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動物有同情心嗎？牠們會關心彼此嗎？牠們知道什麼是公平合理嗎？牠們會為彼此犧牲嗎？長久以來我們相信，雖然某些動物能感受基本情緒，人類體驗的複雜心智狀態在動物界是獨一無二。但是行為研究領域的新發現逐漸指出，許多動物比我們想像中更接近人類。許多物種會合作，即使個體不見得因合作而受益。

Do animals feel empathy or compassion for one another? Do they have a sense of what is just and fair? Do they make sacrifices for others? For a long time we believed that although some animals do feel basic emotions, the complex mental states human beings experience were unique in the animal kingdom. But new discoveries in the field of behavioral research increasingly indicate that many animals are more similar to us than once thought. Many species cooperate, even when individuals don’t necessarily benefit from the cooperation.

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印尼島嶼爪哇島上的麥拉匹火山被視為世界最危險的火山之一。它每2至3年噴發一次。每10至15年發生大噴發，造成嚴重傷害：巨大的火山碎屑流衝入附近山谷，摧毀路徑中的一切。在過去，麥拉匹山的噴發活動幾乎集中在西側。但是噴發方向已經改變，讓爪哇中部城市日惹陷入危險。成千上萬的民眾無時無刻受到火山威脅。

Mount Merapi on the Indonesian island of Java is considered one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. It erupts every two to three years. And every ten to 15 years, its eruptions are so violent that they cause devastating damage: massive pyroclastic flows sweep into the surrounding valleys, destroying everything in their path. In the past, Merapi's eruptive activity was mostly on its western flanks. But the direction of eruption has now changed, putting the Central Javan city of Yogyakarta in the danger zone. The volcano presents a constant threat to hundreds of thousands of people.

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現代動物園中，一些動物一生被關在籠內，而最好的狀況是牠們能在參考天然棲息地而建的寬敞人工造景內活動。世界動物園保育方略規定今日動物園的首要要務應該是保育自然、保育物種，以及喚起公眾意識。他們的成效如何？

Few animals in modern zoos have to spend their entire lives behind bars and in the best cases, they can move around in spacious artificial landscapes based on their natural habitats. The World Zoo Conservation Strategy stipulates that the main priority of zoos today should be nature and species conservation and public awareness. So how effective are they at this?

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手機、風力發電機、電動車。這些全部要用到稀土，最近才被視為重要原料的化學元素。名稱包括鈰及釹等等，這些元素長久以來處境晦暗不明，不是不為人知，就是被視為無用。今日，工業沒有它們就無法存在。稀土不如名稱暗示般稀有，比方說它們的藏量比黃金更豐富，但是萃取過程耗資巨大。

Mobile phones, wind turbines, electric cars – they all use rare earths, chemical elements that were only recently recognized as important raw materials. With names such as cerium and neodymium, these elements for a long time led a shadowy existence, either unknown or considered useless. Today, whole industries could not exist without them. Rare earths are not actually as rare as the name suggests – they are more abundant than gold, for instance – but extracting them is an expensive business.

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大猿懂得如何自療。如居住在熱帶雨林的倭黑猩猩，牠們懂得以環境裡的植物來治療自己。人類能向牠們學習什麼？科學家芭芭拉福魯斯在剛果民主共和國研究倭黑猩猩的行為已有16年。她將她的觀察，與南肯多族使用的天然藥品相比較，他們居住在同一片森林裡。她發現大猿一如人類，知道如何利用雨林的植物來治療胃腸不適等等情況。

Great apes know how to self-medicate. Bonobos, for instance, treat themselves with plants from the tropical rain forest in which they live. What can humans learn from them? Scientist Barbara Fruth has been studying the behavior of bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 16 years. She compares her observations with the natural remedies used by the Nkundo people, who live in the same forest. She’s discovered that great apes, like humans, know how to use plants found in the rain forest to treat conditions such as gastrointestinal complaints.

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黑洞讓科學家及科幻小說迷同樣著迷。這些神秘又龐大無比的太空理論物體能產生極為強大的重力場，一靠近就無法逃脫，連光也不能。18世紀時首先出現黑洞可能存在的論述，一些世界最知名的物理學家和數學家，也對目前的黑洞知識做出貢獻。但是依然有許多未解之謎。

Black holes fascinate scientists and science fiction fans alike. These mysterious, incredibly massive theoretical objects in space exert such powerful gravitational fields that nothing that draws close can escape – not even light. Their possible existence was first described in the 18th century, and some of the world’s most famous physicists and mathematicians have contributed to what we know about black holes. But many unsolved riddles remain.

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