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    The spread of fake news can have both personal and academic consequences. In a perfect world everything reported would be based only on facts and you would be able to trust that the media you consume is reliable. But unfortunately that’s not the case. You should learn to spot false information because fake news can:

    1. Call into question the credibility of your sources. As a student you are expected to find, evaluate, and reference trustworthy information sources in a variety of formats. If you include fake news as evidence for your arguments or as part of your research it may raise doubts about the integrity of the sources you use as a whole and your ability to identify quality information. Maintain the respect of your professors, peers, friends, and family by citing only true, credible news and information sources.

    2. Provide you with false, confusing, or dishonest information used to make a decision or take action. It can be dangerous to do something without having all the facts, but it can be just as detrimental to do so based on inaccurate information. Whether it’s political, medical, academic, or personal, you need to be able to recognize when the information you are taking in can be trusted to help you make an intelligent, fact-based choice.

(https://libguides.uvic.ca, 26.05.2023. Adaptado.)

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    An increasing body of evidence suggests that the time we spend on our smartphones is interfering with our sleep, self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity and problem-solving and decision-making skills. But there is another reason for us to rethink our relationships with our devices. By chronically raising levels of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, our phones may be threatening our health and shortening our lives.
    If they happened only occasionally, phone-induced cortisol spikes might not matter. But the average American spends four hours a day staring at their smartphone and keeps it within arm’s reach nearly all the time, according to a tracking app called Moment.
    “Your cortisol levels are elevated when your phone is in sight or nearby, or when you hear it or even think you hear it,” says David Greenfield, professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. “It’s a stress response, and it feels unpleasant, and the body’s natural response is to want to check the phone to make the stress go away.”
    But while doing so might soothe you for a second, it probably will make things worse in the long run. Any time you check your phone, you’re likely to find something else stressful waiting for you, leading to another spike in cortisol and another craving to check your phone to make your anxiety go away. This cycle, when continuously reinforced, leads to chronically elevated cortisol levels. And chronically elevated cortisol levels have been tied to an increased risk of serious health problems, including depression, obesity, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, fertility issues, high blood pressure, heart attack, dementia and stroke.

(Catherine Price. www.nytimes.com, 24.04.2019. Adaptado.)

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'I'm 30 and live at home with my parents'.
Reasons for staying at home range from the culturally acceptable to the financial.

Derek Radcliffe, 30, Calgary, Canada

"I have lived my whole life in Calgary, an oil and gas-based city. I saw an abundance of oil and gas jobs in the industry growing up, and becoming a petroleum geologist seemed like a natural course to take.

"I was thrilled when I got my first permanent job at a small oil company, and later I had saved enough money for a down payment on a small townhouse.

"But in July 2016 the company I worked for declared bankruptcy as the price of oil fell. I received no severance but I was able to sell my townhouse (at a loss) right before the company went under.

"My parents and I have always had a good relationship and they were gracious enough to let me move back in with them. They recognize and understand the issues young Canadians encounter.

"A lot of my friends are in the same position and understand the situation I am in. If anything, it's me who is putting pressure on myself to leave home.

"There is still considerable volatility in my employment and in the Canadian oil and gas industry. I am not confident in moving forward and purchasing or renting a new place.

"I would now consider myself in a place of 'precarious employment'. I have no employment insurance, no health or dental coverage. I am not alone in my career uncertainty. I feel I have done everything right, but I still feel anxiety towards the future of my career.

"Right now, 'leaving the nest' is just not a financially wise decision."

(In: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-44236706. Acesso em: 26/05/18. Adaptado)

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Plastic-eating bacteria discovered by student could help solve global pollution crisis

    A student may have found a solution to one of the world’s most urgent environmental crises – breeding bacteria capable of “eating” plastic and potentially breaking it down into harmless by-products. The microbes degrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – one of the world’s most common plastics, used in clothing, drinks bottles and food packaging. It takes centuries to break down, in the meantime doing untold damage to its surroundings.
    Morgan Vague, who is studying biology at Reed College in Oregon, said the process could play a “big part” of solutions to the planet’s plastic problem, which sees millions of tonnes dumped in landfill and oceans every year. Around 300 million tonnes of plastic is discarded each year, and only about 10 per cent of it is recycled.
    She began hunting for microbes adapted to degrade plastic in the soil and water around refineries in her hometown of Houston. Taking her samples back to college in Portland, Oregon, Ms Vague began testing around 300 strains of bacteria for lipase, a fat-digesting enzyme potentially capable of breaking down plastic and making it palatable for the bacteria. She identified 20 strains of bacteria that produced lipase, and of those, three that boasted high levels of the enzyme. Next, she put the three microbes, one of which appears to have been previously undiscovered, on a forced diet of PET she cut from strips of water bottles. She was stunned to find the bacteria worked to digest the plastic.
(Tom Embury-Dennis. www.independent.co.uk, 30.06.2018. Adaptado.)