One moment it was quiet and calm in the forest, the next, the air was charged with tension. The elephant had heard the distant alarm calls of animals and her mood suddenly changed. I urged the elephant deeper into the forest. We sounded like a forest fire — cracking, snapping, trailblazing. But through all the noise came a sharp warning cry. The elephant stopped and we heard it again — the tell-tale call of a spotted deer.

    I looked quickly around the shadows of the forest. Rays of sunlight shone through tree branches, beneath which the patchwork（交错）of green plants and shadows-within-shadows would make tiger stripes（条纹）look more attractive. Apart from an occasional noise from the elephant's stomach, the forest was silent.

    Gradually, the tension slipped from our bodies. The elephant seized a nearby branch and put it into its mouth. I reached forward and gently moved my hand over the elephant's neck; there was a soft part, free of wrinkles and hairs, behind her ear.

    This was my fourth time to sense the aura of the forest in Corbett, although I saw no tigers in the end. Located at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, Corbett is home to about 135 Bengal tigers, but the forest seemed to be guarding their whereabouts（出没处）, a silent reminder of their secrecy and rarity. Still, I was happy enough touching the elephant behind the ear. If I had so desperately wanted to see a tiger, I could have gone to a zoo. After all, spotting tigers merely confirms their beauty; tracking them can make you aware of something more.

    The best tool needed for survival in the event you get lost when you travel is your skill of advanced planning. You must expect the unexpected and plan accordingly. Even if you are going out for just a few hours, pack enough essentials that you can stay hydrated (体内水分), fueled and prepared for any type of weather. Your essentials should include at least:

    More than enough food and water for the activity you plan.

    A compass that you know how to use. You may want a GPS device, but those sometimes do not receive a signal or the battery fails. Cell phones also likely will not work because of a lack of signal.

    Appropriate maps. Study the terrain (地形) and your planned route. Know where you are going and how you will return.

    Comfortable hiking boots, clothes that you can wear depending on the weather conditions and additional socks in case the ones you arc wearing get wet.

    A blanket, flashlight, matches kept in a water-resistant container, and other items that will help you survive overnight if necessary.

    Cheek with the local forest office for special warnings, such as fires in the area, bear sightings, flooding, trail or road closures, etc.

It's also important that once you have planned your outing, tell someone. Give them exact details of where you are going, the trail you plan to follow, when you will return, the vehicle you are driving (and where you plan to park) and how many people will go with you—do not go alone.

    If you do become lost, your most important tool is keeping a positive mental attitude.

    Scientists have always been interested in the high level of organization in ant societies. American researchers have watched ants build life-saving rafts to keep afloat during floods. They also have recorded how ants choose their next queen — the female whose job is to produce eggs.

    New technology is helping to improve researchers' understanding of the insects. But there is still a lot to be learned.

    Fire ants living in Brazilian forests are perfectly at home in an environment where flooding is common. To save themselves, the insects connect their legs together and create floating rafts. Some ant rafts can be up to 20 centimeters wide.

    David Hu is an engineer with the Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, saying, "If you have 100 ants, which means 600 legs, 99 percent of those legs will be connected to a neighbor. So they're very, very good at keeping this network. "

    David Hu and other Georgia Tech researchers wanted to study ants and the secret of their engineering. They froze ant rafts and then looked at them with the help of computed technology, or CT images. The pictures showed that larger ants serve in central positions to which smaller ants hold. The larger ants create pockets of air that keep the insects afloat.

    Scientists say small robots or materials that can change shape could be programmed in a similar way, working towards a shared goal.

    Researchers at North Carolina State University are also studying ants. They examined how Indian jumping ants choose the leader of the colony when they lose their top female or queen.

    “He is the best choice for goodwill ambassador.” Indian movie fans in China say.

    Indian actor Aamir Khan has got his major celebrity status in China. Aamir Khan was in China last week to promote his latest Hindi film Secret Superstar. During his weeklong stay, first in Shanghai and then in Beijing, the Indian actor also found out that he has become a major celebrity in a country where Hollywood's reach has been traditionally limited.

    Some local analysts compare his star status in China to that of Hollywood actors Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio. Others wonder if Khan is an activist actor. Still others describe him as a feminist（女权主义者）. The Chinese media seem to have called him Mishu, or Uncle Aamir. The surprising rise in popularity of the 52-year-old Bollywood star is owing to his striking movies. At more than 1 million, Khan has the most followers as an Indian on Sina Weibo, the country's Twitter-like platform.

    Secret Superstar had made more than 400 million yuan（$63 million）earlier this week. The story of a teenage Muslim girl's fight against ugly patriarchy（父权制）to realize her dreams was released in China on Jan 19.

    Last year, his film Dangal, inspired by the real journey of an Indian wrestler through a conservative landscape to turn his daughters into world-class athletes, had made nearly 1.3 billion yuan.

    In 2011, Khan's work first got major attention from Chinese moviegoers with Three Idiots, which was released in India much earlier. A statement on India's orthodox education system, similar to that of China, the Hindi film went along with the local audience. Film critics and fans alike recommended it to their friends.

    Some film critics say the education systems, gender discrimination（性别歧视）and domestic violence（家庭暴力）that Secret Superstar shows are among similarities of social issues in India and China. A series of “masterpieces” have made Khan an effective brand in China, in addition to his movie marketing and film devotion.

    The National Storytelling Youth Olympics is an event where thousands of kids from grades 6 to 12 compete against each other by telling stories. It is sponsored by the Master's Degree Program in Reading and Storytelling at East Tennessee State University. The sole purpose of this event is to promote and encourage both the art and science of storytelling among middle school and high school students. Although this event is competitive, its underlying intent and goal is to provide students across the nation with a reason to practice numerous noncompetitive skills.

    Those skills include skillful sportsmanship , responsible behavior, and an attitude of respect for others and the storytelling genre. The eventual goal of the National Storytelling Youth Olympics is to encourage every classroom in America to discover (or rediscover) the beauty of storytelling and story performance.

    The National Storytelling Youth Olympics takes place usually around the first weekend in March. Students from all over the country arrive by bus, plane, or automobile in Johnson City, Tennessee. They usually arrive on Thursday or Friday. Those that arrive on Thursday take advantage of their early arrival by telling stories at local schools. On Friday, an evening meal is prepared for all contestants, coaches, and parents. Games are played, stories are told, and lifetime friendships begin. Saturday is the day of the big event. A luncheon(午餐会) is held in the afternoon so contestants can familiarize themselves with the surroundings and do a sound check.

    The event is divided into three categories separated by grades. Contestants are judged not only by their storytelling performance, but also by the attitude and behavior they display during the entire weekend. A winner is picked from each of the three categories; however, there is an overall winner who is granted the name of Grand Torch Bearer. This person is selected not only by the judges, but also by the contestants. After the winners have been announced, the contestants retreat back to their hotel where a celebratory ice cream party is held; and believe it or not, they tell more stories! This is what the National Storytelling Youth Olympics is all about: developing a love for the art of storytelling.

    When David Edwards founded the oPhone, he hoped scent (嗅觉的) messages would become the next big thing in the digitization of our online lives.

    The device looked like a high-tech cruet set (调味瓶), and allowed a friend with an iPhone app to send you scent messages alongside photos. Send a picture of your dinner, tag it with four different tones, and whoever is on the receiving end can sniff it from the vase-like tubes of the oPhone.

    The oPhone didn't take off, and the company has now shifted focus to a “scent speaker” called the Cyrano, which similarly uses a range of scent capsules to emit “play lists” of smells.

    Compared to our real world interactions, our online lives are lacking in scent. Our digital culture, so soaked in visual and aural stimuli, is odorless (没有气味的). So why didn't his marriage of smell and picture messaging excite more interest?

    From a technical point of view, smell is simply harder to mass communicate than sounds and pictures. “There are two main technological obstacles to making smell transmissible by digital means,” explains biophysicist and author of Perfumes: The A -Z guide, Dr Luca Turin.

    “First, there are no odor 'primaries' like RGB or CMYK. Second, it has proved impossible to stimulate the olfactory epithelium (上皮组织) directly by any means tried so far. This means that it is currently impossible to induce a sensation of smell without there being an actual chemical in the inhaled air (吸入的空气).”

    “The more we're plugged into the virtual world, the more we deeply appreciate the contrast-moments in our human, experience,” says designer and olfactory artist Mindy Yang.

    “Intuitively, we realize that we are starved of certain sensations. With the rise of digital culture, society has become more interested in the missing sense-c-what we smell.”

    This interest in scent isn't only happening within the worlds of perfume and fashion. Over the past few years a number of cultural projects have set out to focus on the power of sensory experiences, from the use of a smell map, to the Tate Sensorium, which in 2015 let users experience visual art alongside smells, tastes and sounds.

    Whether it's devices like the oPhone that try to introduce scent into digital messaging, organizations are growingly aware of our culture's desire for sensory experiences. In a time of virtual reality and scentless social networks, it's perhaps no wonder that we as a culture have such a desire for something that instinctively feels real and authentic-even if it was made in a lab.