The surface of Venus（金星）has never seemed very hospitable. Temperatures change around 470℃（900℉）, the result of a runway greenhouse effect，and the pressure of its atmosphere, thick with carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, is some 90 times that of Earth's. Lead（铅）would flow like water on Venus, and water cannot have existed in liquid form for perhaps a billion years.

    Now NASA'S Magellan spacecraft seems to have found one more horror in the nasty landscape: active volcanoes. Last week the space agency released the first detailed map of Venus and the most dramatic images ever made of its surface. The picture offer the best evidence to date that a planet once assumed dead is actually a lively pot of geological change.

    The most amazing image is of Venus's second tallest mountain, Maat Mons, which rises 8km（5 miles）. Most of the planet's many peaks, including 9.5-km-（6-mile-） high Maxwell Montes, look bright in the radar pictures Magellan takes from its orbit above the permanent could cover. That means they are strong reflectors of radar waves. But Maat Mons is dark; like the Stealth bomber, it absorbs much of the radar falling on it.

    This interesting fact, say project scientists, is a strong hint that the mountains has recently been covered with lava. Rock that sits on the surface of mountaintops appears to weather quickly in the hot，chemically reactive atmosphere, creating a soil that is rich in iron sulfide（硫化铁）• It is this mineral, the scientists believe, that can easily be seen on radar. If Maat Mons doesn't have any, it has probably been resurfaced, perhaps within the past few years.

    Such resurfacing has undoubtedly taken place in Venus lowlands: earlier images of the planet showed vast areas that are remarkably free of craters（火山坑）.That would be easy to explain on a Planet like Earth, where cratering from meteor strikes is erased by steady erosion. But while there is some evidence of wind erosion on Venus, the best explanation for the lack of cratering is periodic lava flow. Magellan has found direct evidence of such flows, including domelike upwellings and hardened streamed of rock trailing down the sides of Venusian peaks. There are also signs of other geologic activities, including dramatic faulting and several distinct incidents of mountain building. But the evidence can't indicate whether they really occurred millions of years ago. The case for active Venusian volcanoes is not yet proved, but Magellan, which is now well into its second complete survey of the planet's surface, may eventually settle the issue.

    It happens from time to time: you feel terrible when you take your first bite of a certain food, but after eating more, you find yourself enjoying it. This is what is called an acquired taste. But why do our tastes change?

    The answer, according to a recent study presented at an American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, lies in proteins in our saliva (唾液).

    Most of us tend to think saliva, almost entirely made up of water, is “only a mouth lubricant (润滑剂) helping us to swallow food,” the New York Times said. However, it also contains many proteins, which can help break food down, protect our teeth and help in tasting food.

    To explain how these proteins affect taste, a team of scientists from Purdue University in the US invited 64 volunteers to drink a bitter-tasting chocolate milk three times a day for six weeks and rated their tastes at the same time.

    According to the research, the participants found a strong bitterness on the first day, but the unpleasant flavor came to decrease as time went on and finally disappeared.

    That is not all that was changing. A noticeable increase in the levels of proline-rich (富含脯氨酸的) proteins was found in the saliva samples of the test subjects in the research period. These proteins serve to reduce the bitterness we taste and improve our adaptation to this flavor.

    “We think the body adapts to reduce the negative feeling of these bitter compounds,” said Cordelia Running, a food scientist at Purdue University. “Saliva changes flavor, which in turn changes eating choices.”

    This change in taste not only makes the food tastier, but also helps people keep an appetite for healthy food whose flavor might otherwise keep them away.

    One day, these proteins may even be extracted (提炼) and used as a separate food additive that could help people stick to healthy food whose flavor they continue to dislike, researchers told Science Alert. And according to Running, even it doesn't happen, the idea that “maybe some little piece of your body is actually trying to help you” could really benefit some people. Let's wait and see.

    Everyone at Pacsafe is always eager to get out in the world and enjoy new cultures, food, and experiences. With that in mind we asked a few of our top travel bugs for their best travel destination recommendations for 2019. They also included their favorite Pacsafe bag to take on the trip. Enjoy and hopefully get some ideas for your own globe - trotting adventure.

    Sri Lanka - Alison Hanko, Global Marketing Director

    I'm going to Sri Lanka this summer holiday and can't wait. It's close to Hong Kong where I live and I've always wanted to go. The food is supposed to be amazing. It seems really relaxing and I really want to do the Kandy to Badulla train ride, which looks just stunning. We've booked a good mix of beaches, some time in a safari tent to hopefully see elephants in the wild.

    For my bag, I'll most likely take the Quiksilver 40L Pack because it has the built-in wet pack for my bikinis. It's also a great size for a week-long trip in a warm climate.

    Japan - Ben Barras, Creative Director

    Japan is definitely my best travel destination recommendation. The culture, the streets, the architecture, the inspiration you get from all of that is amazing. The food is also fascinating. It's where I'm most planning to go. Tokyo obviously, but also visiting the mountains. You can go snowboarding, which I haven't done for years.

    I have a Vibe 25L Backpack which you can pack a lot in. The thing I like most about it is that it's compact, but still fits plenty in. I'll pair that up with a larger travel bag for the rest of my things and use the backpack to get around day to day.

    Berlin - Phil Hayes, Executive VP of Global Design

    For me, it's definitely Berlin. I'm particularly excited about the fashion, which I hear is pretty full on. Also the art galleries and history. Food, nightlife. Everything I've heard about Berlin is pretty cool, so I'm going to suck as much as I can out of it. World's Global Style Network had the Berlin shopping list that came out recently, so I'm going to follow that through as well.

    Bag wise, it will be the Quiksilver X Collab Bag. It's the 25L Anti-theft Backpack. It's normally my go-to bag for city trips because it's super easy to lock on the plane and in bars, and it's just the right amount of space.

    Standing desks have become common across Silicon Valley, offering health benefits to those willing to work on their feet. However, due to their high price, they have failed to catch on until now. Recently, Ikea has brought out Bekant convertible(可变换的) standing desk that can become a normal desk at the touch of a button. The $500 adjustable desk can transform from a standard desk to a standing one, and Ikea hopes it could make the standing desk mainstream.

    Experts say that changing from a seated to a standing desk can improve productivity. Similar desks have become a common sight at tech firms such as Google, where some employees have even installed treadmill (跑步机) and bicycle desks.

    The desk is not the first "convertible" on the market. As early as 2013, Stir Kinect brought out an adjustable desk. The $3,890 Stir Kinect desk has a motor to raise and lower itself, changing it into a standing desk or a traditional desk. The desk can even be programmed to move up and down slightly, making it appear to take a gentle breath to remind the user to change their positions. To move between sitting and standing positions, owners simply double tap on the screen. The desk can learn the user's preferences over time and suggest the best seating position.

    The Stir Kinect desk was created by a team of ex-Apple and Disney engineers. It has a built-in touch screen to control and track movement, and can tell users exactly how many calories they burn by standing during their working day. It also has devices containing power points and USB ports for charging phones, to keep cables hidden.

    "Ikea's height-adjustable desk is great for opening up the lower end of the market, " said JP Labrosse, founder and CEO of Stir.

A new book called "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua has caused a debate (争论) about cultural differences in parenting. Amy Chua is a teacher in an American university and both of her parents are Chinese. In the book, Ms. Chua writes about how she taught her daughters. She told NBC television that she had a clear list of what her daughters were not allowed to do, such as having a play date, watching TV or playing computer games and getting any grade less than an A.

Many people are against Amy Chua's parenting style (风格), even her husband, who is American. They say it is rude and unfair to children. But she says her parents raised her and her three sisters in that way.

Ms. Chua says after her younger daughter shouted "I hate my life! I hate you!" she decided to retreat because she was afraid of losing her daughter. But she also says American parents often have low expectations of their children's abilities.

"The debate is about what it means to be a successful parent and what it means to be a successful child," said Stacy DeBroff, who has written four books on parenting. She says Amy Chua's parenting style is not limited to Chinese families. It is a tradi-tional way of parenting among immigrants (移民). They hope to get a better future for their children.

She also sees a risk (风险). When children have no time to be social or to develop their own interests, they might not develop other skills that they need to succeed in life. DeBroff advises parents to develop their own style of parenting and not just repeat the way they were raised.

Like reading? Interested in Chinese classical novels? Have a look at the following four books which are we known to most Chinese as Four Masterpieces.

The Water Margin

The Water Margin, also known as All Men Are Brothers in Pearl Buck's translation, Shui Hu Zhuan in Chinese, is along chapter novel with the Song Jiang Uprising in the late Northern Song Dynasty as the main background and type of heroic legend. It is an immortal (不朽的) novel and has inspired many storytellers. The author of the novel is generally regarded as Shi Nai'an (1296~1371).

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the first full-length historical romance novel in China. Its author is Luo Guan zhong (about 1330~1400), a famous novelist in the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. Characters such as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhuge Liang have become household names among the Chinese.

Journey to the West

Journey to the West is the first romantic chapter novel about gods and devils in ancient China. There are 100 copies of Journey to the Westin the existing Ming Publications without the author's signature. Wu Yuxuan, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, first proposed that the author of Journey to the West was Wu Cheng'en (1500~1582) of the Ming Dynasty.

The Dream of the Red Chamber

The Dream of the Red Chamber, also called The Story of the Stone, is said to be the greatest masterpiece of Chinese fiction. It is generally believed to be written by Cao Xueqin (about 1715~1763), a writer of the Qing Dynasty. With hundreds of persons and their stories, the story is very complex but also very interesting for its encyclopedic character(百科全书式的人物).