An Irish designer is hoping to save her island's bees by creating special hives (蜂箱) grown from mushrooms. In the world Top20 for the James Dyson Award, the hive, called Econooc, has been designed specifically by Niamh Damery to save the Irish black bee, as well as getting more people involved in environmental protection. Decreasing bee populations in Ireland are the result of habitat loss or pesticide (杀虫剂)use as is common elsewhere.

Econooc simulates(模仿) the hollow (洞) of a tree where black bees tend to build their hives in order to shelter themselves, their food, and their young from the rain. A landing pad through which owners can watch bee activity in and out of the hive is made from recycled plastic, while the belts that tie it to the tree are old car seat belts, making it almost totally recycled.

Damery also worked to create a calendar, which will be included in every hive and each month educates the owner on the different plants growing in that period that require Irish black bees for pollination (授粉), as well as what exactly is happening inside the hive during that season.

In addition, once the month is finished, the owner can tear the calendar's bottom part off, which is filled with wildflower seeds, and place it under an inch of soil in their garden to further aid in the efforts to save black bees and other Irish pollinators.

Damery was inspired by her father and grandfather, who both kept bees. She said: "I hope Econooc will encourage more people to think about nature and solutions we can find to ensure the survival of bees in the future. "

Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers is a celebration of an everyday object — the book, represented here in almost three hundred artworks from museums around the world. The image of the reader appears throughout history, in art made long before books as we now know them came into being. In artists' representations of books and reading, we see moments of shared humanity that go beyond culture and time.

In this "book of books," artworks are selected and arranged in a way that emphasizes these connections between different eras and cultures. We see scenes of children learning to read at home or at school, with the book as a focus for relations between the generations. Adults are portrayed (描绘)  alone in many settings and poses — absorbed in a volume, deep in thought or lost in a moment of leisure. These scenes may have been painted hundreds of years ago, but they record moments we can all relate to.

Books themselves may be used symbolically in paintings to demonstrate the intellect (才智), wealth or faith of the subject. Before the wide use of the printing press, books were treasured objects and could be works of art in their own right. More recently, as books have become inexpensive or even throwaway, artists have used them as the raw material for artworks — transforming covers, pages or even complete volumes into paintings and sculptures.

Continued developments in communication technologies were once believed to make the printed page outdated. From a 21st-century point of view, the printed book is certainly ancient, but it remains as interactive as any battery-powered e-reader. To serve its function, a book must be activated by a user: the cover opened, the pages parted, the contents reviewed, perhaps notes written down or words underlined. And in contrast to our increasingly networked lives where the information we consume is monitored and tracked, a printed book still offers the chance of a wholly private, "off-line" activity.

For thousands of years, humans have used names to communicate with one another. We also give names to animals, especially ones we love, such as pets. Until now there has been little evidence of animals naming one another, but a new study suggests that elephants use specific noises to identify other elephants.

A few animals, including parrots and dolphins, have been known to use sounds that are similar to names. Each dolphin invents a signature whistle that is unique to it, and other members of its species communicate with it by simulating this special call. The new study, led by Michael Pardo of Colorado State University, shows that wild African elephants use names in a way that is not just copying sounds and is much closer to the way humans use names. 

For the study, the researchers recorded 625 sounds made by wild African elephants in Kenya that they called "rumbles (隆隆声)". This is the most common type of call produced by elephants, and it can travel long distances-as far as 3. 7 miles. It takes place at a very low frequency, which means humans can't hear it. 

The researchers analyzed the sounds using computers and found that certain rumbles were directed at specific elephants to get their attention They found that all the elephants in the herd used the identical call to get a particular elephant's attention -these calls were not just nicknames used by one of the elephant's friends. Also. unlike the way dolphins communicate. the rumbles were not just imitations of the elephant they were trying to communicate with. 

The researchers then played back some of the recorded rumbles to the elephants. They found that elephants responded more to their own name than to other calls. coming toward it more quickly or calling back faster. Cartlin O'Connell-Rodwell, an elephant expert, said, "The study shows that elephants can still keep in touch with one another even across a large area. "She told Live Science, "The rumbles ere magical, which allow them to spread out much further and still have very close tabs（密切关注） on individuals. "