2 . Going to bed in one major city and waking up in another; toasting the landscape as a new country slips past; being rocked to sleep as you rattle across a continent. It’s no wonder that the night trains of Europe have been a byword for romance, frequently mentioned by writers such as Agatha Christie.

In fact, over the past decade, much of Europe’s night train network has been cut. For many, it seemed the end of the line was coming. But recently there has been a reappearance of night trains across Europe. On December 8, four national rail providers teamed up to announce new routes between 13 European cities.

“You leave work at a normal time, have dinner, make your way to the station, get on the train, and wake up in the place you want to be. There’s no turning up at the airport at an early hour, as you do for a budget flight.” says Monisha Rajesh, author of “Around the World in 80 Trains.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has helped, too. It is easier for people’s social-distance on the train, says Rajesh. And night trains — where you can book an entire compartment (车厢) to yourself — are even better.

Europe’s geography also helps the argument for night trains, says Nicolas Forien, part of Back onTrack, who points out that half of the flights departing France are either domestic, or going to a neighboring country. “The distance between European capitals is mostly ideal for night trains. The continent could be a night-train paradise.”

3 . We all scream for ice cream! It tends to be a favorite frozen treat for anyone of any age. Ice cream may be universally appealing, but many countries have their own versions.

Gelato, Italy

Pasta aside, gelato is considered to be Italy’s food symbol. In fact, visiting the local ice cream shop called gelateria is a way of life for Italians. “Italians get together at gelaterias and socialize,” says Britton Bauer. “They’re popular hangouts and cultural icons.” Italian gelato is lower in fat than traditional ice cream, and crafted with whole milk, eggs, sugar and flavoring — chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio and stracciatella are the most beloved flavors.

Dondurma, Turkey

An ice cream that doesn’t melt? Yes, that’s exactly what dondurma or Turkish ice cream is. “Buying dondurma is like watching a performance,” says Fedorko Sefer, the founder of the travel company Sea Song Tours and an Istanbul resident. “The men who sell it wear traditional Turkish costume and a sultan hat and stretch, twist and turn the ice cream until it lands into a cone. Kids and adults get a kick out of the show.

Kakigori, Japan

Pastry chefs make kakigori, the Japanese version of ice cream, by shaving ice from ice blocks until it builds into a fluffy (蓬松的) pile. They then add syrups to the ice — usually crafted by hand with quality ingredients — in flavors such as green tea, strawberry, grape and melon. Kakigori is almost always served in a bowl.

5 . Sugar cane（甘蔗）contains around 10% sugar. But that means it contains around 90% non-sugar—the material known as bagasse （甘蔗渣）which remains once the sugar-bearing juice is squeezed out. World production of cane sugar was 185 million tonnes in 2017 , which results in a lot of bagasse.

At the moment, most of it is burned. But Zhu Hongli, a mechanical engineer at Northeastern University, in Boston, thinks it can be put into better use. As she, and her colleagues describe, in Matter this week, with a bit of improving bagasse makes an excellent and biodegradable （可生 物降解的）replacement for the plastic used for disposable food containers such as coffee cups.

Dr. Zhu is not the first person to have this idea. But previous attempts tended not to survive contact with liquids. She knew from previous research that the main reason why past efforts fell to pieces when wet is that bagasse is composed of short fibres which are unable to hold the finished product. She therefore sought' to insert a suitably long-fibred substance.       

Bamboo seemed to be the best choice. It grows quickly /degrades readily and has appropriately long fibres. And it worked. When the researchers blended bamboo remaining into bagasse, they found that the result had a   strong crossing of short and long fibres.

To put their new material through its paces, Dr. Zhu and her colleagues first poured hot oil onto it and found that, rather than passing through the material, as it would have with previous, bagasse products, the oil was resisted by their invention.

They also found that when they made a cup out of the stuff and filled it with water heated almost to boiling point, the cup remained unbroken for more than two hours. Though this is not as long as a plastic cup would   Hast, it-is long enough for all practical purposes.

6 . If you live near a park, you’ve probably observed this unique squirrel behavior. As winter approaches, these creatures begin what looks like preparation for a wide scavenger（觅食）hunt. In great numbers, these squirrels begin to bury nuts! This kind of behavior raises a lot of questions for squirrel enthusiasts—the most pressing being how the squirrels find their nuts again. Eastern gray squirrels, in particular, bury their nuts far and wide. Scientists themselves aren’t even quite sure of everything that goes into this hiding behavior, but they have some ideas.

For one, scientists have observed gray squirrels frequently burying and reburying their nuts. The scientists assumed that this behavior was to help always keep a fresh memory of the nuts! locations. However, it’s not only memory that the squirrels need to combat（战斗）in order to find their nuts! The gray squirrel community is rampant(猖獗的)with nut stealing. The squirrels can lose up to 25% of their hidden nuts to such thieves! Luckily, the squirrels have developed some clever methods to protect their nuts. Scientists have observed the squirrels creating false caches（储藏）in order to trick thieves. If the squirrels are worried about thieves, they will also start to hide their nuts in difficult-to-reach places（like under bushes or in muddy areas）.

While it might be frustrating for squirrels to lose their carefully hidden nuts, it can be beneficial for other organisms. In particular, it can help the forest itself! A study done at the University of Richmond reports that squirrels fail to recover up to 74% of the nuts they bury. This misplacing of so many acorns (the seeds of oak trees), the study says, is likely responsible for oak forest regeneration. When squirrels misplace these buried acorns, they allow for these seeds to eventually grow into full oak trees! The squirrels’ habit of widespread caching is also important to the growth of the forest, as it allows the genetic（基因的）information to spread far.

What seemed like a harmless scavenger hunt is actually part of an endless complex ecosystem in our forests!

7 . Do you look for something to read while in London? If so, you’re lucky. The British capital happens to have an incredible collection of bookshops.

Foyles

If you will, dig the picture: four miles of shelves holding up to 200, 000 books. Let’s hope you have some time to read books when travelling in Foyles. This bookshop is impossible to leave empty-handed. It was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest bookshop on the planet.

Location: 107 Charing Cross Rd

Hatchards

In the year 1797, Thomas Paine published Agrarian Justice. It’s also the year this London bookshop, the oldest in the city today, first turned on its lights. It stocks an excellent selection of fiction, nonfiction, history and other sorts.

Location: 187 Piccadilly St

Libreria

This bookshop is one of the most pleasing of its kind in London. The yellow bookshelves add a touch of color and mystery and, well, you kind of just want to grab a book and a seat and stay a while. Mobile phone usage is strongly banned here.

Location: 65 Hanbury St

London Review Bookshop

This wonderful bookshop that opened in 2003 comes from the smart people of the London Review of Books. As you’d expect, there is an excellent selection of history, philosophy, politics, new fiction and many other sorts here. Plus, there’s a nice cafe in which you can have something to drink and start reading.

Location: 16 Bury PI

8 . Stephane Borie, Sarah Francis and Kathryn Francis, owners of the Checkers restaurant in Wales, announced they had returned the desirable star rating — regarded as the peak for any restaurant — before publication of the 2019 edition of the Michelin Guide on 1 October.

Sarah Francis and her partner, Stephane Borie, have three young children while Kathryn Francis has two.

“I don’t know how we’ve done it for all these years, juggling (同时处理) the kids with working split shifts and late hours,” said Sarah Francis. “It has been a joy to have the star and the most amazing news when we got it. It was great for trade and brilliant for the town. But more for us, it’s about taking the business in a new direction and putting our family first. It means we can work in the day and have our evenings to ourselves.

The restaurant will relaunch in November as Checkers Pantry, and will open for breakfast and lunch with drinks and cakes available throughout the day. Borie will continue to cook at the Checkers but also plans to add more dishes to his menu for private customers across Europe.

A top French restaurant, Le Suquet, stepped away from the listings last year, having held a three-star rating for nearly two decades. The chef Sebastien Bras said he no longer wanted to cook at his restaurant under the "huge pressure” of being judged by the inspectors. Michelin said it was the first time a French chef had asked to be dropped from its restaurant guide in this way.

Simon Wright, restaurateur, food writer and former AA food guide editor, said decisions such as that by the Checkers were “often a reflection of the enormous pressure and additional expectation that comes with a Michelin star".

9 . Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower-shop were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender’s name and just delighted in the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper.

But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother contributed to these imaginings. She’d ask me if there was someone for whom I had done special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man across the street whose mail I’d delivered during the winter. As a girl of seventeen, though, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy whom I had met.

One month before my graduation, my father died of a heart attack. I felt so sad that I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation party.

The day before my father died, my mother and I had gone shopping for a party dress. We’d found an impressive one, but it was the wrong size. When my father died, I forgot about my dress.

But my mother didn’t. The day before the party I found that dress—in the right size—over the living room sofa. I didn’t care whether I had a new dress or not. But my mother wanted me to have one. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In truth, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery. My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

10 . Having a light electric bike that can be folded(折叠) in to fit your backpack would be very practical, don’t you agree? Well, it seems Smacircle is the answer.

Inventors have created an electric bike called Smacircle which is not only as light as two newborn babies but folds up and fits in a backpack. The ebike can reach speeds of 20km/h and is controlled with a smartphone app.The ebike folds up into a backpack in less than ten seconds, by which time it’s no taller than 49cm. It weighs a little over 7kg and can be suitable for riders of different sizes. Powered by a 240W motor and built-in battery, this ebike allows you to ride up to 20km distance.

The first models have been made and tested, and its makers are seeking further investment with an aim to bring it to the mainstream market. Chinese designers believe it might change the way people commute (通勤) to work. They can avoid crowded public transport, simply go through heavy traffic, perfect to commute in the city when their destination is too far to walk yet too close to drive.

CEO Gavin Yang, from Shenzhen in China, said, Smacircle is a special creative design invented to fill in the gap in short commute personal transportation. Their team has spent countless hours on research and development, and are determined to bring the people the best possible solution for short commutes, he said.

As it has not yet hit the market, there is no price available. We have spent almost two years developing this Smacircle ebike and now we have made the concept a reality, said Mr Yang.