Travel six hours northwest of Sydney, and you’ve reached the astronomy capital of Australia. Warrumbungle National Park is a nature and star-lover’s dream. This land is home to the Southern Hemisphere’s first Dark Sky Park, which means you’ll be treated to nights of no light pollution and out of this world stargazing. Besides, the Warrumbungles has several adventurous hikes. The Breadknife and Grand High Tops walk is considered one of the best in Australia!

Ku-Ring-Gai Chase is the second oldest national park in Australia. We love this park for its proximity (邻近) to Sydney (a quick 45-minute drive from the city), significant Aboriginal (澳大利亚土著的) sites and breathtaking scenic views. There are many walks you can do here. You can also go kayaking (皮划艇), stopping at some of the secluded beaches that line the park.

Located on the Central Coast, Bouddi National Park is one for beautiful landscapes and beaches. Just 90 minutes from Sydney, Bouddi is a hidden treasure. The beautiful water makes this park an ideal destination during summer, but it also provides a fantastic point for whale watching over the winter. You can experience Bouddi National Park on a day trip. Pack your picnic goods and head on the 8.5 km (one-way) Bouddi Coastal Walk — it’ll give you a perfect taste of the best of what the park has to offer!

As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dorrigo National Park is one to explore! Located just shy of four hours from Byron Bay, the park is part of the Gondwana Rainforests and has been made over millions of years. You’d be right then to expect some of the most stunning waterfalls here. For one of the best experiences, head to the Skywalk lookout. This elevated walkway will take you right into the heart of the rainforest, providing soaring views 21 meters over the rainforest all the way to the coast.

4 . Researches on the effects of bad news on mood suggest exposure to negative COVID news is likely to be harmful to our emotional wellbeing. These findings leave a few key questions unanswered. Does doomscrolling (keep searching for negative information on social media) make people unhappy, or are unhappy people just more likely to doomscroll? And what would happen if, instead of doomscrolling, we were “kindness scrolling” — reading about humanity’s positive responses to a global crisis?

To find out, researchers conducted a study related to it. People who were shown general COVID-related news experienced lower moods than people who were shown nothing at all. Meanwhile, people who were shown COVID news stories involving acts of kindness didn’t experience the same decline in mood, but also didn’t gain the boost in mood they’d predicted. These findings suggest that spending as little as two to four minutes consuming negative news about COVID-19 can have a harmful impact on our mood.

Although researchers didn’t see an improvement in mood among participants who were shown positive news stories involving acts of kindness, this may be because the stories were still related to COVID. In other research, general positive news stories have been associated with improvements in mood.

So what can we do to look after ourselves, and make our time on social media more pleasurable? One option is to delete our social media accounts altogether. But how realistic is it to distance ourselves from platforms that connect nearly half of the world’s population, particularly when these platforms offer social interactions at a time when face-to-face interactions can be risky, or impossible? It is better for us to find some other ways to make the experience on social media more positive. For example, be mindful of what you consume on social media, seek out content that makes you happy to balance out your newsfeed and use social media to promote positivity and kindness.

As the pandemic (大流行病) continues to change our lives and newsfeeds, let’s find some other steps to make our social media a happier place.

5 . There exist a great variety of national parks that are representative of the different regions of the world. To reveal and maintain the great diversity of the interactions between humans and their environment, and to protect living cultures and preserve the traces (痕迹) of those which have disappeared, these sites have been included in the World Heritage List.

Lushan National Park, China

Mount Lushan, in Jiangxi, is one of the spiritual centres of Chinese civilization. Buddhist and Taoist temples, along with landmarks of Confucianism blend (融合) effortlessly into a strikingly beautiful landscape which has inspired countless artists who developed the aesthetic (美的) approach to nature found in Chinese culture. Special attention has been placed on protecting the cultural heritages and their settings as a whole.

Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada

In addition to its particularly beautiful scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park — located at the heart of the province of Alberta’s badlands — contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the “Age of Reptiles”, in particular about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years. These fossils are valuable materials for scientists to study the history of the earth.

Kaziranga National Park, India

In the heart of Assam, this park is one of the last areas in eastern India undisturbed by a human presence. It is inhabited by the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses, as well as many mammals, including tigers, elephants, panthers and bears, and thousands of birds.

Komodo National Park, Indonesia

These volcanic islands are inhabited by a population of around 5,700 giant lizards, whose appearance and attacking behaviour have led to them being called “Komodo dragons”. They exist nowhere else in the world and are of great interest to scientists studying the theory of evolution.

6 . Architecture(建筑)firm Bua Studio recently turned a used barn(谷仓) in Iceland into an artist’s studio and home. Titled Hloduberg Artist’s Studio. the project includes work spaces on the lower level and the living area above. The architects carefully worked with the barn’s original structure(结构)o protect the walls and make good use of the other parts.

The completed project looks interesting with a range of materials. On the lower level, the old walls of the barn contrast with the light wood structure within. Above, cold-rolled steel structure protects the second level from the strong winds. This part of the new addition is finished with an enabled roof, adding more interest to the interior(内部)。

Within the existing barn the architects fit a kitchen and dining area. Also on the first level is a double-height artist’s studio after which the project is named. The rest of the original structure o the bam now acts as a garden wall in the courtyard.

The architects didn’t want to create big changes even to the areas of the barn that were safe enough for further construction. Small openings were made to prevent the influence on the structure. Still, shots of the interior show a beautiful light space, partially lit with openings coming from the second level in the double height studio.

“We added two big openings because we needed to let more light into the kitchen and an entrance to the studio to get in large at works.” say the architects.

The interior of the building is made up of a much lighter color palette with white wood board on the walls and floor and other cool colors. Much of the furniture and larger design were inspired by local design of the area in Iceland.

8 . A new study found that children aged 3 to 5 who consumed more ultra-processed(超加工) foods had poorer skills at doing sports than children who consumed less of these foods. It also showed lower cardiovascular(心血管) fitness in 12- to 15-year-olds who consumed more ultra-processed foods.

Although previous research has shown that consuming ultra-processed foods is linked with a higher risk for cardiovascular disease in adults, this is one of the first studies to show a link between consumption of these foods and lower levels of physical fitness in children.

Ultra-processed. foods were classified in this study as including packaged snacks, breakfast cereals, candies, soda, sweetened juices and yogurts, canned soups and prepared foods like pizza, hotdogs, burgers and chicken nuggets.

“Healthy dietary and exercise behaviors are established at a very young age,” said research team leader Jacqueline Vernarelli, PhD, associate professor and director for the Master of Public Health program at Sacred Heart University. “Our findings point to the need to educate families about cost-effective ways to reduce ultra-processed food intake to help decrease the risk for cardiovascular health problems in adulthood.”

“Though highly processed convenience foods are easy to throw into a school bag, our re-search shows the importance of preparing healthy snacks and meals,” said Vernarelli. “Think of it like saving for retirement; You’re making decisions now that will influence your child’s future.”

As a next step, the researchers plan to look more closely at consumption patterns for ultra-processed food by age group. For example, do kids eat more of these foods for breakfast, at lunch or for snacks? A better understanding of how and when these foods are consumed could help inform future strategy designed to encourage healthy eating.

10 . Great whites and whale sharks are among the species at risk of extinction over the next century, a new study has found.

Pimiento is the lead author of a study published in Science Advances that looks at how the extinction of large marine species would impact the ecological roles of ocean ecosystems. “The extinction crisis challenges scientists to better measure biodiversity: how will the total variety of life on Earth be affected as human activities lead to the losses of more and more species?” they said. In the oceans, the biggest animals are thought to play crucial ecological roles, and are also facing high levels of threat from human activities such as fisheries and climate change.

The team was looking to move beyond traditional species extinctions, to find out more about the functional diversity, the range of roles that these species perform, and how biodiversity might respond under different extinction scenarios. They ran two different extinction scenarios. In one, researchers looked at extinction probability based on their current IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) status. In the second, they assumed all species listed as threatened, around 40 percent, had gone extinct.

Sharks were found to be one of the worst affected groups. “We already knew that sharks are one of the most threatened groups in the ocean,” they said. “They are also very vulnerable due to their large size and low reproductive rate. Our results show that future extinctions would be selective against the most functionally unique and specialized shark species, resulting in greater projected losses.” They also said the biggest threats to marine megafauna are fishing, either through accidentally getting caught up or directly targeted, and climate change. Mitigating these threats could be the best way to protect these species.

The good news is that the study identifies key species that can be targeted and protected. Sometimes ocean conservation can be a triage game. The science helps us know which species really need our help and which species we really cannot afford to lose.