繽紛前沿

Six astronauts returned home from Mars—sort of. The crew， whose members were from China， Russia， Italy， and France， was part of a 520-day study that mimicked (模擬) a journey to Mars. The European Space Agency organized this experiment to learn how people will physically and mentally cope during the time it will take to get to Mars， work on the surface of the planet， and then return home. For 17 months， the group was locked inside several capsules (密封艙) in a laboratory. While living together in the lab， they ate rationed (定量配給的) astronaut food， didn't shower much， took daily blood and urine (尿液) samples， and conducted more than 100 experiments.

人在地球，卻身處火星的艱苦環境。為了探索另一片天地，科學家辛勤研究，參與者以身試驗，這些先驅多么令人敬佩！

What does playing musical instruments have to do with boxing? A lot according to James VanDemark， a professor and internationally famous double bass (低音提琴) soloist (獨奏者). James says he took up boxing about two years ago and immediately noticed a big improvement in his bow (琴弓) control and stamina (耐力). Then he convinced a few of his female students to take up the sport—and sure enough， it resulted in them becoming even more skillful on the double bass. The professor believes that the reason it helps is because boxing is a rhythmic sport and that many of the sport's basic gestures (姿勢) have a connection to string instrument playing. The sport also helps increase the musician's stamina.

學習弦樂器的同學可以試試哦。也許有一天，你會發現自己既是杰出的音樂家，又是很棒的拳擊手！

Extraordinary new discoveries are shedding new light on why Stonehenge was built—and when. Current research is now suggesting that Stonehenge may already have been an important sacred site at least 500 years before the first Stone circle was erected (豎立) in about 3000 BC—and that the sanctity (神圣) of its location may have determined the layout of key aspects of the surrounding sacred landscape. What's more， the new investigation massively increases the likelihood that the site was originally and primarily associated with sun worship.

公元前3500年前，這里可能是太陽崇拜的宗教圣地；500年后，圣地上豎起了巨石陣。不過，更讓人好奇的是，史前人類究竟是怎么做到的？