1 . I was at a new school in a new state and needed something solid to stand on: a place to feel grounded. I also needed to do laundry, so I walked to a nearby self-service laundry and stuffed a machine with my clothes. As I struggled to close the washer door, the woman working behind the counter told me to give it a good hit with my hand. The washer did its job, yet even after an hour, the dryer seemed to have barely warmed my clothes. I left, having decided to air-dry them on my car in the August heat.

A month later, I learned her name was Sandy, which she told me after I’d helped her stop a washing machine from moving across the floor. I was grading poems at a table when one of the washers broke loose and skipped an inch into the air. I jumped to the machine and held on while she unplugged it. The next week, Sandy told me dryer No. 8 was the fastest.

It went on like this. I’d do laundry once a week, usually Thursday or Friday. Sandy worked Tuesday through Saturday and we’d talk small while I folded clothes. She told me about her son and his grades, as well as the new dog they’d just adopted. She was fascinated that I was studying poetry. She teased (开玩笑) that it was harder making a living as a poet than as a laundry attendant. Even then I knew she was probably right.

I began to recognize others there: workers taking breaks by the door, a mother and her baby, and even some delivery drivers. But Sandy was the center of my community. For nearly three years and almost every week, I’d do laundry and talk with her. We checked on each other, expecting the other to be there. We asked where the other had gone when we missed a week. There was a note of concern for the other’s absence, a note of joy at their return.

I’d found a place to stand on solid ground.

3 . Earth is far more alive than we previously thought, according to “deep life” studies that reveal a rich underground ecosystem beneath our feet that is almost twice the size of all the world’s oceans. Despite extreme heat, no light and intense pressure, scientists estimate it has between 15 billion and 23 billion tonnes of microorganisms. “It’s like finding a whole new reservoir (储藏) of life on Earth,” said Karen Lloyd an associate professor at the University of Tennessee.

Results suggest 70 percent of Earth’s bacteria and archaea exist in the subsurface. One organism found 2.5 kilometers below the surface has been buried for millions of years and may not rely at all on energy from the sun. Also, the methanogen (产甲烷菌) has found a way to create methane in this environment, which the methanogen may not use to reproduce or divide, but use to replace or repair broken parts. Lengths of their lives were completely different. Some microorganisms have been alive for thousands of years, barely moving except with shifts in earthquakes or eruptions. They’re just active inside, with less energy than people thought possible to support life.

The team consists of 1,200 scientists from 52 countries in disciplines ranging from geology and microbiology to chemistry and physics. A year before the conclusion of their study, they will present the findings before the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting opens this week, which they say are made possible by technical advances on drills and microscopes.

The scientists have been wondering about the point beyond which life cannot exist, but the deeper they dig, the more life they find. There is a temperature maximum—currently 122℃—but they believe this record will be broken if they keep exploring and developing more advanced instruments.

Questions remain, including how the microbes interact with chemical processes, and what this might reveal about how life and Earth coevolved.

4 . One of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Danish scientist Morten Meldal. When describing his career, Meldal said he started out as an engineer but changed to chemistry because he “wanted to understand the world.”

Meldal’s experience may come as a surprise to students. They might believe they have to center their work and school lives in one field to be successful. But a study from professors at Michigan State University shows that is not always the case.

Michele Root-Bernstein and Robert Root-Bernstein (her husband) published their study in the Creativity Research Journal. They said that a large number of Nobel Prize winners can be described as “polymaths”.

The writers looked at past Nobel Prize winners and their students. They decided that when students of winners go on to win Nobel Prizes, some of what they learned from their teachers is how to live a life with many interests. They are, in a way, learning how to be creative.

Having many interests, the Root-Bernsteins wrote, permits scientists to look for creative ways to solve problems. In fact, one important part of science is not discovering answers, but recognizing problems that need to be solved.

The prize winners, the Root-Bernsteins said, transfer “skills, techniques and materials from one field to another.” They said Alexis Carrel won his Nobel Prize in medicine in 1912 by using techniques he learned from the clothing business. He realized that people who used thread to make and fix clothing had a skill that could be used in operations to put new organs into people’s bodies.

The Michigan State University professors study creativity. They found Nobel winners are nine times more likely to have experience in working with wood, metal or in the arts than most scientists. The researchers say that unlike many people who spend long hours at work and give up some of their outside interests, Nobel winners believe their hobbies are important to creativity.

5 . One night, as I was driving down the road, I found something was sitting in the middle of the road. A few seconds later, I realized I was looking at a large turtle (海龟). Afraid of it being crashed by cars, so I pulled over, ran across the road and dragged the turtle to safety. But I’d made one big mistake.

I had heard that the best way to pick up a turtle without hurting it was picking it by the tail in order not to get bitten. So I’d made that big mistake. While the turtle turned out OK generally, I was determined to figure out how to move a turtle properly. I needed to find someone who dealt with turtles. I found the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre. I talked to Dr. Sue, its Executive and Medical Director.

Dr. Sue told me that the organization dealt with a number of aspects of turtle conservation, including rescue, settlement, birth programs, research, and education. Sue explained that southern Ontario is home to a vast majority of turtles in Canada, but is also one of the vastest road networks of the country.

“Ninety percent of injured turtles brought in are caused by cars. These turtles spend a lot of time on land. And they do travel many kilometers on land for a variety of reasons, to find a nesting spot, or to hang out for the summer or winter. Turtles know where they want to go. So, just keep them going in the direction they want to go and you may have saved a turtle’s life,” Dr. Sue said.

Once an injured turtle arrives at the center, there are medical facilities (设备) ready to go, including an X-ray machine. That’s when the team gets to work with healing injuries, and help their patient.

6 . Hundreds of millions of birds die every year from crashing into windows, one of the biggest sources of human-caused bird deaths — far greater than wind turbines (涡轮) and airplane strikes put together. In an attempt to help birds see the windows before it’s too late, people may stick decals (贴纸) or coloured films on their windows — often on the indoor side.But a recent study challenges the effectiveness of this practice.

“Putting these window films on the inside really is not giving you the benefit that you would want for protecting the birds,” says John P. Swaddle, lead author of the new study.

To test the films’ effectiveness, Swaddle and his colleagues applied one of two commercially available (可获得的) films to either inside or outside window surfaces. One film reflected shorter light wavelengths that humans cannot see, and the other reflected longer wavelengths (many birds can see both). The researchers also fixed super-fine nets in front of the windows to keep birds from actually hitting the glass. Both films helped to prevent bird strikes by more than 35 percent when put on the outside surface, the study found — but films on the inside had no benefit at all.

“It’s some groundbreaking work about the differences of what can and can’t work in terms of preventing window strikes from birds,” says George Mason University biologist David Luther.

People usually find it much easier to put films or decals on the indoor side of a window, says Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, a conservation ecologist. For taller buildings, to apply something to the outside, “you need scaffolding (脚手架)...you need to clean the windows extra well for them to apply correctly, and they don’t last as long.”

Swaddle assumes that films placed on the inside don’t effectively stop the reflection of outside light. This might also be the case with decals, although those were not tested in this study, he says.

9 . A crowd cheered Kunle Adeyanju as he turned off his motorbike engine after completing a tiring 41-day trip. The 44-year-old left London on April 19 and arrived in Nigeria’s commercial center Lagos on Sunday after travelling more than 8, 000 miles across 13 countries. He started the impressive journey to raise funds for Rotary International to deal with polio(小儿麻痹症）in his native Nigeria.

Accompanied by a dozen bikers for the last stretch of the journey from the Republic of Benin , Adeyanju was welcomed by supporters in Ikeja, in central Lagos. Adeyanju, called “Lion Heart” by fans won popularity among the public by posting daily pictures with comments about his journey on social media. At every stop along the way, he was greeted by enthusiastic supporters.

He did face some challenges, like the one in Mali where one of his wheels broke. “I was standing in the middle of the night, alone in a bush, not knowing what to do,without speaking the language,”he said, explaining he had to walk to the nearest village.“Fortunately, the locals helped me. ”Not all of the challenges he faced were solved smoothly.“Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa, was ‘terrible’, ” he said, after he got robbed of hundreds of euros. “The worst experience,” he added.

The former Shell employee self-funded his trip with $ 20, 400 in savings,hoping to raise up to $ 48million for Rotary International. “I have been suffering from a lack of sleep lately because I slept only three to four hours per night. But I feel proud because I finished this challenge,” Adeyanju said just after he arrived, wiping the sweat off his face. Adeyanju added that he is now planning to have a possible cycling trip to Ghana or a bike ride to Israel to help raise more funds. And he has another dream: to climb Mount Qomolangma.