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The African grey parrot’s ability to talk and mimic sounds makes it a charming companion. African grey owners often report that their greys oftentimes talk in context and can understand their people’s emotions(情感). The African grey parrot is not just a top talker — this bird is also known for its extreme intelligence, which gives them the name ＂The Einsteins of the Bird World＂.

The bird is medium-sized, dusty-looking and almost pigeon-like. It has a bright red tail, intelligent orange eyes, and a stunning scalloped(扇形的) pattern to its feathers. Their diet in the wild consists mostly of nuts, seeds, fruits, and leafy matter.

At home, African greys need plenty of toys that challenge their intelligence, such as food searching and puzzle toys. Nutri-Berries by Lafeber Company are a perfect choice, which, with a balance of grains, seeds and other nutrients in the shape of a berry, encourages African greys to hold, bite off, and even play with, just as they do in the wild.

African greys seem especially affected by stress and disturbing noise in their environment and can be put more at ease by placing one corner of the cage against a wall as opposed to in the middle of a room.

African grey parrots are more likely to suffer from lack of Vitamin-A/beta-carotene, and therefore benefit from eating vegetables high in beta-carotene, such as cooked sweet potato and fresh kale. Lack of Vitamin-D is another concern, especially for greys on a poor diet. Offering a balanced, pill-shaped diet, such as Nutri-Berries, helps prevent vitamin and mineral shortage.

A butterfly's wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect in the air. They may be called on to attract mates, to warn potential enemies to stay away, to do other animals or even to provide disguise（伪装）.

All of these roles, though, depend on their colouration—which is unchanging. This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird's feathers or a mammal's hair. In fact, that is not true. For example, in some species males' wings harbour special cells that release chemicals which attract females.

Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter. One of his interests is the optical（光学的）properties of biological materials. That has led him to study butterfly wings in more detail. And, in cooperation with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University, he has now shown, in a paper published this week in Nature Communications, that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.

Initially, Dr Yu and Dr Pierce wanted to know how the insects keep their body temperatures up without their wings overheating.

Unlike birds and mammals, butterflies do not produce enough internal heat to metabolize（新陈代谢）. Instead, they rely on outside heat sources—usually the sun—to bring their bodies up to speed. But their wings, being thin protein membranes（膜）, have a limited thermal capacity. Those wings can therefore overheat quickly if the insects are exposed to the sunlight too long, or, oppositely, can cool down too rapidly if they are flying through cold air.

In their experiments, the two researchers used a laser（激光）to heat up spots on the wings of dozens of butterfly species. When the temperature of the area under the laser reached 40℃ or so, the insects responded within seconds by doing things that stopped their wings heating up further. These actions included a butterfly turning around to minimize its exposure to the laser, beating its wings or simply walking away.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about downtown Savannah is usually not a rare tortoise. But at Georgia Biodiversity Portal, you can see that a spotted tortoise (Clemmys guttata) was found near the city’s historic landmarks and famous restaurants less than five years ago.

Greg Krakow, Biodiversity Conservation Data Manager, believes becoming familiar with the at-risk wildlife in your area is important. “It gives you a personal connection to conservation,” Krakow said.

The Biodiversity Portal makes that vision clearer no matter where you are in Georgia, and for everyone from middle school students to environmental advisors. The unique website allows all to explore rare plants and animals throughout the state. Data can be sifted (筛选) by family group and species. You can select to view only federal or state protected species. Searches can be focused further by layers of location, including county, watershed (分水岭) and ecoregion.

“Most states charge money or limit access to this kind of information,” Krakow said.

“But we decided from the start that this portal would be free. This information is just too important.” Along with providing fascinating information about rare plants and animals, the portal contains identification keys and in-depth looks at many of the agency’s conservation projects, such as forest management for gopher tortoises, Georgia’s state reptile.

Clemmys guttata may be hard to find, but the Georgia Biodiversity Portal isn’t. Just go to georgia biodiversity. com/portal. You can also access it at georgia wildlife. com/educational-resources, where the portal is linked under “Teaching Resources.”

The Biodiversity Data Portal recently added a Lichens (地衣) of Georgia section. Based on years of research, this part of the portal profiles the state’s more than 920 lichen species, including lichens-by-location range maps, photos and lichen term lists. There’s also an overview of lichens in Georgia and the Lichen Atlas Project, plus a bibliography (参考书目) for those who want to dive even deeper.