From a multi-day hike following the routes of a Japanese poet, to a classic climb in the Argentinian Lake District, there are thousands of incredible trails (小路) that allow us to get up close to nature.

Appalachian Trail, United States

Extending for 2,200 miles, the Appalachian Trail is listed as the longest hiking-only footpath in the world. It runs from Springier Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, passing through some of the most remote country in the United States. That means it’s a hard task, either for those with endless vacation allowance, or walkers looking to do a small piece of a classic route.

The Basho Wayfarer, Japan

This self-guided trip follows a route taken by the poet Matsuo Basho over 300 years ago. The six-day hike starts in Sendai and works its way through the northern Tohoku region, passing through the UNESCO World Heritage (遗产)Site of Hiraizumi and along the ancient Dewa Kaido path. With its beech and cherry forests, it finishes at the temple of Yamadera.

Mount Toubkal, Morocco

The path upwards rises from the village of Imlil, passing over a dry river bed before rising sharply through a temple and on towards a large mountain cottage. After overnight here, hikers set off up the snowfield to the peak, where the Atlas Mountains open out and the views are breathtaking. A local guide and muleteers for carrying luggage are a must.

The Dingle Way, Ireland

It is a ring-like path that offers the best way to get under the skin of wild County Kerry in Ireland’s south west. Starting in the town of Tralee, the clockwise path follows narrow roads, taking in the wide sweep of sand at Inch Strand, passing along the clifftops outside Dingle town and heading around the edge of Mount Brardon, the highest peak on the Dingle Peninsula.

Ke’Nyzjah Ferebee was standing by the kitchen worktop, adding cupcake liners to a pan. She used an ice cream spoon to fill each with cake batter (面糊) to ensure they would look identical. A finished group sat on the counter with white buttercream turning on top. The cupcakes were for a 2-year-old’s “Moana”-themed birthday party. The next day, she had orders for a two-tiered cake and two birthday cakes.

While most teenagers are spending the summer hanging out with friends and working, Ke’Nyzjah is filling orders, updating her website and getting new branding photos. She owns and operates KayKe Bakery, a home-based business, specializing in custom cakes and cupcakes. She offers 14 flavors. She requires at least two to four weeks’ notice on orders, and she gets six to seven a week.

In 2020, she started baking out of boredom and a desire for cake. She asked her mom for a solution. Mom pointed her to a box of cake mix in the cupboard. Ke’Nyzjah’s first attempt failed. But she tried making more cakes the next day. She got better.

She watched hours of YouTube videos to come up with a recipe and to teach herself baking techniques. “Once I got on Instagram and started seeing other people’s decorated cakes, that’s when I got inspired to be a cake artist instead of just a baker,” she said. She took business classes such as digital marketing at her school. She also registered for a course to become a certified customer service specialist. It taught her how to talk to customers and get through a sale. She’s constantly trying to find more ways to promote her business and find new clients. “It’s a little difficult having to keep up with both my Instagram and my Facebook pages and managing school, personal life and a business. It can be a lot sometimes, but I manage.”

Nakesia Fercbec, Ke’Nyzjah’s mother, felt her daughter’s father has been influential. Ke’Nyzjah gives her mother a large of the credit. “She’s like my biggest supporter. She’s made me who I am. I’ve come to realize that I am an incredible person.”

Crossing Phoenix, Arizona, are 180 miles of canals. In 1867, the city’s founding father, Jack Swilling saw the remains of irrigation (灌溉) channels wandering across the landscape. He realized that, centuries before, some society had farmed this desert. Soon after, Swilling began clearing the blocked canals to bring agriculture back to the region.

Three years later, Swilling and other pioneers met to consider names for their settlement. The top two were Pumpkinville and Stonewall. Luckily, English adventurer Darrell Duppa proposed a name inspired by the resurrection (复兴) of the canals. “A great race once lived here and another great race will live here in the future,” he considered. “I predict that a new city will spring, phoenix-like, from the ruins and ashes of the old.”

Gary Huckleberry, a researcher, said, “In the southwest, we have some serious issues to deal with in terms of water. The Colorado River is the main source of water for the southwest and it’s over distributed. We’ve got population growth and climate change. How are we going to deal with that? I think there’s something to be learned by looking at past societies who managed water for thousands of years.”

That great society was the Hohokam. Between 100 and 1450 AD, they constructed 1,000 miles of canals. As the Hohokam expanded their network, they constantly repaired, cleaned and diverted the canals. “It requires cooperation, because all the users of the water from that canal have to agree not only to construct it, but also to maintain it,” Henderson, a scientist, said. “Users would have to agree to certain conditions to keep the entire system going.” The Hohokam committed to sharing water and put themselves on timetables.

The Hohokam used canal irrigation for 3,000 years. “That, to me, is the definition of sustainable development,” Huckleberry said. “They learned how to sustainably farm, to manage water, to not destroy their soils in a way that is worthy and might give us insight into how we might deal with the current trouble. I think one of the key lessons is that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

Researchers in Singapore have developed an electronic material that helps robots sense and touch nearby objects.

The material is a kind of foam: a solid substance that is filled with air and is soft. And the foam has another useful quality. It repairs itself when damaged, much like human skin. The material is called AiFoam, which is short for artificially innervated foam. To innervate means to supply with nerves. In robots, AiFoam would gather information from nearby and send it to a computer controlling the robot. AiFoam is a stretchy polymer (聚合物) combined with a mixture that lowers surface tension. This means that if you cut the material, it can return easily into one piece.

To copy the human sense of touch, the researchers mixed microscopic pieces of metal into the material. Then they added very small electrical connections beneath the surface of the foam.

Benjamin Tee, a lead researcher on the new material at the National University of Singapore, said that when there is pressure on the material, the metal particles (颗粒) get closer. The movement changes their electrical properties. The electrical connections sense these changes and send information about them to a computer, which then tells the robot what to do.

“When I move my finger near the sensor, you can see the sensor is measuring the changes of my electrical field and responds accordingly to my touch,” he said. The robotic hand senses not only the amount but also the direction of the force placed on it. That could make robots more intelligent and responsive.

Tee said AiFoam is the first material of its kind to combine self-repairing properties with nearness and pressure sensing. After spending over two years developing it, Tee and his team hope the material can be put to use within five years.