1 . Have you ever wondered why it feels so satisfying to sing in the shower? You are alone. You are warm. The air is moist, making your throat feel wet.     1     You’re at once relaxed and pleasantly energized by the water. Little can take you away from the simple tasks at hand. You control the speed and pitch. And the bathroom provides wonderful resonance (共鸣).

Now imagine singing while driving. You are sitting, stuck by a tight seat belt that limits airflow. Without any warm-up, you probably start right in with the first song you hear. The air is drier. And to stay awake, you may be drinking coffee, which can make you thirsty.     2     While singing along to the radio, your voice may get lost in the noise of the song and the car.

From my personal experience, I realize the importance of not only focusing but also setting the right conditions during practice.     3     This is why some argue against baseball players practising hitting before a game. They try hitting different types of throws, even slower ones that they wouldn’t see in a real game.

    4     To warm up, I practise deep breathing exercises and relax my tongue with “blah blah blahs.” Brightening my face helps make my sound more energetic. My voice becomes richer and stronger when I practise opening up my mouth by yawning, imagining the back of my mouth expanding like a frog’s. I also adjust the way I stand.     5    

2 . Courage is a huge theme in my life, a quality I constantly seek, appreciate, and analyze. The root of “courage” is “cor,” the Latin word for heart. In the beginning, courage meant “to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” While courage is often associated with heroism nowadays, I believe true courage lies in being open and honest about who we are and how we feel.

I recently witnessed an example of true courage. During a mountain-climbing trip with my 15-year-old daughter and some college students, I noticed her struggling to keep up with the group. Despite my suggestions to rest, she persisted until she couldn’t breathe properly.

Panicked, I called out to the front for help, but there was no response, and we had no cellphone signal. Fortunately, two students just came back to check out on us. They offered assistance and calmed us down. As we continued at a slower pace, they shared their own experiences, from starting out as beginners like my daughter to becoming consistently among the first to reach the peak.

“You know,” one of them said, looking at my daughter, “I was just like you when I started.

But with practice and proper pace, you’ll get there too.”

“Yeah, don’t let your lack of experience stop you,” the other added. “It’s okay to admit when you’re struggling or not feeling alright. In fact, it’s important to speak up and ask for help when you need it. That’s how we improve and grow.”

Reaching the mountain top was a huge relief for both my daughter and me. However, the two students addressed the celebrating group directly, emphasizing the importance of staying together in tough environments. Their words led the group to apologize to us for overlooking our struggle.

I was totally amazed at their bravery, and my daughter learned that it’s okay to be the least experienced in a group. Courage, I’ve come to realize, has a ripple effect. Each time we choose courage, we inspire those around us to be a little braver and make the world a little better.

3 . We all know the grandmotherly wisdom of serving chicken soup to someone with a cold, but does this particular meal really have the same effect as the medicine? Could the chicken soup save people a trip to the local hospital?

You won’t find studies in humans that prove chicken soup can fight off a cold, but there’s enough evidence to make it worth trying. One study published in the medical journal Chest suggested that chicken soup might have anti-inflammatory (消炎的) effects, which could possibly cure symptoms of upper respiratory (上呼吸道) tract infections (感染). Researchers studied the movement of neutrophils-a type of white blood cell-when combined with soup. They found that the movement of neutrophils was reduced in the presence of soup, suggesting a possible anti-inflammatory effect that could at least reduce cold symptoms (症状).

“There are substances in chicken soup that could affect cells in the body, which could potentially have medicinal effects, but whether they are good or bad for you, we didn’t test,” said study author Dr. Stephen Rennard, Larson Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Because the study was done in a laboratory and not in humans, Rennard cautions that it remains to be seen whether one would even absorb the substances (物质) that appeared to have beneficial effects in the lab. The researchers did not actually separate specific substances in soup that might be beneficial, “nor did we show what it would do in a living person, let alone a living person with a cold,” he added.

“Chicken soup might be useful, but lots of more research is required,“ Rennard said. “There is some possibility that there is a medicinal basis to it, but ‘some,’ ‘suggests’ and ‘possible’ are the key words.”

5 . Initial conversations can have a huge impact on how relationships develop over time. People are often stuck in the impressions they think they might have made the minute they finish speaking with someone for the first time: “Did they like me or were they just being polite?” “Were they deep in thought or deeply bored?”

To find out whether these worries are necessary, we have conducted nearly 10 years of research. In our studies, participants in the UK talked with someone they had never met before. Afterward, they were asked how much they liked their conversation partner and how much they believed that their conversation partner liked them. This allowed us to compare how much people believed they were liked to how much they were actually liked.

Time and time again, we found that people left their conversations with negative feelings about the impression they made. That is, people systematically underestimate how much their conversation partners like them and enjoy their company — a false belief we call the “liking gap”.

This bias (偏见) may seem like something that would occur only in initial interactions, but its effects extend far beyond a first impression. Surprisingly, the liking gap can constantly affect a variety of relationships, including interactions with coworkers, long after the initial conversations have taken place. Having a larger liking gap is associated with being less willing to ask workmates for help, less willing to provide workmates with open and honest feedback, and less willing to work on another project together.

There are numerous strategies to minimize your biased feelings. One place to start is shifting your focus of attention. Try to direct your attention to your conversation partner, be genuinely curious about them, ask them more questions, and really listen to their answers. The more you’re zeroed in on the other person, and the less you’re focused on yourself, the better your conversation will be and the less your mind will turn to all the things you think you didn’t do well.

7 . A Picture Paints A Thousand Words?

Nowadays, everyone takes selfies (自拍照), from famous actors and politicians, to everyday people. Selfies are a great way to share your hobbies and daily routines, and thanks to smartphones and their high-quality cameras, anyone can take and upload these images on social media.     1     According to research, our selfies and how we take them also say a lot about our character.

Researchers found that both the poses that we choose and the way that we actually take a selfie can show the world something.     2     Those who stick their tongues out could be fun-loving and silly but might actually feel uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Even how often we smile in our selfies and the way we smile tell people about our character. Someone who smiles a lot is more likely to be outgoing and open to new experiences while someone with a large broad smile may be a risk-taker. It’s not just our expression, though, that gives away things about us.     3     For example, people who look directly at the camera could be cooperative and sociable.

    4     Studies found that showing the left side of the face and cheek in a selfie communicates emotions better and makes you seem more attractive to others. People who take a selfie from below often want to appear bigger and stronger, white those taking a picture from above looking down could want to appear shorter and sweeter.

Next time you grab your smartphone, hold on for a moment.     5    

8 . A new study on 26 chimpanzees (黑猩猩) from zoos around the world found that chimpanzees can recognise family members and long lost friends even after decades of separation.

The participating chimpanzees were given juice while staring at a screen flashing side by side photos of other chimps. One animal from each pair of photos had lived with the group for at least a year, while the other was a stranger. An eye-tracking camera recorded where the participants were looking and for how long. Data showed their eyes rested longer on familiar groupmates, suggesting “rich recognition of each other.”

There is also evidence that they became more intent when shown a picture of a chimpanzee with whom they’d had more positive interactions, compared with conflicting relationships.

In the most impressive case, a 46-year-old chimpanzee named Louise repeatedly demonstrated “intense” attention upon seeing photographs of her sister Loretta and nephew Erin, whom she hadn’t seen in more than 26 years. The team said Louise’s results represent the longest-lasting social memory documented in any non-human animal to date.

“We tend to see ourselves as unique special creatures with incredible intellectual (智力的) capacities that are very different from other animals on earth,” said Laura Simone Lewis, a postdoctoral fellow in Berkeley’s psychology department and lead author of the study. “This study is showing us how similar we are to chimpanzees.” She noted that the findings support the theory that long-term social memory in humans and modern day chimps has come from “our last common ancestor that lived somewhere between 5 to 7 million years ago” who also likely had long-term social memory.

Now that they have definitive evidence that these endangered species possess long-term social memories, researchers have more questions, including whether chimpanzees miss the individuals they’re no longer with, especially their friends and family. “Our study doesn’t determine they are doing this, but it raises questions about the possibility that they may have the ability to do so,” Lewis said.

9 . After building some standard cargo bikes,    1    , this time with something very special. I wanted to build an ideal cargo bike combining the stability of a three-wheeler with the possibility to change directions like being on two wheels.

The first step was to do extensive research.    2    . An incredible source of technical inspiration was the online Tilting Group. Although primarily concerned with tilting concepts of engine driven constructions, the group is surely the best place to find information about constructing a tilter.

After researching and outlining a few ideas, I grabbed some parts and started with a very simple prototype. Building such a vehicle needs a high degree of accuracy, which was not the case with my prolotype.     3    . So I made a few more sketches, which led to an improved version of the driving and tilting mechanism.

Then I started building the tricycle. Building the structure was quite straightforward. As usual I took an old bike apart for the back triangle and then added the front part. After adding a cargo basket to the structure,     4    .

Now came the hard part the driving mechanism. I started with the usual design used for two-wheel cargo bikes, but it took me quite some time to figure out how to pass the driving force to both wheels without allowing the whole thing to lock itself in any angle.

    5    , but I’m sure I can use the knowledge I gained one way or another.

10 . In the eras before air-conditioning, southern China’s skywells played a key role in keeping people’s homes cool. Could they do it again today?

Ru Ling loves spending time in skywells. To her, these courtyards of old Chinese houses are the perfect place to be on a hot and humid day. “    1    ” says Ru.

From 2014 to 2021, Ru lived in a century-old home in the village of Guanlu in eastern China’s Anhui Province. She moved there for a change of life after living and working in air-conditioned buildings for many years. Ru says that the house’s skywell helped to create this cooling effect.     2     Studies have found that the temperatures inside some of the skywells in southern China are significantly lower than the outside.

In today’s China, fewer and fewer people live in houses with skywells.     3     But a revival of interest in traditional Chinese architecture is leading some historic buildings with skywells to be restored for modern times.     4    

A skywell is a typical feature of a traditional home in southern and eastern China. Different from a northern Chinese courtyard, a skywell is smaller and less exposed to the outdoor environment.     5     It is either surrounded by rooms on four sides or three sides plus a wall. Some large houses have more than one skywell.