A new study has found the amount of antibiotics(抗生素) given to farm animals is expected to increase by two thirds over the next 15 years. Researchers are linking the growing dependence on the drugs to the increasing need for meat, milk and eggs. However, the drugs could quicken the development of antibiotic-resistant infections(感染).Such infections are already a major public, health concern in the United States.

The World Health Organization notes when people stop living in poverty, the first thing they want to do is eat better, rather than earn more money. For most people, that means their diet should contain more meat. With the rapid development of Asia, people there are eating nearly four times as much meat, milk and other milk products as they did 50 years ago.

To meet the need, farmers have put many animals into smaller space. As the animals are crowded together, the easiest way to deal with some of the problems of crowding is to give them antibiotics. It's clear that antibiotics help animals stay healthy in a crowded environment and grow faster. But bacteria can develop resistance to the drugs gradually.

Nowadays, doctors find antibiotics that once worked against the infections no longer work. The bacteria have learned ways to fight against the drugs. The heavy use of antibiotics in animals is responsible for the growth of antibiotic resistance worldwide. In the United States, at least two million people get drug-resistant infections each year and at least 23,000 die from an infection.

Europe has banned the use of antibiotics to increase animal growth. And the United States is hoping to persuade farmers to stop using antibiotics for that purpose.

A new research study combining marine physiology, neuroscience, pharmacology（药物学）, and behavioral psychology has revealed a surprising outcome from increases of carbon dioxide uptake in the oceans: anxious fish.

A growing base of scientific evidence has shown that the absorption of human-produced carbon dioxide into the worldˈs oceans is causing surface waters to decline in pH, causing a rise in acidity(酸度). This ocean acidification is known to disrupt the growth of shells and skeletons（骨骼） of certain marine animals but other consequences such as behavioral impacts have been lately unknown until recently.

In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada, have shown for the first time that rising acidity levels increase anxiety in juvenile rockfish（岩鱼）, an important commercial species in California. Using a camera-based tracking software system, the researchers compared a control group of rockfish kept in normal seawater to another group in waters with elevated acidity levels matching those projected for the end of the century. They measured each groupˈs preference to swim in light or dark areas of a testing tank, which is a known test for anxiety in fish. The researchers found out that normal juvenile rockfish continuously moved between the light and dark areas of the tank. However, experiments have shown that fish administered with an anxiety-inducing drug prefer the darker area and seldom venture into the light. Hence（Thus）, _____________.

Next, the researchers found that rockfish exposed to acidified ocean conditions for one week also preferred the dark area of the tank, indicating they were significantly more anxious than their normal seawater counterparts. Rockfish exposed to acidified ocean conditions remained anxious even one week after being placed in seawater with normal carbon dioxide levels. Only after the twelfth day in normal seawater did the anxious fish behave like the control group and resumed normal behavior.

The researchers say the anxiety is traced to the fishˈs sensory(感官的) systems, and specifically "GABAA" (neural gamma-aminobutyric acid type A) receptors, which are also involved in human anxiety levels. Exposure to acidified water leads to changes in the concentrations of ions(离子) in the blood (especially chloride and bicarbonate), which reverses the flux of ions through the GABAA receptors. The end result is a change in neuronal（神经元） activity that is reflected in the altered behavioral responses described in this study.

"These results are novel and thought-provoking," said Martín Tresguerres, a Scripps marine biologist and study coauthor, "because they reveal a potential negative effect of ocean acidification on fish behavior that can possibly affect normal population dynamics and maybe even affect fisheries."

Tresguerres says anxious behavior is a concern for young rockfish because they live in highly dynamic environments such as kelp(巨藻) forests and drifting kelp paddies that offer variable lighting and shading conditions.

“If the behavior that we observed in the lab applies to the wild during ocean acidification conditions, it could mean that young rockfish may spend more time in the shaded areas instead of exploring around, "said Tresguerres "This would have negative effects due to reduced time to search for food, or among others.”

Tresguerres noted that laboratory tests cannot fully model the steady progression of acidity levels that will be seen in the wild over years and decades." Nonetheless results suggest that ocean acidification may affect an important aspect of behavior”

When important events are happening around the world, most people turn to traditional media sources, such as CNN and BBC for the news. However, during the war in Iraq in 2003, many people followed the war from the point of view of an unknown Iraqi citizen who called himself "Salam Pax" (Salam Pax means peace).

    Salam Pax wrote a diary about everyday life in Baghdad during the war, and posted it on his website. Pax's online diary was a kind of website known as a "blog". Blogs are online diaries, usually kept by individuals, but sometimes by companies and other groups of people. They are the fastest growing types of website on the Internet.

    A blog differs from a traditional website in several ways. Most importantly, it is updated much more regularly. Many blogs are updated every day, and some are updated several times a day. Also, most blogs use special software or websites, which can help ordinary people easily set up and start writing their own blogs.

    There are many different kinds of blogs. The most popular type is an online diary of links where the blog writer surfs the Internet and then posts links to sites or news articles that they find interesting, with a few comments about each one. Other types are personal diaries, where the writer talks about their life and feelings. Sometimes these blogs can be very personal.

    There is another kind of blogging, called "moblogging", short for "mobile blogging".

    Mobloggers use mobile phones with cameras to take photos, which are posted instantly to the Internet. The use of mobile phones in this way made the headlines in Singapore when a high school student posted a movie he had taken of a teacher shouting at another student on the Internet. Many people were shocked by what the student did, and wanted phones with cameras to be banned from schools.

    Many people think that as blogs become common, news reporting will rely less on big media companies, and more on ordinary people posting news to the Internet. They think that then the news will be less like a lecture, and more like a conversation, where anyone can join in.

On the occasional clear-frost autumn night, I was hiking through the dark forest with my GMO wolf. Yes, my best friend is a genetically modified organism（转基因生物）; deliberate selection has produced the blunt-toothed, small-pawed wonder that walks by my side.

      Our world is changing rapidly. In the last five decades, global population has fully doubled, with 3.7 billion hungry mouths added to our planet. During this same time span, the amount of land suitable for agriculture has increased by only 5%. Miraculously, this did not result in the great global famine（饥荒）one might have predicted.

      How do scientists modify a plant so that it makes more food than its parents did? We could treat each harvest like a litter of wolf pups and select only plants bearing the fattest, richest seeds for the next season. This was the method our ancestors used to engineer rice, corn and wheat from the wild grasses they encountered.

      During my childhood, advances in genetic technologies allowed scientists to identify and clone the genes responsible for repressing stem growth, leading to shorter, stronger stalks that could bear more seed—the high-yield crops that feed us today. The 21^st century has brought with it a marvelous new set of high-tech tools with which to further quicken the process of artificial selection. Plant geneticists can now directly edit out or edit in sections of DNA using molecular scissors. We can minimize a plant’s weaknesses while adding to its strengths, and we don’t have to wait for seasons to pass to test the result.

      It is the transformative potential of these techniques to quickly supply the next-generation crops required for upcoming climate change that has led me to believe in the safety and function of GMO plants in agricultural products. We need more GMO research to feed the world that we are creating.

      I love the quiet forest that stands between my lab and my home. But I know that as a scientist, I am responsible first to humanity. We must feed, shelter and nurture one another as our first priority, and to do so, we must take advantage of our best technologies, which have always included some type of genetic modification. We must continue as before, nourishing the future as we feed ourselves, and each year plant only the very best of what we have collectively engineered. I keep the faith of my ancestors each night when I walk through the forest to my lab, and my GMO wolf does the same when she guards my way home.

Electronic sensors built into paper could be used in a range of ways from information storage to touch screens and more.

Electronic sensors built into cartons（纸盒）may make it easier to tell when it’s time to throw out rotten milk or orange juice. And that’s just the start. At least that’s the goal for researchers working on putting electronics into paper. They’re trying to figure out how to combine the flexibility, low-cost and recyclability of paper with the information-carrying ability of electronics.

Daniel Torbjork, a physics graduate student in Finland, has been working on the problem. He’s published a review of the field in the journal Advanced Materials.

Much research has been focused in this area. While most electronic applications require patterned conducting structures, conductive paper could be used in applications such as energy storage devices, sensors, electric heaters and others, according to Torbjork.

“You could even have some interactive functions in magazines,” Torbjork said, “You could put a simple game in a package. If you want a touch screen, press a button and then something happen. Sensors in paper could tell us when something has gone bad.”

Additional applications, such as information storage and security paper, have been suggested for magnetic papers containing magnetite. In Massachusetts, researchers have figured out how to post a video of such a device put into a paper airplane.

German researchers have also put electronic chips in paper bank notes to defend counter-feiters（造伪币者）. Paper is a good material but printing electronics also requires low-cost manufacturing. As many US and European paper makers lose market share to cheaper paper from China, these big paper companies are looking for added value products. That’s where electronic paper devices could make a difference.

“The major obstacles are paper’s large surface roughness and chemical impurities.” Torbjork says. But others in the field think that electronic sensors in paper are still far from the consumer marketplace.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen.” said Roy Horgan. “You need a conductive surface. It could be 10 years out. What we are looking for are solutions that you can commercialize to­day.”

Solar Print is partnering with Italian automaker Fiat to develop a unique auto-glass with tiny photostatic cells（光电）that can capture electricity from the sun. In the meantime, using paper to conduct electricity is still a “blue-sky” project.

“I would love to see someone prove me wrong, because that means that it’s actually happening.” Horgan said. “If someone comes up with conductive paper, then that’s a very interesting technology.”