Instead of tearing down and building anew, architects have repurposed some older structures, leading to stunning beauty.

Among the growing scenes of skyscrapers in Vancouver, this building stands out for both its history and architecture. In the 1930s, the Vancouver Salt Company’s processing plant was housed here. Today, the building is home to Craft Beer Market, which has kept many of the architectural elements of the original structure in place.

This beautiful bookshop has the distinction of starting its life as a theater. Teatro Gran Splendid opened its door in May 1919 and hosted a long list of performances before being turned into a cinema. The location was purchased and rebuilt as a bookstore in the early 2000s.

Located just steps from the Boston Common, the Liberty Hotel now lies at the former Charles Street Jail. Its 298 rooms and suites were inspired by the location, which last housed prisoners in 1990. The building’s fresh purpose was designed in cooperation with teams of preservationists and historians to ensure its past life was never forgotten.

Situated within a church that dates back to 1294, the former Dominicanen has a long history. It served as a Catholic church for hundreds of years before being changed to storage space for Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. In 2006 it was converted into a bookstore, maintaining much of its traditional artwork and architecture.

When a snowstorm blanketed my city one December morning, I awoke, immediately put on my warmest clothes and dashed outside to build a snowman. But as I was halfway to a snow angel, I had an audience—a serious-looking couple. The moment I spotted their expressions, my face flushed with shame as I murmured an answer to their unspoken question: Don’t you have anything better to do?

A middle-aged woman playing by herself in the snow is an undeniably odd sight, but maybe it shouldn’t be. New research suggests we modern adults have controlled or hidden our nature of play, and that’s causing all kinds of problems “The adult play deficit is becoming a public health crisis,” says psychiatrist and play researcher Stuart Brown, “The opposite of play isn’t work; it’s depression.”

Actually, adult play can lead to useful discoveries, which is a theory supported by a study on Bali’s long-tailed monkeys. Researchers left two types of puzzle boxes for the monkeys to solve. To get the food inside, they had to either drop a rock into the container or use it to hit the box. They found the monkeys that previously had been observed dropping rocks for fun were more likely to solve the rock-dropping puzzle, while those who had discovered the joy of clacking rocks together came up with the answer to the percussive (敲击的) puzzle.

This finding also suggests that somewhere, deep in our evolutionary history, a playful primitive human came up with the concept of stone tools. Even today, the urge to play underlies most of humanity’s greatest inventions, artworks and scientific breakthroughs. “When I interviewed Nobel winners, I was struck by how most of them didn’t separate work from play. Their labs were their playgrounds.” Brown says, “Play gives us the ability to cooperate and get along with people who differ from us.”

So next time I’m caught playing, I know exactly what I’ll say, “I am not wasting time, or acting immaturely. I’m playing for the benefit of all humanity.”

Over the last decade, some European countries and the U. S. have replaced high-energy sodium streetlights with energy-saving LED lights which emit blue light. Although this is in response to the critical need to use less energy and reduce carbon emission, there are growing concerns that blue light may have a negative impact on human health that we don’t yet fully understand.

Earlier this year, the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry published a paper that warned of the potential effects of LED lighting on mental illnesses. It raised concerns about the influence of blue light on sleep, use of digital healthcare apps and devices, and the higher sensitivity to blue light.

“I had already clearly seen that additional blue light exposure was extremely helpful to patients with depression. What I was slower to realize was that too much and poorly-timed exposure could have harmful effects on mental states and the sleep-wake cycle.” said John Gottlieb, Professor of Psychiatry and author of the paper.

As we all know, melatonin (褪黑素) is fundamental in setting regular biological clock. According to the paper, however, blue light prevents melatonin secretion (分泌), which disturbs sleep and affects quality of life, physical and mental health. Besides, it also shows a clear and consistent relationship between sleep disorders and frequency of digital device usage. If a person is prescribed a self-monitoring app, and instructed to use their smartphone to document mood changes, for example, and they do this before bed, it could do harm to their sleep and health.

Consequently, the National Sleep Foundation guidelines suggest not using technology 30 minutes before bed and removing technology from the bedroom. However, there are no specific guidelines for people with a potential mental illness. Now, scientists, health professionals and the LED industry are working to minimize the blue light in LED bulbs and create personalized lights that won’t harm those suffering from mental disorders.