I've often wondered if I might do more good as a travel agent rather than as a psychologist.It seems that I have been more dramatically affected by certain kinds of travel experiences than I ever have.

     My trip to Iceland is a fine example of that.The plan was to spend two days in a remote mountain hut in Iceland.I was working on a photograhic book about winter in Iceland and needed to capture images of this amazing region of high mountain peaks，smoky volcanoes，and lakes with floating icebergs.

     The moment after we arrived，the weather turned extreme making visibility impossible.It snowed so much and the wind blew so hard that we couldn't leave the tiny hut.We tried to call for help but the radio did not work.Day after day，we watched our supplies of food and fuel grow dangerously short.We got acute cabin fever(幽居病)and started going for walks and ski expeditions outside.Even when the weather finally broke，nobody came to get us even though it was three days beyond our scheduled pickup.By the time the rescue team came to pull us out，we had all given up hope.

     From then on，the world looks different to me，as does my life.It would have taken me years of psychotherapy to get to the same point.

Almost everyone has a story to tell，and interestingly，most of these experiences were not altogether pleasant at the time.In fact，it appears that the most constructive life­changing journeys were those that involved some sorts of awful and uncomfortable events that forced the person to develop new resources，increase confidence，and solve problems in new ways.

    Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends．They believe that their family members, especially their parents, don't know them as well their friends do．In large families, it is often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for advice．It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or many friends．Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone．This communication is very important in children's growing up, because friend can discuss something difficult to say to their family members.

    However, parents often try to choose their children's friends for them．Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends．The question of “choice” is an interesting one．Have you ever thought of the following questions?

    Who choose your friends?

    Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?

    Have you got a good friend your parent don't like?

    For a long time, the traditional method of identifying liars was to watch their body language, including facial expressions.

    What if the person appears to be nervous? Is the person unable to look me in the eye? Is he or she look around the room? What about other nervous movements, such as fidgeting（坐立不安）or shifting from side to side? Many people—from parents to police officers and airport security personnel—depend on this method. But does a person's body and face reveal the truth? Not according to a new study.

    Talking, it seems, is the best way to smoke out a liar. That is what researchers in the United Kingdom found out recently. Their investigation took place at one place where lying can get you into big trouble—an airport.

    The researchers asked volunteers to pretend they were real passengers and then lie to airport security agents. Some of the agents used spoke conversation-based methods to question these make-believe passengers. Others depended instead on the person's body language, like lack of eye contact and showing signs of nervousness. The agents talking with the passengers were 20 times more likely to catch the liars. The study found that these conversation-based techniques can help you recognize when a person is lying to you. Like many methods, this conversation method has a name. It is called Controlled Cognitive Engagement or CCE, for short.

    The British government partly financed this study. The American Psychological (APA) published the findings. Body language cannot be trusted. Using body language and facial expressions to catch someone in a lie is really hard. And it only works, seemingly, by chance.

    Thomas Ormerod is the head of the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex in England. On the APA website, he reported that the “suspicious-signs method”—or using body language—“almost completely fails” in finding lies.

    The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.

    First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges. The main question is whether you want your arms inside or outside the sleeping bag. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny balled （芭蕾）dancer. “I'm an inside guy,” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “I like to be wrapped up.”

    On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars. It also has no seat. With no gravity, it's just as easy to pedal violently. You can watch a movie while you pedal by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But station residents have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help circulate air, the carbon dioxide you exhale (呼气) has a tendency to form an invisible （隐形的）cloud around you head. You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache.

    Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat,”Your inner ear thinks your're falling . Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you're standing straight. That can be annoying—that's why some people feel sick.” Within a couple days —truly terrible days for some —astronauts' brains learn to ignore the panicky signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.

    Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time invisibly dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass. That's why exercise is considered so vital that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) puts it right on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as it is about keeping any individual astronauts return home, and, more importantly, how to maintain strength and fitness for the two and a half years or more that it would take to make a round-trip to Mars.

    Chris Thomas used to think of Facebook as just a platform to get in touch with his friends. He now believes the social networking service with saving his life. The 28－year－old was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy(肌肉萎缩症) nine years ago and has relied on a wheelchair ever since.

    On July 15，2015，Thomas was getting ready for bed in his apartment，when a shelving(架子) fell onto his wheelchair and knocked him over，causing him to fall and hit the back of his head. After waking up from a few minutes of coma(昏迷)，he realized he couldn't reach the string used to get the doorkeeper's attention.

    His phone was nearby and had the Facebook application conveniently open，so he posted a status update that immediately got his friends worried—even some he hadn't spoken to in years. “It was amazing，friends from six different states who didn't know each other were connecting with each other to get me help，” Thomas said. “Now that's the power of social media! You have hundreds of people at your fingertips.”

    Eight minutes after the status went up，an old friend，Leah，got in contact with Thomas' friend Brad，whose wife was in the neighborhood，and before you knew it there were 12 Facebook friends in his apartment，who took him to the hospital at once. They showed up to the rescue at the perfect time. Minutes before they arrived，Thomas thought he was going to have a panic attack，which he often suffers from because of his illness，but he's doing better now.

    “It felt good to know that my friends，even those I haven't spoken to in the past，came to save me，” Thomas said. “They all came together .I would've never imagined it.”

Rescue workers and thousands of volunteers are not the only ones who have won hearts and minds for their heroic efforts in the search for survivors after Tuesday's powerful earthquake in

Mexico. Fifteen dogs from the navy's canine (军犬) unit have assisted this week in the rescue efforts at the sites of collapsed buildings across Mexico City, where more than 50 people have been pulled alive from the ruins.

Of the canine heroes none is more famous or loved than Frida, a six-year-old white Labrador who in her distinguished service has won praise for her ability to detect people who have been trapped by various natural disasters. Over her admirable career she has found 52 people including 12 survivors in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

This week, Frida and Evil and Echo—two Belgian Shepherds that have also been specially trained for rescue efforts一were sent to the site of the collapsed Enrique Rebsamen School in southern Mexico City.

Equipped with goggles that protect her eyes from dust and smoke, boots to prevent damage to her paws while she climbs over rough ruins, Frida took to her work looking every bit the part of the ruins.

If Frida detects the presence of a survivor, she is trained to bark to alert rescue workers but if she detects a corpse she stops suddenly before proceeding, her handler explained.

Eleven children were rescued from ruins at the school but this time human rescue workers rather than the dogs were the ones who located them.

However, that hasn't stopped Frida from becoming a social media star and reaching a new level of fame this week. Videos and other social media posts that highlight the work of Frida and her impressive record of detecting people trapped by natural disasters spread quickly online.

While she has yet to detect anyone trapped in the ruins this week, she and other rescue dogs are continuing to work tirelessly, searching through spaces that humans cannot reach. With the possibility that there are still people trapped alive, time will tell whether she adds to her rescue record.