1 . With the weather getting colder and the days becoming shorter, some people are noticing they have less energy and aren’t feeling as positive as they usually do.    1    This type of depression is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Researchers aren’t yet clear on what causes SAD, but it's likely to be complex. Some research suggests it could be due to a malfunctioning hypothalamus (下丘脑功能不全) or producing too much melatonin (a hormone which controls our sleep-wake cycle). Some researchers theorize it could also be due to having a disrupted circadian rhythm(昼夜节奏混乱).    2    For example, some research has indicated that women may be more likely to experience SAD — though, due to a lack of specific research, it’s uncertain whether these gender differences really exist and if so, why.

Some people notice that their symptoms start to improve when the seasons begin to change and spring approaches.    3    For people with SAD, the main recommended treatments include psychological treatments or taking medicine. Research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for SAD.    4    Given it's still an emerging therapy, research on it remains inconsistent with other treatments.

Aside from seeking professional help, there are a couple of other things that people can do to help them cope with SAD during their day.     5    The researchers of the study had participants either go for a daily one-hour outdoor walk or use a low-dose artificial light box for 30 minutes per day for a period of one week. The participants who went for a daily walk showed significant improvements in all depressive symptoms, compared to those exposed to artificial light.

6 . Dogs can smell things at concentrations of one part in a trillion—equal to a single drop in a pond the size of 20 Olympic swimming pools. That ability is put to good use by human begins. Trained dogs can sniff out explosives and drugs, even tracking missing people. They can also detect (发现) illnesses, including cancer, malaria, Parkinson’s disease and COVID-19, before obvious symptoms appear. A study published in 2019, for example, suggested that trained dogs were able, 97% of the time, to identify blood samples taken from patients with lung cancer.

Training dogs, however, takes time. Trainers must be paid. The animals themselves get tired and bored. Dogs are not, then, a practical answer to the question of how to detect illness quickly. But fruit flies might be. Unlike dogs, they are cheap and disposable—and their senses are just as good. Along with technology tailored to their talents, they could provide economical and easy ways of detecting cancer, and also offer an alternative to laboratory tests for COVID that might be welcome in countries with limited budgets.

Giovanni Galizia is one leading researcher of the University of Konstanz, in Germany. Fruit flies smell things using their feelers, and Dr Galizia has genetically modified (改变) his flies. When the flies get the smell of the cells with illness, a change in their brain activity can be seen under a microscope. With the help of machine learning, Dr Galizia can recognize the patterns to detect illness.

Whether this idea will come to fruition remains to be seen. Medical regulators will have to be convinced that what may seem wacky at first glance is actually practical. But doctors have been encouraged to use animals’ noses to assist diagnosis (诊断) since ancient times. Having a little assistance from fruit flies might be no bad thing.

7 . Modern medicine and the latest technology can save many lives. If you live in a country where healthcare is readily available and accessible, then your chances of recovering from illnesses or accidents are very good. But for many people in the US who are uninsured (无保险的), they can't afford these new medical treatments. That's why Doctor Demetrio Aguila in Norfolk lets poor patients pay for surgery (外科手术) through volunteer work.

“For years I had been doing surgery for patients and taking care of their health problems. Then I would find out months later, sometimes years later, that I had caused their financial ruin，” Aguila said. Serious illnesses can completely deplete a family's savings, leaving them no choice but to go bankrupt (破产).

Then he formed Healing Hands M25 as a way to give poor patients the medical fees they need by donating their time to community service. The process is pretty simple. They practice partners with local charitable organizations. The patient picks the charity and donates his time and sweat; Aguila determines the amount of volunteer hours the patient has to complete. “We've lowered the cost of healthcare. We've made it fair for everybody involved，” Aguila said.

The first patient to participate in the program was Jeffrey Jenson who worked for 560 hours to pay for surgery on his leg. Jenson asked his friends and family to help him complete the hours. Jenson said that his volunteer work greatly affected his life as much as the surgery. “The M25 program is not about money — it's about if people come together to help other people, then the community becomes better，” said Jenson.

This program is a big win for the patients, the local community, and Dr Aguila who knows he has done everything he could to help his patients.

10 . In the age of social distancing, using robots for some health care interactions is a promising way to reduce in-person contact between health care workers and sick patients. However, a key question is how patients will react to a robot entering the room. Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently set out to answer that question.

In a study, the team found that a large majority of patients reported that interacting with a health care provider through a video screen fixed on a robot was similar to an in-person interaction with a health care worker.

“We’re working on robots that can help provide care to ensure the safety of the patient and the health care workforce. The results of this study give us some confidence that people are ready and willing to join us. In a larger online survey carried out nationwide, we also found that a majority of respondents were open to having robots perform small tasks such as taking a nose swab (拭子).” says Giovanni Traverso, an MIT assistant professor and the senior author of the study.

After the COVID-19 pandemic began early last year, Traverso and his colleagues turned their attention toward new strategies to reduce interactions between potentially sick patients and health care workers. To that end, they created a mobile robot that could interact with patients as they waited in the emergency department. The robots were equipped with sensors that allow them to measure vital signs, including skin temperature, breathing rate, and pulse(脉搏) rate. The robots also carried an iPad for remote video communication with a health care provider.

The study suggests that it could be worthwhile to develop robots that can perform tasks that currently require a lot of human effort, such as turning a patient over in bed. These days, turning COVID-19 patients onto their stomachs requires several people. Doing Covid-19 tests is another task that takes a lot of time and effort from health care workers, who could be arranged for other tasks if robots could help.