6 . New research has highlighted the deep link between dietary choices and brain health. Published in Nature, the research showed that a healthy, balanced diet was linked to superior brain health, cognitive function and mental well-being. The study, involving researchers at the University of Warwick, sheds light on how our food preferences not only influence physical health but also significantly impact brain health.

The dietary choices of a large sample of 181,990 participants from the UK Biobank were analyzed and a range of physical evaluation including cognitive functions, blood metabolic biomarkers, brain imaging, and genetics unveil new insights into the relationship between nutrition and overall well-being.

A balanced diet was associated with better mental health, superior cognitive functions and even higher amounts of grey matter in the brain — linked to intelligence — compared with those with a less varied diet.

The study also highlights the need for gradual changes in eating habits, especially for people who are used to tasty but nutrient-poor foods. By slowly reducing sugar and fat intake over time, people may find themselves naturally tend to make healthier food choices.

Genetic factors may also contribute to the association between diet and brain health, the scientists believe, showing how a combination of genetic predispositions (倾向) and lifestyle choices shapes well-being.

Lead author Professor Jianfeng Feng, University of Warwick, emphasized the importance of establishing healthy food preferences early in life. He said, “Developing a healthy balanced diet from an early age is crucial for healthy growth. To foster the development of a healthy balanced diet, both families and schools should offer a diverse range of nutritious meals and cultivate an environment that supports their physical and mental health.”

Co-author Wei Cheng, Fudan University, added, “Our findings underline the associations between dietary patterns and brain health, urging common efforts in promoting nutritional awareness and fostering healthier eating habits across diverse populations.”

7 . A charity club, funded entirely by a man, was established in Chengdu in the early 2000s. It first served as a “home away from home” for rural students attending a sports school in neighboring Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.

The club provided free meals and accommodation as well as training facilities. Gradually, it became known as a Wushu school for children from rural areas and began to attract a steady flow of students, especially from underdeveloped areas in Sichuan.

Some children had already dropped out of school before joining the club, the funder revealed to media in 2017. As these students could not be officially registered as residents of Chengdu, they were not qualified to attend public schools there. Consequently, he employed four teachers to teach academic subjects in the students’ spare time such as on nights and weekends.

A boy, born in Aba in 1999, joined the club in 2009. Before that, he was in third grade at a local elementary school. His father passed away before he was born, and the family had been struggling economically ever since. He heard about the club from his headmaster and decided to go there.

Starting from scratch, the boy spent two years getting ready to represent the club in Sanda competitions. In 2015, the club introduced MMA (综合格斗) and he switched from Wushu Sanda to MMA in 2015 and won his first match at a competition run by Henan TV. “I was not sure whether I was suitable for Wushu when I first joined the club,” he told news media in May 2021. “But when I raised my arms and shouted in happiness after winning the match, I knew immediately that MMA was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

8 . There is a strong smell that comes off Ratna Raju’s farm in the southeastern Andhra Pradesh state of India. The smell comes from a mixture of natural materials, like cow waste and untreated sugar. The natural materials help grow and protect crops in an area often hit by extreme weather and heat.

Farmers like Raju say natural materials protect their crops from climate change because the soil can hold more water. And they stress the crops’ stronger roots help plants deal with strong winds. Supporters say natural farming is successful in the state because of government support. Now, these methods should be spread across India’s agricultural lands. Without government support for natural farming, most Indian farmers still use farm chemicals and fertilizers. That puts them at risk when extreme weather hits. Many farmers are calling for greater state investment to help them deal with climate change.

Last December, a storm brought heavy rainfall across India’s southeastern coast. It flooded towns and fields. Early studies showed more than 240,000 hectares of crops were destroyed in Andhra Pradesh state.

Raju said the rainwater on their farms flowed into the ground in one day. The soil can take in more water because it is less solid than soil with farm chemicals. Soil with farm chemicals is dry. He added that planting different crops throughout the year helped keep the soil healthy. However, Raju’s neighbor, Srikanth Kanapala, said his farm was flooded for four days after the storm. Kanapala often uses farm chemicals and fertilizers on his farm. And he said seeing Raju’s crops held strong while his crops failed made him want to learn about other farming methods.

Kanapala expected a potential financial hemorrhage of up to $600 as a consequence of the storm, a sum that constituted a significant economic burden for a farmer in India. “For the next planting season, I plan to learn from other farmers to give up farm chemicals,” he said.

9 . In an awe-inspiring incident, a young killer whale recently demonstrated remarkable intelligence by seeking assistance from a group of humans to save its trapped mother, which challenged our conventional understanding of wild predators (食肉动物).

The online viral video, shared by Alvin Foo, began with a young killer whale emitting distressing cries towards a group of people on a boat. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the concerned individuals promptly responded by contacting a rescue team. The young whale’s desperate request for help touched more people’s hearts and set a truly extraordinary chain of events in motion.

As the rescue team arrived, they were amazed to witness the young killer whale’s playful interaction with the humans. The whale appeared elated, seemingly understanding that assistance had finally arrived. This interaction between the mother killer whale and rescuers underlined the potential for mutual understanding beyond the boundary of traditional predator-prey relationships.

The young whale took on the role of a guide, leading the rescue team to its mother trapped in a fishing net. It navigated the water with purpose, as if fully aware that the humans possessed the means to save its mother. This display of intelligence left the rescuers in awe, highlighting the complex cognitive abilities of these magnificent marine creatures. With its guidance, the rescue team swiftly initiated the liberation process, carefully cutting the net to free the trapped whale. Astonishingly, they seemed to understand that the humans were there to help and did as asked.

The instant the mother whale was finally freed, an eruption of joyous cries filled the air. The emotional outpouring conveyed the immense gratitude of both the mother whale and the young whale to the humans who had intervened. As the rescue team made their way back to shore, the two whales swam alongside them. This heart-warming sight emphasized the lasting impact of the rescue. The bond formed through this extraordinary rescue operation was well obvious, proving that the profound connections can be established between various species. The journey back to safety symbolized the victory of compassion over adversity.

10 . Meteorites (陨石) can offer clues about what the early solar system was like. But finding them is far from difficult. Now, some scientists are turning to drones (无人机) and machine learning to help spot freshly fallen meteorites much more efficiently. “A team of six people on a meteorite-hunting expedition can search about 200,000 square meters per day,” says Seamus Anderson, a planetary scientist in Australia.

Around 2016, Anderson began toying with the concept of using drones to take pictures of the g round to look for meteorites. That idea blossomed into a Ph.D. project. In 2022, he and his colleagues reported their first successful recovery of a meteorite spotted with a drone. They’ve since found four more meteorites at a different site. Drone-based searches are much faster than the standard search way. “You’re going from about 300 days of human effort down to about a dozen or so,” he says.

Anderson and his workmates have used drones to search for meteorites in remote parts of Western Australia and South Australia. The team is tipped off about a fall site by networks of ground-based cameras that track meteoroids flashing through the Earth’s atmosphere. The researchers have to do a series of fun but difficult work before the hunt. They pack a four-wheel drive vehicle with drone and computer equipment, battery charging stations, generators, fuel, food, camping equipment, tables, chairs and much more. The drive to the fall site can take more than a day, often on rough or nonexistent roads. Anderson says, “You hope you don’t pop a tire.”

After arriving, the team flies its primary drone at an altitude of about 20 meters. Its camera takes an image of the ground once every second, and the scientists download the data every 40 minutes or so when the drone lands to receive fresh batteries. A typical day of flying can net over 10,000 images, which are then divided digitally into 100 million or so smaller sections. Those “tiles”, each 2 meters on a side, are fed into a machine learning algorithm (算法) that has been trained to recognize meteorites based on images of real land rocks which are spray-painted black.