Scientists are racing to study the volcano in Tonga that erupted just before sundown on January 15, 2022.

"Everything so far about this eruption is really strange," said Janine Krippner, a scientist with Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program. "The sound of the explosion, the tsunami (海啸)waves that followed the eruption and the huge energy of this explosion, which equals to five to six million tons of TNT, are unlike any seen in recent decades. "

The sound of the latest eruption could be heard on distant shores around the world. According to Geoff Kilgour, a scientist from New Zealand, water likely has had a hand in it. "Perhaps the recent explosion had just the right mix of magma(岩浆) and water. Either more or less would have led to a quieter explosion," he said.

The tsunami waves that followed the eruption were even stranger. Tsunami waves usually start from the center of the eruption. Yet this time, waves appeared in other places, such as the Caribbean, far earlier than would be expected of a classic tsunami. In addition, as tsunami waves travel further, they usually become weaker. While the waves that hit the islands in Tonga were damaging, they weren't high enough to account for the surprisingly larger waves across the ocean.

Although many of the volcanoes in deep oceans usually aren't deadly, the recent event reminds us that how dangerous they can be and that how little we know about them.

However, monitoring underwater volcanoes is a complex task. GPS-which is frequently used to track changes in the surface as magma moves underground doesn't work on the seafloor. And obtaining real-time data from seismometers(地震检波器) on the ocean floor is expensive and technologically difficult.

The situation in Tonga has also shown how well the Tonga Geological Services (TGS) has dealt with the latest eruption. "They don't have a huge amount of money. They don't have a huge amount of staff," Janine Krippner added. "But they're asked to do a huge amount and they have done a really nice job to reduce the possible damages."

For the last five years, Saroyan Matthew Lee has pricked his fingertips at least once a day to test a drop of blood. If the amount of glucose, a simple sugar, is too high, he must get a shot of insulin (胰岛素) to lower it. These daily finger pricks are "really lifestyle-hampering and invasive," Matthew says. So he developed an alternative - a wearable patch. It turns yellow when glucose levels are too high.

The body normally makes insulin to even out blood-sugar levels. But having type 1 diabetes, Matthew cannot make this hormone. That's important because highly elevated blood sugar can put someone's life in danger. After seeing younger kids struggle to interpret their blood-sugar levels, he thought a color-changing device might be easier to understand. "As a diabetic," he explains, "What I recognize is that the precise blood glucose number is not really important to us." Instead, he notes, people with disease must simple know when throughout the day they will need a shot of insulin.

The body releases chemicals through many routes. The new single-use patch works by detecting glucose in one of them: sweat. Past research shows that you can estimate blood-sugar levels based on how much glucose sweat has.

Two sheets of hydrogel- a jingly, water-based gel- make up Matthew's small patch. It's only 1 centimeter (about 0.4 inch) square. The layer closest to the skin contains a chemical that reacts with glucose. This interaction produces a second chemical called hydrogen peroxide. The more sugar there is, the more hydrogen peroxide will be made. Hydrogen peroxide triggers a reaction in the patch's upper layer. It causes a protein called papain - to react with a color-changing chemical. The more glucose in sweat, the yellower the patch will become.

Matthew's patch is painless and easy to understand. And it shouldn't be very costly. Material costs of his patch are just one-fifth as much as those of existing glucose-measuring devices, because current gadgets require electrical components but Matthew's patch relies on far less expensive chemicals.

The Eden Project, an educational charity in Cornwall, England, is committed to connecting people with each other and their environment. Here is the basic information about the Project.

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