中英双语新闻 蜣螂用天空快照导航（在线收听）

Scientists say that dung beetles have developed a complex method of navigation that relies on the position of the sun, the moon and the stars. It’s hoped that understanding the beetles’ navigational skills could eventually aid the development of driverless vehicles. Here is our environment correspondent Matt McGrath.

Previous studies have shown that these beetles navigate by the light of the milky way. But now researchers say they understand how the process works. The beetles record an image of the sky while dancing on top of the dung ball including the information that humans just can’t see, such as the colors of cosmic light. When the beetles start rolling away their manure, they compare their mental snapshot of the sky in front of them and use that comparison to navigate in a straight line. The scientists say that this ability is unique to these dung beetles and they believe it could have implications for the designer of robots or rather autonomous vehicles.

One of the last human links to the 19th century has died. Susannah Mushatt Jones was born on a farm in the American state of Alabama in 1899. She’s just died in New York at the age of 116.

“A remarkable lifetime of exceptional achievement”, comments that US congress would normally reserve for a great statesman. But a long life often draws out reflections on how far a nation has progressed as a whole. And Susannah Mushatt Jones lived through many many changes. The sharecropper’ s life she was born into in rural Alabama was incredibly tough. When cotton prices slumped as they often did, Susannah and her ten brothers and sisters would go hungry. But resilience and good genes ran in the family. Her grandmother, an ex-slave is said to have lived until she was 117. It was the social upheaval and economic boom after the first world war that gave Susannah and many other African Americans the chance to move north in search of a better life, away from the entrenched racial discrimination of the South. 

She moved to New York in 1922 where she found work as a housekeeper for seven dollars a week. Remarkably, she was able to save some of her salary. She set up a college scholarship fund for African American students at her high school back in Alabama. Life there was still largely segregated along racial lines. But two year before she retired, after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Susannah became active in her Brooklyn community. She ran a tenant patrol team well into her 80s.

蜣螂用“天空快照”导航 世界最长寿老人逝世

科学家称，蜣螂拥有一套依赖日、月、星位置导航的复杂方法。理解甲壳虫的导航技巧有望最终助力无人驾驶汽车的发展。本台环境记者马特·麦克格拉报道。

以往研究表明，这些甲壳虫借助银河光线导航。但现在研究人员称他们理解了整个工作原理。甲壳虫在粪球上跳动的时候会记录天空的图像，包含人类看不到的信息，例如宇宙光的颜色。甲壳虫开始滚动它们粪球的时候，会比较前方天空在大脑中的快照，利用对比结果直线前行。科学家称，这种能力是蜣螂独有的，而且认为它能给机器人或更确切地说无人驾驶汽车的设计人员以启示。

马特·麦克格拉报道。

出生于19世纪的最后一批健在的人中又有一个去世。苏珊娜·穆莎特·琼斯1899年出生于美国阿拉巴马州的一个农场，她刚刚在纽约去世，享年116岁。

“她的一生是卓越的一生，是成就杰出的一生”，美国国会给出了一般用于伟大政治家的评价。但漫长的人生经常引人反思一个国家整体前进了多远。苏珊娜·穆莎特·琼斯经受过许许多多的变数。她出生于阿拉巴马州农村的佃农家庭，生活很艰苦。棉花价格经常下跌的时候苏珊娜和她的10个兄弟姐妹就会挨饿，好在这家人适应能力强、基因好。苏珊娜的母亲曾经是一名奴隶，据说活到了117岁。一战后的社会动乱和经济腾飞使苏珊娜和其他许多非裔美国有机会迁到北方，寻求更好的生活，远离南方根深蒂固的种族歧视。1922年，苏珊娜搬到纽约居住并在那里找到一份女管家的工作，周薪7美元。引人注目的是，她攒下了一部分工资，在阿拉巴马州她曾就读的高中创立学院奖学金，帮助非裔美国学生。当地的生活仍然受到种族界限的隔离，但在她退休两年前，1964年约翰逊总统签署《民权法案》后，苏珊娜在她的布鲁克林社区活跃起来。她80多岁还在为佃户巡检队奔走。