1 . John Nelson, 92, grew up in Michigan and volunteered for the army in 1945. The 18-year-old managed to get accepted, despite being colourblind. He landed on the island of Iwo Jima in the first days of the American attack to take the island from the Japanese. Nelson fought day and night for 10 days before receiving a serious wound to his right arm. The other seven men in his squadron (中队) all died. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded.

Nelson saw the American flag being raised on Mount Suribachi after the island was taken by the American forces. The arm would continue to trouble him the rest of his life. Suffering from anxiety and flashbacks, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (创伤后应激障碍).

Al Elders was a Grandville farm boy. He joined the Navy and was stationed on Guam when the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9,1945, basically ended the war with Japan.

War often develops lasting friendships. But for the two World War II veterans (老兵) living at Sunset Manor in Jenison, their friendship didn’t begin until about a year and a half ago. One day, Elders noticed a man sitting at a cafeteria in the Sunset Village, and that was Nelson. Seeing his Marine cap, Elders thought they would have something to talk about. And they did. The war in the Pacific is a common bond.

The two men later worked together to serve other residents at Sunset Manor. John began detailing cars during good weather and cleaning walkers in winter. Elders became his advertising manager. They donated most of their income to the Wounded Warrior project. John is less mobile now and is in care at Sunset. Elders continues to visit and to encourage his friend. A friend of Elders’ who traveled to Iwo Jima brought back a jar filled with sand from the rock y island. Elders sent the gift, along with his own wartime collections, to the Seabee Museum and Memorial Park.

4 . If the eyes are the romantic’s window into the soul, then the teeth are an anthropologist’s door to the stomach.

In a study published recently in the journal Science, Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas and his partner, Matt Sponheimer of the University of Colorado, US, examined the teeth of ancient human beings to find out what they were really eating.

They already knew that different foods cause different marks on teeth. Some cause scratches, while others cause pits(坑). The carbon left on teeth by different foods is also different. Tropical grasses, for example, leave one kind of carbon, but trees and bushes leave another kind because they photosynthesize(进行光合作用)differently.

Traditionally, scientists had looked at the size and shape of teeth and skulls to figure out what early humans ate. Big flat teeth were taken to be signs that they ate nuts and seeds, while hard and sharp teeth seemed good for cutting meat and leaves. But this was proved wrong.

The best example was the Paranthropus(傍人属类人猿), one of our close cousins, some of whom lived in eastern Africa. Scientists used to believe that they ate nuts, fruits and seeds because they had big crests(突起)on their skulls, suggesting that they had large chewing muscles and big teeth. If this had been true, their teeth should have been covered with pits like the surface of the moon. They would also have had a particular type of carbon on their teeth that typically comes from tree products, such as nuts and seeds.

However, when the two scientists studied the Paranthropus, it turned out to have none of these characteristics. The teeth had a different kind of carbon, and were covered with scratches, not pits. This suggested they probably ate grass, not nuts and seeds. It was the exact opposite of what people had expected to find.

Carbon “footprints” give us a completely new and different understanding of what different species ate and the different environments they lived in, which also provide a groundbreaking perspective on the diets and habitats of various species. This method has reshaped our understanding of ancient human diets, challenging previous assumptions based on tooth and skull morphology.

5 . When I stepped into the Samcheong Park Library in Seoul, I saw the future. The simple building had a nice selection of books and a cafe where readers could enjoy coffee while gazing at the leaves outside. It was specifically designed without any latest technology.

“What’s so innovative about that?” a librarian in Toronto asked when I showed her pictures. Innovation to her meant digital technology, like 3D printers. “Why couldn’t they both be innovative?” I asked.

We are constantly told that innovation is the most important force in our economy, without which we would be left behind. But that fear of missing out has led us to fall into the false trappings of innovation over truly innovative ideas that may be simpler and more effective. This mindset implies that if you just buy the new thing, you have innovated! Each year, businesses and individuals run around like broken toy robots, trying to figure out their strategy for the latest buzzword equipment.

At best, this is a waste of resources. Devices are bought, used and abandoned, as the technology’s capabilities fall short of its promise. But at its worst, this approach can truly cause damage. Schools cut field trips to purchase tablets with few proven benefits. Companies that applied AI into hiring have actually strengthened gender and racial prejudices.

True innovation isn’t just some magic devices. It is a continuing process of reflection and reassessment, which often means adopting “old” ideas and tools in a new context, or even returning to methods that worked in the past. Adjusted properly, these rearview(后视的) innovations have proved as transformative as novel technologies.

Look no farther than the streets of New York, which have been redesigned recently to accommodate cyclists with car-free zones. The idea isn’t new. It was created half a century ago, with the aim of bringing cities back to their residents. And while e-reader sales have been exploding, Penguin just announced it would publish tiny printed books, an ideal solution for a market demanding both convenience and physicality.

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8 . On the day he almost died, Kimbal Musk had food on the brain. The Internet startup talent and restaurateur had just arrived in Jackson Hole from a conference where chef Jamie Oliver had spoken about the benefits of healthy eating. This was something Musk thought about a lot — how he might make a difference to the food industry — but beyond expanding his farm-to-table movement along with his restaurant, Musk hadn’t yet broken the code. Then he went sailing down a snowy slope (坡) and fell over, breaking his neck. The left side of his body was paralyzed.

Musk eventually made a full recovery, but it involved spending two months on his back, which gave him plenty of time to come up with a plan. Since then, he has launched an initiative to put “learning gardens” in public schools across America; attracted Generation Z to the farming profession by changing shipping containers into high-tech, data-driven, year-round farms; and this year, is kicking off a new campaign to create one million at-home gardens.

Aimed at reaching low-income families, the Million Gardens Movement was inspired by the pandemic, as both a desire to feel more connected to nature and food insecurity have been at the forefront of so many people’s lives. “We were getting a lot of inquiries about gardening from people that had never gardened before,” says Musk. “People were looking to garden for a bunch of reasons: to supplement their budget, to improve the nutritional quality of their diets, or just to cure the boredom that came with the lockdown.”

The program offers free garden kits that can be grown indoors or outdoors, and will be distributed through schools that Musk’s non-profit, Big Green, has already partnered with. It also offers free courses on how to get the garden growing and fresh seeds and materials for the changing growing seasons. “I grew up in the projects when I was young, in what we now call food deserts,” says EVE, one of the many celebrities who have teamed up with the organization to encourage people to pick up a free garden. “What I love about this is that it’s not difficult. We are all able to grow something.”