Loneliness is like a disease, and what's worse, it's contagious. It can spread from one person to another, according to the recent research that stresses the power of one person's emotions to affect even people he doesn't know.
The new analysis, involving 4,793 people who were interviewed every two years between 2005 and 2015, showed that a friend of a lonely person was 52％ more likely to develop feelings of loneliness by the time of the next interview. A friend of that person was 25％ more likely, and a friend of a friend of a friend was 15％ more likely.
“Loneliness is not just the property of an individual. It can be transmitted across people—even people you don't have direct contact with,” said John T. Cacioppo, a psychologist of the University of Chicago who led the study published in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Loneliness has been linked to medical problems, including depression, sleep problems and generally poorer physical health. Identifying some of the causes could help reduce the emotion and improve health, experts said.
Although the study did not examine how loneliness spreads, Cacioppo said another research has provided clues. “Let's say for whatever reason you get lonely. You then interact with other people in a more negative fashion. That puts them in a negative mood and makes them more likely to interact with other people in a negative fashion and they minimize their social ties and become lonely,” Cacioppo said.
According to Cacioppo, loneliness spread more easily among women than men, perhaps because women were more likely to express emotions.
Lonely people become less and less trusting others. This makes it more and more difficult for them to make friends－and more likely that society will reject them. Therefore, it is important to recognize and deal with loneliness．Cacioppo emphasizes people who have been pushed to the edges of society should receive help to repair their social networks.
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There are two factors (因素) which decide an individual's intelligence (智商). The first is the sort of brain he is born with. Human brains differ greatly, some being more capable (有能力) than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an individual (个体) will have a low order of intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn. So the second factor is what happens to the individual—the sort of environment in which he is brought up. If an individual has less chances environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop and he will never arrive at the level of intelligence of which he is capable.
The importance of environment in deciding an individual's intelligence can be shown by the case history of the twins. When they were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in different homes. Peter was brought up by parents of low intelligence in a separate community with poor educational opportunities. Mark was brought up in the home of well-to-do opportunity to be encouraged intellectually.
This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to measure their intelligence. Mark's IQ was 125, twenty-five points higher than the average and fully forty points higher than his twin brother. Given equal opportunities, the twins, having similar brains, would have tested at roughly the same level.
Along the river banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken, eats green leaves, has the stomach of a cow and has claws(爪) on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river, an important feature(特征) for the safety of the young. It is called the hoatzin(麝雉).
In appearance, the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside. The head is small, with a large set of feathers on the top, bright red eyes, and blue skin. Its nearest relatives are the common birds, cuckoos. Its most striking feature, though, is only found in the young.
Baby hoatzins have a claw on the leading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip. Using these four claws, together with the beak(喙), they can climb about in the bushes, looking very much like primitive birds. When the young hoatzins have learned to fly, they lose their claws.
During the drier months between December and March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds, but in April, when the rainy season begins, they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.
Most animals on land are known to us, but many living things underwater are not. Now let's get to know some of them.
Sea cucumber
Sea cucumber are strange animals living at the bottom of the sea. They wear brown or pale green coats with many sticks up. When summer comes, they stay deep to sleep because they are afraid of heat. And when it is autumn, they move to shallow (浅的) water and get their food.
Pike
The pike is a kind of freshwater fish. They are good swimmers and like swimming near boats, waiting to be fed. They have sharp teeth to catch fishes. When they are young, they live in groups. However, when they grow up, they prefer to live alone.
Cuttlefish
A cuttlefish can swim quite fast, so it is also called rocket (火箭) fish. It has eight arms and two feelers on its head, just around its mouth. It ejects ink (喷墨) when it is in danger. Its meat is delicious, and it is often the first choice for many people.
Octopus
An octopus has long arms, with which to catch food and protect itself. When it is sleeping, one or two of its arms are still on duty, keeping moving. Once it feels something dangerous, it can wake up at once to take action.
Do you know why people yawn (打哈欠)? The most obvious answer is that we yawn because we are tired. But why does being tired make us yawn? How does yawning help us? The truth is that we don't know the answers to these questions. Scientists have different theories about why we yawn, but nobody has been able to prove them.
The first one is the "oxygen theory". In the past, one of the more popular theories was that we yawn in order to take more oxygen. When we yawn we breathe more deeply. According to this theory, our brains make us yawn because we need more oxygen. However, these days more and more scientists are against the oxygen theory.
The second one is the "brain cooling" theory. According to this theory, we yawn when our brains get too warm. Yawning makes our brains cooler again. When our brains are cooler, we can think more clearly. Yawning can help keep us alert (警觉). This theory hasn't been proven yet, but many scientists think that it will be in the future.
Here are a few other interesting facts about yawning. First, yawning is contagious (可传染的). If you see another person yawn, then you will be more likely to yawn, too. Second, we yawn even before we are born. Studies have shown that babies yawn while they're still in their mother's stomach. They start to yawn after 24 weeks. Finally, we are more likely to yawn when we're bored. Why is yawning contagious? Why do we yawn when we're bored or tired? The truth is that we don't have any answers to these questions, either.
Why do you think people who live in some hot countries eat very spicy (辛辣的) food? Is it because the spices make the food taste better? Is it just because their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents liked hot food, or is there some connection between spices and healthy food?
Researchers from Cornell University think that it is because spice plants have some important chemicals (化学物质). These chemicals can kill bacteria (细菌) which spoil food.
"Most common spices can kill 75 to 100 percent of the bacteria in food, "explains one of the scientists. The bacteria grow more easily and spoil food more quickly at higher temperatures. For this reason, it is more difficult to keep food from spoiling in hot climates.
Do you like your food spicy? Your answer probably tells something about the country you come from. If you like spicy food, it is possible that hundreds of years ago, when there were no fridges, people in your country started using spices to keep the food from spoiling. The traditional spicy dishes helped those people to live longer, healthier lives. Today, in a time of fridges, the spices just make the food taste good.
It seems we can't get off the planet fast enough. Two thirds of NASA's money is spent on manned space exploration, and that number will grow with the USA's decision to send a man to Mars in 2037. We've seen all there is to see on Earth, right? Wrong. The final place is here, under the surface of the sea.
Heading down into the ocean, human limits are quickly reached. At 200 metres, the water is as black as a moonless night. Most nuclear submarines (核潜艇) would implode (内爆) before they reach 1 km down. At 3 km—still less than the average depth of the ocean—there's a good chance that you'll discover a new species. The deepestdiving whales go no further. At the very bottom, about 11 km down, lies the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Eighteen humans have walked on the Moon, but only three have seen the Deep with their own eyes.
Yet things live down there. Big things. A very loud sound was once heard and scientists suggested that it was produced by an animal bigger than a blue whale, the largest creature known on the planet.
In the late 1990s, deepwater submarine was dropped in the Southern Ocean, and passing 4,000 metres, it discovered something huge passing under it. Surprised? Don't be. The ocean covers 70% of the planet's surface and we've studied less than 5% of it. We know more about the dark side of the Moon than about the bottom of the sea.
One reason that we explore space is to find evidence of other life forms. The search for life outside of Earth is important, but robots can look under the dry rocks of Mars better than humans. They're absolutely important for doing ocean research too, but they can't look under the sea. The cost of exploration is rising, but the results would benefit all our lives. Understanding the oceans will help us find new sources of food, drugs and energy.
Perhaps now it's time to begin a new period of sea exploration. Manned exploration of space is science fiction (科幻小说). The adventure of the deep sea is science fact.
If you walk through a park, you may enjoy the scents(气味）of flowers, water and soil. If you are especially lucky, you will get to smell fresh-cut grass. It's a beloved scent that transports many people back to their childhood. But there's a dark side to that smell. Indeed, we are in love with the scent of fear.
Plants have many different chemical defenses. That smell is one of them, as the grass responds to an attack, signaling(向......示意）to the surrounding grass that danger is coming. The fresh, "green” scent of a just-mowed lawn is the lawn trying to save itself, says a story at science website Real-Clear Science.
The smell is produced by a mix of chemicals called green leaf volatiles(GLVs, 绿叶挥发物）. When the leafy plants are injured by animals eating them, people cutting them, or any other rough treatment-they give off GLVs into the air. These GLVs are a warning to neighbouring plants that their flowers might be removed, so they can move resources like sugar toward their roots and away from their flowers. This reduces a plant's potential losses and can help it grow back later.
The rush of GLVs does a few other things, too. One chemical helps to close the wound on the damaged plant. Others act as antibiotics(抗生素）and prevent bacterial infections.
Some GLVs may also react with animals that eat plants. Silke All-mann and Ian T.Baldwin, researchers from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, found that some caterpillars(毛虫）are changed by the GLV compounds(化合物）when they eat a tobacco plant. Tobacco makes the caterpillars more attractive to predators(捕食者）. For the tobacco plants, this is like having an older brother come to beat up your bully(欺凌者）.
Thankfully, nothing is coming to eat you when you mow the lawn. Instead, we human get treated to some great-smelling GLVs. One is a compound known as"cis-3-hexenal". This is the same chemical that gives strawberries their sweet scent. Similar compounds are also found in apples and olives.
＂Just about all fresh vegetables have some GLV scents to them," Baldwin told Live Science, and fruits may release the compounds as they soften." Throughout evolutionary history, we've used that information to know when something is ripe," Baldwin said. Now we can use it to know when grass is frightened.
Since his students began using Quizlet, English teacher Tristan Thorne has noticed an improvement in their ability to learn and use new words. Quizlet is a learning app, a computer program you use on your mobile phone. It can help users build and test their knowledge of English words. Quizlet has words set for millions of subjects. And, it is quickly becoming a useful mobile tool for language learners.
Thorne teaches at Columbia University in New York City. Thanks to learning apps, Jeff Strack, another English teacher, has also noticed the improvement in his students' ability to remember information. He teaches at Hostos Community College, also in New York. He and Thorne are part of a growing number of language educators adding mobile apps to their classes.
Strack and Thorne seem to agree that the days when teachers would not permit (允许) the use of mobile phones are gone. When they use apps, language learners communicate more differently than in a traditional classroom. Users act on or respond to something, instead of just listening to new information.
Thorne believes that apps can help learners become more active in learning. For example, each week, his students are required to add vocabularies into Quizlet for others to use. He says some apps also make it easy for students to know their language strengths and weaknesses.
The biggest improvement Strack has seen in his students is that they are much more active in wholeclass or smallgroup discussions. "Apps let all students take part in the activity, whether it's a game, quiz or practice activity," he says.
Many existing learning apps are designed for students of all ages and levels. Some are designed for group activities. Some support independent learning. Still some are good for homework. Thorne says he especially likes Quizlet and three other apps: QR Codes, Socrative and Evernote.
Those pretty little brown spots on the skin might be common, but freckles (雀斑) remain a bit of a mystery to many — including those who have them. We interviewed three top skin doctors to explain the mysterious spots.
"They get darker in the summertime, when the skin is in strong sunlight, and fade, or lose color, in the wintertime," says Dr. Joshua Zeichner at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. "The sun's ultraviolet rays (紫外线) help some skin cells to produce more melanin (黑色素) in the skin."
Contrary(相反) to popular belief, nobody is born with freckles, which generally don't pop up until adolescence. That is, some young people start to have freckles when they are developing into adults.
"But freckles often' run in the family', especially in families that have fair skin," says Jessica Wu, MD, a Los Angeles-based doctor. "People with fair skin and red or blond hair may have the same skin cells as their parents. Such skin cells are more sensitive (敏感的) to ultraviolet rays, so they produce more melanin in those spots."
The spots themselves are nothing to fear, but those who have freckles are often fair-skinned as well, which in turn makes them more likely to get skin cancer, warns Dr. Howard Murad, who is known as "the Father of Internal Skincare".
Freckles can be lightened with proper treatment, and new freckles often fade on their own. As with many things in life, prevention is key. "Wear sunscreen every day as part of your lifestyle, like brushing your teeth," says Zeichner. Wu agrees, "I do warn my patients with freckles to understand the necessity of wearing sunscreen."
Safe sun practice is important for everyone, but having freckles means you need to be extra careful. "You are likely to get more of them — in addition to risk of skin cancer — if you don't use sun protection," warns Wu.
Google's new camera, called Clips, is a small, smart device. It comes with a case that has a clip (夹子), but it's not designed to be worn on your clothing. Most interestingly, it uses artificial intelligence to take photography out of your hands so it can capture moments on its own.
This roughly 2inch by 2inch camera, with a threehour battery life and Gorilla Glass for toughness, is intended for candid moments, like when a child does something cute that may happen too quickly for you to pull out your smartphone.
Onboard the Clips device, it uses machine learning algorithms (计算程序) to help capture scenes. Those algorithms include face recognition. "Once it learns that there's a face you see frequently, it'll try to get nice photos of those faces," said Juston Payne, the device's product manager. And they also want it to recognize facial expressions, which involved "training it to know what happiness looks like". The Google team also trained it to recognize what not to shoot—like when a child's hand is over the lens, or if it is tossed in a dark purse.
The only way to see the images is by connecting the camera with your phone, as it has no screen for viewing or editing.
Were people concerned it could seem strange? Yes, Payne admitted. But they said they addressed that by making it obvious what it is. A green light on the front signals that it is on. Besides, unlike a camera meant to monitor your home, it is not connected to the Internet.
"This product is only possible because of the way that silicon has advanced," Payne said, noting that it was only in the past year or so that they could squeeze the technology down into a device this size. Going forward, we're likely to get more assistance from the artificial intelligence packed into our apps and gadgets (小装置).
Robotic surgery is one thing, but sending a robot inside the body to carry out an operation is quite another, which has long been a goal of some researchers to produce tiny robotic devices being capable of traveling through the body to deliver drugs or to make repairs without the need for a single cut, the possibility of which has just got a bit closer.
However, unlike the plot of one film—which featured a microscopic crew and submarine traveling through a scientist's bloodstream—this device could not be put into blood vessels because it is too big. While other types of miniature swallow able robots have been developed in the past, their role has mostly been limited to capturing images inside the body. In a presentation this week to the International Conference, Daniela Rus and Shuhei Miyashita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described a robot they have developed that can be swallowed and used to collect dangerous objects accidentally taken in.
To test their latest version, Dr. Rus and Dr. Miyashita designed a robot as a battery hunter, which might seem to be an odd task, but more than 3,500 people in America alone, most of them children, swallow the tiny button cells used in small electronic devices by accident every year. To start with, the researchers created an artificial esophagus (食道) and stomach made out of silicone. It was closely modeled on that found in a pig and filled with medical liquid; the robot itself is made from several layers of different materials, including pig intestine (肠),and contains a little magnet. This is folded up and wrapped in a 10mmx27mm capsule of ice. Once this reaches the stomach, the ice melts and the robot unfolds which is moved and guided with the 1se of a magnetic field outside the body. In their tests, the robot was able to touch a button battery and draw it with its own magnet, and during dragging it along, the robot could then be directed towards the intestines where it would eventually be gotten rid of through the anus (肛门). After it, the researchers sent in another robot loaded with medication to deliver it to the site of the battery bum to speed up healing.
The artificial stomach being transparent (透明的) on one side, the researchers can see the batteries and visually control the robots. If not, that will require help with the help from imaging system, which will be a bit more of a challenge, but Dr. Rus and Dr. Miyashita are determined to succeed.
Regardless of whether or not you are young, there are particular habits that give away your true age. Like falling asleep on the very thought of a second glass of wine, some issues simply sign to the world that you are just over 40. Now, a brand-new study reveals that there is one factor you do along with your smartphone that reveals your age: turning to a PIN(personal identification number) to unlock your telephone rather than a fingerprint or facial recognition means you are of an older technology.
The study, carried out by researchers on the University of British Columbia, explored the links between age and smartphone use by remotely monitoring smartphone customers' habits. "As researchers working to protect smartphones from illegal access, we need to first understand how users use their devices," defined Konstantin Beznosov, a professor involved in the research.
To get more information, the researchers selected 134 volunteers, ranging in age from 19 to 63, and had them set up a tailored app to their Android telephones for two months. The app recorded all of their lock and unlock occasions, together with whether or not they choose auto or guide lock, and the actions of the telephone on the time of unlocking. This is how they found the generational variations in unlocking habits.
The researchers additionally collected information on the size of consumer periods. The staff discovered that along with an individual's most popular technique for unlocking their telephones, the period of time spent on the telephone additionally related with age.
As one report on the study explains "Study showed that older users used their phone less frequently than younger users. For every10-year- interval in age, accordingly there was a 25 per cent decrease in the number of user sessions. In other words, a 25-year-old might use their phone 20 times a day, but a 35-year-old might use it only 15 times."
So, in case you unlock your smartphone by hand, you may chalk it as much as a generational desire.
Many researchers use the term artificial intelligence (AI) to describe the thinking and intelligent behavior by machines. While AI can be helpful to human beings, scientists warn it can also be a threat.
Stuart Russell, who teaches computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, says humans should make AI products that we like.
"In the future," Russell says, "many of today's jobs that require a lot of physical labor will be replaced by machines with artificial intelligence. These include agricultural jobs, and ones with repetitive duties like telephone call centers. Al machines can also replace jobs like ones in the financial industry-jobs that require studying a lot of data."
The health industry is one area that artificial intelligence is already changing. AI can process huge amounts of data, so doctors can use the most up-to-date information to diagnose and treat patients.
IBM's Watson technology is already in use at hospitals in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Watson helps doctors keep up with information.
There is also a dangerous side of artificial intelligence. One example is combining drone technology and AI to create autonomous weapons.
Stuart Russell is working to create international treaties to ban such weapons. He says the risk is that people will use the technology to develop a kind of "poor men's nuclear weapon".
IBM's Banavar points out the value of artificial intelligence, including search engines and the autopilot function on planes.
The debate about whether artificial intelligence is good or bad for humans continues. Researchers agree there is no question that the technology is here, and that will continue to change the life on our planet.
Ohio—Lake Erie, the smallest of North America's five Great Lakes, supplies fresh drinking water to an estimated 11 million people in Ohio, Michigan and southern Ontario province, Canada.
Yet sometimes pollution, bath from industrial waste and farm-chemical run-off, leaves large areas of the lake covered in half-meter-thick layers of green slime. Scientists blame a lot of chemicals entering the water, which has caused pollution.
To find out where these extra nutrients come from, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has been studying data from its network of 14 water-quality monitoring stations installed along the rivers that flow into the Lake Erie basin.
At one point, water from the small stream is diverted into a pipe where it is pumped into the testing station.
We'll have 'a sample a day, year-round every day so that really pins down what the chemistry is like," says Dave Baker of Ohio's Heidelberg University, who takes charge of the monitoring stations for the Department of Natural Resources.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal government's pollution watchdog, requires point sources, such as factories, to monitor and report their discharges. So Baker is looking for where the other sources of pollution come from.
"If there are problems in Lake Erie, we want to know where it's coming from and make sure we're putting resources to solve the problem properly," Baker says.
In this case, a primary source of the pollution turns out to be chemical fertilizer that turn off farmland during rainstorms.
Because farmers believe fertilizers are essential to high crop yields, they would like to use them. However, the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service isn't asking them to abandon farm chemicals, but rather to use them more sparingly so they don't run off the land when it rains.
Another technique for reducing farm chemical pollution of Lake Erie is cover-crop farming. After the harvest, farmers plant a second quick-growing crop to reduce erosion. The deep-rooted plants, such as rye or turnips, help to cover the soil, allowing worms and fungi to work their magic and helping the soil to absorb more water and nutrients.
Compared with the obvious environmental issues we hear about every day, littering often takes a backseat-but it's more pressing than we may think.
Some may say that a banana peel out of your car along the motorway would be a harmless action. Actually，they are wrong. A banana peel can take up to two years to decompose (分解), and with a third of motorists admitting to littering while driving, that's a whole lot of discarded banana peels, or much worse. An orange peel and a cigarette butt has a similar biodegrading (生物降解)term to that of a banana, but tin and aluminum cans last up to 100 years; and plastic bottles last forever, so do glass bottles and plastic bags.
Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment and its animals for longer, we can't only measure the severity of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short biodegrading span, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is thrown away in the UK every day. Similarly, our regular littering here and there has caused the UK's mouse population to increase by 60 million. This suddenly isn't so mysterious when you consider that since the 1960s our annual littering has increased by an amazing 500 per cent.
It's not a cheap habit either: UK taxpayers spent £500 million on keeping the streets clean.
So, it's not surprising that if caught fly-tipping, you could face a f20, 000 fine. Regardless of how severe the punishment might seem, however, among the reported cases only 2, 000 were punished out of 825, 000, so we still have some way to go in making sure people observe the rules.
To take back our beautiful cities, we need to do more than simply not leaving rubbish where it ought not to be. We need to care more about the world around us.
Electronic sensors built into paper could be used in a range of ways from information storage to touch screens and more.
Electronic sensors built into cartons（纸盒） may make it easier to tell when it's time to throw out rotten milk or orange juice. And that's just the start. At least that's the goal for researchers working on putting electronics into paper. They're trying to figure out how to combine the flexibility, low-cost and recyclability of paper with the information-carrying ability of electronics.
Daniel Torbjork, a physics graduate student in Finland, has been working on the problem. He's published a review of the field in the journal Advanced
Materials.
Much research has been focused in this area. While most electronic applications require patterned conducting structures, conductive paper could be used in applications such as energy storage devices, sensors, electric heaters and others, according to Torbjork.
"You could even have some interactive functions in magazines," Torbjork said, "You could put a simple game in a package. If you want a touch screen, press a button and then something happen. Sensors in paper could tell us when something has gone bad."
Additional applications, such as information storage and security paper,
have been suggested for magnetic papers containing magnetite. In Massachusetts, researchers have figured out how to post a video of such a device put into a paper airplane.
German researchers have also put electronic chips in paper bank notes to defend counterfeiters （造伪币者） .Paper is a good material but printing electronics also requires low-cost manufacturing. As many US and European paper makers lose market share to cheaper paper from China, these big paper companies are looking for added value products. That's where electronic paper devices could make a difference.
"The major obstacles are paper's large surface roughness and chemical impurities."Torbjork says. But others in the field think that electronic sensors in paper are still far from the consumer marketplace.
"I don t think it's going to happen." said Roy Horgan. "You need a conductive surface. It could be 10 years out. What we are looking for are solutions that you can commercialize today."
Solar Print is partnering with Italian automaker Fiat to develop a unique auto-glass with tiny photostatic cells （光电） that can capture electricity from the sun. In the meantime, using paper to conduct electricity is still a "blue-sky" project.
"I would love to see someone prove me wrong, because that means that it's actually happening." Horgan said. "If someone comes up with conductive paper, then that's a very interesting technology."
Do you want to level up your mask-wearing while also looking like you're about to battle with Batman? This is life-wearing Razer Zephyr, a wearable air purifier. A version of Razer's latest appliance made waves in January during the Consumer Electronics Show.
It's no surprise that tech companies are considering a leap beyond the cloth and surgical masks that have come to define the COVID-19 pandemic. It has a hard shell with two belts to fit onto your head. There are two air exchange chambers (腔) on the front, featuring double circulating fans to help circulate cool air. The chambers feature N95 filters providing two-way protection for yourself and those around you. It's also transparent with inside lights and an anti-fog coating to help solve one of the key issues with mask-wearing: watching mouths move when you speak.
Good as the mask appears, will it protect you from COVID-19? According to Razer, the mask is registered with the Food and Drug Administration and lab tested for 99% BFE, or Bacterial Filtraion Efficiency, a measure of how well it filters out bacteria. "It is not tested specifically against the COVID-19 virus, but offers the same functionality and adequate protection due to its 99% BFE rating," Razer's website says.
There's also the financial cost to consider. The mask itself is $ 99, and Razer sells a pack of 10 sets of N95 filters for $30. By comparison, a quick search for surgical masks on Amazon turned up a box of 50 masks for between $11—$14.
"I've tried out the $99 Zephyr for roughly a week now. Wearing the Zephyr feels comfortable. The adjustable head straps (带) allow for the ideal fit. Above all, it feels breathable thanks to the air circulating through its fans." one commented on Amazon.
Flowing Through Life: The Water Element
Bruce Lee famously said, "You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water, my friend."
Water is one of the five elements in the Chinese philosophy of wu xing. This theory first appeared in the studies of Taoism, during the Spring and Autumn Period sometime between 770─476 BC. It rapidly expanded with its use in Chinese medicine, philosophy, fengshui, fortunetelling, and martial arts ─ and is still very common to date.
The five elements ─ wood, fire, earth, metal, and water ─ are generated by the interaction between yin and yang. Not so much the actual physical forms of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, each element can be better understood as an expression of its qualities, and as components of life and matter. Wood and fire pertain to yang, while metal and water relate to yin, and earth represents the perfect harmony between yin and yang. Conceptually, we can understand the Five Elements as energetic forces created by interactions between yin and yang.
The interactions of the five astrological elements are circular. In the nurturing cycle, water breeds wood, wood grows fire, fire turns into earth (ash), earth yields metal, metal turns into water, and the cycle begins again. In the controlling cycle, water puts out fire, fire controls metal, metal cuts wood, wood extracts nutrients from earth, and earth absorbs water, and the cycle begins again.
According to Taoist belief, the water element manifests in the evening and at nighttime, as well as in the north and in winter. Picture the sea from the shore: Water is the energy that has boundless potential, even though it may appear to be calm on the outside. The water element also promotes conservation – literally and metaphorically.
The 6th century BC was a time of philosophical growth for ancient China. It was during this time that the two most influential spiritual leaders native to China, Confucius and Lao-tzu, are thought to have lived and taught. The philosophies that they practised, Confucianism and Taoism, existed simultaneously and have attracted a large following over the past 2,000 years.
To "regard Human and Nature as a whole" is a Confucian ideology that was first mentioned in the Han Dynasty, about 2,000 years ago. It meant to convey that human beings are just one part in the system of Nature, and hence we, as a species, should not try to control and alter the system. The fundamental concept of Chinese traditional culture is the concept of circulation: Everything in Nature is supposed to move circularly to maintain a level of stability and harmony.
