【推荐2】Once you get close enough to someone, it’s easy to assume they’ll be a friend for life — but friendships take work, too, and it’s important that you make time to cultivate these relationships as well.     1    . Read on to discover some questions you should ask your close friends.

1. “How do you think we’ve both changed since we became friends?”

There’s a good chance that you’ve been friends with those closest to you for some time, which means you’ve both changed in certain ways over the years. Shari, founder of Imperfectly Perfect Life, says it’s important to reflect on that change. “    2    ,” she shares.

2. “    3    ”

“You don’t have to just focus on your own friendship. People vary greatly in what makes them feel most connected to others — for some it’s sharing something exciting together, while for others, it’s doing daily tasks together,” Julia, a clinical psychologist, notes.

3. “What is the best advice you’ve ever received?”

Another way you can “gain a deeper understanding of your friend’s values, beliefs, and the lessons they’ve learned along their journey” is by asking them about the best advice they’ve ever received. “This provides an opportunity to share wisdom that has had a significant impact on their personal growth,” Natalie shares. “    4    , fostering mutual understanding within your friendship.”

4.“What are your biggest dreams for your life?”

    5    , if you are truly committed to being friends for life. “Many friendships keep the friends locked in to their current reality,” Moore cautions. “But knowing your friend’s goals can create the space for your friendship to grow.”

【推荐1】When you go to the desert with David Strayer, a cognitive psychologist, don’t be surprised if he sticks electrodes to your head.

On the third day of a camping trip in Utah, Strayer explains the “three-day effect” to 22 psychology students. Our brains, he says, aren’t tireless machines; they are easily tired by our fast-paced, increasingly digital lives. But when we slow down, stop the busywork, and seek out natural surroundings, we not only feel refreshed but also improve our mental performance. Strayer has demonstrated as much with a group of participants, who scored 50 percent higher on creative problem-solving tasks after three days of wilderness backpacking.

Strayer’s hypothesis is that being in nature allows the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s command center, to rest and recover, like an overused muscle. Strayer has his students put my head into a sort of bathing cap with 12 electrodes in it. Wires from them will send my brain’s electrical signals to a recorder for analysis. Then I walk carefully to a grassy bank along the San Juan River, where I’m supposed to think of nothing in particular, just watch the wide water flow by. I haven’t looked at a computer or cell phone in days, and it’s easy to forget for a few moments that I ever had them.

A few months after our Utah trip, Strayer’s team sends me the results of my test, which shows my brain waves at a range of frequencies and confirms that the gentle beauty of the San Juan River succeeded in quieting my prefrontal cortex.

So far the other research subjects’ results also confirm Strayer’s hypothesis. But no study can offer a full explanation of the brain-on-nature experience; something mysterious will always remain, Strayer says, and perhaps that’s as it should be. “At the end of the day,” he says, “we come out in nature not because science says it does something to us but because of how it makes us feel.”

【推荐3】The icy waters surrounding Antarctica have long been called the Southern Ocean by scientists, the media, and even the US Board on Geographical Names. However, it never received the official recognition it deserved—until now. On June 8, 2021, the National Geographic Society, which has been making maps since 1915, announced that from now on, there would be five oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian. Arctic, and Southern Ocean.

They had been considering making the change for many years. However, it is only recently that the geographers decided that the Southern Ocean was not just an extension of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It had the unique characteristics required to deserve its own name.

Alex Tait, a geographer, says that the change reflects the Society's desire to draw public attention to protecting the Southern Ocean's unique and fragile marine (海洋的) ecosystem. "We've always labeled it, but we labeled it slightly differently than other oceans," Tait explains. "This change was taking the last step and saying we want to recognize it because of its ecological separation."

The new ocean will include most of the waters around Antarctica out to 60 degrees south latitude, excluding (排除) the Drake Passage and the Scotia Sea. Unlike the other oceans, whose boundaries are defined (界定) by the surrounding continents, the extent of the Southern Ocean is determined by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) — the Earth's longest and strongest oceanic current.

The ACC was established 34 million years ago when Antarctica broke off from South America, enabling the water to freely flow around Earth's southernmost tip. Its water is colder and less salty than the ocean waters to the north and provides a unique habitat for thousands of species, including whales, penguins, and seals. Extending from the surface to the ocean floor, the ACC also significantly impacts Earth's climate. The powerful current, which draws in water from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, acts like a carrier allocating heat around the planet.