My parents moved to Mississippi when my brother and I were small children, and we were separated from our Oklahoma grandparents by some 600 miles. This long distance allowed us to only visit our grandparents once a year, either at Christmas or during summer vacation.

    Most of my classmates lived near their grandparents, and I would often hear stories of big families regularly spending time with one another, fishing at “grandpa's” house or going over to “grandma's”for her famous fried chicken. We were disappointed that we did not get to spend more time with our grandparents, but our love for them remained deep and strong.

    We always expected a road trip to Oklahoma. We would count the days, and when the day came, the entire family would pile into our car at four o'clock in the morning. Crossing the Mississippi River into Louisiana, the scenery changed. Crossing the Red River in Oklahoma, we were in a foreign world.

    Every trip to see my grandparents can't be without bringing delight. We jumped out of the car in their driveway to be met with bear hugs. My grandparents wanted to know everything about their grandchildren, and we would sit for hours and tell story after story. Grandma had a meal planned, and you could guess she prepared her grandsons' favorite foods. Of course the best part of the visit was that we were able to do whatever we wanted without punishment from our grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa always had presents for us, short trips planned and lovely surprises, such as the time we got to a local restaurant and ate the world's largest hamburger.

    You get anxious if there's no wi-fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain. You feel upset if your phone is getting low on power, and you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you're not there. All these can be called “always on” stress caused by smart phone addiction.

    For some people, smart phones have liberated them from the nine-to-five work. Flexible working has given them more autonomy（自主权）in their working lives and enabled them to spend more time with their friends and families. For many others though, smart phones have become tyrants（暴君）in their pockets, never allowing them to turn them off, relax and recharge their batteries.

    Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends in favour of his iPhone. So he developed an app — Moment — to monitor his usage. The app enables users to see how much time they're spending on the device and set up warnings if the usage limits are breached（突破）. “Moment's goal is to promote balance in your life,” his website explains. “Some time on your phone, some time off it enjoying your loving family and friends around you.”

    Dr. Christine Grant, an occupational（职业的）psychologist at Coventry University, said, “The effects of this 'always on' culture are that your mind is never resting, and you're not giving your body time to recover, so you're always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make. Physical and mental health can suffer.”

    And as the number of connected smart phones is increasing, so is the amount of data. This is leading to a sort of decision paralysis（瘫痪）and is creating more stress in the workplace because people have to receive a broader range of data and communications which are often difficult to manage. “It actually makes it more difficult to make decisions and many do less because they're controlled by it all and fell they can never escape the office,” said Dr. Christine Grant.

    A Guide to the University

    Food

    The TWU Cafeteria is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. It serves snacks(小吃), drinks, ice cream bars and meals. You can pay with cash or your ID cards. You can add meal money to your ID cards at the Front Desk. Even if you do not buy your food in the cafeteria, you can use the tables to eat your lunch, to have meetings with your friends and to study.

    If you are on campus in the evening or late at night, you can buy snacks, fast food, and drinks in the Lower Cafe located in the bottom level of the Douglas Center. This area is often used for entertainment such as concerts, games or TV watching.

    Relaxation

    The Globe, located in the bottom level of McMillan Hall, is available for relaxing, studying, cooking and eating. Monthly activities are held here for all international students. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed on Sundays.

    Academic Support

    All students have access to the Writing Center on the upper floor of Douglas Hall. Here, qualified volunteers will work with you on written work, grammar, vocabulary and other academic skills. If you need help, you can sign up for an appointment by finishing the sign-up sheet outside the door, two 30-minute appointments per week maximum. This service is free.

    Transportation

    The TWU Express is a shuttle(班车)service. The shuttle transports students between campus and the shopping center, leaving from the Mattson Centre. Operation hours are between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturdays only. Round trip fare is $1.

    When first entered, Vanak Restaurant does not look like much of a restaurant, but once the pleasant smells of kabob (烤肉串) hit the senses, you are incapable of calling it anything less.

    Owned by a local couple, this Persian restaurant has an inviting, homelike atmosphere that many restaurants lack.

    The space is small with only a few dining tables and nearly no decoration, but the environment is truly charming.

    Lying in a hardly noticeable street corner, the restaurant still attracts all customers, especially those experienced in the delights of Middle Eastern cooking.

    A common sight is that of old Persian men sitting in the corner talking loudly about world topics, watching news events on TV, drinking a black tea known as Persian chai, and reading local Persian newspapers all the while trying to finish off their plates piled with food.

    The variety of food at the restaurant is limited, but the amount of each dish is fairly large. Most of the meals can serve two people and are under $10, so not only is it affordable but practical as well.

    The food especially appeals to health-conscious eaters because each dish is very healthy, made with limited fat and oil and served straight off the grill (烤肉架).

    The main dish that the restaurant is popular for is its kabobs, which are different styles of grilled meat.

    One delicious and extremely healthy dish is the Joojeh Kabob, which is made of grilled chicken pieces served with either rice or bread. Another great kabob is the Chelo Kabob, a kabob consisting of grilled beef.

    Although the restaurant is small, the atmosphere and the food is delicious. It is a place that should not be overlooked.

Daphne Soares, a biologist, makes an amazing discovery about alligators. The first time she got really close to an alligator (短吻鳄) was when she was helping to bold down an eight-foot American alligator. It was then that she noticed is face was covered with little black spots. This led to the discovery of the little black dots.

She started her study of the black dots. When she read the books and scientific journals, she learned that people had noticed the dots, but no one really knew what the dots were for.

To find out the secret she placed electrodes (电极) on nerves coming from some of the dots. When the nerves fired, they sent a message to the brain and created a tiny electric current. Just then she heard a small sound over a loudspeaker. She tired to see if the dots acted like eyes and temperature sensors, but nothing worked.

One day she was careless with dropping a tool into an alligator's tank. When she put her hand in the tank to get the tool out, she made small waves in the water. When they reached the alligator's face, she heard a noise over the speaker. She then realized that the dots must be sensitive to the changes in pressure when hit by waves of water.

After that, she is now studying blind cavefish. She is trying to learn whether they are blind from birth or lose their sight as they grow up. She is also doing more research on crocodilians (鳄目). She wants to find out how the genes of alligators with pressure sensors only on their faces differ from the genes of crocodilians that have pressure sensors all over their body.

Coca-Cola is to test a paper bottle as part of a longer-term goal to get rid of plastic from its packaging entirely. The prototype(样本) is made by a Danish company from an extra-strong paper shell that still contains a thin plastic liner (衬垫). But the goal is to create a 100% recyclable, plastic free bot tle capable of preventing gas escaping from carbonated(碳酸) drinks. The barrier must also ensure no fibers get into the liquid. 

That may have a risk of changing the taste of the drink ——or potentially can't meet the requirements of health and safety checks. But industry giants (巨头)are backing the plan. Coca-Cola, for example, has set a goal of producing zero waste by 2030. Coca-Cola was ranked the world's number one plastic polluter by charity group Break Free From Plastic(摆脱塑料) last year, closely followed by other drink-producers Pepsi and Nestle. 

The Paper Bottle Company, or Paboco, is the Danish firm behind the devel-opment of the paper-based container. Part of the challenge has been to create a structure capable of standing the forces exerted by carbonated drinks —— such as cola and beer —— which are bottled under pressure. On top of that, the paper needs to be mouldable to create different bottle shapes and sizes for different brands and take ink for printing their labels. 

After more than seven years of lab work, the firm is now ready to host a trial in Hungary this summer of Coca-Cola's fruit drink Adez. Initially, this will in-volve 2, 000 bottles distributed via a local retail chain. 

But it is also working with others. Absolut, the vodka maker, is due to test 2, 000 paper bottles of its own in the UK and Sweden of its pre-mixed, carbonated raspberry drink. And beer company Carlsberg is also building prototypes of a paper beer bottle. 

Michael Michelsen, the firm's commercial manager, says the bottles are formed out of a single piece of paper-fiber-based material to give them strength.