【推荐1】Do the endless stream of messages and the thought of replying to unopened texts give you anxiety? Can the group chat feel so overwhelming that you want to throw your phone out of the window? Texting anxiety is a real thing, and more common than you’d think.

In the last 25 years, texting has changed the way we communicate greatly. And many would argue, not for the better. The average person in 2022 checks their phone 262 times a day, up from a daily average of 80 in 2016. Overwhelmed, many end up consciously or unconsciously opting out, stopping responding to loved ones and friends. Unfortunately, not everyone will be understanding.

Leah Aguirre, a psychotherapist explains that text conversations are usually a source of anxiety as they come with a lot of uncertainty. “We can’t predict how someone will respond, if they will respond, or how quickly they will respond. We can’t control other people’s actions or behavior or how they think and interpret (解读) things, and for people that are already prone to anxiety this can be hard to cope with.”

Aguirre says this is reflected in a physical reaction, tightness in the chest, tensions, or increased heart rate. You also may feel a little more on edge or short with others, compulsively check your phone or have obsessive and intrusive thoughts about the text conversation. Simply hearing a notification (通知), if our phone is out of reach, causes the brain chemicals associated with stress to spike.

As well as the personal effects, text anxiety can put a strain on your relationships with friends and loved ones. A 2018 study found that romantic partnerships and friendships are far more successful when you and the other person have a similar texting style. If both parties are quick responders, the relationship is less likely to hit the rocks. Similarly, if all parties are happy to go hours, days, even weeks between responses, then everyone is happy.

Establishing a texting schedule with people you interact with frequently is one way of reducing some of the stress if you have different texting styles. Aguirre suggests limiting the amount of time you are on your phone also helps with the anxiety. “By cancelling or reducing how much contact you have with the source of anxiety, you’ll feel some relief,” she says.

“You can give yourself a pep talk, tell yourself that you are okay and that you have no control over another person’s response or behavior. Remind yourself that this is just a phone or a text message and that, big picture, you are okay and will be okay.”

【推荐1】High on the top of California's White Mountains, the hard conditions make it difficult for life to take root. But for a certain type of tree — and for those who have travelled here to study it — this place is a perfect place.

These bristlecone pines are the oldest individual trees in the world. Researchers like Andy Bunn have come to learn from the ancients. "It's remarkable to sit here and have your hand on one of these trees and know that it was growing when the Pyramids were built." Bunn added.

"By studying samples (样本) from the trunks, it's possible to discover their hidden history. Each annual tree ring is like a time capsule of the environment for that year from which it was formed," said Matt Salzer, a scientist at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree Ring Research. "And it contains many different types of information — chemical information, the information on growth, and climate information."

"If you're trying to look at people in the past through time, tree rings give you a way to do it in a way that makes sense in a human life," said University of Arizona Professor Charlotte Pearson. She first became fascinated with the bristlecones after reading about an ancient volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini. "It blew my mind that trees on the other side of the world could possibly be used to date this thing within a single year," she said excitedly.

The oldest known living bristlecone is estimated to be over 4, 800 years old. For Bunn, the climate record written in the rings offers guidance for how we might think about what's happening in the present as we plan for the future. "What we're seeing increasingly is that a lot of the climate events that we are experiencing and living through right now have no example in the paleoclimate (古气候) record," he said. “So, we really are moving into unknown field."

【推荐2】The Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew,usually known as Kew Gardens,in Richmond upon Thames is a major London tourist attraction and a UNESCO Word Heritage site.

Founded in 1759,Kew began as a royal garden attached to the Royal Kew Palace,home to George III and his many children. The Palace is now open to visitors,but probably the buildings most visitors come to see are the incredible glasshouses. The Palmhouse is one of the largest surviving Victorian glasshouses in the world,with over 16,000 panes of glass. The Waterlily House,which contains some of the world's largest and smallest waterlilies, is also not to be missed.

However, Kew is more than just a garden and green space in the heart of Britain’s capital city. It is also the world’s leading horticultural (园艺学的) center for botanical research and plant science. The Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew,covers approximately three hundred acres of land,and attracts around a million visitors every year.Its collections and laboratories illustrate the important part that plants play in our lives, and highlight the need to protect and conserve them for the benefit of generations to come.

Kew is a vital research and scientific base, with multiple research projects and partnerships stretching across the globe. As a world leader in plant science,Kew employs around seven hundred people, and is home to about nineteen thousand species of living plants. Its Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place holds seeds from around ten percent of the world's plant species for the benefit of humankind, exhibiting around two billion seeds from 28,000 species of plants sourced from approximately 130 countries.

Around eighty percent of our daily calorie intake comes from just twelve plant species.A project of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank recognizes the need for greater genetic diversity in our crops and seeks to preserve food security for future generations.The project collects seeds from the wild relatives of some of our most important food crop plants whose genetic make-up can be used to breed new and useful qualities back into modern agricultural crops so that they can better adapt to future climates and other threats, such as pests and diseases.

【推荐3】Trees naturally absorbed CO₂ through photosynthesis(光合作用), releasing oxygen, storing carbon for decades, or even centuries. Biotechnology firm Living Carbon says lab trials of its genetically-changed poplar trees take up more carbon and grow 1.5 times faster than unchanged ones. The team added genes from pumpkin to the poplars, which makes their photosynthesis more efficient, turning more carbon dioxide into sugars to create wood biomass(生物量).

Though the firm’s lab results are promising, biologists warn that high growth rates are not guaranteed in the wild as the poplars compete for sunlight with other plants and trees. Genetically-modified (GM)supertrees may also need much watering and fertilizer to keep their rapid growth.

The results are important given the rate of climate change and climbing CO₂ levels in the atmosphere. But critics say there are risks to planting GM trees in the wild if they reproduce with other trees, or negatively affect other plant and animal species. Living Carbon says trees are a hybrid that can only reproduce from cuttings, so cannot cross-pollinate(授粉) with wild trees.

If the field trials are successful then it will still take time to get approval from the government. One sixth, around 135, tree species in the US may face extinction due to climate change, foreign insect species, or disease. And even though field trials of a GM chestnut tree have shown its ability to resist some foreign disease that wiped out billions of American chestnuts, it still has not been approved for planting.

If CO₂ storage is the aim then there are species that already fit the bill. California’s Redwood trees store more carbon than any other species. Redwoods are not suitable for every forestry plot, so creating climate adaptable trees through reproducing programs that fit into local ecosystems is the goal. But in the rush to fix the climate crisis, increase CO₂ uptake, and carbon storage, GM supertrees may be part of that solution.