My first book had been rejected by every major American publisher. My first agent, wasn't communicating. My dream of a life as a successful author was in tatters.

"It isn't going to happen," I said to my friend. "And I have to accept it."

"If you lose faith in your product, no one else will have faith in it," she told me.

    And, I knew she was right. But, how could I believe in myself when I hit a wall at every turn? I knew I had a good product. The book featured interviews with world-famous people who had learned how to succeed and lead—the hard way. It had information that could help other people. As a consumer, I would have loved that book because it had the great wisdom I so desperately needed. And, their stories made for good reading. I had a good book. What I didn't have was a publisher. I had to find a way to get that book sold and on the shelves. But, how?

    The hardest challenge was forcing myself to do battle again. I had to find the strength to believe in myself when it seemed like no one else believed in me. When I hit a wall, I usually need to get more information to figure out what is going wrong. So, I did some research and found out that my initial vision for the book-where all the interview subjects got their own chapters-wasn't marketable to big publishers because that format does not sell tons of books. What I had to do was recognize, restructure and rewrite.

    I needed an agent. There are thousands of agents. Surely one of them was right for me. So, I started sending out query（询问）letters. Within a week, I had a dozen agents who wanted the book. I chose the one who I thought would believe in me and my dream. She did get me my choices of publishers.

    Hard won Wisdom wound up being a best-selling book. But, it almost never was.

    Chester is one of the best cities in the UK. As soon as you arrive in Chester you will appreciate the city's unique atmosphere and sense his history. Founded by the Romans over 2,000 years ago, much of the Roman influence remains and Chester's city walls are the most complete in Britain. Combined with history and heritage (遗产), Chester is a lively city full of bars, pubs, clubs, hotels, and restaurants for you to discover, attracting you to visit again and again.

    Travelling to Chester

    Chester is easily accessible by many means of transport—whether you are travelling by rail, car, bus or plane. Please check our route planner below to help you plan your journey to Chester. Once you arrive in the city there are numerous car parks; however, during rush hours the easiest way to travel is by bus.

    Hotel

    From bed & breakfast to the luxury of Chester's only five star hotel, Chester has all covered. Whether your trip is for business or pleasure, your room is just a click away!

    Sightseeing and Tours

    The best way to see Chester is by a guided tour. If you join one, you still have a variety to choose from. Whether you choose the traditional guided walk, to be guided around Chester historical landmarks by bus or to take a boat down the River Dee, you will sure enjoy the delights of Chester.

    Kong Zi, also called Confucius (551B.C-479B.C, and Socrates (苏格拉底) (469B.C-399B.C) lived only a hundred years apart, and during their lifetimes there was no contact between China and Greece, but it is interesting to look at how the world that each of these great philosophers came from shaped their ideas, and how these ideas in turn, shaped their societies.

    Neither philosopher lived in times of peace, though there were more wars in Greece than in China. The Chinese states were very large and feudal (封建的), while the Greek city-states were small and urban. The urban environment in which Socrates lived allowed him to be more radical (激进的) than Confucius. Unlike Confucius, Socrates was not asked by rules how to govern effectively. Thus, Socrates was able to be more idealistic, focusing on issues like freedom, and knowledge for its own sake. Confucius, on the other hand, advised those in government service, and many of his students went out to government service.

    Confucius suggested the Golden Rule as a principle for the conduct of life: "Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you." He assumed that all men were equal at birth, though some had more potential than others, and that it was knowledge that set men apart. Socrates focused on the individual, and thought that the greatest purpose of man was to seek wisdom. Like Confucius, he believed that the superior class should rule the inferior (下层的) classes.

    For Socrates, the family was of no importance, and the community of little importance. For Confucius, however, the family was the center of the society, with family relations considered much more important than political relations.

    Both men are respected much more today than they were in their lifetimes.

    Is there a way to turn back the aging process in people? For centuries, people have been looking for a "fountain of youth." The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink its water, you will not age.

    Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears that the answer may be called the hypothalamus, which is part of your brain. It controls important body activities, including growth, the way we process food and so on. Researchers found that hypothalamus neural stem cells (干细胞) also influence how fast aging takes place.

    Dongsheng Cai was the leading researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings. "when the hypothalamus starts aging, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, so does the body." he said.

    Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate (激活) the hypothalamus in laboratory mice. The results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals. "When we injected the hypothalamus stem cells to the middle-aged mice, the mice aged slowly and they could also live longer."

    But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in human beings. If so, they say the findings could lead to new ways to help doctors identify and treat age-related health problems.

Richard Browning has been attracted by flight ever since his father took him into the hills to fly gliders (滑翔机). He has certainly been an adventurer. Richard took it upon himself to develop his own jet suit and began to experiment with some of his friends. He made quick progress. In 2017, he felt confident enough to start a company called Gravity Industries that could make jet suits. It took 15 months to develop the very first one. 

Five very small jet engines are built into the jet suit. These are powered by kerosene (煤油). Two engines are located on the pilot's arms and one is placed on the back. Each engine weighs less than two kilos and can produce22 kilos of thrust(推力). 

The pilot is able to control the direction and speed of the flight. He does this by small movements of the arms which require hours of practice. One wrong move and you could end up falling to the ground. 

Richard is not only in charge of his company; he is also the chief test pilot. He has spent hours and hours perfecting the correct moves to create a perfect flight. He was able to enter the Guinness Book of World Records in 2017 when he became the fastest man in a jet suit and flew at 51 kilometres per hour. Since then, he has presented his jet suit at 60 events in 20 different countries around the world. More recently, he flew alongside Brighton Pier on the south coast of England at 136 kilometres per hour! 

The objective of Richard's company has been to build a suit which members of the public can buy. The first went on sale in a department store in 2018 for f 340, 000. If you want to jet around your own hometown, it's time to start saving—or to work for Richard Browning.

For future humans to survive long periods on Mars, growing food on the planet is a must. It would be too costly and risky to rely upon rocket deliveries to meet the food needs of settlers. With this in mind, scientists are exploring ways to improve space farming.

Researchers work in a controlled greenhouse. They have identified a way that could improve crop production in simulated （模拟的） Martian soil, with different crops grown together. The method is called "intercropping", invented by ancient Maya farmers in what is now Central America.

In their experiments, the researchers grew cherry tomatoes, peas and carrots together in small, round containers. Tomatoes grown in this way produced about double the amount of tomatoes grown alone—or "monocropped"—in the same simulated Martian soil. The tomatoes were also bigger. They flowered and matured earlier, gave more fruit per plant and had thicker stems. The amounts of peas and carrots did not increase with intercropping.

Rebeca Goncalves, an astrobiologist and lead writer of the study, said the research is the first time the intercropping technique was used in space soil, and that it was a big find—one that they could now build further research on. The crops were grown in simulated Martian regolith, a soil with no organic matter —a near-perfect physical and chemical match to real Martian soil.

The researchers added useful bacteria and nutrients. They also controlled the gases, temperature and humidity inside the greenhouse to match conditions expected in a Martian greenhouse. Intercropping involves growing plants with properties that could help each other grow. The method makes the best use of resources including water and nutrients.

The researchers said the tomato plants in intercropping may have benefited from being close to the pea plants. That is because the peas are good at turning nitrogen from the air, with the help of bacteria introduced into the soil, into an important nutrient. Overall, the tomatoes, peas and carrots grew well, though not as well as in Earth soil in the same greenhouse.