Iceland, the land of fire and ice is filled with glaciers(冰川), towering volcanoes and geothermal(地热的)pools. Come here, and you’ll have a destination that provides not just splendid sights but also plenty of culture.

Go back along with your favourite Game of Thrones characters on this five-day tour from Regent Holidays(0203 733 4931;regent-holidays. co. uk), which takes in the wilderness where the third series of the TV show was shot(拍摄). Led by the same expert guide that took the cast and crew to some of Ice land’s key sights, this tour visits the scenery brought to life with tales of the“Seven Kingdoms”.

Departs any time, from ￡1, 495 B&.B including Icelandair flights.

A three-day “Northern Lights in Iceland” itinerary(行程表)from the Ultimate Travel Company(0203 553 2540;theultimatetravelcompany. co. uk)takes in the country’s most attractions by day and goes in search of the Aurora Borealis by night. The tour includes the Golden Circle, the site of the world’s oldest parliament(国会), the Blue Lagoon, and the volcanoes, glaciers and waterfalls of Iceland’s southern coastline.

Departs anytime, from ￡1, 197 B&. B including flights and transfers.

If you’re travelling without others, Discover the World(0173 7900 689;discover-the-world. co. uk) offers an eight-day journey. The tour visits Borgarfjorour Eystri, which is hidden away in the east fjords and is home to sweeping beautiful scenery, coastlines and ancient tales of elves and the“hidden people" who tales suggest, once lived there.

Departs between May and September, from ￡1, 824 full board including flights.

Kong Zhenlan, a 71-year-old woman from China’s Shanxi Province, has devoted the last four decades of her life to adopting orphans（孤儿）, making sure that they had food on the table and got access to education.

Even though she could only afford to support herself on a modest income, Kong Zhenlan couldn’t bear to walk by the orphanage in Jixian County every day and see so many children struggling in poverty. One day, she stopped by and picked one of the orphans in her arms. That’s when she knew she had to do something to make their life better. The modest woman started adopting these abandoned children and nurturing them as her own. Over the last 47 years, she has adopted 45 orphans, some of whom grew up to become doctors and lawyers.

Kong’s oldest adopted child is 45-years-old, while her youngest is 9-months-old. Today, her adult children donate some of their monthly salaries to help bring up their younger siblings（兄弟姐妹）, but in the beginning, the woman had to make due with what she had. And it wasn’t much. She would spend all her money making sure the children had milk to drink, and if there was none left for her, she would look for leftovers in local garbage cans.

The modest woman recently told Pear Video that over the last 40 years she has only been getting 2 hours of sleep per night. She goes to sleep at around midnight, after putting the children to sleep and finishing up her chores（家务）, and gets up around 2 am to check if they’re all still covered with blankets. She has gotten used to it and said that a short sleep was a small price to pay for making sure the children grow up healthy and happy.

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, which has been transporting all astronauts to and from the International Space Station（ISS）since 2011, typically carries a crew of three. However, the MS-14 capsule launched（发射）from a Russian spaceport in southern Kazakhstan on August 22, 2019, had just one passenger—a human-like robot named Skybot F-850.

The robot is the latest version of Russia’s FEDOR robots, which were initially designed to help with search and rescue efforts. Skybot is good at many human skills, including driving a car, having short conversations, and even telling jokes. But since it lacks some special sills, the spacecraft to the ISS was piloted from the ground by scientists from Russia’s space Agency. Roscosmos.

The six-foot-tall, 350-pound robot had another important task while on board. Without risking the lives of human astronauts, it helped Roscosmos researchers test the safety and flight experience of the new Soyuz-2.1, a carrier rocket, which carried the spacecraft into orbit. The feedback（反馈）will be important in determining if the rocket is safe to transport future human crews to space.

Though the launch into orbit went smoothly, Skybot’s arrival at the ISS was delayed by three days, from August 24 to August 27. The delay didn’t seem to bother the robot, which announced its arrival, “Sorry about the delay. Met with traffic. Ready to work now.”

Skybot’s two-week task is largely a test to measure its ability to work effectively in microgravity, and includes simple tasks like using tools. If all goes well, Russia hopes to send more advanced versions of the FEDOR robots to help astronauts with special tasks.

Earlier this year, the US space agency launched two little robots called Astrobees to help astronauts with daily chores, like finding lost pieces of equipment. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s social AI-powered CIMON spent a year assisting astronauts, before returning to Earth on August 27, 2019.

It seems we're always being told to get more sleep. Studies suggest spending less time on sleep can lead to obesity(肥胖) and even cancer. You might even find yourself with a head full of false memories. But rarely does science explore the dark side of sleeping too much. That's because few of us in today's busy world have the luck of exploring that option.

In an August 2018 study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers researched the sleep patterns of those“fortunate”few and found they may not be so lucky after all. In fact, they found people who get more than eight hours of sleep have greater health risk compared to those who sleep together less than seven hours. What's more, sleep-aholics-those who manage to get 10 hours a night-stand a 30 percent higher chance of dying compared to the seven-hour crowd.

The wide-ranging global study involved(涉及) more than three million people who self-reported on their sleep habits and came to an eye-opening conclusion: If you tend to sleep a lot, you may want to buy an alarm clock. As with all things in life, sleep is best taken in moderation（适度）.

You may be thinking: What if I only sleep in on Saturday and Sunday, am I still at risk? The answer is yes, according to a 2019 study published in Current Biology.   Researchers discovered that even if a person sleeps more   than seven hours on the weekends but still sleeps less than that on weeknights, they are at risk of gaining weight   and developing sensitivity to insulin, which controls the level of sugar in blood.

For the study, 36 participants were divided into three groups that each had a different sleep schedule: nine   hours every night, five hours every night, and five hours from Monday to Friday and sleeping much on   weekends. People who get too much sleep tend to feel tired and lack energy. Also, both sleep-deprived（睡眠不足的) groups consume more food and gain weight.