almost always consuming their full power requirements even when you think you've turned it off," said Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "If you have a DVR on your main TV, and a regular set-top box on a second TV, that could equal the energy use of a new refrigerator." In 2010, an NRDC study found, the 160 million set-top boxes in the U.S. consumed the annual output of nine average coal-fired plants, some 27 billion kilowatt hours in all. That equals the total household electricity consumption of the entire state of Maryland. That kind of power costs money—more than $3 billion a year in electric bills—and most of that cash is spent on boxes running at full power while nobody is watching or recording their content. "We're spending about $2 billion a year in electricity bills to power set-top boxes when they are not even in use," Horowitz said. (See related story: "Who's Watching? Privacy Concerns Persist as Smart Meters Roll Out.") Marianne DiMascio, with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy's Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), said while more efficiency gains are needed, the industry has set some voluntary efficiency standards and made some recent improvements. "Today you can ask your provider for an ENERGY STAR-rated set-top box, and that will help," she said. Furnace Fans "There's a major energy eater lurking in your basement," ASAP's Marianne DiMascio said. "Many people don't even realize that they have a furnace fan, or have any idea how much energy it consumes." Furnace fans circulate air from your furnace or heat pump, through the duct system, and into every room in your home. In homes with central air conditioning, they circulate cool air through the same system. "It's on a lot, and it's a very high energy user," DiMascio said of the double-duty device. In fact, though they are hidden away in the basement, these fans are among many households' biggest energy users, responsible for more than 12 percent of the average American household's total electricity use, or 1,100 kWh each year—double or triple refrigerator usage—according to ASAP stats. That total is split roughly evenly between heating and cooling costs. Energy efficient motors, like brushless permanent magnet (BPM) models, can cut this daunting number by 60 percent. These motors aren't mandated by federal standards, at least not yet, but they are available on many condensing furnaces and an increasing number of traditional models as well. Battery Chargers Many of the devices we use every day, from mobile phones to power tools, run on rechargeable battery power. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that some 800 million such devices are sold in the U.S. each year, and the ultimate source of their power is the electric grid. Many charging systems use outdated technologies that waste electricity. The state of California has tackled this problem by establishing tougher in-state efficiency standards. Currently the U.S. Department of Energy is working on its own regulations to make the devices more energy-efficient. If California's standards were adopted nationwide, the savings could be enormous, DiMascio said. "If we improve standards for these battery chargers and external power supplies we could save American consumers about $1 billion annually," she said. While other products offer homeowners a chance to realize their own savings by product choice, she argues, these devices are an example of where regulation plays the key role. "Nobody right now is going to go out and buy a computer or a cell phone according to how efficient the battery charger is. So in this case the standards are overcoming a market barrier of people not really being able to go out and buy efficient chargers for all of these devices." (Energy-wise or an energy waster? Test yourself with our Personal Energy Meter.) Microwave Ovens You'd expect your microwave to eat up electricity when it's popping popcorn or heating up last night's leftovers. But the truth is, these appliances consume most of their electricity when they're simply sitting in your kitchen doing nothing. "You only use a microwave a tiny part of the time," DiMascio said. "But when it's not in use, it's consuming standby power because it's always sitting there ready to go." An Appliance Standards Awareness Project study found that the typical microwave is only used about 70 hours a year. During the other 99 percent of the time, or 8,690 hours, it burns as much as 35 kilowatt hours in "vampire power" to illuminate the clock and keep electronic push button controls in standby mode. "There are ways to make that standby power lower," DiMascio added, and new U.S. Department of Energy regulations announced in June may help do just that. The new standards coming into effect in 2016 will cut that wasteful consumption by 75 percent for most microwaves by upgrading efficiencies in power supplies, control boards, and cooking sensors. Sara Mullen-Trento of the Electric Power Research Institute said smaller, cheaper electronics mean that more appliances will likely boast electronic features like those on microwaves. "You'll probably see this kind of technology incorporated to enhance their feature sets," she said. "Things like a digital display on a clothes washer. But I think with those consumer electronics playing a bigger role in consumption, we'll also see the newer efficiency standards recognize that this has an impact when you have ten of these devices in the home. In fact, some of those same feature sets may allow you to operate an appliance in a more energy-efficient way by using different settings." Game Consoles Powerful game consoles like the Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 have important power-saving features, but also some significant issues, said Noah Horowitz. "They feature an on/off button, which puts the console into a standby mode with less than one watt of power usage, which is what it should be—they work great," he said. Unfortunately many users don't turn the units off, or turn off the television but leave the console powered up—a costly mistake. "If you run the console 24/7 because you don't turn it off, it could cost you an extra hundred dollars a year," he said. Newer consoles now ship with an auto power-down feature that launches the standby mode after periods of inactivity. Older units have the feature too, Horowitz explained, but require users to visit the menu and make sure the device's power-saving mode is turned on. Game consoles also hog power when they are used to stream movies, something makers like Sony and Microsoft are increasingly encouraging their users to do. "Streaming movies on a console like PlayStation 3 uses twice as much energy than if you stream the same movie with Netflix over a set-top box and about 30 times more energy than if you streamed the movie on Apple TV." The problem, Horowitz said, is one of power-scaling, and it's a challenge for console manufacturers. "You'd like the console to turn off unused features. You don't need that powerful game processor when you're just streaming a movie, but right now the consoles are not designed to differentiate between those tasks." (How much can you save by switching lighting at home? Try the Light Bulb Savings Calculator.) Pool Pumps Americans love to stay cool in their swimming pools and dig more than 150,000 in-ground units each year, adding to a total that's already more than 5 million. While some bemoan the heating costs for some pools, another, larger expense often goes unnoticed: the pool pump accounts for 70 percent of a typical pool's energy use and seven times that of a refrigerator. The pump keeps pool water circulating and passes it through filters. Single-speed pumps always run at the same maximum speed, burning extra energy. But multi-speed pumps can be scaled up or down as needed for tasks like filtration and cleaning. Using an ENERGY STAR-certified pump with multiple or variable speeds can cut energy use by over 80 percent and save hundreds of dollars a year. According to ENERGY STAR stats, these pumps will pay for themselves in five years and save owners more than $1,000 over the pump's lifetime. Some utilities are offering cash incentives to purchase them and, in California, sales of new standard single-speed pumps have been banned outright. "An average refrigerator uses around 500 kilowatt hours a year, while the average pool pump uses 3,500 kilowatt hours a year," Marianne DiMascio said. "So we're looking to get these more efficient pumps into pools."
字数[1209]
Resource: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/130826-six-stealthy-household-energy-hogs/ |