2 . During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, foreign journalists not only enjoyed the Chinese athletes’ excellent performance, but experienced “the speed of China” in the development of high-speed rail.

On Feb. 14, 57 journalists from 36 Chinese and foreign media groups were invited by the 2022 Beijing Media Center to visit the city’s rail transit command center to explore the “secret” of Beijing’s high-quality development in the field.

Beijing has formed a safe, convenient, efficient and green rail transit system. It now consists of 27 metro lines, increased from two in 2001 when Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Last year, the city’s metro lines together handled nearly 10 million passenger trips per working day, accounting for 57 percent of the total number carried by urban public vehicles.

Compared with car travel, each subway passenger can reduce 77 percent of their carbon emissions, which means the total reduced carbon emissions can reach 7. 38 million metric tons a year. This is equal to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 410 million trees, experts said. In addition to efficiency and ecological protection, the city’s urban rail transit is becoming more intelligent. For example, the west part of Metro Line 11 is known as a line serving the 2022 Winter Olympics, which features a fully automated driving mode under staff supervision at the beginning of the train’s operation.

Although China was behind developed countries in high-speed railway development, it has accumulated abundant experience in constructing all types of railways, including high-speed and railways at high altitudes and carrying heavy loads. The country also has the longest high-speed rail mileage, which accounts for more than 66 percent of the world’s total.

“China’s high-speed trains run across rivers and mountains to reach all directions, from forests and snowy fields in the north to wetlands south of the Yangtze River, and from the desert in the west to the East China Sea,” said Zou Wu, a senior engineer at the China State Railway Group. “The country’s high-speed railway network covers 92 percent of the cities each with a population of more than 500, 000 people.”

3 . Contrary to “popular opinion”, the scientific pursuit for knowledge is not a predictable process. To make new discoveries, researchers need the freedom to be creative, fail, and learn by chance. This aspect is similar to art. This is why Wageningen scientists look to artists for inspiration and exchange ideas about how to increase creative freedom.

“Science and art are two different ways to make something understandable. They both provide a perspective on reality,” says Biochemistry Professor Dolf Weijers. “From the outside, the research process looks very formal and the artistic process looks somewhat messy. But the scientific process can also unfold in an unpredictable way.”

“Scientists can learn a lot from artists,” says Weijers. “Association and creativity are central to art. Those aspects require more attention in science as the creative process is the key of science.”

“As a scientist, you use different methods, but it is equally about how you visualize(可视化) your understanding of reality and the connections that there are. This is sometimes just as visual as art,” says Weijers. One example is a recent special project in which Weijers and his colleague Joris Sprakel, professor of Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter, measured the forces that act on plant cells. A molecular(分子的)sensor was used to visualize the different forces. They showed the results in colorful images, each representing a different force.

What science and art also have in common is that they are topics of discussion in society. There are people who say that they do not value art and people who mistrust science. Weijers says, “It often creates the wrong impression because only the results of scientific studies are presented, and people do not have any insight into the process leading to discovery. As a scientist, you are doubted if you say that something is different a few years later. Then you are viewed as unreliable. But what is often poorly understood is that there are no final results in science. What we scientists can achieve in the coming period is to provide more chances for people to focus on the process. Personally, I think that the connection with art can help to lead the focus on the process than the result.”

5 . Some people travel to relax, while others for experience. But are you tired of the high-priced or crowded tourist attractions in big cities? Here are a few perfect places to go for relaxation.

China’s Silk Road

Traveling to China’s Silk Road is a journey of contrasts: Han and Uyghur ethnicities(维吾尔族), Eastern and Central Asian cultures, natural and man-made wonders, dry desert and Alpine Mountain scenery. The scenery is more beautiful when the flowers come out and green grass covers the earth.

Qinghai Lake

Qinghai Lake is the shining jewel of northwest China. The lake is quieter and more peaceful when it is decorated with yellow grasslands and snow-covered mountains. Standing on the banks, you will have a wide view of the scenery. This huge lake and quiet environment will make you feel at peace and in natural beauty.

Daocheng

Daocheng is a popular stopover point on the journey to Yading, a place where you can appreciate the nature of the Tibetan minority culture. In autumn, the red bushes combined with the yellow leaves under the clear blue sky are believed to exhibit the colors of heaven. The temples in these mountains represent the local culture.

Yangtze River

The Yangtze River tour is blessed with beautiful natural landscapes and places of interest to be seen along the way. The ship frequently stops and you can explore the attractions of different cities along the riverbank. The Yangtze River in October is painted with bright fall colors. Also, the weather in October is quite comfortable and cool.

7 . Not only was Gene Stratton-Porter one of Indiana's most well-known authors, but she was also an environmentalist, photographer, and artist. Gene shared her passion for the environment and wildlife in her writing and used her influence to fight for the preservation of nature and alert others to the importance of their natural surroundings.

Born in 1863 in Indiana, she grew up with a love of nature and spent most of her innocent childhood wandering through farms and forests, catching butterflies and observing birds like doves and small animals like geese. In 1886, Gene married Charles Porter. Although she expressed happiness with her family life, Gene lived a more independent life traditionally unavailable to women in the late nineteenth century. Gene insisted on writing and photographing wildlife around her cabin near Limberlost Swamp. There she expressed her passionate feelings towards nature and its preservation. She spent much time in Limberlost, and later the cabin became the site where she conducted field studies on Indiana's natural environment.

Early in her life, Gene studied nature in the Limberlost Swamp and recorded her thorough observations through photographs and detailed writings. Gene published dozens of books—novels, nature studies, poetry collections and children's books. Her books mainly connect readers to natural settings and earn her a high reputation. One of her best-known novels, A Girl of the Limberlost is about a lonely girl who lives on a farm and escapes from her sufferings in Limberlost.

Gene's legacy (遗留物)is visible not only within her books, photography and films but also within the Limberlost Swamp, which eventually faded away to the farmland. Fortunately, through her hard work and dedication, the land is slowly being restored to its natural state, with over 400 acres preserved for nature study today.

9 . Summer is coming, and soon beaches will be full of the sounds of people having fun: splashing (泼洒) in waves and playing in the sand. But imagine finding a quieter spot of ocean. If you could stick your ears under the water, you might hear other sounds. And many of those sounds are made by fish.

People have known that fish make sounds since ancient Greece; that is why they gave some fish names like red drum, pig fish or croaker. “They’re based on the sounds these fish make,” said Audrey Looby. She studies fish sounds at the University of Florida.

So far, about 1,000 fish species have been recorded making sounds. Looby’s favorite-sounding fish is the Gulf toadfish. It makes an amazing sound like a boat whistle. Scientists are not sure how many fish make sounds. Some think that it might be as many as 22,000 types, about two-thirds of the 34,000 fish species known. And those are just the sounds fish make on purpose.

Fish sounds are important because they give a lot of information about what is going on to other fish, and to scientists. If scientists hear a fish chewing, then they know there is food available. The warning noises of certain fish species give information, too. They can tell scientists how many fish are living on a reef and where they are located. And fish sounds can tell where the endangered species are located, too, said Looby.

Fish sounds might even help preserve and bring back fish habitats. For example, scientists want to try playing healthy fish sounds in a reef that is dying. The healthy sounds might encourage fish to return and live in the dying reef. “Learning about fish sounds lets us learn about underwater environments and hopefully manage them at the same time,” Looby said.

10 . It seems like giant pandas might not be the best at hide-and-seek. With their noticeable black and white coats, they would appear to have a hard time blending (融合) into so many environments. But a new study finds that the symbolic markings help them disappear into their surroundings.

For their study, researchers analysed photos of giant pandas in their natural habitat. They found that the animals are good at visually (视觉上地) hiding in their environments because they use habitats with dark and lighting conditions, and also snow during some of the year.

They found that the black fur blends mainly into shade and dark tree trunks (树干). But it also matches the ground, rocks, and leaves. The white fur matches snow, rocks, and bright leaves. Sometimes pandas also have pale brown fur that blends into rocks, ground, leaves, and shady background areas.

As a last step, the researchers used a color map technique to compare how giant pandas resemble their background with other species that are considered able to visually hide in their environments. They found that pandas fell in the middle of this list.

It might seem a bit confusing because giant pandas are very easy to discover at a zoo. But the viewer and environment make a difference. “We modeled their coloration through predators’(捕食者的) eyes as well as how humans see them so we are sure of the results,“ study author Tim Caro of the University of Bristol says. ”It seems that giant pandas appear eye-catching to us because of short viewing distances and specific backgrounds: when we see them, either in photographs or at the zoo, it is almost always from close up, and often against a background that doesn’t reflect their natural habitat,“ says author Nick Scott—Samuel of the University of Bristol.