2 . However seemingly boring, the choices we make in social activities almost always depend on those with whom we’re dealing. If we’re out of work, for example, and meet someone for the first time, we would tend to act differently if we believe he or she is a potential (潜在的) boss. We’d probably be more attentive, keep longer eye contact, choose our words a little more carefully, speak with increased confidence, and so on. With good friends, or perhaps those who don’t have high respect, our conduct would almost certainly be less respectful. Who the receiver is and, or rather, the status (地位) level that we attach to him or her, affects how we express ourselves.

Our feelings about the use of laughter and humor will also depend on those with whom we’re relating. Their status will help direct the course of activities. We feel more comfortable expressing laughter in the presence of close friends than near a scientist or a leader.

Not only will we adjust our direction of conversation based on others’ status, but also on their emotional state or mood at the time of the exchange. If friends are celebrating their job promotion, we’re going to be more comfortable laughing with them than under more typical conditions. If they’re dealing with a job loss, we’ll probably avoid drawing attention to their job.

As social animals, we’re born with an ability to “read” the status and the emotional state of others. This is true even when dealing with strangers. Most of the time their clues are nonverbal (非语言的), many being realized subconsciously (下意识地). For example, expensive clothing or watches might show their financial status; something about their facial expressions or willingness to make eye contact can suggest their mood.

This will lead us to the next, and maybe most important question: What is the nature of the relationship between the sender and the receiver or receivers? The answer directly affects our ability to understand who someone is and how they are. This will be the topic I deal with beginning with my next chapter.

3 . Aviation is a big polluter. Cutting the sector’s impact on global warming is high on the agenda. Although many governments are regulating emissions from cars and trucks, air transportation is technologically rooted in old patterns.

Facing the reality that the sector will keep emitting a lot, ICAO has established an international carbon-trading plan—Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. This encourages wide use of offsets (抵消) : aviation companies can buy emissions credits or invest in sectors that store carbon, such as forestry, to allow them to carry on as normal. CORSIA aims to keep CO2 emissions at 2019 levels through such purchases for emissions over that year’s baseline. ICAO predicts that increasing demand might reach 1. 7 billion tons by 2035, potentially making aviation the largest offset market in the world.

Yet offsetting faces a fundamental challenge: the size of the offset requires estimating flows of warming pollution that would have occurred if the carbon-removal project hadn’t existed, and comparing them against flows with the project in place. The former — a baseline that is unobservable — is a hotbed for shady accounting.

The vast majority of offsets today and in the expected future come from forest-protection and regrowth projects. The track record of reliable accounting in these industries is poor, because they lack convincing baselines. Even with oversight, forest projects are often troubled by wild assumptions, for example that trees would disappear completely from these areas in the absence of those projects, even when there are other forest protections in place. Such assumptions drive up baselines and flood the market with huge volumes of offsets. They make it easier for accountants to claim a net reduction in emissions even though the atmosphere sees little or no benefit. These problems are essentially unfixable. Evidence is mounting that offsetting as a strategy for reaching net zero is a dead end.

In our view, this approach could prove dangerously narrow. Removing aviation’s impact on global warming means upending the industry. The longer that reality is overlooked, the harder it will be to find effective solutions.

4 . Globally, about 192.1 million animals are used annually for experimental purposes. Iran has conducted animal-based research dating back to the time of Ibn Sina. Although, like many countries, Iran regulates the use and treatment of laboratory animals, it lacks sufficient enforcement. To ensure ethical treatment of research animals, Iran needs better data about their use, and institutions and individuals need to take responsibility for their care.

Iran’s Ministry of Health, which oversees animal testing, requires all animals are treated according to international ethical standards. However, some institutions that produce or use animals provide substandard treatment, disregarding the ministry’s guidelines. To facilitate better enforcement of established regulations, Iran needs clear, accurate and reliable information about the quantity of animals used in research. All Iranian research institutions that use animals should be required to collect and report annual data on the number of animals they use, the conditions in which the animals are kept, and the animals’ research purpose. Such data would allow Iran to track each institution’s adherence (遵守) to the “3Rs”of animal research: Replacing animal-based experiments with alternative strategies, reducing the number of animals used, and refining techniques to minimize the pain and discomfort research animals experience.

In addition to government enforcement, individual institutions should prioritize the replacement, reduction, and refinement of animal use. Iran’s medical schools and research institutions should establish an accessible database with comprehensive experimental details to prevent excessive animal studies. Ethics committees shouldn’t approve experiments that use more animals than necessary or methods that require animals when alternative methods are available. In some cases, technical sampling (using a small sample size) can replace experimental sampling (using a relatively large sample size).

Individuals should also take an active role. All researchers must be trained to adhere to ethical principles and understand unnecessary pain or discomfort in animals could affect the interpretation of data.

Maintaining international ethical standards for animal treatment is vital for Iran to establish its global standing in the field of medical sciences. Iran’s government, institutions, individual scientists, and public can work together to ensure ethical animal research.

5 . Wellness for Younger Tastes

Wellness, or yangsheng in Mandarin, is no longer a term exclusive to the middle-aged and elderly. Faced with intense competition in education and their careers, those born in the 1990s and 2000s have already started a journey to safeguard their health. As the pursuit of wellness becomes an essential pastime for many young people, a trend known as “New Chinese-style Wellness” has taken over social media platforms.     1    . During a busy work day, they enjoy herbal teas brewed (煮) in wellness pots, enhancing their well-being while tapping away at their keyboards.

    2    , advocating for the consumption of fresh, natural ingredients, balanced meals and exercising moderation in the consumption of oil y and peppery foods, essentially maintaining a light and nutritious diet. Additionally, it promotes mental well-being by incorporating traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theories to regulate emotions and achieve a balanced development of physical and mental health.     3    , and as long as this demand continues to exist, the interest in related TCM practices will continue to grow.

Given the long hours facing a computer for work, young people often experience muscle discomfort in their shoulders and neck. Besides using a meridian massage (按摩) device, they may also get regular professional massages at hospitals to ease these issues.     4    , such as tai chi, to strengthen the body and achieve the goal of well ness and fitness.

    5    , which is behind their exploration of new wellness practices. According to the China Good Life Survey released by CCTV Finance, in 2023, health-related consumption ranked third with 31.04 percent in the list of consumption intentions among young people aged 18 to 35.

9 . I remember that a rapper on television once said, “If it feels good, do it.” From schools to workplaces, we are told that ordinary negative (负面的) emotions and experiences—fear of failure or sadness over a breakup, maybe—should be treated or removed. Feeling bad is bad.

This is wrong, as was the rapper’s motto. I don’t believe that eradicating bad feelings is the path to a good life. We have an opportunity here to judge the benefits of negative emotions and experiences instead of trying to push them away.

Negative emotions exist to keep us safe. The main negative emotions include sadness, anger, fear and disgust (厌恶). We experienced them in an unconscious way in response to environmental stimuli (刺激). You never say to yourself, Hey, I think I’ll feel afraid now—you just feel it and react with fight or flight, which can save your life. Disgust similarly warns us unconsciously of potential illness.

Negative emotions can also make us more effective in our day-to-day activities. In an article in the journal Psychological Review, two evolutionary psychologists argue that sadness—and even depression—have existed in the face of evolution (进化) because they bring cognitive benefits. Sadness can make us more productive at work by improving focus and helping us learn from mistakes. This is how failure, by means of the resulting negative emotions, can help lead to later success.

Finally, negative emotions make us stronger for when there is a true emergency. Research shows that “stress vaccination training” — in which people learn to cope with anger, fear and anxiety by being brought up to stimuli that cause these feelings — is effective in creating emotional toughness.

In sum, if we want a life full of deep meaning, true love, and emotional strength, it’s going to involve the risk of discomfort, fight and loss. This means there will be sadness, fear, anger and disgust. If we remove negative emotions and experiences from our lives, we will be poorer and weaker for having done so.

10 . This is going to sound weird, but I want you to look closely for a moment at your thumbs. See how they bend flexibly forwards as well as back. The human thumb is not just a device for giving the thumbs-up sign or for picking up dropped keys. It is also one of the most efficient and sensitive tools in existence for determining the ripeness of fruit.

However, most of us don’t use them that way anymore. One of the most striking things about eating in the modern world is that we act as if we were sense-blind. Our noses can distinguish fresh milk from sour milk, and yet we prefer to look at the use-by date rather than sniffing. Senses, wrote the late anthropologist Jack Goody, are “our windows on the world” —the main tools through which humans acquire information about our environments.

But today, we have yielded many of the functions of our own senses to the modern food industry — which suits that industry just fine. A survey of 7,000 young people in 2011 found that most of them would be hypothetically (假设地) prepared to give up their sense of smell if it meant that they could keep their laptop or phone.

In reality, it is not easy to live without a sense of smell. According to the survey data produced by Fifth Sense, more than half of the respondents having smell loss said that cooking had become a source of stress and anxiety because they could no longer experience the joy of trying new recipes, and could not easily tell when something was burned, which even increases feelings of loneliness and depression and leads to the breakdown of relationships.

No human activity is more multi-sensory than eating, but to eat in the modern world is often to eat in a state of profound sensory disengagement. We order groceries on a computer, or takeaways on a phone, and they arrive wrapped in plastic, so that we can neither smell them nor see them before we take the first mouthful.