1 . Researchers from Sweden and the United Kingdom teamed up to find out the answer to a question practically every person has thought at one time or another: What is the best smell out there?

The cooperative study between Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and the University of Oxford found that people share similar preferences when it comes to smell, regardless of cultural background. And according to the results, vanilla (香草) is the most pleasing smell around.

Artin Arshamian, one of the study’s authors, said humans may have similar olfactory (嗅觉的) preferences because they helped early humans survive. Simply put, humans likely enjoy many of the same smells, more often than not, because of a deep-rooted sense that an item is safe to eat.

“We wanted to examine if people around the world have the same smell perception (感知) and like the same types of odor, or whether this is something that is culturally learned,” Arshamian said.

In fact, researchers had expected culture played a significantly larger role in the results. The experiment requested 225 participants from nine non-Western diverse cultures, including individuals from communities with little contact with the Western world, to participate in the study. Surprisingly, scientists found that a participant’s culture only accounted for 6% of the difference in the findings.

A less shocking revelation was that personal preference came into consideration 54% of the time. This explains why, as referenced in the study’s results, a dish such as fermented herring (发酵鲱鱼) may be appetizing to some yet interpreted as the most terrible smell in the world to others.

“Now we know that there’s a universal odor perception that is driven by molecular structure and that explains why we like or dislike a certain smell,” Arshamian said. “The next step is to study why this is so by linking this knowledge to what happens in the brain when we smell a particular odor.”

2 . Defeating Daniil Medvedev in New York on Sunday, Djokovic, one of the greatest tennis player, bagging 24 Grand Slam (大满贯) singles titles, equalized the record held by Australian Margaret Court, the same number of singles titles in the all-time count.

With the victory, Djokovic became the oldest US Open men’s singles champion in the Open Era. In total, he has 10 Australian Opens, seven Wimbledons, four US Opens and three Roland Garros titles, making him the only man to win all four majors at least three times. “When I realized that, I started to dream new dreams and set new goals. I never imagined that I would be here talking about 24 Slams,” he said afterwards.

Djokovic reached all finals in the Grand Slams in 2023, and the only loss was at Wimbledon, when Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, 20, brought home the champion after an intense battle lasting four hours and 43 minutes.

“One of the biggest lessons I have learned probably mentally throughout my career is that even if you find a formula (方案) that works, it’s not a guarantee, and actually most likely it’s not going to work the next year, so I keep reinventing myself and always trying to find better ways to win,” said Djokovic.

For Djokovic, who always gets tough when the going gets tough, 24 is just a number that he can go beyond. “I’ll continue to prioritize Grand Slams as my most important tournaments and where I want to play the best tennis. That will stay the same in the next season, or I don’t know how many more seasons I have in my legs,” he added, “So, let’s see.”

3 . Top 4 must-see ancient villages in Beijing

Beijing is a world-famous historical and cultural city with a history of more than 3, 000 years. The rich and profound ancient village culture found in and around the city remains an important part of the capital’s history and culture. Below we recommend 4 must-see ancient villages in the Beijing area as the 2024 May Day holiday approaches.

Located in the northwest of Mentougou district, Lingshui village was formed in the Liao and Jin dynasties. The ancient dwellings in Lingshui village are a model of rural residential buildings during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) in northerm China, and their original appearance is well preserved. Tourists can explore over 120 folk houses, alongside many cultural relics in the village.

Shuiyu village is in Fangshan district. The village was built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. With 600 houses and more than 100 sets of courtyard houses from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the original cultural ecology of the village has been well maintained. Facing both north and south, the village is laid out in a circular shape, forming a unique architectural style.

Sangyu village lies in the north of Mentougou district, Beijing, next to Lingshui village. Prior to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) , Sangyu village was called Sanyu or “encountering” in English, named for the three water channels that meet in the village. Dense mulberry tree forests surround the entire village, and when they bear fruit, purple mulberries light up the village valley.

Malan village, which means “horse stable” in English, had a history of keeping horses that dates back to the Ming dynasty. The ancient buildings in Malan village are made of stone and mud. When building and repairing houses in the village, people try their best to maintain their original appearance. There is also an exhibition hall, a row of old houses, as well as 12 gate bridges in the the village.

7 . The history of the school bus can date back to 1886 when the Wayne Works company made horse-drawn carriages (四轮马车) known as “ school wagons” or “kid hacks” in Indiana.     1    

In the early 1900s, the car industry was beginning to develop fast.    2     The company managed to make its carriages powered by engines. But the design remained mostly the same as that of the previous ones, with students sitting along the walls of the bus while facing inside.

In 1927, a man built the first bus that primarily used steel. Before long, Wayne Works introduced the first all-steel school bus body with safety glass windows.     3     This led to a turning point in the history of the school bus in 1939, when a conference was organised at Manhattan College to develop school bus standards.

Many new national standards were created, determining everything from seating designs to the famous yellow color that school buses still sport today. The reason why the color was chosen was simple.     4    The color is especially easy to see in the early morning and evening light when school buses usually operate.

    5     For example, a variety of changes have been made to enable the school bus to not only be safer but also have better fuel (燃料) economy, be easier to drive, etc. The most creative approach among all of these is probably a kind of stop signal arm that warns traffic of a stop in progress, which states began to require in the early 1950s.

8 . Researchers have tapped the brainwaves of a paralyzed (瘫痪的) man unable to speak and turned what he intended to say into sentences.

The device, created by a team at the University of California, San Francisco, analyses brainwaves to decode (解读) what a person is trying to say and then displays the text on a computer screen. The additional research will take years but the results of the current studies mark an important step toward one day bringing back more natural communication for people who can’t speak because of injuries or illnesses.

The person volunteering to test the device was a man in his late 30s who 15 years ago suffered a brainstem stroke that caused widespread paralysis and robbed him of speech. The researchers placed electrodes (电极) on the surface of the man’s brain, over the area that controls speech. A computer analysed the patterns when he attempted to say common words such as “water” or “good”, eventually becoming able to discern 50 words that could produce more than 1,000 sentences.

Started with such questions as “How are you today?” or “Are you thirsty?”, the device eventually enabled the man to answer “I am very good” or “No, I am not thirsty” - not voicing the words but translating them into text. It takes about three to four seconds for the word to appear on the screen. That’s not nearly as fast as speaking but quicker than tapping out a response.

Harvard neurologists called the work a “pioneering demonstration”. They suggested improvements but said if the technology works out, it eventually could help people with injuries, strokes or illnesses like Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Next steps include ways to improve the device’s speed, accuracy and vocabulary size, and maybe one day it will allow a computer-produced voice rather than display text on a screen while testing a small group of volunteer patients.

9 . The ability to solve complex math problems is one thing that sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Despite this fact, some animals do seem to have at least one basic mathematical ability-they can, in a sense, count.

In the early 1900s, the horse Clever Hans drew worldwide attention in Berlin when his trainer showed that he could count and solve math problems, tapping his feet to indicate a number. However, researchers later discovered that Clever Hans didn’t actually have mathematical skills, but the horse did own impressive observation skills. That is, he was unable to answer questions that his questioners also couldn’t answer because Clever Hans was actually reading minute facial and body language clues to determine the correct responses.

While Clever Hans failed his math quiz a century ago, studies in more recent decades have shown that many species do actually have a “number sense”. In the late 1980s, researchers showed that chimpanzees (黑猩猩) could add up the number of pieces of chocolate in two food bowls (up to five pieces of chocolate in each bowl), compare it with the sum of two other food bowls, and correctly choose the larger of the two sums 90 percent of the time. Some other mammals, including lions, wolves and black bears, have also showed the ability to discriminate (辨别) between quantities — and so have animals from various other animal classes.

Some research suggests that the number sense may be something that certain animals are born with. In 2015, scientists found that baby chicks as young as 3 days old could identify smaller and larger quantities and might even think of numbers on a “number line” running from left to right, similar to humans.

Whatever the case, our number sense is not unique in the animal kingdom. In fact, it may not be something that’s reserved to just animals: Venus flytraps can also “count”.

10 . LHR Airport Parking Rates & Information

The London Heathrow International Airport offers both long and short term parking spaces, each with facilities like shuttle buses (穿梭巴士) and more. LHR also has additional services like electric car charging points. There are also accessible pod parking areas that connect with Terminal (候机楼) 5. They are on-demand and you can access them with a waiting time of less than 30 seconds. However, the place is heavily crowded sometimes and it’s best to make advance booking for it.

Heathrow Airport parking rates can vary depending on the lot and duration, so please check for specific rates below.

Short Stay Parking

Location: On Airport

Type: Multi-Storey Building

To Terminals: 2-5-min walk

Rates:

0-29 minutes:￡5.10        30-44 minutes:￡8.20               45-59 minutes: 11.00

1-2 hours: ￡12.90                 ...                                                                   12-24 hours:￡73.90

More than 24 hours: ￡73. 90 for each additional 24 hour period

If you are traveling for a short time or simply need parking while you meet someone at the airport, consider the LHR short parking. The parking is available at Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Long Stay Parking

Location: Off Airport Area

Type: Drive-In Lot

To Terminals: Shuttles (around 10 min)

Rates:

0 -24 hours: ￡38.20 More than 24 hours: ￡30.50 for each additional 24 hour period

To save money, use the LHR long stay parking. It’s available at the eastern perimeter (外缘) road of Terminals 2 and 3, the southern perimeter of Terminal 4 and at the northern perimeter of Terminal 5 next to business parking. Each parking area is set with a boarding point to take shuttle buses and you can keep the keys with you.