When the Apollo astronauts (宇航员) landed on the Moon in 1969, millions of people were rather sad. The person to blame for this was an artist named Chesley Bonestell. For many years, Bonestell had been creating beautifully detailed paintings of the Moon and planets. Viewers of his artwork were unhappy because the real Moon did not look like Bonestell's pictures of it.

    As a space artist, Bonestell tried to make his drawings look exciting and as true as the Moon is. He worked closely with astronomers and scientists to get the most up-to-date scientific information available. But in the 1940s and 1950s, no one had ever seen another planet up close. Yet Bonestell's paintings looked so real that some people thought they were photographs.

    Even though Bonestell was interested in astronomy, he did not start out as a space artist. As a young man he studied architecture — the art and science of designing and making buildings. In 1938 Bonestell became a special effects artist in Hollywood. It was here that he learned he could improve his paintings by following the methods used in the movies.

    In 1944, a popular magazine published a series of Bonestell's paintings of the planet Saturn. He drew Saturn as if it were seen by someone standing on each of the planet's moons. The results were dazzling. Within a few years, Bonestell's artwork was appearing regularly in magazines and books on astronomy and space flight.

    Many of Bonestell's artworks had been right all along. But the biggest surprise was the Moon. Someone asked Bonestell what he was thinking when he saw the first pictures from the Moon. “I thought how wrong I was!” he said. “My mountains were sharp (陡峭的), and they aren't on the Moon.”

    But he shouldn't have felt bad. No space artist had ever before taken so many people to so many faraway worlds. In the years just before the first manned space flights, Bonestell's artwork prepared people for the amazing space adventure to come.

    While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.

    These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity (笃信宗教). As countries become richer, religion becomes less central to people's lives and they lose a sense of meaning in life.

    “Thus far, the wealth of nations has been almost always associated with longevity, health, happiness or life satisfaction,” explains psychological scientist Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia. “Given that meaning in life is an important aspect of overall well-being, we wanted to look more carefully at differential patterns, correlates (相关物), and predictors for meaning in life.”

    Oishi and colleague Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated life satisfaction, meaning, and well-being by examining data from the 2007 Gallup World Poll, a large-scale survey of over 140,000 participants from 132 countries. In addition to answering a basic life satisfaction question, participants were asked: “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?” and “Is religion an important part of your daily life?”

    The data revealed some unexpected trends: “Among Americans, those who are high in life satisfaction are also high in meaning in life,” says Oishi. “But when we looked at the societal level of analysis, we found a completely different pattern of the association between meaning in life and life satisfaction.”

    When looking across many countries, Oishi and Diener found that people in wealthier nations were more educated, had fewer children, and expressed more individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries — all factors that were associated with higher life satisfaction but a significantly lower sense of meaning in life.”

    The data suggest that religiosity may play an important role: Residents of wealthier nations, where religiosity is lower, reported less meaning in life and had higher suicide rates than poorer countries.

    According to the researchers, religion may provide meaning to life to the extent that it helps people to overcome personal difficulty and cope with the struggles of working to survive in poor economic conditions:

    “Religion gives a system that connects daily experiences with the coherent whole (连贯的整体) and a general structure to one's life … and plays a critical role in constructing meaning out of extreme hardship,” the researchers write.

    Oishi and Diener hope to reproduce these findings using more comprehensive measures of meaning and religiosity, and are interested in following countries over time to track whether economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life.

    What a lesson for me! It was August and it was hot. I had to wear a tie to do a survey door by door in this neighbourhood, but I was always refused. I finally caught on and began with “Before you close the door, I am not selling anything and I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and the community”.

    The young woman inside the doorway stopped for a moment, confused by my rude introduction and finally said, “Sure. Come on in. Don't mind the mess. It's hard to keep up with my kids.”

    “I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and your family. Although this may sound personal, I won't need to use your names. This information will be used.” She interrupted me. “Would you like a glass of cold water? You look like you've had a rough day.” “Why yes!” I said gratefully. Just as she returned with the water, a man came walking in the front door. It was her husband. “Joe, this man is here to do a survey.” I stood and politely introduced myself.

    “Joe works for the town,” she said. “What do you do?” I asked. She jumped right in not letting him answer. “Joe collects garbage. You know I'm so proud of him.”

    There was a silence. I didn't know what to say. I shook my head searching for the right words. “That's unbelievable! Most people would not be satisfied with a job like that. It certainly is a difficult one. But your attitude about it is amazing.” I said.

    She walked over to the shelf. As she returned she held a small framed（装裱）paper, walking toward Joe. “I have always been proud of him and always will be. You see I don't think the job makes the man, but the man makes the job!” she said as she handed me the paper.

    It said: If a man is called to be a cleaner, he should clean streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great cleaner who did his job well.”

    A newly-published study has shown that loneliness can spread from one person to another, like a disease.

    Researchers used information from the Framingham Study, which began in 1948. The Framingham Study gathers information about physical and mental( 心 理 的 ) health, personal behavior and diet. At first, the study involved about 5,000 people in the American state of Massachusetts. Now, more than 12,000 persons are taking part.

    Information from the Framingham Study showed earlier that happiness can spread from person to person. So can behaviors like littering and the ability to stop smoking.

    University of Chicago psychologist (心理学家) John Cacioppo led the recent study. He and other researchers tried to show how often people felt lonely. They found that the feeling of loneliness spread through social groups.

    Having a social connection with a lonely person increased the chances that another person would feel lonely. In fact, a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. A friend of that person was 25% more likely. The researchers say this shows that a person could indirectly be affected by someone's loneliness.

    The effect was strongest among friends. Neighbors were the second most affected group. The effect was weaker on husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. The researchers also found that loneliness spread more easily among women than men.

    The New York Times newspaper reports that, on average, people experience feelings of loneliness about 48 days a year. It also found that every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent, or two and a half fewer lonely days.

    Loneliness has been something to do with health problems like sadness and sleeping difficulties. The researchers believe that knowing the causes of loneliness could help in reducing it.

    The study suggests that people can take steps to stop the spread of loneliness. They can do this by helping individuals they know who may be experiencing loneliness. The result can be helpful to the whole social group.

    As scientists in the Netherlands tried to figure out how to build a super flying robot, they learned from one of nature s flyers: the humble fruit fly(果蝇).And by building this robot, they've gained new insights into how the fly carries out one of its dangerous tasks.

    The robot is called the DelFly Nimble Its wingspan(冀展)is about a foot wide. It has four wings that can beat at 17 times per second, which appear very delicate because they're made of the same material as space blankets.

    In the previous designs, they always had a tail, like a traditional airplane tail, said the robots main designer Matej Karasek. He's based at the Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and he and his colleagues published their findings on Thursday in Science

    “In the previous generations", he said, "flapping wings drove the robot forward while the tail helped to guide and stabilize it. But now the DelFly Nimble is completely controlled by the wings. The challenge then was actually combine the control into the wing movement, and that's what we achieved, Karasek said

    In the latest generation. the wings can each move individually or rotate(旋转)around the body of the robot in order to maximize the machine s agility(灵活 ) The robot can remain in one place in the air for about five minutes on a full battery or fly for more than a kilometer"， Karasek said, "And because the scientists are controlling all the movements, they can use the robot to learn more about how fruit flies actually carry out their dangerous tasks, which has caught the attention of biologists.”

    What's the point of studying? It's something you might ask yourself if you're studying for a degree and you're struggling to complete homework or in an exam, especially if your friends seem to be out having a good time, or are working and earning lots of money.

    Many of us choose to go to university as a first step towards a good career but sometimes that career is to go to university as a first step towards a good career but sometimes that career is hard to achieve and graduates end up doing something they are overqualified for. With the increasing costs of university, students begin to ask themselves whether a degree path is the best route into a career. There is a need for much better career advice and guidance into employment in addition to university education.

    But other new research says that a degree will in the long run, earn you more. However there are differences in your earning potential. Dr Jack Britton says that "graduates of the 24 Russell Group universities earn an average of £33,500 after five years - about 40% more than those who studied at other universities."

    However, it has found it's not just the location but other factors that can play a part in what you can earn, such as the subject a student chooses to study. It discovered that five years after graduation, the income gap between students who studied the subjects that attract the highest and lowest salaries can be considerable. Graduates in subjects such as law, medicine, dentistry as well, tend to do well. And as they progress, the pay gap between these careers and others, such as the creative arts, widens. There are factors too that influence what you might earn: Five years after graduation, men earn on average 14% more than women. Also, a student's social background can have an effect, with those from better-off household much more likely to go to university and particularly a good one.

    But if you still feel university doesn't deliver the best opportunities then there are encouraging words from Alistair Jarvis, head of universities UK, who told BBC News that "Employs are demanding more graduates and graduates are half as likely to be unemployed as likely to be unemployed as non-graduates. There are many good graduate outcomes coming from universities" So may all that studying is worth it-after all 'no pain, no gain'!