Topic Reading-Vol.4785-5/31/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

'Shrinking Nemo': Smaller clownfish sound alarm on ocean heat

Finding Nemo is a 2003 animated comedy-adventure movie by Disney about a tropical clownfish that lives in the Great Barrier Reef. He embarks on a dangerous journey to find his son after his son, Nemo, was captured by a diver and taken to Sydney. 20 years after the movie production, ocean temperatures heated up and caused a severe and widespread coral bleaching event. Recetnly, new research found that clownfish living on coral reefs became shorter by several millimeters during the heatwave while keeping the same weight. The researcher thinks the clownfish made themselves smaller to survive with less food and oxygen. The surprising finding could help explain the declining size of other fish in the world’s oceans. Since clownfish live only for several years to ten years in the wild, provided that they aren’t eaten by a larger fish, they seem to adjust themselves to the changes in their environment quite fast.

Read the article and learn about shrinking clownfish in coral reefs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c629z4y762xo

Topic Reading-Vol.4784-5/30/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Denmark raises retirement age to 70 — the highest in Europe

Retirement age is the age at which people usually retire from work and become eligible for social security or a pension. With better health and longer life expectancy, more people are able to and want to keep working in their 60s or even 70s. This is good and needed for aging societies whose pension budget has been squeezed due to rising pension costs, underfunded funds, and poorer investment returns on pension fund assets. Recently, the retirement age has been increased in many developed countries whose society is aging rapidly: 67 in Australia, 65 in Canada and Japan, 63 in China (men), 62 in the USA, and 60 in Turkey (men). In Europe, the pension eligibility age is 62 in France and Italy, 63 in Germany, 66 in the UK, and 67 in Sweden and Denmark. This month, Denmark’s parliament has voted to raise the retirement age to 70, the oldest in the world, in order to maintain its welfare for future generations. In fact, more people continue working while receiving a pension nowadays, thanks to their health and more accommodating work conditions. In the meantime, it may be a stretch for those who work for physically demanding jobs like construction or teaching. How old is too old to work seems to depend on the individual’s health condition, mental motivation, and the type of job.

Read the article and learn about the highest retirement age in the world.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/23/business/denmark-retirement-age-rise-70-intl-scli

Topic Reading-Vol.4783-5/29/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

What you eat can hurt your sleep. What to eat insteadYou know that regular exercise helps you sleep better. You might also know that you should avoid alcohol, caffeinated drinks, sugary, or spicy food before going to bed. Then what kinds of food promote your sleep? What regulates your sleep and wake cycles is a hormone called Melatonin, which is produced by an amino acid, tryptophan. Foods that are rich in this amino acid are basically low in saturated fats and healthy, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fiber, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds. Also, in order to establish a regular sleep cycle, you want to eat these foods not just once a day but regularly. It seems that no one particular thing can promote a good night’s sleep, but regular exercise and a healthy diet do. 

Read the article and learn how to sleep better.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/23/health/sleep-nutrition-wellness

Topic Reading-Vol.4782-5/28/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

India’s caste system is controversial and discriminatory. So why is it being included in the next census?

Originating as far back as 1500 BCE, India's caste system is one of the oldest forms of social stratification in the world. The Varna system consists of four divisions: Brahmins (priests and scholars),  Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), Vaishyas (merchants and landowners), and Shudras (laborers and service providers). The Dalits, formally known as “Untouchables”, were considered below the Varna system. Over time, the Varna became rigid and birth-based, and this social division persisted in India’s society until it was banned in 1950 under the new constitution. However, this segregatory stratification persists in today’s India, the world’s most populous country. For example, only about 5% of marriages are inter-caste, and there are gaps in wealth, health, and educational attainment between different castes. The national and local governments have been offering affirmative action quotas and benefits for jobs and educational opportunities for people in marginalized castes, but without knowing exactly who and how many in a specific caste. In order to better aid and allocate resources to those who need the most, Modi’s administration recently announced that caste will be included in the next national census, which was last surveyed in 1930 during the colonial period. India is the world's most diverse country, with a variety of languages, religions, ethnicities, customs, and social structures, and different regions boast unique blends of traditions and cultures. Will the census results be published?

Read the article and learn what caste is and does to India’s society even today.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/16/india/india-census-caste-counting-intl-hnk-dst

Topic Reading-Vol.4781-5/27/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Nine out of Gaza doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli airstrike

Dr. Alaa Najjar, 38, is a Palestinian pediatrician and the mother of her ten children in southern Gaza. While she was working in the emergency room at the medical complex on May 23, a missile fired by Israeli aircraft struck her house. Nine of her ten children were killed at the site. Charred remains of the seven children were taken to the hospital in white plastic bags, where she was working, but the other two bodies were charred on the site. The only surviving child, 11-year-old Adam, was severely injured and taken to the same hospital. Also, when her husband returned home after having dropped her at the hospital and gone to grab food for their children, he found that his house was on fire. He then immediately rushed inside to rescue his children, but he was struck by another missile. He was critically injured and taken to the hospital, where his wife was at work. There, Dr. Alaa Najjar was met by the seven bodies of her children, the only surviving child, and her husband in the hospital, and was notified of what had happened to the other children. Yet, she continued her work to look after other patients while checking her injured son and husband from time to time. Can the killing of civilians help return the hostages?

Read the article and learn what happened to a family of 12 in southern Gaza.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/24/middleeast/gaza-doctor-children-bodies-hospital-intl

Topic Reading-Vol.4780-5/26/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

A crucial system of ocean currents is slowing. It’s already supercharging sea level rise in the US.

It’s not just melting ice sheets from Antarctica and Greenland that cause sea level extremes, but storm surges, tides, waves, and the expansion of seawater itself all affect sea levels. Ocean currents also affect sea levels. When a current weakens, water becomes less dense and expands. For example, flooding on the US Northeast coast has risen substantially as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) weakens. In addition, weakened AMOC seems to have affected the flow of the Gulf Stream and caused water to flow back onto the Northeast coast. According to a new study, up to half of the flooding events along the northeastern coast in the last two decades were driven by a weaker AMOC, which could have been interconnected with warming sea temperatures. We now know better why some coastal regions are experiencing higher sea level rise than others.

Read the article and learn how ocean currents affect sea level rise.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/16/climate/ocean-currents-sea-level-rise-northeast

Topic Reading-Vol.4779-5/25/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Trump administration ends Harvard's ability to enroll international students

Founded in 1636, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest institution of higher education in the US. It is one of the eight Ivy League schools and is regarded for high academic standards, social prestige, and selectivity in admissions, with a less than 4% acceptance rate. JFK, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, John Roberts (Chief Justice), and scores of Nobel laureates are all Harvard graduates, to name a few. Also, Harvard is known for its student and faculty diversity. In the last academic year, about 27% of its enrollment was from other countries. However, the Trump administration has accused Harvard of antisemitism and DEI (diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs, frozen and cut federal grants and aid, and threatened to strip tax-exempt status. Now, it has announced to revoke the university’s ability to enroll international students. The decision also affects existing foreign students, who now have to be transferred to other institutions or lose their legal status.

Read the article and think what could justify threatening the integrity and continuation of the six-century-old higher education institution.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05768jmm11o