US private rocket company SpaceX has announced that two private citizens have paid to be sent around the Moon. The mission (任务) is planned for late 2018. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, "This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years."

The two unnamed people will fly aboard a spaceship which is set for its first unmanned test flight later this year. The co-operation of America's NASA space agency had made the plan possible. Mr. Musk said, "The two passengers will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them." Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.

"We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. The first mission would be unmanned, and the next one―with crew―was expected in the second quarter of 2018," the rich businessman and inventor said, "The first passengers are entering this with their eyes open, knowing that there is some risk here. They're certainly not childish, and we'll do everything we can to reduce that risk, but it's not zero."

The space tourists would make a circle around the Moon, scanning the lunar surface and then going well beyond. However, the mission will not involve a lunar landing. "If NASA decided to take part in a lunar fly-by mission, then the agency would have privilege," Mr. Musk said. The US has not sent astronauts to the Moon since the early 1970s.

Next time you raise an eyebrow at the views of your friend, brother, sister or colleague, remember they could be helping to make you smarter. New research shows that intelligence is not fixed but can be improved throughout adulthood by family members, bright mates and intellectually challenging careers. The study challenges the commonly held belief that intelligence is fixed by the age of about 18.

    Scientific consensus (共识) suggests intelligence is controlled by genes, with environmental factors such as schooling and nutrition playing a part up to this age. After this point, IQ scores become steady. But James Flynn, professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, argues that people can "upgrade" their intelligence throughout their lives. He believes intellectual stimulation (刺激) from other people is important as the "brain seems to be rather like a muscle—the more you use it, the stronger it gets". However, the opposite is also true—so people who share a home or workplace with the intellectually challenged risk seeing their IQ levels nosedive as a result.

    Professor Flynn analyzed US intelligence tests from the last 65 years and created new IQ "age tables". He found a bright ten-year-old with brothers and sisters of average intelligence will suffer a five to ten point IQ disadvantage compared to a similar child with equally bright brothers and sisters. However, children with a low IQ could gain six to eight points by having brighter brothers and sisters and special educational treatment to help pull them up.

    Professor Flynn concluded that although genetics and early life experiences determine about 80% of intelligence, the remaining 20% is linked to lifestyle. This means people can raise their IQ, or allow it to fall, by ten points or more. He suggests the best way to improve IQ levels is to socialize with bright friends, and find an intellectually challenging job.

The US will seek to expand its own oil production in an attempt to reduce dependence on imported oil and bring down fuel prices, President Obama says. New contracts for exploration will be signed in non-protected areas of Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico.

       In his weekly speech, the President insisted the US could reduce its need for imported oil and improve safety. Using his speech to tell Americans that he understood their concerns about rising prices, President Obama focused particularly on the price of fuel, which has risen in recent months.

      US consumers have historically enjoyed cheap fuel, but have seen prices rise in recent months even though US oil production in 2010 reached its highest level for seven years.

       Although the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was serious, Mr. Obama said the Gulf remained a key part of the country’s future energy supply.

       The President’s proposals (议案) come after Republicans (共和党人) introduced a series of proposals that would expand and speed up oil and gas production.

       The White House has criticized the Republican proposals for safety reasons, but Mr. Obama was clear in his speech that he felt safety and environmental standards could be maintained even though production might rise.

       “I believe that we should continue to expand oil production in America— even as we increase safety and environmental standards,” he said.

       “As a nation, we should be investing in the clean, renewable sources of energy that are the solution to high gas prices.”

       Mr. Obama has previously called for a step-change in energy policy, saying the US must move towards getting 80% of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.

Lisa was running late. Lisa，25，had a lot to do at work，plus visitors on the way: her parents were coming in for Thanksgiving from her hometown. But as she hurried down the subway stairs， she started to feel uncomfortably warm. By the time she got to the platform，Lisa felt weak and tired--maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to give blood the night before，she thought. She rested herself against a post(柱子) close to the tracks.

Several yards away，Frank，43，and his girlfriend，Jennifer，found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop. They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of buying.

But when he heard the scream，followed by someone yelling，“Oh，my God，she fell in!” Frank didn’t hesitate. He jumped down to the tracks(铁轨) and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on the rails. “No! Not you! ”his girlfriend screamed after him.

She was right to be alarmed. By the time Frank reached Lisa，he could feel the tracks shaking and see the light coming. The train was about 20 seconds from the station.

It was hard to lift her. She was just out(昏迷的). But he managed to raise her the four feet to the platform so that bystanders could hold her by the arms and drag her away from the edge. That was where Lisa briefly regained consciousness(知觉)，felt herself being pulled along the ground，and saw someone else holding her purse.

Lisa thought she’d been robbed. A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop the blood pouring from her head. And she tried to talk but she couldn’t，and that was when she realized how much pain she was in.

Police and fire officials soon arrived，and Frank told the story to an officer. Jennifer said her boyfriend was calm on their 40-minute train ride downtown——just as he had been seconds after the rescue，which made her think about her reaction at the time. “I saw the train coming and 1 was thinking he was going to die，”she explained.

There is a lot of talk about “brain power.” You don’t usually hear about stomach power. As it turns out, the stomach might also be very powerful with a new electronic pill inside it. The new electronic pill, equipped with a Wi-Fi transmitter, is swallowed and can harvest energy from inside a person’s own stomach to record core（核心）body temperature and then send the health data to an outside monitor.

The model can power itself for nearly a week—much longer than current absorbable devices, which are placed inside the body and only can share health information for less than an hour. “To make the device work even longer, and see if the stomach’s acid could power the device, we used tiny pieces of copper and zinc for experiments.” said Philip Nadeau, an electrical engineer who designed the device together.

The Wi-Fi devices fit inside a capsule but unfold when they hit the stomach and deliver drugs for long periods of time before they break down and pass through the body. This Wi-Fi pill could lead to fresh opportunities for drug delivery or real-time health monitoring from inside organs, said Giovanni Traverso, a doctor and biomedical engineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who c0-led a study of the pill published recently in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Despite our many medical advances, we’re pretty bad at measuring core body temperature. A recent study of 8,600 patients found that thermometer（温度计）readings from the mouth or skin did a lousy job of measuring core temperature. Getting an accurate temperature is important.

Traverso and Nadeau are also aiming to shrink（缩小）the pill to the size of a tablet. “Temperature tracking is just the first of many ways the medical community can use the device.” Traverse thinks.

Some people will do just about anything to save money. And I am one of them. Take my family’s last vacation. It was my six-year-old son’s winter break form school, and we were heading home from Fort Lauderdale after a weeklong trip. The flight was overbooked, and Delta, the airline, offered us $400 per person in credits to give up our seats and leave the next day. I had meeting in New York，So I had to get back . But that didnˈt mean my husband and my son couldnˈt stay. I took my nine-month-old and took off for home.

The next day my husband and son were offered more credits to take an even later flight. Yes, I encouraged一okay, ordered-them to wait it out at the airport, to "earn" more Delta Dollars. Our total take: $1,600. Not bad, huh?

Now some people may think Iˈm a bad mother and not such a great wife either. But as a big-time bargain hunter, I know the value of a dollar. And these days, a good deal is something few of us can afford to pass up.

Iˈve made living looking for the best deals and exposing (揭露) the worst tricks . I have been the consumer reporter of NBCˈs Today show for over a decade. I have written a couple of books including one titled Tricks of the Trade: A Consumer Survival Guide. And I really do what I believe in. I tell you this because there is no shame in getting your money’s worth. I’m also tightfisted when it comes to shoes, clothes for my children, and expensive restaurants. But I wouldnˈt hesitate to spend on a good haircut. It keeps its longer, and itˈs the first thing people notice. And I will also spend on a classic piece of furniture. Quality lasts.

A technology company is developing a lie detector app for smart phones that could be used by parents, teachers—and even Internet daters.   The app measures blood flow in the face to assess whether or not you are telling the truth. Its developers say that it could be used for daters wanting to see if somebody really is interested in them. Parents could use it on their children to see if they are lying and teachers could work out which of their pupils are honest.   The app is being developed by Toronto startup NuraLogix and the software is called Transdermal Optical Imaging. The idea is that different human emotions create different facial blood flow patterns that we have no control over. These patterns change if we are telling the truth or telling a lie.

     Using the footage(拍摄的片段)from the smart phone camera, the software will see the changes in skin colors and compare them to standardized results. A study from last year found that anger was associated with more blood flow and redness while sadness was associated with less of both.

     Developmental neuroscientist (神经病学家) Kang Lee, who has been researching the field for 20 years, said. "It could be very useful, for example, for teachers. A lot of our students have math anxiety but they do not want to tell us. because thatˈs embarrassing." Lee remarked that the technology would not replace lie detectors used in a court of law. He said, "They want the accuracy to be extremely high, like genetic tests, so a one-in-a-million error rate. Our technique wonˈt be able to achieve an extremely high accuracy level, so because of that I donˈt think itˈs useful for the courts." He added that it would be a few years before the app is available to consumers.