For most Chinese people, rice is an important part of almost every meal. But for Yuan Longping, rice was lifetime career.
In the 1960s, people in China didn’t have enough food to eat and many people even died. Yuan decided to work a kind of hybrid rice (高产水稻) to feed more people. Many scientists didn’t think hybrid rice was possible. Yuan still spent four years looking for the rice that could be crossed with other plants. In 1964, he found it!
In 1973, he grew the world’s first hybrid rice. It could reach a yield(产量)of over 500 kg per mu. Farmers could grow it on many different kinds of land. It could fight bad weather and disease, too.
Now it has helped China feed nearly one-fifth of the world’s population with only about 7 percent of t world’s farm land, CGTN reported.
Yuan won many prizes because of his great achievements, but he lived a simple life. He donated most of his prize money to a foundation to help young scientists. “I don’t like being a politician, and I’m not a businessman,” he once said.
As the weather gets warmer, some mosquitoes(蚊子) start to appear. You may have noticed that they prefer to bite some people. A new study has found that mosquitoes even prefer some colors! In this study, scientists showed some clothes to mosquitoes. These clothes have different colors. Most of the mosquitoes flew to the black and red-orange clothes.
Why did the mosquitoes choose these colors? According to the scientists, black is darker than other colors. Most mosquitoes prefer to live in the shadow(暗处) because they die easily from losing water. The lighter colors like white and pink reflect(反射) light and heat better. These colors mean danger for mosquitoes. However, darker colors are more like shadows and are safer for mosquitoes. If you’re going into an area with lots of mosquitoes, you’d better wear light-colored clothing!
And what about red and orange? Scientists say that human skin looks red-orange to mosquitoes’ eyes. These two colors may help mosquitoes find the person they want to bite. Besides the color of the clothes they wear, higher body temperature, the smell of sweat are the reasons why mosquitoes prefer these people.