If you’re away from home, feeling a bit blue or searching for some comfort, the Danes have a solution. It’s called “hygge”. Coming from Danish culture, but popularized by the British in 2016, hygge is much more than just a word, it’s becoming a feeling around the world.

The hygge means the sense of happiness you get when your family is gathered together at new year or Christmas. It is all about the pleasant feelings of home: the smell of your mother’s cooking, your partner’s arm around your shoulder and so on.

Hygge is an antidote (良药) to stress. You know when you’ve got it, a gentle warmth starts spreading through your body. Another important part of hygge is that it has nothing to do with modern technology. It’s a period time to relax your tired mind and eyes. So, put down that smartphone and turn off the computer.

You should also know that hygge is not about healthy eating or more exercise. In fact, it’s just the opposite. You’re supposed to be lost in what you like: enjoy sweet snacks and calorie-laden cakes freely. Let yourself think of what happened in the past, and remember the childhood songs of your distant youth with a smile. If it helps, wrap yourself in a warm blanket and sleep with one of your favorite books (not a pill or e-reader).

If Denmark seems too far, then think of old Beijing with its hutong and courtyard houses. Picture yourself sit around a traditional stove with your loved ones, eating dumplings and chatting about the old days. Let yourself drift back in time to a period where everything is relaxing, and there is no need to reply to any e-mails or text messages. They did not exist (存在) back then.

Now you’ve really understood hygge without going to Copenhagen.

3 . Have you ever had trouble sleeping in a new place?

Lots of people do. And now researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island think they know why. They found that one-half of the brain “remains more awake” than the other half when people are trying to sleep in a new place.

The findings were reported in Current Biology by Brown University. In their report, the researchers said many people report they have a harder time sleeping the first night at a hotel or other places outside their home. They call it “first-night influence”. In Japan they say, “If you change your bed, you can’t sleep,” said Yuka Sasaki, one of the report’s writers. “You don’t sleep very well in a new place. We all know about it.”

The researchers measured brain waves (测量脑波) for 35 volunteers over two nights in a laboratory. The two nights were a week apart (间隔).They found during the first night the left half of the brain was more active than the right half. This was during the first deep-sleep period, the researchers said.

Sasaki said a lot of questions remain.

Researchers did not keep measuring brain waves all night long. So, they don’t know if the left half keeps “watch” all night, or whether it “works in shifts (轮换) with the right half later in the night”. They also do not know why the brain activity, at least during the first period of deep sleep, is always on the left half.

For some, this research may be calming. It is good to know that our brain is “looking out for us” in a new place. But it may not help with sleep. That brain activity, at least according to this new research, makes it harder to get the people to have a good rest when they need to wake up in the morning.

4 . Many of us have had this experience: we lie down in a bed other than our own, perhaps at a friend’s house or in a hotel room, and find it difficult to fall asleep. Is it because the bed is uncomfortable? Maybe, but perhaps there can be other reasons.

According to a new study published in Current Biology, a significant reason is what the scientists call “first night effect”. They believe that one side of the brain acts as a “night watch” to give us a warning about potential (潜在的) dangers. It forces us to stay awake on the first night in a new environment.

For the study, 35 young volunteers were told to sleep in a lab for several days. Meanwhile, researchers watched their brain activities.

According to the researchers, on their first night, the left brains were more active than the right brains and people had a hard time sleeping. However, left-brain activity reduced as days went by, falling even to the point of complete calm. In this process, the volunteers got an increasingly better sleep experience.

The findings suggest that the different rhythms (节奏) of the sides of the brain influence our sleep. When the two sides work differently, the balance between them is broken. Thus, the brain can’t relax and is sensitive to anything strange in the surroundings, just as it is in the daytime.

“At some level, the brain is continuing to analyze (分析) things, even though you don’t realize the analysis,” US professor Jerome Siegel told Smithsonian Magazine. “If something unusual happens—if a door opens or you hear a key in a lock—you can be alert (警惕的).” More surprisingly, this situation is similar to the way some animals sleep. Whales, dolphins, and many birds can sleep with half of their brain while the other half stays awake.

If you have ever had what you think is “first night effect”, researchers suggest that you bring your own pillow or sleep in a room similar to your bedroom next time you sleep away from home.

Seeing someone who seems to be walking on a cloud sounds like a dream. But this scene indeed exists (存在)—and it isn’t just in your head. It’s a popular attraction in the South American country of Bolivia called the Salar de Uyuni (乌尤尼盐湖). The area covers a large amount of white, glistening (闪亮的) salt and runs across 10,582 kilometers of the Altiplano and you can even see it from space.

What’s special about the Salar? This salt flat (盐田) can create an endless natural mirror, which gives you an amazing experience. On a still day, water covering the salt changes the salt flat into “The World’s Largest Mirror” reflecting the sky. Those who are lucky enough to see this natural wonder will tell you how difficult it is to find out the dividing line between the sky and land.

Some 40,000 years ago, water from the surrounding mountains gathered here and there were no outlets (出口) where the rainfall could flow out. So a huge lake was formed with natural salt inside. Over time, about 25,000 years ago, high temperatures reduced the rainfall in the area. The climate from wet to dry caused the water to slowly evaporate (蒸发). About 10,000 years ago, the body of water dried up and a deep layer (层) of salt flat was left behind.

With about 10 billion tons of salt lying around it, it’s no surprise that salt production in the Salar is a big business. But the real treasure lies under the surface of the salt flat, where around 70% of the world’s lithium (锂) reserves can be found. The lithium is used for powering mobile phones, laptops, electric cars and this resource could be of great value.

8 . The Chinese language differs from Western languages in that, instead of an alphabet (字母表), it uses characters which stand for ideas, objects or deeds. Chinese words are formed by putting together different characters. In many cases, a single character can also make up a word. As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played an important role in the development of Chinese culture.

Chinese writing began thousands of years ago. According to an ancient story, a man named Cang Jie invented Chinese writing. One winter day while he was hunting, he saw the footprints of animals in the snow and noticed that the appearance of each one was different. Then he had the idea that he could use different shapes to represent different objects. The first Chinese characters were drawings of physical objects. Some characters have been simplified (简化) and others have been made more difficult over time.

However, as a whole, the characters have developed from drawings into standard forms. The character for a mountain was at first three mountaintops together. This became one mountaintop and three lines, and over time turned into the character used nowadays.

Sometimes to express ideas, some characters were made by combining two or more characters together. For example, “休” was made up of the characters for a man and a tree. The character “囚” was formed with a “man” inside a square. Other characters were developed for directions and numbers. It is easy to distinguish (区别) their meanings by looking at them, for example, the characters for “up” and “down”, which are opposites of each other.

Though these kinds of characters indicate meanings, one of their shortcomings is that they do not show how they should be pronounced. Therefore, a method was developed to have one part of a character represent the meaning and the other suggest the pronunciation. Many Chinese characters used today were made this way.

In the 1950s, the Chinese government introduced simplified Chinese characters in the hope to make learning to read and write more understandable to the general population, which would increase literacy (读写能力) across the country. And now they have widespread use in China’s mainland.

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9 . Yawning (打哈欠) is something we all do — maybe because we’re bored carrying out boring tasks or because we’re tired. Sometimes, just seeing other people yawn can set you off.

Many of us think we open our mouths when we yawn to take in more air, but in fact there is no clear connection. A new research suggests it might be because yawning lower the temperature of the brain and prevents it from overheating, much like the fan in your computer. This might be why we’re more likely to feel sleepy and yawn in warm temperatures.

We yawn more when we’re tired and ready for a sleep, and we can’t control when we do it! But it’s also true that yawning is a very contagious behaviour. John Drury, a researcher from Sussex University, told the BBC that “it’s something that you can’t stop. Dogs yawn when their owners yawn, and animals yawn to each other. It happens whether you want to or not.”

His research into this behaviour showed that there is a connection with our social group and how close we are to the people in it. If we are closely connected with the person who has the behaviour, we are likely to copy it too.

Another research by the University of Nottingham found similar results. Researchers found people hardly avoided yawning when others around them yawned. They also found, when using electrical stimulation (刺激), that they were able to increase people’s wish to yawn. These findings could be useful because they could help treat other conditions like Tourette’s (图雷特氏综合症).

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As we all know, there is very short of water in lots of areas in Africa. However, there is a magical tree which can help to solve the water problem. It is called the “sacred (神圣的) tree of Africa”-baobab tree (猴面包树).

A baobab tree is huge like an upside-down carrot. It can grow so large that it requires more than 40 people holding hands to circle it. Actually, most baobab trees are not very tall, only about ten meters.

A baobab tree is full of treasures. It is said that if everyone in Africa had a 10-meter-tall baobab tree, it would solve more than 50% of their food problems. In hot Africa, water is the most needed. When the rainy season comes, the baobab tree starts to hold water in its body. The baobab tree is said to be the most water-holding tree. It can hold thousands of kilograms of water in its body. Local people usually cut a hole in the tree with a knife and get clean water from it. The baobab tree leaves are a bit like spinach (菠菜) leaves. True to its Chinese name, the fruit of the baobab tree tastes like bread. But it’s not like bread with cream. It tastes dry. Local people seldom get stomach problems because of eating it.

Baobab trees are not only useful for humans, but for animals in nature! Their fruit can be good food for monkeys, lizards and other African animals. Their leaves can also be eaten to get enough water. The branches of a baobab look like a root, making it a perfect home to birds.

Indeed, baobab trees are the “tree of life” for Africans. The tall, straight baobab trees act like lighthouses. As the African saying goes, “Baobab trees lit up against the dark ‘African Sky’.” They light up not only the night sky, but also our respect for nature.

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