Topic Reading-Vol.4652-1/18/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Million year-old bubbles could solve ice age mystery

How do we learn what the world was like thousands of years ago? One way is to study ice cores hidden deep beneath polar ice cores. These frozen time capsules preserve air bubbles from thousands of years ago, painting a picture of climate and environmental conditions in those days to help scientists reveal how much our planet has changed. Scientists are particularly interested in learning what happened in the Mid-Pleistocene Transition period, between 900,000 and 1.2 million years ago, when the length of the cycle between cold glacial and warm interglacials changed. But treasure hunting is no easy task. Scientists had to transport the drilling equipment for 40km by snowmobiles in the east of Antarctica at 3000m elevation where the temperature goes -35C to extract a 2.8im-long ice cylinder. Then, they cut the cylinder into one-meter pieces, cool them at -50C, and transport them to European institutions by boat. By studying what the world was like long ago and how the climate works, our future might be projected better.

Read the article and learn how to collect, transport, and analyze time capsules from Antarctica.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwypyg4vq8ko

Topic Reading-Vol.4651-1/17/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why some animals appear to mourn their dead

Some animals are known to display distress when they lose their offspring or a close companion. Wild horses are seen gathering around the grave of a lost member. Dogs, cats, and rabbits are found crying and searching for their companions. A killer whale mother was spotted pushing the body of her dead offspring for 17 days. A young chimpanzee suffered from clinical depression when his mother died, stopped interacting with others in his group, refused to eat, and died. Also, Hachiko, a legendary Akita dog, kept coming to a train station in Tokyo to wait for his owner longer after his death. There are many stories like these about animals crying, grieving, or searching for their companions. This might mean those animals don’t just understand the loss of their close companions but are having difficulty adjusting themselves to the situation without their loved ones. Why?

Read the article about how some animals behave when they miss their kin.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250110-why-some-animals-appear-to-mourn-their-dead

Topic Reading-Vol.4650-1/16/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Drinking sugary drinks may increase your risk of death. Here are alternative options

Sugar-sweetened beverages, or sugar drinks, are beverages with added sugar, including any type of sugar, corn syrup, or fructose. For example, a can of Coke contains nearly 40 grams or 10 teaspoonfuls of sugar. A typical grande (16-ounce) caramel Frappuccino contains as much as 60 grams of sugar, equivalent to 15 teaspoons. Do you put that many spoonfuls of sugar into your coffee or tea in a day? Studies found that sugary drinks increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases because they have no nutritional benefits other than calories. Also, they enter the bloodstream and raise blood sugar fast without the breakdown processes as solid foods. Compared with desserts, ice cream, or sweet foods, these “empty sugars” in liquid form are less nutritious but more harmful to health. Then how about alternating sugar with artificial low-calorie sweeteners? It is still a short-term patchwork but not a long-term solution. So, what should you do if you regularly enjoy sugary or sweetened drinks?

Read the article and learn how harmful sugar-sweetened beverages are to your health.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/06/health/sugary-drinks-deaths-wellness/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4649-1/15/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

China's overqualified youth taking jobs as drivers, labourers and film extras

In the last few years in China, over 10 million university students have graduated each year. Have they found and settled into the jobs they studied or qualified for? It is estimated that around 20% of new university graduates are unemployed. But the figure might be much higher if those who gave up searching for jobs are included. While many students are seeking higher degrees to have better prospects, the job market needs more technical skills like programming or maintenance, or “hands”, such as factory laborers, car drivers, restaurant servers, and cleaners. Also, there seems to be a mismatch between academic qualifications and job suitabilities among many university graduates. Were they really interested in the academic field they studied in the first place? Does the dream job they wished to have match their personality or suitability? When technologies advance faster than ever, what is more important to find a dream job, higher education, vocational training, hands-on experience, or personal suitability?

Read the article and learn how China’s university graduates are struggling to find “good” jobs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8nlpy2n1lo

Topic Reading-Vol.4648-1/14/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Sweden allows nearly 10% of wolf population to be killed. The government wants an even more drastic cull

The wolf is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. Wolves eat large wild hooved mammals, smaller animals, livestock, and garbage. Though their population relative to humans is not as large as the crocodiles in and around Darwin, Australia (Vol.4646), there are quite a few wild wolves in European countries. Thanks to legal protection, the population of wild wolves is estimated to exceed 20,000 from 14,000 in 2016 in the EU. This year, the Swedish government wants to reduce its wolf population of 375 by 10% as part of its effort to lower the minimum wolf population from 300 to 170 to protect humans and livestock, even though the status of wolves is still “highly threatened” on The Swedish Red List. As the Convention of the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention) recently lowered the protection status of wolves from “strictly protected” to just “protected,”  conservationists are worried that other European countries like Germany, Italy, or Spain would downgrade the wolf’s protection status and cull more wolves as Sweden does. How many wolves are too many to protect human lives? How many are too few to cause genetic problems to protected species? 

Read the article and learn how Sweden is trying to coexist with wolves. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/04/europe/sweden-wolf-hunt-controversy-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4647-1/13/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Canada country profile

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to resign after nine years of tenure. Canada takes up about two-fifths of the North American continent, making it the second-largest country in the world after Russia. The country is sparsely populated, with most of its residents living within 200 km of its border with the US. Canada’s expansive wilderness to the north plays a large role in Canadian identity, as does the country’s reputation of welcoming immigrants, the main driver of its population growth of ten million between 1977 and 2023. The current population is a little over 41 million. Canada officially became a country on July 1, 1867, when all the former colonies and territories that became involved in the Canadian Confederation joined. It now consists of 10 provinces and three northern territories. Ontario is the largest province with nearly one-third of the country’s population. French-speaking Quebec is the second most populated province followed by British Columbia. Do you know which city is the capital of Canada and these three most populous provinces, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, or Toronto? 

Read the article and learn about Canada and its history.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-16841111

Topic Reading-Vol.4646-1/12/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

To conserve or cull? Life in Australia's crocodile capital

Crocodiles are large, cold-blooded reptiles that live in tropical regions. The most aggressive one is the saltwater crocodile that lives in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. As their skins were valued and traded freely, their population fell to around 3,000 in Australia’s Nothern Territory (NT) before hunting was banned in 1971. Now, NT, whose population is just around 250,000, is home to 100,000 wild saltwater crocodiles. Darwin, the capital city, is a small coastal city surrounded by beaches and wetlands inhabited by many crocodiles. Crocodiles are silent, ambush hunters that sit, watch, and wait. If you swim in Darwin Harbor or the Adelaide River nearby, the chances for survival are 10 or 15 minutes at most. As they still are a protected species, how does the local government protect people from these massive, aggressive hunters? Also, their skins are highly valued and traded for luxury accessories. How are the skins of protected species openly traded?

Read the article and learn about the largest living reptiles in Australia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2v14vxdjeo