2 . To snack or not to snack? That is the question for doctors and for you, as you try to decide what to do about your hungry stomach when it’s nowhere close to mealtime.

The short answer is:     1    .

Weight loss   

    2    ? Yes. A smart snack can prevent the kind of unhealthy over-eating that comes from extreme hunger. “Your body is always talking to you- you just have to listen,” said medicine specialist Robert Graham. “So if you’re starting to feel a bit hungry, don’t wait.” But you can’t grab any old snack. Chips and cookies boost your blood sugar quickly, which leads to the sugar crash. Instead, try nuts and fruits.

    3    

Snacking is a way to add a variety of nutrients (营养) to your diet. Maya Feller, a registered dietitian nutritionist, says you can’t go wrong with a handful of mixed nuts, which can help your heart. Snacking on protein - rich foods helps preserve your muscle mass and stamina (耐力). The body can absorb only a limited amount of protein per meal, so distributing protein throughout the day via snacking can maximize protein intake.

Mood and mental health

If you’ve ever been unhappy with someone when you were hungry, you know that food can influence your mood.     4    . Some studies have shown that healthy snacking may also improve memory and cognitive (认知的) performance and help with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. If you wait too long to eat between meals, your body thinks it’s starving and releases the stress hormone to remind you, which can produce negative moods. In addition to drinking water, snacking on fresh fruits can help your brain.

The bottom line

There are different ways to go about (处理)   this whole snacking things. Choose a healthy, filling option in an appropriate size, and the benefits don’t stop at weight loss and improved health; your general approach to life might be affected.     5    

4 . For any spaceman hoping to survive on the surface of the moon, growing crops will be important. Now, scientists have taken “one small step” towards growing plants on the lunar surface, after showing it’s possible to grow thale cress, a small flowering plant, in the lunar soil.

The findings raise hopes that plants could be grown on the moon during future space missions(任务), and even enable mankind to set up a lunar settlement. “For future, longer space missions, we may use the moon as a launching platform(平台),” explained Professor Rob Ferl. “It makes sense that we would want to use the soil that’s already there to grow plants.” Until now, scientists have not grown plants in the soil. “So, what happens when you grow plants in the lunar soil? What would plants do in a lunar greenhouse? Could we have lunar farmers?” Professor Ferl questioned.

To answer these questions, researchers from Florida set out to plant thale cress seeds in the lunar soil, add water, nutrients and light, and see what happened. The researchers chose to use thale cress because its genetic code(基因序列)has already been fully mapped. For comparison, the researchers also planted seeds in a range of soils, including those that are similar to the Martian soil. To their delight, the researchers found that nearly all of the seeds grew. However, they did observe differences between the plants grown in the lunar soil and those grown in the control soils. Some of the plants grown in the lunar soil were smaller, while others grew more slowly or were more varied in size.

Growing plants in the lunar soil may also change the moon itself, according to Dr. Stephen Elardo. “The moon is a very, very dry place,” he said. How will minerals in the lunar soil respond to having a plant grown in them, with the added water and nutrients? Will adding water make the minerals friendlier to plants? The researchers hope to answer these questions in follow-up studies.

5 . Bob and Eliza Shaw started taking pictures of their son, Noah, practically from the moment he was born. When he was about three months old, Eliza noticed something strange when she took his picture. The flash on their digital camera created the typical red do t in the center of Noah’s left eye, but the right eye had a white spot at the center, almost as if the flash was being reflected back at the camera by something. When Eliza mentioned the strange phenomenon to their ophthalmologist (眼科医生), she shined a light into Noah’s eye and saw the same white reflection instead of a red one, which is a sign of retinal (视网膜的) cancer, and that is exactly what Noah had. He endured months of treatment, but doctors could not save his eye.

Noah’s disease would be treatable if diagnosed (诊断) early. Bob couldn’t help but wonder whether there were signs he’d missed. He went back over every baby picture of Noah he could find — thousands of them — and discovered the first white spot in a photo taken when Noah was 12 days old. As time went on, it appeared more frequently.

It was too late for Noah’s eye, but Bob was determined to put his hard-won insights to good use. He created a database that charted the cancer’s appearance in every photo. He also collected photos and data from eight other children with retinal cancer. Armed with those data, he began to work with colleagues in the computer science department to develop a smart phone App that can scan the photos in the user’s camera roll to search for the white eye spot and can be used as a kind of ophthalmoscope (眼底镜). Called White Eye Detector, it is now available for free. “I just kept telling myself, I really need to do this,” Bob told People. “This disease is tough to detect. Not only can this software save vision, but it can save lives.”

8 . When you think of a map, is north on the top or the bottom? Usually, maps are designed with north on top, though when we think about it, there is no logical reason for this bias (偏见). After all, there is no up or down in space. So what is wrong with south, east or west being on the top of the map? The answer is: nothing at all. In fact, north-up maps only became the norm in the last few hundred years.

Ancient Egyptian maps had south at the top because the Nile River flows downhill from mountains in the south to the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Mecca was to the south of most early Muslim civilizations, and south-up maps were designed so that viewers would look up to see Mecca. Medieval Christian maps had east at the top, as they believed the Garden of Eden was in the east. The only early maps that had north at the top were those of early China because the emperor lived in the north.

North seems to have settled at the top of maps during the 16th century, largely thanks to a Flemish mapmaker, Mercator. Mercator was a great admirer of an early Greek mapmaker, who, for reasons now unknown, put north at the top of maps, so Mercator did, too. When Mercator’s world map became the standard map to navigate the oceans, north up became standard as well.

What is the implication of this north-view of the world? Psychologically, people tend to think of up as good and down as bad. Just think of words and phrases like “upmarket”, “upbeat” and “moving up in the world”, and how they contrast with their opposites. Because north is so consistently put at the top of maps, people now think of north as good, too.

Several attempts have been made in recent years by introducing south-up maps to the market. These maps not only give us a chance to see the world differently, but also give everyone the chance to see themselves on top.

10 . Students who are better able to understand and manage their emotions effectively, a skill known as emotional intelligence (EI), do better at school than their less-skilled classmates, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“It’s not enough to be smart and hardworking. Students must also be able to understand and manage their emotions to succeed at school,” said Carolyn MacCann, lead author of the study. MacCann and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 160 studies, representing more than 42,000 students from 27 countries, published between 1998 and 2019. The students ranged in age from primary school to college. The researchers found that students with higher EI tended to get higher grades and better achievement test scores than those with lower EI scores. This finding held true even when controlling for intelligence and personality factors. What was most surprising to the researchers was the association held despite different ages.

As for why EI can affect academic performance, MacCann believes a number of factors may come into play. “Students with higher EI may be better able to manage negative emotions, such as anxiety, boredom and disappointment, which can negatively affect academic performance,” she said. “Also, these students may be better able to manage the social world around them, forming better relationships with teachers, classmates and family, all of which are important to academic success.” Finally, the skills required for EI, such as understanding human motivation and emotion, may overlap with (与……重叠) the skills required to master certain subjects, such as history and language, giving students an advantage in those subject areas, according to MacCann.

However, MacCann cautions against widespread testing of students to identify and target those with low EI as it may stigmatize (给……打上烙印) those students. Instead, she recommends interventions that involve the whole school, including additional teacher training and a focus on teacher well-being and emotional skills. “Programs that integrate emotional skill development into the existing curriculum would be beneficial, as research suggests that training works better when run by teachers rather than external professionals,” she said. “Increasing skills for everyone not just those with low EI would benefit everyone.”