Researchers may have found a way to keep plants from dying of thirst. They developed a soil additive (添加剂). It will steal water from the air to share with plants.

Their invention is a super-moisture-absorbent gel (SMAG高吸海凝胶). It absorbs water from the air during the night. When the sun warms it the next day, that gel releases its accumulated water into the root zone of the plants.

Guihua Yu, an engineer at the University of Texas at Austin, led the team that developed the gel. The gel mixed with soil absorbs water and holds it. The next day, rather than allowing it to evaporate (蒸发), the gel instead slowly releases that water into the soil.

The engineers tested the soil additive to grow carrots. During an experiment, they compared carrots grown in sandy soil alone with carrots grown in sandy soil that had been mixed with the get.The gel-treated soil lost about 60 percent of the water after about a month. In contrast, the untreated soil lost 80 percent of its water in just one week.

Jeff Hattey is a soil scientist. He says similar additives have been used in potting soil for many years. He says the gel works in a similar way. "The big questions for me are first, how much SMAG-soil would you have to use? How long does it last once it's in the soil?"

Yu believes future studies will help his team understand if the gel could be used for larger, outdoor fields. If it can, the water in the air could allow crops to be grown in dryer cli-males, where irrigation is not practical. It shouldn't hurt the bacteria or worms that are needed to keep soil healthy for growing things. The gel also should pose no risks if it washes into lakes or streams. The research team hopes to confirm that in the near future.

During the rosy years of elementary school(小学), I enjoyed sharing my dolls and jokes, which allowed me to keep my high social status. I was the queen of the playground. Then came my tweens and teens, and mean girls and cool kids. They rose in the ranks not by being friendly but by smoking cigarettes, breaking rules and playing jokes on others, among whom I soon found myself.

Popularity is a well-explored subject in social psychology. Mitch Prinstein, a professor of clinical psychology sorts the popular into two categories: the likable and the status seekers. The likables’ plays-well-with-others qualities strengthen schoolyard friendships, jump-start interpersonal skills and, when tapped early, are employed ever after in life and work. Then there’s the kind of popularity that appears in adolescence: status born of power and even dishonorable behavior.

Enviable as the cool kids may have seemed, Dr. Prinstein’s studies show unpleasant consequences. Those who were highest in status in high school, as well as those least liked in elementary school, are “most likely to engage(从事) in dangerous and risky behavior.”

In one study, Dr. Prinstein examined the two types of popularity in 235 adolescents, scoring the least liked, the most liked and the highest in status based on student surveys(调查研究). “We found that the least well-liked teens had become more aggressive over time toward their classmates. But so had those who were high in status. It clearly showed that while likability can lead to healthy adjustment, high status  has just the opposite effect on us.”

Dr. Prinstein has also found that the qualities that made the neighbors want you on a play date—sharing, kindness, openness—carry over to later years and make you better able to relate and connect with others.

In analyzing his and other research, Dr. Prinstein came to another conclusion: Not only is likability related to positive life outcomes, but it is also responsible for those outcomes, too. “Being liked creates opportunities for learning and for new kinds of life experiences that help somebody gain an advantage, ” he said.