【推荐1】Running and walking both offer their own unique benefits and risks. Here is something you need to know about the pros and cons (利弊) of each type of exercise - and which is best for your health goals.

●Running is better for weight loss than walking.

Both walking and running can help you lose weight.     1    . A 2008 analysis found that people only lost small amounts of weight — about 0.1 pound per week — by walking. On the other hand, a large 2013 study found that people lost significantly more weight by running than walking.

●Walking is safer than running

    2    , it makes you face a greater risk of injury than walking. In fact, walking has less than a third of the injury risk of running. About 60% of runners will experience an injury that prevents them from doing the activity.

●     3     ?

Overall, both walking and running can help you achieve the recommended amount of exercise. There is no right choice for which is better for your health. Rather, deciding between walking and running depends on your unique goals and risk factors. For example, if you are older or have joint problems, walking may be the better option for you. However, if you’re pressed for time, running might be the more practical choice.

●Try the run-walk-run method.

The run-walk-run method involves alternating between running for a certain amount of time and walking for a set number of minutes. For example, you can run for two minutes and walk for one minute, or run for four minutes and walk for one minute.     4    

After reading what is mentioned above, you may be able to choose the right type of exercise now.     5    , what matters is that you make the time to exercise. It’s also important to always challenge yourself to be healthier.

【推荐3】Recent research shows that listening to music improves our health in surprising ways. If we take a music lesson or two, that musical training can help raise our IQs and even keep us sharp in old age.     1    

As Bob Marely once put it: “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Research at Drexel University found that music reduced pain more than standard treatments in cancer patients. Other research showed that music can ease pain in patients.     2    

A study with healthy older adults found that those with ten or more years of musical experience scored higher on cognitive (认知的) tests than musicians with one to nine years of musical study.     3     “Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create the connections in the brain that could make up for cognitive decreases as we get older,” said lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy.

A study showed that students who listened to relaxing classical music for 45 minutes before turning in slept much better than students who listened to an audiobook or did nothing different from their normal routine. If you’re having trouble sleeping, try listening to a little Mozart before bedtime.

    5     In one study, 6-year-olds who took keyboard or singing lessons in small groups for 36 weeks had large increases in IQ and standardized educational test results than children who took either drama lessons or no lessons. To help children achieve academic excellence, encourage them to take music lessons.

【推荐2】Animal populations across the world have been reduced by 69% in less than 50 years, according to a new scientific report. The report’s authors are calling for urgent action to restore the natural world.

The Living Planet Report (LPR) is produced every two years by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London. The most recent report, released on October 13, 2022, shows that almost 70% of the world’s monitored wildlife was lost between 1970 and 2018. The report is based on research from 195 countries around the world. Data was collected from almost 32,000 populations of 5,230 species.

Although the average global loss of wildlife is 69%, the rate is greater in the global south. Latin America and the Caribbean in particular have seen the sharpest fall, having lost 94% of their wildlife since 1970. Across the world, the biggest drop was in freshwater populations of wildlife — including almost 1,400 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles — which have decreased by 83%.

The report identifies several causes for wildlife loss, including hunting, farming, the loss of forests, pollution and climate change. However, the report also promotes solutions, such as designing less destructive food production systems, urgently protecting the Amazon rainforest, limiting the use of fossil fuels, and creating new laws to protect our natural environment.

Commenting on the report, Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, called the figures “terrifying”, and said “we need to restore nature and not simply halt its loss.” In December 2022, world leaders are meeting in Montreal for the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference, also known as COP 15. The authors of the LPR say that this is an opportunity for a global plan to deal with wildlife loss and restore nature. “Government leaders must step up at COP 15,” said Lambertini. “The world is watching.”

【推荐3】Last summer, I was sent to take photos that could communicate the urgency of climate change in northern Canada. When I arrived at an abandoned village on Resolute Bay, I scanned the shore with my camera. Suddenly, I spotted a bear lying on the ground. It didn’t move for almost an hour. But when it finally stood up, I had to catch my breath. The bear’s once strong body was just skin and bones; every step that it took was painfully slow.

When I posted the photos on social media, I wrote, “This is what starvation may look like. I wonder whether the global population of 25, 000 polar bears would die the way this bear is dying.”

I did not say that this particular bear was killed by climate change. But news organizations around the world focused on it. The first line of the story published in National Geographic read, “This is what climate change looks like” — with “climate change” highlighted in yellow. Other news agencies even adopted more dramatic headlines.

It was estimated that my photos had been read by about 2.5 billion people around the world. But there was a problem: Most people and the news agencies didn’t recognize or misunderstood the real message I tried to send with them. Many people expressed gratitude that I’d provided shocking evidence on climate change, while others who are still trying to deny the existence of climate change charged me with spreading false information.

Perhaps I had made a mistake in not telling the full story — that I was looking for pictures that might foretell the future and that I didn’t know what had happened to this particular polar bear.

I can’t say that this bear was starving because of climate change, but I am happy that my photos have moved the conversation about climate change to the forefront, where it must remain until this problem is solved.

Until then, when I come across a scene like this one, I will again share with the world — and take pains to be sure that my intention is clear.

【推荐1】I’m a big believer in mind-wandering now and then — especially when I’m out for a walk. There’s something about being in nature that helps me let go of daily worries and allows my mind to wander where it will go, which makes me feel great.

I admit, though, I’ve been perplexed by previous studies showing how mind-wandering can make me less productive or upset. But it turns out this contradiction (矛盾) between my personal experience and science may best be explained by the latest study.

Previous research suggests a wandering mind is an unhappy mind — we tend to be less happy when we’re not focused on what we’re doing.   That’s likely true if mind-wandering keeps you from achieving your goals. However, when people find their wandering thoughts more interesting, their moods actually improve. Similarly, thinking about people you love produces positive results.

In the latest study, participants were reminded randomly via cell phone over three days to report how they were feeling and how much their thoughts were freely moving and related to what they were doing. After analyzing the data, the researchers found that when people’s thoughts were off-task, they generally felt more negative — similar to what earlier studies showed. But if their thoughts were free-moving, it had the opposite effect, helping people feel happier.

People aren’t built to be “on” all of the time. Taking a mind-wandering break might be good for our creativity, happiness and even productivity. And, as long as it’s employed during times when complete focus isn’t required, it may improve our well-being without damaging performance.

“My hope is that people will explore the limits of mind-wandering a bit more and try to mind-wander in a way that is bigger, more fantastical, more personally meaningful, and further into the future,” says Claire Zedelius, formerly of the University of California, Santa Barbara. “If people just really allowed themselves to freely use this tool, they might be able to focus on creative solutions to big problems.”

【推荐3】Languages around the world continue to disappear at an alarming rate. According to the UNESCO Atlas of Languages in Danger, there are 6,700 languages spoken in the world, 40 percent of which are in danger of disappearing. And the majority under threat are languages spoken by Indigenous(本土的)peoples around the world.

When an Indigenous language is lost, not only do we lose the knowledge built up by the community of its speakers, but also the world’s cultural and biological(生物学的)diversity is endangered. For example, where there are most species of plants and animal, there are most languages spoken. When a new species is “discovered” by scientists, you can bet your bottom dollar that the native people living in that area would already have had a name for that species and be highly knowledgeable about it. These languages are biological encyclopedias, and if they are no longer spoken, this wisdom and understanding is lost to humanity forever. “We human beings should care about indigenous languages in the same way as we should care about the loss of the world’s variety of plants and animals, its biodiversity,” Steven Pinker, a respected linguist and Harvard Professor, said.

Fortunately, efforts are being made to bring attention to and preserve these languages, along with the cultural and biological diversity they represent. And education is at the heart of the idea. The United Nations has declared 2019 as The International Year of Indigenous Languages so as to raise awareness, and to teach those who haven’t been aware of the contributions they can make. Similarly, UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity is providing money to educational projects in the hope of bringing Indigenous language and knowledge into school.