For more than twenty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages on spaceships traveling through space, on the chance that someone may be receptive （善于接受的） to such messages.

    Scientists are using powerful radio telescope to listen to signals from about 1,000 stars, all within 100 light years of earth. In addition, they will scan (扫视) the entire sky to “listen” for radio messages from more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight channels at one time. Scientists are looking for any signal that stands out from the background noise.

    Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy （银河星系）, scientists find that five percent are like our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from the star for temperatures to be right for the evolution of life. Based on the inhabitable (that can be lived in) planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that chances are likely that one or more of these planets support some life.

    However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent （有智力的） life exists on other planets. Some believe that twenty years of searching without any intelligible （可理解的） messages shows that no one is out there. They say that the evolution of intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely.

    Other scientists believe that our search hasn't been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family in only about five billion years old,  our galaxy is about 20 billions years old. In that time, some scientists think it is likely that civilizations are much more advanced than ours. Perhaps these civilizations send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep looking.

    Thanksgiving Day is a special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.

    Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4,1619, the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.

    The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three­day feast (盛宴).The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.

    In time, other colonies (殖民地) began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed (宣布) the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving.

    Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbours. But the Canadian Thanks­giving Day falls on the second Monday in October.

What a Messy Desk Says About You

    For some time, psychologists have been studying how personality traits affect health and health-related choices. Not surprisingly, they have found that people blessed with innate conscientiousness, meaning that they are organized and predictable, typically eat better and live longer than people who are disorderly. They also tend to have immaculate offices.

    What has been less clear is whether neat environments can produce good habits even in those who aren't necessarily innately conscientious. To find out, researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted a series of experiments. In the first experiment, they randomly assigned a group of college-age students to spend time in two office spaces, one of which was very neat, the other wildly cluttered (乱堆) with papers and other work-related stuff. The students spent their time filling out questionnaires unrelated to the study. After 10 minutes, they were told they could leave with an apple or a chocolate bar. Those students who sat in the orderly office were twice as likely to choose the apple as those who sat among the mess.

    A second experiment, however, found that working in chaos has its advantages, too. In this one, college students were placed in a messy or a neat office and asked to dream up new uses for Ping-Pong balls. Those in messy spaces generated ideas that were significantly more creative, according to two independent judges, than those in offices where stacks of papers and other objects were neatly arranged.

    The results were something of a surprise, says Dr. Vohs, the leader of the study. Few previous studies found much virtue in disorder. The broken window theory, proposed decades ago, holds that even slight disorder and neglect can encourage indifference and poor discipline.

    But in the study by Dr. Vohs, disordered offices encouraged originality and a search for novelty. In the final portion of the study, adults were given the choice of adding a health "boost" to their lunchtime smoothie that was labeled either "new" or "classic." The volunteers in the messy space were far more likely to choose the new one; those in the tidy office generally chose the classic version. "Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition," Dr. Vohs and her co-authors conclude in the study, "which can produce fresh insights."

    The implications of these findings are also practical. "My advice would be, if you need to think outside the box for a future project", Dr. Vohs says, "then let the clutter rise and free your imagination. But if your primary goal is to eat well or to go to the gym, pick up around your office first. By doing this, the naturally messy can acquire some of the discipline of the conscientious."

In Bududa, a lush yet landslide-prone district of eastern Uganda, Mary Butsina and a growing number of other women farmers are building their livelihoods around coffee. "I'm supporting all of my 10 children with it." says the 36-year-old, holding a red bucket.

From farming stock, Mary first went to work with her father at the age of 10. Profits from his coffee crop covered her school fees. She married into coffee too, with her husband giving her 100 trees as a wedding present. But Mary's since planted more than 300 herself and joined a women's cooperative. "The aim was to reduce the dependence of women on men in coffee." Mary says, though husbands are allowed to join too—as they tend to own the coffee plantations and support their wives. "More women have started to plant their own coffee." she says. 

Mary rises early every day to pick the coffee cherries. "It's hard work but when you concentrate it can become easy." says Mary. After gathering the ripe fruit, she puts it in a bucket of water to weed out the unhealthy cherries. The beans are then fermented (发酵) in water for at least two days before being laid out to dry in direct sunlight. Once dried, the beans are gathered up and later collected by Endiro Coffee, a social enterprise working with women-led, organic farms. The coffee is later milled, roasted and ground, ready for use.

It hasn't been an easy journey for the Bududa farmers, who've faced annual landslides for the past 15 years. In 2018, Mary's mother's house was destroyed and she lost some of her coffee plantations. She dreams of living in a solidly built house with water nearby, so she doesn't have to trek (跋涉) a long way to fetch it－but these will take time to save for. "I've worked a lot and I don't want to stop, but I want my money to work for me." she says.