Getting paid to stay in bed all day sounds pretty good. But what if someone offered you $23,000 to stay in bed for two months? That's the deal that are search team is offering to 24 volunteers.

    Researchers are looking for volunteers to help them study the influences of weightlessness on the human body by spending 60 days lying down. Lying in bed isn't exactly the same as being weightless, but the influences on the human body are similar.

    When astronauts spend a long time in an environment with no gravity(重力), like the International Space Station (ISS),their bodies are affected in many ways. After a couple of months on the ISS, astronauts' hearts don't beat as hard. Their muscles（肌肉）become weaker because they no longer have to work against gravity. Their bones may break more easily. There may also be changes in the astronauts' sleep habits.

    Dr. Arnaud Beck, the researcher in charge of the study, said his goal is to measure the influences of weightlessness, and also to find ways to prevent problems. The study will take 88 days altogether. During the first two weeks the volunteers will be tested to establish(确定) their levels of fitness. Then they will spend 60 days lying in bed with their heads slightly lower than their bodies. They will have to do everything while lying down, including brushing their teeth and going to the bathroom. Dr. Beck said the rule is that they must have at least one shoulder touching the bed at all times. Half of the volunteers in the study will be taking capsules(胶囊) containing special food supplements（增补物）several times a day to see if they help reduce the health problems caused by weightlessness. The last two weeks of the study will be spent trying to let the volunteers recover. Volunteers must be men between the ages of 20 and 45 who are in perfect health. They must be non-smokers.

    The study will take place from September 1^st to November. The first two days are the time for volunteers to sign in.

    Here are a few practical apps that can help you with your studies, and beyond.

    MyHomework

    Price: Free

    Platform: iOS and Android

    As you star your new term, let the planning app MyHomework create a personalized study schedule. Rank as one for the best homework management apps by USA Today, this app allows you to prioritize(排序)assignments by color-coding subjects. It also reminds you of every single deadline and upcoming test you have. MyHomework is not only for smart phones but also for Apple Watch.

    Notability

    Price: 18 yuan

    Platform: iOS

    Taking good notes is important to good results. As a result, one note-taking app, Notability, is gaining popularity among students. This app allows users to take handwritten notes on touch screens and type essays. Plus, Notability users can easily share files with classmates through e-mail or cloud services like iCloud.

    Sleep Cycle

    Price: 6 yuan

    Platform: iOS and Android

    For students struggling to wake up on time during school days, Sleep Cycle can be your lifesaver. It cleverly records your sleep. After you wake up, the app shows your sleep quality through easy-to-read graphics(图表). Even better, Sleep Cycle has an intelligent wake-up mode. It wakes you up when you are in your lightest sleep state with the help of soft music. This stress-free wake-up call can potentially improve your daily productivity.

    MyMoney

    Price: Free

    Platform: iOS and Android

    MyMoney, a Chinese money management app, can help you achieve financial independence. This popular app allows you to add up all your accounts including campus(校园)cards and transportation cards. And it tracks your every expense(开支)to help you understand your spending habits. If any of your accounts is low, MyMoney will alarm you.

    Businesses are finding more uses for Virtual Reality (VR) as the technology develops. VR is no longer only for gaming or enjoyment. An American company called Blue Goji is using VR to improve one's health by making exercise more fun.

    Blue Goji has offices in Austin, the capital of Texas. The company showed its cardiovascular (心血管的) workout machine, called the Infinity treadmill (跑步机), at the recent South by Southwest festival, an event held every year in Austin.

    A person using the treadmill wears a virtual reality headset when exercising. Before starting, the user tightens a belt to prevent falls. Then, the user plays a VR game while running on the machine. The game can transport the user into the virtual world, where he or she can be racing against virtual people.

    Recently, Leonardo Mattiazzi tested the Infinity treadmill. Mattiazzi said he had a strong feeling to actually get running and do something that pushed his limits. He said the experience was more interesting than running inside the gym without actually going anywhere.

    Constam said the active use of virtual reality helps solve a common problem while wearing a VR headset. She noted that a lot of VR experiences cause motion sickness because people are in motion during the game, but not moving in real life. But when the user is moving on the treadmill and in the game, the chances of motion sickness are reduced.

    However, users who tested the treadmill while wearing the VR headset each had a different experience. Constam said there generally is a learning curve for VR. The first time users feel lost, but "the more you do it, the more you get used to it," she said. Mark Sackler was a first time user. He said he felt a little sick at one point during the game. But he thought the experience was surprisingly realistic.

    After carefully studying the users' experiences, Blue Goji plans to make the treadmill available to the public in 2019.

    Although his 1-year-old smart-phone still works perfectly, Li Jijia already feels the need to replace it.

    “There are many better ones available now. It's time to upgrade(更新）my phone.”

    Li's impatience is shared by many. Shortly after the season when new products are released（发布，发售）, many consumers feel the urge to upgrade their electronic equipment, even though the ones they have still work just fine.

    As consumers' minds are occupied by Apple's newly released products and debate whether the Google tablet is better than the new Amazon Kindle, it might be time to take a step back and ask: “Do we really need the latest upgrades?”

    According to Donald Norman, an American author, “planned obsolescence (淘汰）” is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today's consumer electronics industry.

    Electronics producers strategically release new upgrades periodically, both for hardware and software, so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version.

“This is an old-time trick—they're not inventing anything new,” Norman said. “This is a wasteful system through which companies--many of them producing personal electronics-- release poor-quality products simply because they know that, in six months or a year, they'll put out a new one.”

    But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system, as Norman admitted, “We now want something new, something pretty, the next shiny thing.” In its most recent year, Apple's profit margin(利润) was more than 21 percent. At Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest PC maker, it was only 7 percent.

    Apple's annual upgrades of its products create sales of millions of units as owners of one year's MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version, even when the changes are slight.

    As to Li Jijia, the need for upgrading his smart-phone comes mainly from friends and classmates. When they are switching to the latest equipment, he worries about feeling left out.

    “Some games require better hardware to run,” said Li. “If you don't join in, you lose part of the connection to your friends.”

    Humans and many other mammals have unusually efficient internal temperature regulating systems that automatically maintain stable core body temperatures（核心体温）in cold winters and warm summers. In addition, people have developed cultural patterns and technologies that help them adjust to extremes of temperature and humidity（湿度）.

    In very cold climates, there is a constant danger of developing hypothermia（低体温）, which is a life threatening drop in core body temperature to below normal levels. The normal temperature for humans is about 37.0℃. However, differences in persons and even the time of day can cause it to be as much as 6℃ higher or lower in healthy individuals. It is also normal for core body temperature to be lower in elderly people. Hypothermia begins to occur when the core body temperature drops to 34.4℃. Below 29.4℃, the body cools more rapidly because its natural temperature regulating system usually fails. The rapid decline in core body temperature is likely to result in death. However, there have been rare cases in which people have been saved after their temperatures had dropped to 13.9—15.6℃. This happened in 1999 to a Swedish woman who was trapped under an ice sheet in freezing water for 80 minutes. She was found unconscious, not breathing, and her heart had stopped beating, yet she was eventually saved despite the fact that her temperature had dropped to 13.7℃.

    In extremely hot climates or as a result of uncontrollable infections, core body temperatures can rise to equally dangerous levels. This is hyperthermia. Life threatening hyperthermia typically starts in humans when their temperatures rise to 40.6—41.7℃. Only a few days at this extraordinarily high temperature level is likely to result in the worsening of internal organs and death.

Inspired by the movement to protect the Carmanah Valley and Clayoquot Sound, I decided to devote myself to producing images for conservation full-time in 1992. Since that time my work has taken me all over the world and my photos have appeared in many major magazines. However, many of my most rewarding moments have come from working on projects in British Columbia, Canada, and sharing those images in slide show tours I have given throughout Canada, the U. S. and Europe.

The more I travel and photograph in other parts of the world, the more I have come to realize the wilderness we have in Canada is truly special and rare.

I have always felt that as a photographer my goal is to approach the natural environment with the sense of wonder and curiosity that comes so naturally to children. This, I believe, is one of the basic keys not just to producing meaningful images, but more importantly, to gaining a full appreciation and enjoyment of the natural world.

I find that not only my best images, but also my most enjoyable experiences in nature, occur when I have an open mind and follow my intuition (直觉). When I feel drawn to a certain scene, I try to make the scene simple and not include anything that is not relevant. I also try all ways to look for beautiful light. Early morning and the end of the day almost always produce light that results in more pleasing images than those taken under the strong light in the middle of a sunny day. Soft cloudy skies are wonderful for photographing all day, especially in our beautiful forests or for small subjects like wildflowers. Rain, storms, and snow also provide wonderful opportunities for new and different kinds of images.