Children's museums become an essential part of our play menu. Here are 4 famous muse-ums for families.
KidsQuest Children's Museum
It features huge windows, beautifully designed exhibits and an adventurous, two-story rope ladders in the opening gallery. Kids of all ages will love building with real tools in the re-cycled room, running the cash register, doing physics experiments on water in the Water Lab and much more. Reservations are required. You can make them online.
Imagine Children's Museum
Imagine Children's Museum's new 33,000-square-foot expansion doubles the museum's previous play space and its shows. At over 60,000 square feet, its current area is much bigger than other local children's museums (which average around 10,000-20,000 square feet). Visitors can spend hours in the museum.
Children's Museum of Tacoma
At 10,000 square feet in size, the Children's Museum of Tacoma has a huge draw. Since it opened about a decade ago, it has offered pay-as-you-will admission and has no plans to change that anytime soon. This means that you can stop off for an hour, without worrying about whether you've gotten your money's worth.
Seattle Children's Museum
This kid-favorite spot is located on the lower level of the Seattle Center Armory building. Long-time museum lovers will notice a new exhibit, a post office where kids can weigh packages and slide behind the driver's seat to make pretend deliveries.
Most air conditioners and fridges rely on contracting and expanding a liquid to either absorb or release large quantities of heat. While these systems are relatively cheap and simple to produce, they aren't very efficient and require lots of energy. Besides, many of the coolants used are environmentally harmful.
Now, Emmanuel Defay at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and his colleagues have developed a coolant-free refrigeration device made from the metals lead, scandium (钪) and tantalum (钼). It can reach maximum efficiencies of more than 60%, almost double that of typical single-room air conditioning units. The technology is based on a principle called electrocaloric cooling, in which an electric field applied across a material changes the direction of electric charges, causing a temporary increase in temperature and a succeeding decrease when the electric field is removed.
To make their cooling system, Defay and his colleagues piled up eight strips of the material known as lead scandium tantalate, which is electrocaloric, on top of one another and dipped them in a heat-carrying liquid, silicone oil. When an electric field is switched on and the strips heat up, the liquid moves to the right, and when it cools down, it moves to the left, creating permanent regions of hot and cold of about 20℃difference. These regions can be used as hot and cold reservoirs from which the oil can be circulated through pipes to cool or heat rooms or objects as desired.
"Although the efficiency of the device is theoretically 67%, the efficiency of the current design is around 12%. This could be improved if a better conductor of heat than the lead scandium tantalate were found," said Defay.
"A highest performance has been achieved by combining known elements," said NeilMathur at the University of Cambridge. However, he added, the team only looked at the cooling power of the pile of metal strips themselves, while it would be interesting to see how the entire device performs together.
It is a strange coincidence(巧合) that as humanity attempts to greatly reduce its carbon emissions(排放), it is also rushing to develop a technology that could, in theory, consume an unlimited amount of energy.
Doing things against facts is a dangerous game, but you can picture a world in which, having chosen to start dealing with climate change properly in the 1990s, we would be just wrapping up the gentle path to net-zero emissions in time for a rapid AI increase fuelled by green power. Instead, we find ourselves at risk of running a 21st-century technology on a 20th-century energy supply.
If you live in the US, every time you use an AI model, around 20 per cent of the electricity required will be produced by burning coal. The explosive growth of AI makes this an even more pressing concern. According to one analysis, if Google chose to shift to an entirely AI-powered search business, its electricity consumption could match that of some countries.
Such estimates may be magnified, but evidence of rising power consumption from AI is all around. Microsoft is placing bets on nuclear plants to power its data centres, while the English government has promised to boost its national computing capacity by 50 per cent by 2025, which would help it keep pace with rapid AI developments in the world.
Thankfully, we may soon reach a turning point. As is reported, this year the global power department came close to reaching peak greenhouse gas emissions, as the switch from fossil(化石) fuels to clean and renewable sources is well underway. The question now is whether we can quicken the pace of decarbonisation (脱碳) to match the coming growth in energy consumption as AI becomes increasingly rooted in our society. Silicon Valley's intelligent machines may grab the headlines and the imagination, but the people really inventing the future are working in the energy department.
A gene variant (变体) that causes the "alcohol flush (脸红)" reaction increases the risk of heart disease by causing inflammation of blood vessels (脉管), especially in drinkers. Around 8 percent of the world's populations has a gene variant called ALDH2*2 that impairs the body's ability to break down alcohol and causes unpleasant symptoms such as flushing soon after people drink. Now, researchers have shown why this change also raises the risk of heart disease.
"We are trying to understand why ALDH2*2 is associated with a higher risk of coronary arte (冠状动脉) disease at a cellular (细胞的) level," says Hongchao Guo at Stanford University in California.
The ALDH2*2 gene encodes one version of the enzyme (酵素) alcohol dehydrogenase (脱氢酶), which breaks down the toxic acetaldehydes (乙醛) produced when alcohol is metabolized (代谢), and also mops up other harmful substances known as free radicals.
The gene variant also impairs the growth of new blood vessels. "That means that when there is a heart attack, when there is a need of blood vessel growth, carriers have less ability to generate new blood vessels," says Guo.
The team found that an existing diabetes (糖尿病) drug called empagliflozin may reduce these harmful effects in people with ALDH2*2 who drink a lot of alcohol. But for Wu, the take-home message is clear. "If you're missing this enzyme, try not to drink," he says. "If you drink consistently, you are at much higher risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer."
Given its many negative consequences, there has been debate about why this change spread and became common, today being found in more than a third of people of cast Asian origin.
"My only explanation is that if you are missing this enzyme, you tend to drink less and there's therefore less chance of you becoming alcoholic," says Wu.
Some of the oldest living things on our remarkable planet are trees. The record holders are bristlecone pines (狐尾松) of the western United States, quite a few of which are known to be more than 3,000 years old. One individual, discovered in 2012, is estimated to be more than 5,060 years old, making it the oldest known non-clonal tree in the world! : individuals across a number of other tree species have also been around for thousands of years.
So, how do trees survive for thousands of years? . Undoubtedly, part of the answer lies in luck. Ancient trees have obviously not submitted to deadly diseases, pests, fires, droughts, windstorms, landslides, or the human axe in the centuries and centuries that they have quietly endured.
The other part of the answer has to do with how trees age. In fact, there is quite a debate about whether ancient trees can be considered "immortal (永生的)". That is, will such trees ever die if they are not killed by an outside force? We may never know the answer to that, but, at the very least, . While cell death is an important factor in the aging of humans and other animals, one study found little evidence of cell death in the ginkgo tree vascular cambium (银杏树维管形成层). In addition, a study of bristlecone pine pollen (花粉) found no significant increase in mutation (变异) rates with age, which is another factor associated with animal aging. .
Older trees benefit greatly from having bodies made mostly of dead woody tissue. In fact, an old tree might be as much as 95 percent dead tissue! Given that it isn't alive, wood does not require metabolic (新陈代谢的) activity to maintain it, .
A．so an old tree doesn't really need to do much to keep living
B．This is a question that has something to do with the good luck of trees
C．However, bristlecones are certainly not alone in terms of the oldest creatures
D．This is a fascinating question for biologists that does not yet have a settled answer
E．What's more, some ancient trees have superior chemical defenses against pests and diseases
F．which means that trees can survive everywhere without being limited by external and internal conditions
G．we know that ancient trees age in ways that are dramatically different from the ways that most animals and even other plants age
Inconvenient Truths
If doctors lie, it is surely inexcusable. One of the basic1 the public have of doctors is honesty. But what would you think if I told you that research has shown that 70 per cent of doctors 2 to lying to their patients? If I am honest, I have told lies to my patients.
Mrs Walton was in her eighties and3 to see her husband. She would try to get up to find him, despite being at risk of falling. "He's on his way, don't worry," the nurses would say this to calm her down. I said the same thing to her. But it was a lie. He died two years ago. The truth, if I can use that word, is that it is a4 to lie sometimes.
Mrs Walton is one of the dementia(痴呆) sufferers, who lose their short-term memory and the memory of5 events, but hold memories from the distant past. Sufferers are trapped forever in a confusing past that many realize bears little 6 to the present, but are at a loss to explain. Those with dementia often feel upset, scared and confused that they are in a strange place, 7 by strange people, even when they are in their own homes with their family, because they have gone back to decades ago.
They look at their adult children 8 and wonder who they could be because they think their children are still little kids. I have had countless families break down in tears, not knowing how to react as their loved one moves further away from them back into their distant past and they are 9 in the present. And how, as the doctor or nurse caring for these patients, does one manage the anger and outbursts of distress that comes with having no 10 of your life for the past ten or 20 years? The lies that doctors, nurses and families tell these patients are not big, elaborate lies — they are 11 comforts intended to calm and allow the subject to be swiftly changed.
12 with them about this false reality is not heartless or unprofessional — it is actually kind. That's not to say that lying to patients with dementia13 is right or defensible. But what kind-hearted person would put another human being through the unimaginable pain of learning,14 again and again, that they have lost their beloved ones. It would be an unthinkable cruelness.
Sometimes honesty is 15 not the best policy.
Are you familiar with pop star Jay Chou'sBlue &White Porcelain? Its original lines, just the composer Fang Wenshan described, were inspired by Ru porcelain (汝瓷).
Ranked best among famous kinds during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ru porcelain is known for its unique pale blue glaze (釉). Oceans Ru porcelain flooded onto the market around the year of 1100, but the (exist) of Ru ware now is actually rare. Thanks to the efforts of Ru porcelain inheritors, people can now appreciate it (close) at hand than before.
Born in Ruzhou, Henan province, Li Chao has spent a decade (better) crafting skills. Ru porcelain goes through 72 steps, the (one) of which is knead (揉) mud. Any small errors could lead to disaster, said the 41-year-old inheritor. He then stressed that a Ru porcelain inheritor must be patient enough. Every item of artwork (full) deserves our admiration.
Techniques of making Ru porcelain will (lose) with senior inheritors gradually passing away. So, Li spares no effort in doing is introducing it to wider masses. (achieve) this goal, he creatively uses Ru porcelain in making daily ware popular among young people. Now he's aiming to expand the market by introducing it to the whole world.
1. 海洋的重要性；
2. 保护海洋的倡议。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为100左右；
2. 短文的题目已为你写好。
Be An Ocean Lover
Hello, everyone! I'm Li Hua, an enthusiastic ocean lover.
That's all. Thank you
As my parents worked a late shift, my three small sisters looked at me. "What's for dinner?" one of them said. The last time I made dinner was when I made pizza in high school. Now, I had three mouths to feed—ages two, six and nine—but I was short on ideas. Like a deer in headlights, I searched for a possible answer.
"Where's the Twister (转盘游戏) game?"
"Not Twister," Abby, my oldest sister, scolded, "Dinner. "
I walked to the closet, pulled out the game. and tested the spinner (转盘). Then I slid a couple of sheets of paper between the plastic arrow and the cardboard base and divided it into four quadrant (象限). I looked at my sisters.
"Who wants chocolate?" Alice, my youngest sister, screamed happily. Abby crossed her arms. "Mum wouldn't let that happen. "
"Mum's not here. "I wrote in the upper right quadrant: chocolate. Andy, my middle sister, asked, "What are you doing?"
"You'll see in a second." I pointed at the second area. "How about noodles?" Alice started dancing around in a circle.
"When we get four options written on the spinner, we'll spin to see what we do for dinner tonight."
My youngest sister said, "Dress up like superheroes. "
"Absolutely!" I wrote superheroes, with no idea how that would turn into a dinner idea, hoping the dial would land somewhere else. They debated the final section for a few seconds and then collectively decided on pizza. If they had suggested "Run around at the mall", I would have written it down. I set the spinner in the middle of the table. We gathered around the spinner, and I held up my hands. "We are going to spin it once, and whatever we land on、that's what we'll do tonight. "
Abby shook her head. "I don't think this is a good idea." "It's okay, honey. Mum will understand. "
Alice yelled, "I want to spin it. "Alice's try sent the little, plastic arrow flying around and around until it landed on... pizza. Everyone shouted, "Pizza", including me. I still had no idea what we were going to do. Abby looked at me. "But what are we going to do?"
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
"Let's buy some materials for making pizza first," I said.
We were excited about preparing dinner by ourselves.
