Human beings use animals for a lot of purposes, including research. By studying animals, it is possible to learn information that cannot be learned in any other way. Animals are used in research when there is a need to find out what happens in the whole living body. There are four main reasons why animals are used in research.

Adding to scientific knowledge through basic biological research helps us understand how living things work, and use that understanding for the benefit(利益)of both humans and animals. The study of animals is an important part of the whole research process. The bodies of animals are like humans’ in the way that they perform many important functions(功能) such as breathing, movement, sight, and hearing. To treat disease, doctors and scientists must understand how the healthy body works.

Humans and animals share hundreds of illnesses, so animals can act as models for the study of human illness. For example, rabbits suffer form emphysema, a lung problem that makes it hard to catch their breath. Dogs suffer from cancer, bleeding disorders and so on. Cats suffer from some of the same vision loss as humans. From such models we learn how diseases affect the body and more.]

Once researchers learn more about a particular disease, animals are used to develop and test the treatments. For example, medicines for Parkinson’s disease have been developed by using animal models with Parkinson’s-like symptoms(症状). Models such as these are an important part of using biological research to solve real medical problems.

New medicines need testing because researchers must test both the beneficial and the harmful effects of a medicine on a living body. A medicine must be tested in a suitable animal model before clinical trials(临床试验) in humans can take place.

The two giant pandas living at Ouwehands Dierenpark in the Dutch city of Rhenen staged a charming debut(初次登台) for hundreds of long- awaited admirers on Tuesday afternoon.

After six weeks since their arrival on April 12, Wu Wen, the female giant panda made tentative steps into her outdoor enclosure(围场). She threw herself at the first bamboo plant. she saw and started to chew. Xing Ya, the male, sat on a rock to enjoy the early summer sunshine. Wu Wen and Xing Ya, both three-and-a-half-year old, will stay at Ouwehands for 15 years. Native to south central China, they belong to a species which counts only 1,864 individuals.

" Both are in perfect health and adapt well to their new home, " said Zhang Hongwen, chief economist of China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration."I am glad to see that Wu Wen and Xing Ya are so popular in the Netherlands. Their stay will surely promote Sino-Dutch cooperation relating to the protection of forest and biodiversity.

Martijn van Dam, Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Sad, "From today on, Dutch children will get to know Wu Wen and Xing Ya.They can get inspired by all the beautiful and powerful things nature has offered.

China has succeeded in stopping the decline of the number of pandas. China also makes efforts to maintain the natural habitat of the giant pandas. We would also like to contribute to that."

He stressed, "Wu Wen and Xing Ya underline these good developments. Let this be a sign of hope that with joint forces we can protect our nature worldwide, and let this be the beginning of a wave of inspiration for the new generation."

The largest genetic study of mosquitoes has found their ability to resist insecticides(杀虫剂) is evolving rapidly and spreading across Africa, putting millions of people at higher risk of contracting malaria（疟疾）.

British scientists who led the work said mosquitoes’ growing resistance to control tools such as insecticide-treated bed nets and insecticide spraying, which have helped cut malaria cases since 2000, now threatens “to disturb malaria control” in Africa.

“Our study highlights the severe challenges facing public efforts to control mosquitoes and tomanage and limit insecticide resistance,” said Martin Donnelly of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who worked on the study with a team from Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Latest World Health Organization (WHO) data show that 216 million people were infected last year with the malaria parasite（寄生虫）, which is transmitted by blood-sucking Anopheles mosquitoes. The disease killed 445,000 people in 2016, and the majority of them were children in sub-Saharan Africa.

To understand how mosquitoes are evolving, the researchers sequenced the DNA of 765 wild Anopheles mosquitoes taken from 15 locations across eight African countries. Their work, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, created the largest data resource on natural genetic variation for any species of insect.

Analyzing the data, the scientists found that the Anopheles gamblae mosquitoes（冈比亚疟蚊）were extremely genetically diverse compared with most other animal species. This high genetic diversity enables rapid evolution, they said, and helps to explain how mosquitoes develop insecticide resistance so quickly.

The data also showed the rapid evolution of insecticide resistance appeared to be due to many previously unknown genetic variants（变体）within certain genes. The scientists said these genetic variants for insecticide resistance were not only emerging independently in different parts of Africa, but were also being spread across the continent by mosquito migration.

Michael Chew, an expert at Britain’s Wellcome Trust global health charity which helped fund the research, said the finds underlined the importance of pushing scientific research ahead to control malaria.

Global efforts to control malaria through effective vaccine, insecticides and the best drug combinations require urgent, united action by scientists, drug companies, governments and the WHO.