【推荐2】Have you ever stopped to consider how empty the world would look without trees? Below are five of the top benefits that trees provide.

    1     When adults who are feeling down spend time in the forest, they feel better. Forest therapy can range from simply walking among the trees for a couple of hours to meditating (冥想) in a forest. The adults note they become more confident and their mood improves after forest therapy.

Trees help you heal faster. Natural environments, including forests, help you reach a more positive state of mind.     2     In fact, sick people with exposure to nature heal faster than those who don’t, even if it’s just a view through a window!

Trees reduce air pollution and improve respiratory (呼吸的) health. Trees take in many harmful pollutants from our environment.     3    These forests reduce an estimated 670, 000 cases of respiratory illness and save 850 lives.

Trees provide oxygen. Trees are like the lungs of our Earth. They supply us with oxygen while taking away our carbon dioxide and ask for nothing in return. A single tree can provide enough oxygen for four people.     4    

Trees cool cities. Trees cool things down by offering shade and through evapotranspiration (蒸腾作用).     5     Trees even save your money on your electric bill. When a tree offers direct shade for your home, you’ll use less air conditioning.

【推荐3】Around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens (智人) left Africa and travelled across the world; around the same time, all the other species began to disappear. Why the other humans died out may be the biggest confusion of the early Palaeolithic age. The common explanation is that H. sapiens was brainier than other species. These humans had better communication skills and fighting ability.

According to Jonathan Kennedy, the author of Pathogenesis, there is a better explanation for why H. sapiens won out: their immune systems were superior. As their populations expanded, genetic (基因的) diversity increased and, since they lived in Africa, much closer to the equator (赤道) than other humans, H. sapiens would have been exposed to a greater range of animals carrying a variety of virus.

As H. sapiens moved across the world, they would have been protected against the diseases carried by the other humans they met. The converse was not true, however, meaning other humans were less resistant to the diseases carried by H. sapiens.

From there, Mr Kennedy goes on to rewrite much of the history of life, with virus at the forefront. Human civilisations have been shaped by diseases and infections. Some of his most striking stories come from the Spanish defeat of the Americas. The popular story here is that the Europeans had better technology and weapons with which to beat the less advanced societies in the Americas. That’s not entirely true, Mr Kennedy says. The introduction of infectious diseases from Europe, he writes, resulted in a 90% fall in the population in the Americas.

There is a clue of pattern about this book: as soon as a new set of characters is introduced, you know infection appears. But that is just a minor criticism in a convincing account of the role of viruses in world history. It helps that Mr Kennedy’s epidemiological writing is dotted with pop-culture references: The Lord of the Rings, 2001: A Space Odyssey and so on. Despite the big ideas, therefore, his book is an entertaining read.

【推荐1】Neck pain is a widespread complaint in the information age, with many more of us spending a great deal of time glued to a computer, tablet or phone, or sitting in front of the TV. It’s also a common disease of aging, due to increasing wear and tear on the spine’s (脊椎) joints and tissues. At any given time, an estimated 39 percent of people over 65 have discomfort in their necks. Assuming an injury or potential disease isn’t causing the condition, here are some tips from some experts for managing the discomfort, as well as the best stiff (僵硬) neck remedies.

Sleep off a stiff neck. If you’re looking for stiff neck relief, getting a good night’s sleep — which represents roughly a third of your day — is a good place to start. Choose a relatively firm mattress (床垫) and use only enough pillows to keep your head level with the rest of your body — one is usually sufficient. For sleep that is even more neck-friendly, try lying on your back with pillow support under your knees. This will flatten and relax your spinal muscles.

When it comes to computer use, make sure the monitor is at arm’s length and eye level. Laptops have poor posture built into their designs: if the keyboard is near enough to be comfortable, then the screen is too close, and if the screen is positioned correctly, the keyboard is too far away, forcing you to bend forward. You can solve this problem by placing the device on a bunch of large books or a laptop stand and using a separate keyboard and mouse.

There is evidence to suggest home exercises may be effective against short-term neck discomfort (lasting for 12 weeks or less). “There are many possible reasons for neck pain, including stress, poor posture and organ aging,” explains Dr Michael Westaway, a musculoskeletal clinical specialist. “Treatment is often varied and may include an exercise program. For severe cases, there are painkillers, injections and surgery. However, resist the urge to immediately take aggressive measures, since simpler steps will often ease this everyday pain,” Michael Westaway warned.

【推荐2】Few things are more satisfying than sleeping in on weekends. Though the extra sleep may improve your mood, it doesn’t appear to improve your health.

Because a new study shows that so-called “recovery sleep” cannot reset the body’s metabolic clock and may actually lead to some serious problems.

“Sleep loss can impact our body’ s systems. It can increase our risk of heart disease and cause weight gain,” says Christopher Depner, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

“A lot of us turn off the alarm on Saturdays and Sundays. But we go right back to burning the candle at both ends once the workweek begins. So we are really interested in how the sort of cycle of insufficient sleep, weekend recovery sleep, insufficient sleep, can impact your risk of metabolic disease.” says Depner. He and his colleagues invited volunteers to a nine-day snooze- a-thon.

One group was allowed to get a full night’s sleep. The next was kept to just five hours every night. And the third group was restricted to five hours of shut-eye during the workweek, allowed as much sleep as they wanted over the weekend, and then back to five hours for the last couple of days.

“The study shows that when volunteers maintained insufficient short sleep schedules during a normal work or school week, they ate more than they needed and this led to weight gain. And when they were eating more, they actually ate more after-dinner snacks,” says Ken Wright, a professor at U. C. Boulder.

But even more surprisingly, sleeping in on the weekend doesn’t help-and even makes things worse.

“After the weekend, when they went back to getting insufficient sleep during the work or school week, we found that their blood sugar regulation was reduced. And this is not something we had found in people who maintained insufficient sleep schedules. So it’s possible that this is a worsening of the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar for those specific tissues after the weekend.” says Wright.

So make a date with a pillow. And trade the sweets for sweet dreams.

【推荐1】Most Beautiful National Parks in Poland

Poland’s national parks are a hidden treasure for nature lovers. Take a walk on the wild side with us and experience four of the best open air spaces.

This park is in the remote south-eastern corner of the country bordering with Ukraine and Slovakia. It’s a great choice for people looking for a quiet and lonely trip. Facilities are also quite limited. Don’t miss the Solina Dam and other artificial lakes.

Over in the south-west of Poland by the frontier with the Czech Republic, this park is particularly interesting for its strangely shaped rocks and flat bare mountain tops. Near the border of the park is the highest waterfall in the Sudety region of Poland, the Kamienczyk Waterfall, which is 27 meters high.

Covering a large part of the Wolin Island on the western side of the Polish coast, this park’s best parts include an amazing 15 km long stretch of steep sea cliffs (悬崖), lakes and rivers surrounded by pine trees, many bird species and a small bison (野牛) reserve.

This park is on the border of Poland and Pieniny—one of the Pieniny’s most beautiful mountain ranges. By far the most popular activity is taking a raft ( 筏 )down the winding Dunajec River, but there is a lot more to discover.

【推荐2】“Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” by Cal Newport is an exploration of the challenges posed by our modern, digitally-driven environment and the strategies one can employ to achieve focused success. Newport researches the concept of deep work, emphasizing its critical role in an era marked by constant distractions.

The book addresses the common issue of information overload and the impact of shallow tasks on productivity. Newport argues that the ability to engage in deep, concentrated work is essential for success. The author supports his claims with research, including experiments comparing brain connectivity patterns during deep work and shallow tasks.

Newport’s work agrees with earlier studies, confirming that handwritten notes outperform (胜过) typed ones in academic performance. Beyond academia, Newport presents evidence of the cognitive (认知的) benefits of deep work.

The book provides practical strategies for integrating deep work into one’s professional life, advocating for routines and intentional changing of the brain to resist distractions. Newport introduces concepts like productive meditation (冥想) and the craftsman approach to tool selection, offering readers actionable advice to enhance their focus and productivity.

“Deep Work” has won widespread praise for its insights into productivity in a distracted world. Many praise Newport’s thorough research, combining neuroscience with practical advice. Readers appreciate the real-world examples, from Carl Jung’s focused mindset to a social media pioneer’s distraction-free writing journey.

In conclusion, “Deep Work” stands as a valuable guide for navigating the challenges of the digital age. Newport’s exploration of deep work as a catalyst (催化剂) for success, supported by research and concrete strategies, has left a lasting impact on how individuals approach their professional and personal lives. It serves as a timely reminder to prioritize focus and concentration in an era defined by constant connectivity and distractions.

【推荐3】Overhear any conversation or pay close attention to your own, and you will hear laughter. You will probably also notice that, more often than not, the laughter is in response to something that was not very funny—or was not funny at all. Take Hillary Clinton’s strategic laughter during heated exchanges with Donald Trump in the presidential debates.

In one research in my Vocal Communication Lab at UCLA, we played recorded laughs to listeners and asked them, “Is this laugh ‘real’ or ‘fake’?” Our recorded laughs were either taken from real conversations between friends in a laboratory setting, or produced by request, also in the lab. It turned out that about 70 per cent of the listeners were able to tell the “real” laughs from the “fake” ones. Quite a few fake laughs sound pretty good, but why are fake laughs not as convincing as we expect? We can detect part of a laugh that is hard to fake—and that part has to do with the control of our breath.

Laughs could essentially be broken up into two different vocalisation (发声) systems: speech and emotion. Although both kinds of laughs are vocalised as “ha-ha-ha,” the intermittent breaths a person takes in—between the sounds give away a fake laugh. Real laughs have a higher proportion of breathy parts in between. Think about every time you force a laugh. You have to actually say the “ha-ha-ha,” and probably never consider how you breathe while doing it.

A fake laugh is basically an imitation of a real laugh. If you slow down a real laugh about two and a half times, it sounds like an ape (猿). But a slowed fake laugh sounds more like human speech. We put this observation to the test with the slowed-down versions of the laughs used for our first experiment, and asked participants whether the recordings were from a human or an animal. Though they couldn’t tell the origin of the real laugh, they were able to tell that the fake laugh came from a human.

Real laughs are produced by an emotional vocal system that humans share with all primates (灵长目动物), whereas fake laughs are produced by a speech system that is unique to humans. Laughter in humans likely evolved from play vocalisations in our primate ancestors. If one animal bites another during a rough-and-tumble (小打小闹的) play, it could be taken as an attack. But if they signal while panting (喘气) that they are just playing, the play can continue without being interrupted by an unnecessary real fight. In this way, real laughter reveals our animal nature.