1 . The Healing Power of Water

It has been a rough few years. Many of us are finding ourselves exhausted, burned out, struggling to build balance back into our lives.     1     Neuro scientists say that spending time near oceans, lakes, rivers and other blue spaces can provide a range of benefits including reducing anxiety, easing mental fatigue and refreshing us.

Participating in water activities such as swimming or surfing can help us enter a “flow state,” where we become fully immersed in what we’re doing.     2     When we become skilled at an activity, our brain changes, making it even easier to enter a state of flow in the future.

Bodies of water also can produce a glorious sense of awe—the emotional response to something vast that expands and challenges how we see the world.     3    

Water has special properties that may boost nature’s positive impact.     4     Its smell can provoke positive memories and associations. When we are near water, there is often less visual and auditory information to process. Our mind can rest. When we’re floating in water, our bodies can rest too, in a way we never can on land.

    5     It moves rhythmically, producing a play of light, color and sound that is spellbinding. It holds our attention, but not in an overly demanding way. Researchers call this soft fascination. It gives our brains a break from the intense, focused attention that much of daily life requires.

2 . Biologists from Boise State University have been making noise in the forests of the western American state of Idaho. They are making noise to study the value of quiet in nature. They want to know how people and animals react to noise pollution.

The researchers placed outdoor speakers on the side of a half-kilometer-long part of a road in the Boise National Forest. For two years, they played the sounds of passing cars through the speakers. Professor Jesse says they found the sounds caused migratory （迁徙的）birds to flee. The birds also failed to gain weight.

Recently, researchers played sounds of machines that are used to remove natural gas from the ground. That sound is heard in natural gas fields throughout the American West. Professor Barber says these experiments are designed to help researchers learn the effects of noise pollution on birds, insects, bats, and people.

"We are testing the idea that these things are coupled -- that as the soundscape gets louder, wildlife suffers. But that also feeds back on to how much people get out of that experience, how much they value it, and thus how much they are willing to protect that same place."

The research team also studied a group of volunteers who watch birds for fun. Mitch Levenhagen is a graduate student in the research team. He measured how much the artificial noise lessened the ability of the birdwatchers to recognize recorded bird songs.

The birdwatchers said the artificial noise affected their ability to recognize bird sounds more than they thought it would. Birdwatcher Jim Lyons said the experiment caused him to value quiet more.

"I moved out of the city to a little place in the country where I wanted it to be quiet. I greatly value that. It is hard to find those places more and more. There are lots of ways to mitigate（减轻） sound. But it is trade-off. There is always a cost. And it comes down to people's values. What do we value more." said Volunteer Janice Engle.