No longer in the pink

The world is going to have to start thinking thoroughly to save its coral reefs. Corals are comeback creatures. As the world froze and melted and sea levels rose and fell over 30,000 years, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is roughly the size of Italy, died and revived five times. But now, thanks to human activity, corals face the most complex mixture of conditions they have yet had to deal with.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a rise in global temperatures of 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial times could cause coral reefs to decline by 70-90%. When waters become unusually warm, corals throw out the algae, leaving reefs a ghostly white. This ''bleaching'' is happening five times as often as it did in the 1970s.

Corals need protection from local sources of harm. Their ecosystems suffer from coastal currents, whether dirty water or waste from farms. Plastic and other rubbish block sunlight and spread aggressive bacteria. Governments need to carry out tighter rules on these industries, such as tougher local building codes, and to put more effort into strengthening rules against overfishing.

Many reefs that have been damaged could benefit from restoration. Coral's biodiversity offers hope, because the same coral will grow differently under different conditions. Corals of the western Pacific near Indonesia, for example, can survive higher temperatures than the same species in the eastern Pacific near Hawaii.

Stronger measures to fight against the larger threats corals face should also attract more research. Shading reefs using a polymer film as a sunscreen to cool them is under discussion for parts of the Great Barrier Reef. Other schemes to help corals involve genetic engineering, selective breeding and brightening the clouds in the sky above an area of the reef by spraying salt into the lowest ones, so that they turn away more of the sun's energy. These measures may sound extreme, but people need to get used to thinking big. Dealing with the problems caused by climate change will call for some far-reaching ideas.

Crown shyness(树冠羞避) is a mysterious natural phenomenon in which the crowns of some tree species do not touch each other, but get separated by a gap clearly visible from ground level. The effect usually occurs between trees of the same species, but has also been observed between trees of different species.

There are many theories going around, most of which make sense, but no one has been able to prove without the shadow of a doubt why some trees avoid touching each other.

In his 1955 book Growth Habits of the Eucalypts, Australian forester M.R. Jacobs writes that the growing tips of the trees are sensitive to abrasion(擦伤), which results in crown shyness phenomenon. This theory was also supported by Dr. Miguel Franco. Some experiments have shown that if trees displaying crown shyness are artificially prevented from swinging in the wind and touching each other, they gradually fill up the gaps between them.

But while the above theory is arguably the most widespread, it’s certainly not the only one. Some scientists have suggested that crown shyness is a mechanism to stop the spreading of leaf-eating insects. These pests have been known to work together and create structures that extend up to 10 cm off of tree branches in order to reach other plants, so the gaps are the trees’ natural defense method.

One Malaysian scholar studied many trees, but found no traces of abrasions, despite their clear crown shyness. Instead, he suggests that the growing tips of the trees were sensitive to light levels and stopped growing when they got too close to other trees. Plants are able to sense how close they are to other plants and in order to get more light, they give off some chemical element to stop other trees from growing too close.

Whatever the reason, one thing is for sure: plants are more intelligent than people used to think.

Cats have no emotions. At least, that’s what my husband once claimed. I argued that my two cats experience emotions. They feel anger, fear, and happiness. He agreed with me, but stuck to his opinion that cats don’t feel love. However, my tuxedo cat, Sebastian, would teach him otherwise.

When my next-door neighbour moved in, he had a cat named Juliet. She was an indoor lady, always watching the environment through the window. Then one day when I accompanied my cat to the backyard for his playtime,Sebastian caught sight of Juliet gazing at him behind the window. It soon became obvious that they were attracted by each other. So every day thereafter, whenever I let Sebastian out, he would rush straight to the backyard next-door and they would sit gazing lovingly at each other through the screen, she inside, and he outside. Even my husband watched in amazement, and he would murmur, “But cats can’t feel love... can they?”

Five months later, my neighbour had to move because of work. My heart sank. I wondered how Sebastian would react to Juliet’s leaving.

For months after Juliet moved away and the new neighbour moved in, I often caught Sebastian sitting by Juliet’s window,looking into the apartment in search of his lady. The new neighbour didn’t mind having the“Peeping(偷看) Sebastian” after I explained his reason for being there. Sebastian marked the small area outside that window as his territory. Other male cats were allowed in the backyard, but not near Juliet’s window, which he guarded until his death.

Even now, when my husband and I walk through the backyard and see that window, he reminds me of the lesson Sebastian taught him... that cats do indeed fall in love.