2 . Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered the remains of a lost Maya city hidden deep within the jungles of the Yucatán Peninsula.

The site, located in the Balamkú ecological reserve in the Mexican state of Campeche, contains numerous large pyramids that were built during the Classic Period of the Maya civilisation. The archaeologists named the location Ocomtún, meaning “stone column (石柱)” in Yucatec Maya language, in a nod to the many stone columns spreading around on the over 123-acre site.

The team found the city while mapping the Maya lowlands with billions of lasers shot from an aircraft flying overhead. This technique, known as light detection and ranging, is a noninvasive (非创伤的) way for researchers to understand the geography of human-made structures hidden beneath leaves. In this case, the technique revealed a Maya city with several pyramidal structures, with the tallest towering nearly 50 feet.

“The site serves as an important center at the regional level,” lead archaeologist Ivan Šprajc said in the statement, “and it is a breakthrough in Maya archeology.”

The Maya had numerous city sites spread across southern Mexico and Central America; the civilization reached its peak during the first millennium AD until it “collapsed” between 800 and 1000. In addition to finding the pyramids and columns, while on foot, the archaeologists discovered ceramics (陶瓷), three squares, a court used to play ball games and a complex comprising low and thin structures arranged almost in circles.

However, the archaeologists are still investigating how the Maya used some of the structures. “It is possible that they are markets or spaces designed for community events,” Šprajc said. “The most common ceramic types that we collected on the surface and in some test pits are from the Late Classic. However, the analysis of samples of this material will offer us more reliable data on the sequences of occupation.”

3 . While looking for comfortable places to sleep in this winter, a 6-year-old black bear picked out a culvert (涵洞) near Wannaska, Minnesota. Unfortunately for the bear, this decision didn’t pan out well.

In late February, the snow around him started melting, causing the culvert to flood and then freeze again. The poor fellow was trapped in snow and ice for three days before some kind humans noticed and called authorities for help.

By the time experts arrived, people had already tried digging the bear out and giving him a variety of unhealthy (for bears) treats. Luckily, the bear wasn’t interested in the food as he was still in a mode in which he slept through the winter months.

A wildlife research biologist Andrew Tri arrived on the scene to assess the situation. “He tried to push himself out and kind of got trapped on some frozen water that had frozen and thawed (融化), frozen and thawed and he got stuck in place and tired,” the biologist explained.

The team first injected the bear with an anesthetic. Once he was asleep, it took five strong men to pull the bear, estimated to weigh between 375 and 400 pounds, out of the culvert. Andrew gave him a full check-up and determined he was in great physical shape, even though he was still a bit sleepy! After that, they put him in a cage and transported him to a wildlife reserve to finish out the winter.

In an online post, Andrew shared the story along with photos of the bear rescue. He summed up with a reminder to the public to never “bother” a bear, either in the wild or near its home. “If you’re ever concerned about a bear’s safety, by all means give us a call,” he advised. “But don’t try to move it or feed it! Doing so can result in a bad situation either for you or for the bear.”

4 . Indoor food growing operations are seeing both successes and failures in the United States. Some companies in the food industry are investing (投资) even as competitors fail.

California-based Plenty Unlimited this summer began working on $300 million indoor plants, while Kroger announced that it would be increasing its availability of vertically (垂直地) farmed produce. Meanwhile, two indoor farming companies that got strong backing—New Jersey’s AeroFarms and Kentucky’s AppHarvest—filed for financial failure and reorganization. And a five-year-old company in Detroit, Planted Detroit, shut its doors this summer.

The industry changes do not worry Jacob Portillo, a grower with Eden Green Technology, an indoor farming company. “The fact that other people are failing and other people are succeeding is going to happen in any industry you go to,” he said.

Indoor farming refers to growing crops indoors, which experts sometimes call “controlled environment agriculture”. There are different methods. One method called vertical farming involves putting produce from floor to ceiling, often under artificial lights and with the plants growing in nutrient-enriched water. Other growers are trying very large greenhouses, indoor beds of soil in big buildings and using special robots for parts of the farming process.

Supporters say growing indoors uses less water and land and permits food to be grown closer to consumers, saving on transport. Indoor growing is also a way to protect crops from increasingly extreme weather caused by climate change.

But critics question the sustainability (可持续性) of operations that can require a lot of energy for artificial lights. And they say paying for that light can make profitability impossible. Curt Covington of AgAmerica Lending, a private investment company centered on agriculture, is not convinced that indoor farming operations can work—except in special cases. Given the high cost of indoor operations, Covington said, “It’s just hard to be very profitable.”

5 . Also known as Adlerian psychology, individual psychology offers a refreshing perspective and insights into interpersonal relationships, fear and trauma (精神创伤). It is a theory of human behavior that focuses on the basic need of belonging and the importance of engaging in constructive actions. The Courage to Be Disliked, using the theories of Alfred Adler, follows a dialogue between a philosopher or a teacher and a young man. The philosopher helps his student to understand how each of us is able to determine the direction of our own life, free from the past trauma and the expectations of others.

Alfred Adler believes that our past trauma don’t define our future. Instead, we choose how trauma affect our present or future lives. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences—the so-called trauma—but instead, and we make whatever suits our purposes out of them. We are not determined by our experiences, but the meaning we give them is self-determining.

In other words, he claims that one doesn’t suffer from the shock of their experiences (the trauma), but that we feel that way because that was our goal in the first place. Adler conveys an example of a person that doesn’t want to step out of his house due to anxiety and fear filling him up every time he steps outside. The philosopher asserts that the person creates fear and anxiety so that he stays inside.

Why? Because possibly he’ll have to face the uncertainty of being out there, facing the mass. Possibly, the man believes that he’s so average that nobody will like him. So, it’s better to stay home and not risk feeling unwanted emotions.

In the Adlerian worldview, the past doesn’t matter. You don’t think about past causes; you think about present goals. You choose an emotion or behavior to achieve a present goal.

6 . Like most of his classmates, Zhang Yixuan is facing academic pressure as he is preparing to attend the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, next year. However, compared with playing smartphones and games, Zhang Yixuan prefers spending his summer vacation walking in wild nature, meeting little creatures like crabs. His bedroom is packed with dozens of “living treasures” that he has collected from the outdoors, including insects, fish, and crabs.

It is the microscope that his father bought him that makes the bedroom look more like a mini-biology lab than anything else and it’s a place where Zhang can devote himself to identifying or observing crabs day and night. With the help of the microscope, Zhang buries. Himself in studying the natural world. Sometimes he spends hours simply examining the leg of a crab. It was his deep interest in nature that led Zhang into a new world of discovery.

Last year, a group of crabs caught Zhang’s attention since they looked unusual compared with the commonly seen ones in Rongxian county, where he lives. He decided to take seven of them home. After much observation and lots of researches by reading related articles and documents, Zhang speculated that it must be a new species. And it proved to be true by experts.

The hardworking and gifted teenager is very grateful to his parents for their understanding and support. His father Zhang Lefei, who was born in a rural area, loved catching fish and crabs himself at an early age. So he and his wife would take their son out into nature to explore as much as possible and would allow him to observe crabs quietly without any disturbs.

They say interest is the best teacher. And so are parents, it seems.