>Tea bags release microplastics
飲袋裝茶會(huì)喝入微塑料?
Every time you use a tea bag, you could be dosing yourself with billions of microplastic and nanoplastic particles.
每次喝袋泡茶時(shí)，你可能喝進(jìn)去的是數(shù)十億微塑料和納米塑料顆粒。
That's the conclusion of researchers at McGill University in Montreal.
這是蒙特利爾的麥吉爾大學(xué)研究人員得出的結(jié)論。
The research, published in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology, centered on 4 different types of plastic mesh tea bags, of the kind recently preferred by some premium brands.
發(fā)表在美國(guó)化學(xué)學(xué)會(huì)期刊《環(huán)境科學(xué)與技術(shù)》上的這項(xiàng)研究聚焦于4種不同的塑料網(wǎng)眼茶袋，是一些優(yōu)質(zhì)品牌近來(lái)喜歡使用的那種茶袋。
Having been emptied of the tea itself, the bags were placed in water heated to 95 C.
研究人員將茶袋里的碎茶取出，將茶袋放入加熱至95攝氏度的水中。
Researchers were surprised to find each bag released around 11.6 billion microplastics and a further 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastics.
研究人員驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)，每個(gè)茶袋釋放出大約116億個(gè)微塑料和31億個(gè)更微小的納米塑料。
These levels were, says the report, "thousands of times higher than plastic loads previously reported in other foods".
報(bào)告稱，這一水平"比先前報(bào)道過(guò)的其他食物塑料含量高出數(shù)千倍"。
Scientists note that more research is needed to determine whether the plastics' effect on humans is negligible, subtle - or chronic.
科學(xué)家指出，還需要進(jìn)行更多研究才能確定微塑料對(duì)人類的影響是可以忽略的、微妙的還是長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)的。

>Impact of background music
背景音樂(lè)會(huì)阻礙創(chuàng)造力
From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw.
從莫扎特到金屬樂(lè)隊(duì)，無(wú)數(shù)人在寫作或繪畫時(shí)喜歡聽各種音樂(lè)。
Many believe music helps boost creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that notion.
許多人認(rèn)為音樂(lè)有助于激發(fā)創(chuàng)造力，但一項(xiàng)由英國(guó)和瑞典研究人員進(jìn)行的國(guó)際研究正在質(zhì)疑這一觀點(diǎn)。
Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gavle, and The University of Central Lancashire say their findings indicate music actually stymies creativity.
蘭卡斯特大學(xué)、耶夫勒大學(xué)和中央蘭開夏大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家表示，他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)表明音樂(lè)實(shí)際上阻礙了創(chuàng)造力。
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background.
研究人員讓參與者在安靜的房間里完成了一些旨在激發(fā)創(chuàng)造力的語(yǔ)言洞察問(wèn)題，然后讓他們?cè)诓シ疟尘耙魳?lè)時(shí)再做一次，從而得出了這一結(jié)論。
They found that background music "significantly impaired" the participants' ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity.
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，背景音樂(lè)"顯著地削弱"了參與者完成與語(yǔ)言創(chuàng)造力有關(guān)的任務(wù)的能力。
It's worth mentioning that even familiar music with well-known lyrics impaired participants' creativity, regardless of whether or not it elicited a positive reaction.
值得一提的是，即使是參與者熟知歌詞的音樂(lè)也會(huì)削弱其創(chuàng)造力，不管它是否引起了積極的反應(yīng)。

>Ozone hole strangely shaped
南極臭氧空洞'異乎尋常'
The ozone hole that opens every year over the Antarctic is on course to be the smallest in three decades, scientists have said.
科學(xué)家稱，南極上空每年出現(xiàn)的臭氧空洞將是30年來(lái)最小的。
The hole is currently well under half the area that usually opens up by mid-September, and may have already reached its maximum size, a little smaller in area than the Antarctic continent.
目前，臭氧空洞的面積小于通常情況下9月中旬面積的一半，而且可能已經(jīng)達(dá)到最大尺寸，比南極大陸的面積還要小一點(diǎn)。
Researchers say the hole is also a particularly unusual shape this year, being heavily skewed towards South America instead of centering on the South Pole.
研究人員說(shuō)，今年臭氧空洞的形狀也特別不尋常，嚴(yán)重向南美洲傾斜，而不是以南極為中心。
The rare shape - never before observed - indicates a significant distortion to the usual polar vortex, which maintains low temperatures in the stratosphere.
這一罕見(jiàn)的異常形狀表明，常見(jiàn)的極地漩渦發(fā)生巨大的扭曲。極渦維持著平流層的低溫。
Anna Jones, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, said: "Very occasionally in the Antarctic you will get disturbances. And I don't think anybody knows what's triggered it this year. This is a pretty new phenomenon. It could be a multiple collection of factors."
英國(guó)南極調(diào)查局的科學(xué)家安娜?瓊斯說(shuō)："在南極，很少會(huì)受到干擾。我想沒(méi)有人知道是什么引發(fā)了這種改變。這是一種全新的現(xiàn)象，可能是多種因素造成的。"

>Probiotic beer boosts health
新加坡研發(fā)益生菌啤酒
If you needed yet another reason to drink beer, science just gave it to you.
如果你還需要一個(gè)喝啤酒的理由，科學(xué)已經(jīng)給了你這個(gè)理由。
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) developed a new type of probiotic beer which could improve your immune system and neutralize pathogens and toxins.
新加坡國(guó)立大學(xué)的研究人員研發(fā)了一種新型的益生菌啤酒，這種啤酒可以改善你的免疫系統(tǒng)，消除病原體和毒素。
The idea came from Chan Mei Zhi Alcine, a fourth-year student from the Food Science and Technology Program at the NUS Faculty of Science.
這一靈感來(lái)源于新加坡國(guó)立大學(xué)理學(xué)院食品科學(xué)技術(shù)系大四學(xué)生陳美芝(音譯)。
She realized that while the market abounds with dairy-based probiotics, there's another huge untapped market for probiotics: beer.
她意識(shí)到，盡管市場(chǎng)中有多種以牛奶為原料的益生菌，但還有一塊巨大的益生菌市場(chǎng)尚未被開發(fā)——啤酒。
Due to its nature, beer is a fertile ground for probiotics, and the craft beer phenomenon has been growing at a staggering rate in many parts of the world - so why not blend the two?
由于性質(zhì)使然，啤酒是益生菌的沃土，而且在世界上許多地區(qū)，精釀啤酒現(xiàn)象正以驚人速度增長(zhǎng)。那么，為何不將兩者合二為一呢？

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