5 . The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was invented by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. It is a self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The MBTI personality inventory (量表) sorts people into 16 type categories, each of which is represented by four-letter codes such as INFP and ESTJ. Every year, about 1.5 million people have enjoyed discovering their personality type by completing the MBTI. Many companies, as well as hundreds of universities, use it in hiring and training.

Nevertheless, the MBTI has received a noticeable criticism from the academic community. Some research suggests the MBTI is unreliable because the same person can get different results when retaking the test. Other studies have questioned the validity of the MBTI, which is the ability of the test to accurately link the “types” to outcomes in the real world -for example, how well people classified as a certain type will perform in a given job.

Merve Emre, a professor a Oxford University, points out that it would be more scientifically advisable to score the MBTI scales continuously to show people the degree to which they resemble the types. Even when the MBTI’s results don’t quite match your intuition (直觉) about yourself or are just wrong, they can still provide self-insight and insight into differences and similarities between people.

Scoring and interpreting the MBTI the way other personality inventories are scored and interpreted might be less fun than finding. All of the folklore (民间看法) about INFPs, ESTJs, etc. would have to be dismissed. But, in the end the MBTI is sufficiently reliable and valid enough to be useful in a number of real-world contexts.

8 . There’s just a 1 in 3, 700, 000 chance that a person will be killed by a shark in their lifetime, but the fear is still enough to have swimmers worrying about being perceived as prey (猎物). Now, new research supports the long-standing theory that when great whites do go in for a bite, it’s a case of “mistaken identity”.

A team of biologists from the UK and Australia compared videos of seals swimming with videos of humans swimming. They then edited the videos to simulate (模拟) a great white’s vision — the sharks are likely colorblind, and they can’t make out fine detail-and found that from the point of view of the ocean creatures, humans do indeed bear a strong resemblance to seals.

“Great white sharks are often regarded as ‘mindless killers’ and ‘fond of human flesh’. However, that's not the case — we just look like their food,” Laura Ryan, lead author of the study, said.

Despite their dissatisfying vision and spatial perception, great white sharks are highly visual creatures, and rely on motion and shadows when on the lookout for prey. To really see through the species’s eyes, the research team had to get creative.

“We attached a camera to an underwater scooter (轻便小车), and set it to travel at a typical speed for predatory sharks,” Ryan said in a statement. The researchers then paired the recordings with computer models to simulate how similar people look from a shark's view below the surface.

“I knew there would be some similarities, but not to the extent we have found,” Ryan said. “Specifically, I thought swimmers might not be as similar as surfers to seals as they typically aren’t involved in as many shark bites. However, the swimmers are also difficult to tell apart from seals.”

Ryan put it in a statement, “Understanding why shark bites occur can help us find ways to prevent them, while keeping both humans and sharks safer.”

9 . Scientists have discovered how plants manage to live alongside each other in places that are dark and shady. Plants in the deep darkness of a thick forest, where natural supplies are not very great in amount, won’t attempt to top their neighbors in growth as those in moderate (中度的) shade do. In deep shade conditions, it would be a waste of energy and harmful to survival because green shoots would never be able to top their larger neighbors in growth.

So how do plants prevent such growth in deep shade conditions? The secret lies in the clocks insides them, say scientists from the John Ines Centre and the University of Bristol.

They have discovered that when plants notice deep shade, this changes the expression of genes parts of the circadian clock (昼夜节律时钟) — the inner daily timer found in plants and other things. These clock parts perform an additional role in preventing plants from lengthening and overtopping neighbors.

The work identifies a previously unknown role of the circadian clock in controlling plant development and the findings may have possible effects on both natural plant populations and crops. Professor Antony Dodd of the John Innes Centre said, “The biological clock of plants plays a big part in their development and fitness. This work casts new light on a new role of the circadian clock in adapting plants to competition with other plants in their environments.” “It also gives us new insights into how plants adapt to very deep shade, where resources are very limited,” said Professor Kerry Franklin at the University of Bristol.

This work provides evidence for the firmness of the circadian clock in stressful environments, and information that may be useful in developing new generations of crops in a challenging climate.

10 . People who possess high self-esteem are able to commit better and produce a greater bond in relationships with others. Dr. Douglas feels that most people do not value themselves, but with love and self-respect anyone can be above normality and grasp success with the family, the office, or others.

We have become too reliant on intelligence, beauty, and money for our own self-esteem. The loss of esteem reduces the will and ability to set and reach goals. In a series of readings Douglas teaches how to avoid negative statements, how to change them into self-facing behavior, and how to take charge of your mental attitude. Where other motivational and self-help works stop with the theoretical plan for success, Douglas takes everyday examples and puts them into his books. From raising children who believe in themselves to using self-esteem to help bridge the gap in the workplace, he gives readers concrete solutions to the problems that might ruin their interpersonal relations.

Self-esteem building comes from filling your thoughts with positive affirmations (肯定) and learning to react to failures with motivation instead of self-destruction. These lessons are valuable for anyone who feels that life is even slightly out of control. People who feel they have adequate esteem can learn to use it to make their success grander, faster, and more beneficial for others. Douglas approaches this process of self-development as a means of more than creating good things for the individual but also for setting up keys for influencing good things for others.

For more than thirty years, Dr. Douglas has addressed more than two million people on topics from time management to speaking effectively to raising drug-free children. He is the author of fifteen books, including How to Make a Habit of Succeeding.