每日新闻播报（October 8）

>Women most hard to live with
调查:家中女性最难相处
Wives, sisters and mothers are more likely to be the most difficult people in our lives, according to a survey of 1,100 respondents who described more than 12,000 relationships. Female family members were most often labeled as difficult because they're usually emotionally invested in relatives' lives. "The message here is that, with female relatives, it can be a two-sided thing," said Claude Fischer, a senior author of the study. "They may be the people you most depend on, but also the people who nag you the most. It's a testament to their deeper engagement in social ties."
根据1100名受访者描述的逾1.2万段关系的一项调查，妻子、姐妹和母亲更有可能成为我们生活中最难相处的人。女性家庭成员最常被贴上难以相处的标签，因为她们往往对亲人的生活投入很多感情。该研究的一名资深作者克劳德•费舍尔说："这里要传达的信息是，女性亲属所带来的影响具有两面性。她们也许是你最依赖的人，但也是最爱唠叨你的人。唠叨是她们在社会关系中深入参与的证据。"

>Super banana's peel edible
日本开卖能吃皮的香蕉
If you've ever wanted to eat banana peel, Japan is the place for you. In Japanese, the unusual version of the fruit's being described as "Mongee" - the "super" banana. It looks just like any other banana, but it's supposed to be softer and sweeter - and its peel is edible. Even though they cost around $6 each, the special bananas have had no trouble attracting customers to the only place in the country where they're sold, the Tenmaya store in the southwestern city of Okayama. The technique used to create the Mongee banana is called "freeze thaw awakening." The process involves starting banana trees out in an environment that's nearly -27 C, then moving the trees with their still-ripening bananas to a more temperate climate of around -27 C - an environment banana trees typically grow in the entire time.
如果你曾想吃香蕉皮，那么日本就是你要找的地方。在日语里，这种特别的水果被称为"Mongee"，即"超级"香蕉的意思。超级香蕉看起来和其他香蕉无异，但口感号称更软更甜且果皮可以食用。虽然每根超级香蕉售价约为6美元，但这种香蕉却不愁销路。在日本，这种独特的香蕉仅一个地方有售，即西南部城市冈山的店铺Tenmaya。用于培育超级香蕉的技术叫做"冻融唤醒"。在培育过程中，首先要将香蕉树种植在接近零下27摄氏度的环境中，随后将果实仍在成熟中的香蕉树移植到温度在零上27摄氏度左右的气候更为温和的环境中。在这种环境中香蕉树通常会一直生长。

>Longer wait for pension
英千禧一代或71岁退休
Those millennials who are aged around 20 will have to work to 71 before being receiving the state pension; those in their 30s must wait till 69, a report by the UK government Actuary's Department said. To cope with an ageing population, the Actuary's Department also said national insurance rates may have to rise by 5 percentage points to keep the pension pot in balance, adding ￡1,000 to the average worker's annual tax bill. Ministers announced last summer that the state pension age would rise to 68 from 2037 – a decade earlier than originally planned. But raising the age again would be controversial as it would force the young to work longer to fund the pensions of those who are already retired.
英国政府精算部的一则报告称，现年20岁左右的千禧一代要工作到71岁才能领取政府养老金，现年30多岁的人则要等到69岁。精算部还表示，为应对人口老龄化，国家保险费率可能要提高5个百分点以维持养老基金收支平衡。这意味着普通劳动者每年需要多缴纳1000英镑的税。去年夏天，部长们宣布，领取政府养老金的年龄将自2037年起提高至68岁，这比原计划实行时间提前了10年。然而再次提高退休年龄必将引发争议，因为年轻人将被迫工作更长时间，为那些已经退休的人们提供养老金。

>Fungi concrete launched
自我修复型混凝土问世
A new self-healing fungi concrete, co-developed by researchers at Binghamton University and State University of New York, could help repair cracks in aging concrete permanently, and help save America's crumbling infrastructure. Congrui Jin, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Binghamton University, has researched concrete and found that the problem stems from the smallest of cracks. "Without proper treatment, cracks tend to progress further and eventually require costly repair," said Jin. So he worked with other professors and found an unusual way to heal concrete: a fungus called Trichoderma reesei. When this fungus is mixed with concrete, it originally lies dormant - until the first crack appears. "When cracking occurs, water and oxygen will find their way in. With enough water and oxygen, the dormant fungal spores will germinate, grow and precipitate calcium carbonate to heal the cracks," Jin explained.
近日，宾汉姆顿大学和纽约州立大学的研究人员共同开发了一种能自行修复的新型真菌混凝土，可帮助修复老化了的混凝土的永久性裂缝，这将有助于拯救美国破败的基础设施。宾汉姆顿大学机械工程学助理教授康格瑞•金从事混凝土研究，发现问题源于那些最细小的裂缝。金表示："如果没有得到适当的处理，裂缝往往会进一步发展，最终要花很多钱进行修补。"因此他与其他教授合作，找到了一种不同寻常的修复混凝土的方法：一种名叫里氏木霉的真菌。当这种真菌与混凝土混合时，起初它会进入休眠状态，直到第一道裂缝出现。金解释称："当裂缝出现时，水和氧气就会进入。有了足够的水和氧气，休眠的真菌孢子就会发芽、生长并沉淀碳酸钙以修复裂缝。"

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