1 . In habitats across the planet, animals periodically drop everything to walk, fly or swim to a new place. Some animals such as whales and geese learn migration paths by following their parents. Others, including small songbirds, gain the distance and direction of their migration within their genetic code. And some animals use a combination of genetics and culture to guide their migration.

Another group of migrators does not quite fit either model, and researchers have only recently started to figure out how they find their way. The Cory’s shearwater is an oceangoing seabird that migrates over the Atlantic every year. The young do not migrate with their parents, so culture cannot explain their journeys. And the exact paths vary wildly from individual to individual, making genetics equally unlikely.

Cory’s shearwaters are long-lived, rarely producing young successfully before age nine. This leaves an opening for learning and practice to develop their migration patterns. Researchers call this the “exploration-refinement”, and until now it has been hypothetical (假设的) because of difficulties in tracking migratory animals’ movements.

But a team of researchers has done that by attaching small geolocators to more than 150 of the birds aged four to nine. They found that younger birds traveled longer distances, for longer periods, and had more diverse paths than older birds. “We finally have evidence of the ‘exploration-refinement’ for migratory birds,” says Letizia Campioni, who led the study. Younger Cory’s shearwaters are able to fly just as fast as the adults——but they do not, suggesting that the young do more exploring, which gradually fades as they mature and settle into a preferred course.

“Although it may seem less efficient than other strategies, exploration refinement could be beneficial to birds and other organisms in a rapidly changing world due to unpredictable man-made changes,” says Barbara Frei. “It might be safer to repeat a behavior that was recently successful than to rely on patterns that were perfected long ago but might no longer be safe.”

2 . While we may think it feels good to complain, complaining has some bad effects associated with it.

Why isn't complaining beneficial? Research shows that it connects our brain with negativity. The brain is designed to work efficiently. This means that when we repeat a thought, negative or positive, the nerve cells form a bridge between each other to pass information at a higher speed. Therefore, the next time we have a similar type of thought, it is more easily passed. This explains why certain thought patterns become habits.

Yet the harmful effects don't stop there. A study shows that complaining causes the hippocampus(海马区), which plays a vital role in problem-solving, to become smaller.

In addition to causing brain damage, complaining also releases a stress hormone(激素): cortisol, a kind of chemical the body produces when we meet with some danger. Constantly having a high level of cortisol results in high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and lower immunity(免疫力).

The ill effects of our complaining aren't just limited to ourselves: they also involve those around us. We tend to mirror the moods of our friends. For this reason, we should be cautious about having stubborn complainers in our circle of companions.

The best way to deal with constant negativity is to develop a sense of gratitude (感恩). Just like complaining acts as a poison, gratitude acts as a medicine. Research shows it lowers cortisol levels by 23 percent, as well as reduces blood pressure and blood sugar. It also decreases tiredness and depression. Gratitude is the perfect cure for complaining, a behavior that steals our brain power, happiness and physical well-being.

What have you observed about the effects of complaining in your own life or in the lives of others? Have you noticed that when you are grateful, you feel better all over? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

4 . Where do you find beauty? Fashion Magazines? Music Videos? One American photographer is finding beauty in unexpected places. And a new documentary about his work might help change the traditional standards of “who” is beautiful.

Rick Guidotti put aside his career as a fashion photographer to turn his lens to people living with genetic, physical and behavioral differences. He says what changed his perception of beauty was a chance encounter with an albino (白化病) girl.

“I was just tired of people telling me who was beautiful. Every season that face would change but I was always told who was beautiful. As an artist, I don’t see beauty just on covers of magazines. I see it everywhere. So it was my initial intention that opened my eyes a little wider and wider.” Said Guidotti.

Guidotti has created Positive Exposure, a not-for-profit organization that uses photography and video to transform public perceptions and promote a world where differences are celebrated. Guidotti and Positive Exposure are featured in a new documentary called On Beauty.

The cast and crew recently hosted a screening at Georgetown University in Washington. One of the women featured in the film is Jayne Waithera. “I never thought I was beautiful because nobody said that to me, but meeting him was my profound moment. I remember that particular day he took my picture and I felt so good like I felt there’s somebody who, really loves me and sees me for who I am and who sees me more than my condition.” said Waithera.

The documentary is the idea of producer Joanna Rudnick. After seeing Rick’s photos, she decided to tell his story. Joanna and Rick are traveling from city to city to promote On Beauty. “As I travel from community to community, I’m taking photographs and I’m encouraging individuals with a positive sense of who they are. They’re seeing beauty in their reflection but I’m also encouraging their families and they in turn are encouraging their communities as well. All is based on the philosophy of change how you see, see how you change.”

6 . When you think of the Himalayas, you may picture tall, rocky, snow-covered peaks. But that’s not true.

The subnival (亚冰雪的) region is the zone between the treeline and the snowline. It is 5 to 5 times as large as the areas of glaciers and permanent snow, which means studying it is vital to understanding the Himalayas as a whole.

The treeline is the edge of an ecosystem where trees are able to grow, and beyond the treeline environmental conditions become too tough to allow tree growth. Meanwhile, snowlines are the boundaries on mountains that separate areas with permanent snow (where snow is present for the majority of the year) from areas with seasonal or no snow.

Researchers used satellite data from 1993 to 2018 to measure plant cover between 4,150 meters and 6,000 meters above sea level. The scientists discovered that the greatest increase in plant cover was between an altitude of 5,000 meters and 5,500 meters. Subnival plants mostly include small shrubs and grasses.

Even areas once completely occupied by glaciers now hold rocks covered with mosses, lichen, and sometimes even flowers. In addition, the snowline seems to be retreating, while the treeline is expanding. This shows that the region is becoming warmer, causing more melting of snow and allowing vegetation to move up in height.

In the past 40 years, 25% of all Himalayan ice has been lost due to global warming. Himalayan glaciers are reducing by about 0.5 meters each year. The rate of glacier melting has doubled in this decade. The melting of glaciers increases water in the region, making it wetter. Receding snow also forces the snowline to move up, providing a greater amount of area for the warm and moist conditions, which are perfect for vegetation growth.

As of now, we do not know whether vegetation will accelerate or slow down the rate of glacier melting.

7 . Pam Bales made her way on snow-covered Jewell Trail. She noticed a single set of________made by a pair of sneakers. Following the tracks, she________a corner and saw a man sitting________. He stared blankly with sneakers on.

"What is your name?" She asked. No________.

It was obvious that nothing was________for him. For convenience, she gave him a name "John". She pulled the warm layers onto his________, pouring warm drink into his mouth. Over the next________, John began to move his limbs and speak. He told her he had had enough of life and that she should continue on________him. Bales would have none of it. "That is not an option. John. We still have the________part to go, so get up and keep going!"

Slowly he stood, and she felt an overwhelming sense of________.

A week later, Bales' rescue group received a letter. It read: "I hope this________the right rescuer. On Sunday October 17, I went up my favorite trail to end my________. Conditions were horrible and I said to the lady I met to________me and get going, but she wouldn't.________, she treated me with confidence and the impression that I________ . With what had been going wrong in my life, I didn't matter to me,________I did to her. At some point in our lives, all of us have found ourselves walking helplessly. For lack of emotional________and safety, we've sought that place off trail, hoping to find some way to________our struggles.________, some do follow through. Still, many are able to quietly self-rescue. Others,________, are rescued by people like her."

8 .

Pesticides might just be a bee's worst enemy. They harm their brains, slow down their reproduction, and even kill their buzz. Now it seems they damage their social lives and reduce their ability to care for their young.

While previous studies have shown that commonly used neonicotinoid（新烟碱类）pesticides make bees sick and affect how they search for food and navigate, a new study gives more of an idea of how these chemicals affect the internal workings of a colony（种群）. Studying these effects has proved difficult, so the team employed a new technique. They stuck tiny QR codes to the backs of humblebees and tracked their movements using a robotic camera.

The researchers looked at 12 colonies housed in a lab, giving some the same level of imidacloprid—the world's most commonly used pesticide—that they'd be exposed to in the wild while keeping others pesticide-free as controls. They checked on them for a few minutes 12 times a day. The findings are published in the journal Science.

Unfortunately, the researchers found a number of obvious differences between the bees exposed to the pesticide and the controls. The bees given neonicotinoids spent less time interacting with other bees and more time resting. This pause in activity tended to happen more at night, but the researchers aren't sure why.

"Bees actually have a very strong circadian rhythm（生理节奏）," lead author James Crall explained in a statement. "So what we found was that, during the day, there was no statistically observable effect, but at night, we could see that they were crashing. We don't know yet whether the pesticides are destroying circadian gene regulation or if this is just some, maybe physiological feedback…But it suggests that, just from a practical perspective, if we want to understand or study these compounds, looking at effects overnight matters a lot."

9 .

Worried about the loss of rainforests and the ozone layer? Well, neither of those is doing any worse than a large majority of the 6,000 to 7,000 languages that remain in use on Earth. One half of the survivors will almost certainly be gone by 2050, while 40% more will probably be well on their way out. In their place, almost all humans will speak a small number of languages——Mandarin, English, Spanish.

Linguists(语言学家)know what causes languages to disappear, but what's less often remarked is what happens on the way to disappearance: languages' vocabularies, grammars and expressive potential all disappear. "Say a community goes over from speaking a traditional Aboriginal(土著的)language to speaking a Creole," says Australian Nick Evans, a language experts, "you leave behind a language where there's very fine vocabulary for the landscape. All of that is gone in a Creole. As speakers become less able to express the wealth of knowledge that has filled ancestors' lives with meaning over thousands of years, it's no wonder that communities tend to become weakened."

Due to the huge losses, some linguists struggle against the situation, for example, training many documentary linguists in language-loss hotspots such as West Africa and South America.

However, not all approaches to the preservation of languages will be particularly helpful. Some linguists are boasting(自夸)of more and more complicated means of recording languages: digital recording and storage, the Internet and mobile phone technologies. But these are encouraging the quick style of recording trip: fly in, switch on digital recorder, fly home, download to hard drive, and store gathered material for future research. That's not quite what some endangered-language experts have been seeking. Michael Krauss from the University of Alaska complained openly that linguists are playing with technology research while most of their raw data is disappearing.

Who is to blame? Linguists who go out into communities to study, document and describe languages, argue that theoretical linguists, like Noam Chomsky, who draw conclusions about how languages work, have had so much influence that linguistics has largely ignored the continuing disappearance of languages.

10 .

I go to a gym in west London, always unwillingly. Exercise is too exhausting and boring. Always was. At school I made believe that I had headaches and parental notes too, to get out of PE classes and compulsory games. Now, twice a week, I dutifully get on cycling machines and other equipment and make myself work out for an hour. To get through the difficult hour, I people-watched: young and old, fit and unfit and Clayton Rose, one of the instructors.

Clayton is a personal trainer not only to body perfectionists, but to people who are mentally and physically disabled, the obese and hopeless. He treats them all the same. I have witnessed him listening keenly to a middle-aged working-class woman who goes on and on about her life, holidays, everything. Slim and attractive now, she was once so heavy that she was in a wheelchair. I have seen him calm down a young man with Tourette's syndrome（抽动症）and get him on a treadmill. I have also watched him pushing and coaching strong, cool men.

Clayton was shocked when I said I wanted to write about him. "Why? You know I'm not educated? I'm not clued up about politics and all that. Just an ordinary guy.”

He grew up in Twickenham, where his dad worked in a timber yard, his mum in an office. After college, the young man got into personal training and found his work. One of his best friends got seriously ill and was given months to live. Clayton put him on a program that kept him alive for almost five years: "I don't earn much, but I love my work; training and talking really helps people who don't have confidence, who are lonely, afraid, sick. Lots of people can't step into a gym. They need someone they can trust, someone who will be on their side.

The gym recently updated its equipment. The flashy new stuff confuses and upsets disabled customers. Me too. The private firm running these centers made decisions without considering these needs. Clayton is managing the chaos with grace and strength. Last week, when a young woman in a wheelchair started sobbing loudly, he calmed her down, restored her dignity, superhumanly contained his anger.

One of his colleagues thinks Clayton's "a legend". He is, and doesn't know it—a rare thing in this age of extreme narcissism（自恋）and monetized everything.