A new international study shows that some people's biological clock plays a powerful role for their life expectancy, regardless of lifestyle choices.

    Published in the latest issue of Aging on Wednesday, the study has found the most definitive evidence to explain why some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others.

    Geneticist Steve Horvath from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led a team of 65 scientists around the world to record age-related changes to human DNA, analyse blood samples collected from 13, 000 people and estimate their lifespan.

    A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, consistently predicts an earlier death, the study says.

    "You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young," Horvath said in a statement. "We have shown some people have a faster innate aging rate."

    The findings discovered that 5 percent of the population ages at a faster biological rate, which translated to a roughly 50 percent higher than average risk of death at any age.

    "The great hope is that we find anti-aging interventions that would slow your innate aging rate," Horvath said, adding that "this is an important milestone to realizing this dream."

    If you need glasses to read this, you are among the majority of Chinese students. That's because most students in China are short-sighted which means they can only see things close up and distant things will be blurry. Four-fifths of high school students wear glasses and now more and more children in primary school need glasses, too.

    This epidemic of poor eyesight has two very simple causes: too much time spent indoors studying and too little time spent outdoors playing. Reading and writing for hours and hours, sometimes in poorly lighted rooms, causes eyesight to weaken. But students have to do this because there is so much pressure on them to succeed in school. And because they spend so much time indoors at school and at home, they have less time to spend outdoors enjoying the sun.

    The sun, as a consequence, is important in developing good eyesight. Exposure to daylight releases a chemical in the eyes that prevents, or at least delays, short-sightedness. According to a study by Ian Morgan of Australian National University, Australian children and Chinese children have the same level of eyesight before they start school, but once they enter primary school, Chinese children only spend about an hour a day outside, while Australian children spend three to four hours each day in the sunshine. The result is that while about 40 percent of Chinese primary school students need glasses, only three percent of Australian children do.

    Wearing glasses may not seem like a big deal. For some, wearing glasses can even be an opportunity to make a fashion statement. But poor eyesight at a young age can have serious long term consequences. As you get older, your eyesight can worsen and lead to things like macular degeneration(黄斑变性), a condition of the eyes for which there is no cure and which can eventually lead to blindness.

    With all that in mind, don't you think it's time to give your eyes a break? Try spending a little less time inside and go for a walk in the park, instead. It's the healthy thing to do and your eyes will thank you for it.

    Most of us have friends as close as family, who, when necessary, we'd call at 3 a.m. for comfort or congratulations because we know they won't get angry about us. They're almost part of us, and we share with them with our troubles and successes. But although I love these Pour Your Heart Out friends, I also need the energy of my Let's Party friends. These friends care on a different level—less stressful, less deep—but they still care.

    And such friendships are important. 'With some friends, you want to be playful rather than deeply opening your heart,' says psychotherapist (心理治疗师) Susie Orbach. 'They feel relaxed and easy that you won't keep talking about your problems or stories, and you also feel the same way. It's healthy to have lots of different friends at different levels of closeness because not only is it impossible to be close to everyone, it's also unnecessary. You need to look at yourself from different angles (角度). This is the only way you can experiment with different parts of yourself.'

    Of course, it's upsetting to be with friends who can't-or-won't -allow you to open up your heart when you really need to find someone to listen to. But if we accept our Let's Party friends for what they want to offer us—fun, laughter, full stop—then we enrich our lives greatly.

    BKLYN House Hotel

    This hotel features works by Brooklyn artists. The 116 rooms are of good value—Manhattan is only 20 minutes away by taxi or subway. The immediate surroundings feel urban—the hotel is by a high-rise public housing project while the nearest commercial street is under elevated subway tracks—but Bushwick's best bars and cafes/restaurants are nearby.

    Doubles from $99, room only. Tel：718 388 4433

    Archer Hotel

    Visitors eager to stay in the heart of Manhattan should try one of the bargain-priced rooms at this hotel. Rates vary from great value to expensive; some start from as low as $179 a night (if prepaying in full). Rooms are small but tasteful, with nice touches such as exposed brick. Some have close-up views of the Empire State Building.

    Doubles from $199, room only. Tel: 212 719 4100

    Pod 39 Hotel

    In an elegant brick building in Manhattan's Murray Hill, this excellent budget option opened following the success of its sister hotel, The Pod. The rooms are called pods given their small size and may not suit everyone. But with prices among the most competitive in Manhattan, budgeters will be happy.

    Doubles from $95, room only. Tel：212 865 5700

    CitizenM New York Times Square

    This is the first US location for a Netherlands-based concept hotel chain—CitizenM. The hotel features self check-in at its 230 little but comfortable rooms via touch screen “MoodPads”. There's a rooftop bar, a 24-hour grab-and-go cafeteria and an area with public iMac workspaces. Although New Yorkers avoid nearby Times Square, all the lights, cameras and action can make it a fun tourist experience.

    Doubles from $170, room only. Tel：212 319 7000

    Alice Robb is an American science journalist who has written for the Washington Post and the New Republic. Her new book, Why We Dream, encourages us to rethink the importance of dreams and to become dream interpreters ourselves.

    Reporter: Recently there's been a massive interest in the science of sleep. Sleep plays a role in maintaining our mental health. Are dreams part of that process?

    Alice Robb: Dreams play a big role in helping us cope with stress, grief and psychological problems. Dreams are an opportunity to work through things that frighten us in real life, to play out worst-case situations in an environment where they have no consequences.

    Reporter: Has anyone explained why dreams contain such surreal (超现实的) elements, strange pictures of time, people, geography and so on?

    Alice Robb：When we dream, the logic centres of our brain—the frontal lobes (大脑额叶) —go dark, and chemicals associated with self-control, like serotonin (血清素) and norepinephrine (去甲肾 上腺素) , drop. At the same time, the emotion centres light up：we have a perfect chemical canvas for dramatic, psychologically intense visions.

    Reporter：You say neglecting to consider our dreams is like "throwing away a gift from our brains without bothering to open it. " What is the gift?

    Alice Robb: When we're dreaming, we're thinking in a state we never have access to by day. Dreams offer the opportunity to think in a different way and show new answers to problems. They show us blind spots on things we might be neglecting in our personal lives.

In 2015 my husband and I spent some days traveling in Sahara Desert. I was super 1 to ride a camel for the first time and spent a night in a tent in the desert.

2 , the ride started with me hanging upside down from the saddle (鞍) with one3 in the air. Bob, my camel, had decided to stand up4 I could settle in. I held onto the saddle5 as the guide pushed me up onto the camel's back. Bob6 a sound of disapproval and we rode off. I thought it would be bumpy (颠簸的); but it was a very7 journey all the way8 the fact that the camel in front was having a bad case of gas.

After dinner, we returned to the tent for sleep. Even in several thick blankets, I was 9 from head to toe while my husband fell asleep straight away. Thankfully, I drifted into dreamland gradually, only to be 10 by an unusual noise, followed by a(n)11 smell. I tried to go back to sleep, but another unpleasant smell and more 12 , which went on for hours.

After what felt like a 13 night, it was time to rise to watch the sunrise. I dragged my sleepy body out. There, 14 just outside was Bob, who made direct eye contact with me and I promised I 15 a broad grin on his face.