1 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Start of Autumn, the 13th solar term, reflects the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The fruitful season is approaching. The following are several things you should know about it.

“Autumn Tiger”

Although Start of Autumn indicates the beginning of autumn, hot weather won’t come to an end. The period of hot days after Start of Autumn, is called “Autumn Tiger”. Because of decreasing rainfall, it is even more sweltering (闷热的) during this period than during Major Heat.

Eating longans

The Start of Autumn period is harvest time for Taiwan longan. People believe that eating longan will help their children become senior officials.

Eating red beans

Starting from the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, people in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, have eaten red beans on Start of Autumn day. They take 7 to 14 little beans, swallowing them with well water. When taking the beans, one must face west, it is said, so as not to get dysentery (痢疾) during the autumn.

Eating gourds (葫芦)

During the Qing Dynasty, people would put gourds outside for a day before the Start of Autumn, and eat them on Start of Autumn day to drive off the summer heat.

Today people in Tianjin still keep this custom, believing that eating melons such as towel gourd, white gourd and bitter gourd can prevent diarrhea (腹泻) in autumn.

2 . The world continues to struggle with extreme heatwaves, which are becoming even more regular thanks to climate change.     1     Researchers have found that by wearing appropriate clothes, it is possible to save considerable energy, both saving money and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. So what should you wear?

When it comes to colour, most people wear white in summer, because white reflects the sun’s rays, rather than absorb the light.     2       When that heat from our bodies hits the white clothing, it is reflected back at us. A study of why Bedouins, who live in desert regions in the Arabian peninsula, Middle East and North Africa wear black robes (袍服) in the desert, found that heat exposure was the same whether they wore black or white robes.

How is that possible? Black coloured fabrics absorb heat coming from the body, which plays a role in cooling your body down.     3     The clothes heat up the space between the fabric and the skin, promoting an upward air current like a chimney—and providing cooling relief.     4       

In terms of material, it’s better to have fabrics that allow water vapour (蒸气) to pass through. Cotton absorbs moisture but it doesn’t dry quickly, so if you’re sweating a lot your clothes will stay wet.     5     Linen is widely worn as it has excellent breath ability due to its large fabrics, but like cotton it is slow to dry. Merino wool has been a popular choice for outdoor enthusiasts as it’s breathable.

Therefore, it turns out that picking an outfit to stay cool is more complex than simply throwing on a white T-shirt. But the right fabric and appropriate fit work.

5 . Wildlife biologist Purnima Devi Barman remembers the first time she ever saw the nest of a greater adjutant stork (秃鹳) in a tree near her grandmother’s home. Her grandmother would tell her stories about birds and animals under the tree. The love for the natural world developed in those years led Barman to devote her life to saving the endangered greater adjutant stork.

Known as the Hargila in Assam, the greater adjutant stork is the second-rarest stork in the world. Unlike pandas or lions, whose attractive appearances help gain widespread support for their protection, these tall, bald, clumsy birds meet with bias in conservation campaigns.

“Hargilas also bear a reputation of bringing bad luck,” says Barman. “What was the point of writing my paper on them if there was no way of actually saving these birds? I had to start with changing the misconception.”

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Barman put her PhD on hold and set to work. “I started engaging with the women in the village. In our experience, educating and securing the participation of women ensures that the learning passes on to the next generation,” Barman says.

Today, around 400 women have been trained to work on conserving this rare bird. The group’s activities include awareness-building in schools and plantation drives in which 45,000 trees were planted to support the stork’s future populations.

A key component allowing Barman to successfully integrate conservation efforts into the village cultural life was her idea of building related livelihoods. Weaving (纺织) is a long-standing craft in Assam, so Barman created a self-help group employing women to weave stork patterns on textiles. This innovative idea was highlighted at the UN Champion of the Earth Awards she won in 2022.

Currently the number of greater adjutant nests in Assam’s Kamrup district has grown from 28 in 2010 to more than 250. The once unlucky stork is now a symbol of community pride, its pictures appearing on bags, blankets and celebration decorations.

An exhibition     1     (feature) traditional costumes of China’s Miao ethnic group and a show with models wearing Miao embroidery (刺绣) clothing kicked off on Sunday in Milan, the fashion capital of Italy. The event offered the audience an opportunity     2     (appreciate) the craftsmanship of Miao embroiderers at close quarters.

“Fashion first of all is culture,” Raffaela Godi, from the audience, told Xinhua. “This fashion show we just saw is an example of     3     is culture, art and fashion together.”

The Miao ethnic group residing     4     (large) in southwest China’s Guizhou Province has a population of 4.3 million and more than 100     5     (branch). Miao people use needles and threads to embroider patterns representing nature and the ethnic group’s history on their costumes. Due to its     6     (art) charm, techniques and rich culture, Miao embroidery has been recognized as a national-level intangible cultural heritage.

Shi Chuanying, an embroiderer from Taijiang County of Guizhou Province,     7     (bring) her works to the exhibition in Milan. “Miao embroidery’s presence at Milan Fashion Week will be     8     great significance to us, and I believe the embroidery will be appreciated on a global stage,” said Shi.

As an experienced embroiderer, she has led more than 300 local embroiders to make Miao embroidery products     9     (export) to France and Italy.

Long Youming, director of the Guizhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, said the event is     10     good way to present traditional Chinese culture and accelerate the industrialization, internationalization and branding of Miao embroidery.

9 . For some ant queens, the secret to long life might be a self-produced insulin (胰岛素) blocker. Ant queens are famously long-lived even though they shouldn’t be. Generally, animals that put lots of energy into reproduction sacrifice some time off their life. But ant queens produce millions of eggs and live an extraordinarily long time compared with worker ants that don’t reproduce.

Now, researchers have shown how one ant species pulls off this anti-aging great work. When queens of the species, Harpegnathos saltator (跳跃蚁), are prepared to reproduce, a part of what is called the insulin signaling pathway gets blocked, slowing aging. In a rare behavior for ants, when a queen H. saltator dies, some female workers begin competing in fights for the chance to replace her. These hopeful royals start laying eggs and then change into queen-like forms called gamergates (雌工虫). When a worker changes to a gamergate, her life length becomes five times as long as it was. But if she doesn’t end up becoming a queen and goes back to a worker, her lifetime shortens again.

The researchers researched this behavior in these ants. It turns out that H. saltator gamergates extend their lifetime by taking advantage of a split in the insulin signaling pathway, the chain of chemical reactions that drive insulin’s effects on the body. One branch of this pathway is involved with reproduction, while the other is linked to aging.

Examining patterns of gene activity, expert Yan and his colleagues found that gamergates have more active insulin genes than regular worker ants and, as a result, have increased metabolic (新陈代谢的) activity and physical development. But the secret sauce protecting the ants from the insulin’s aging effects appears to be what is called Imp-L2, which blocks the branch of the insulin pathway linked to aging. The branch involved in reproduction, however, remains active.

These results represent a leap forward in our understanding of extreme social insect lifetime, while also showing an anti-aging evolutionary adaptation that hasn’t been seen in the wild before.

10 . Origami (折纸工艺) is now pushing the limits of what scientists think is possible, particularly at the tiniest of scales.

I know Miskin, an electrical engineer at University of Pennsylvania. He and his students have been using a clean room to make an army of robots no bigger than dust. Such tiny robots require big creativity. That’s where origami comes in. Fold patterns will bend and move the same way at any size, at least theoretically. Created by using the same techniques as the computer chip industry, Miskin’s robots look like pieces of fat with arms and legs. When the robots are exposed to electricity, their arms and legs bend easily, helping them walk through a drop on a glass slide.

Miskin sees a world of possible ways these tiny robots can be used, from industry, tourism, service to other fields. Indeed, the art form, origami, holds particular promise for many fields. For example, Rus, an AI engineer developed a robot that can fold to fit into a pill capsule. After the capsule is swallowed, the robot unfolds and can be directed around the digestive system using programmable magnetic fields. An initial test demonstrated one possible use: removing the swallowed button batteries from the stomach, a potentially deadly condition experienced by thousands of children each year. “Just imagine using it to repair a wound,” Rus says. “We’ll see a future of surgeries with no pain and no risk of infection.”

These types of big dreams are where origami seems to help science flourish most. Origami has provided d new tool to fire the imagination and create technologies once thought impossible, including a boat that folds down to be small enough to fit in a car’s trunk.

On a bright fall afternoon, I took my boat for a spin on Virginia’s Lake Accotink. The plastic suitcase drew curious looks from passers-by as I unfolded it. Perhaps one day, folding forms will be considered prosaic. But for now, origami will continue to spark wonder and excitement as it pushes science, medicine and technology into the future and keeps me afloat as I leave the lakeshore.