On a spring night in 2023, Fung Hon-shing was driving on Fei Ngo Shan Road in Sai Kung when he discovered over a hundred newts that had been run over by vehicles. Some had died, while some were on the brink of death.

The striking scene deeply moved Fung, prompting him to crowd-fund around HK$300,000 to make a documentary about the life cycle of the Hong Kong newt.

The 33-year-old is one of the few full-time ecological producers in Hong Kong, spending long hours in the countryside capturing footage of wild animals.

A graduate of the Department of Biology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Fung once worked as a research assistant studying the distribution and habits of the Hong Kong newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis).

But it was not the first time he had encountered the tailed amphibian.

“I have known the species since I was a child, when my parents brought me to hike in the mountains near my home,” Fung said. “I discovered that newts can live in different habitats like streams, ponds or even drains. The adaptability of the newt impressed me.”

The creature belongs to a species that was first thought to be endemic only to Hong Kong – hence the name – but was later also found in Guangdong province.

In 2023, Fung, along with several other ecological photographers and videographers, formed a team to spend a year filming this unique salamander. They successfully captured the complete life cycle of the newts underwater – including courtship, fighting, mating, egg-laying, hatching, foraging, and migration – and made it into a 10-minute film, titled: Life (cycle) of the Hong Kong Newt.

The documentary was shortlisted for multiple film festivals in Hong Kong and overseas. It won the 2024 Nature Film of the Year award at the Singapore Nature Film Festival. That same year, the short film was also exhibited at an art gallery in Sham Shui Po, bringing the life of the unique creature to a wider public.

The Hong Kong newt – the only tailed amphibian in Hong Kong – has a black or brown back, and bright orange spots on its belly to warn predators of its toxicity. The orange dots also act as a fingerprint, meaning no Hong Kong newts share an identical pattern.

The species is listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and protected under Hong Kong’s Wild Animals Protection Ordinance.

Juvenile newts live in streams. Every April, adult newts migrate to woodlands to avoid the rapid currents of the rainy season. Fei Ngo Shan Road is one of the obstacles they must cross.

Fung collaborated with Professor Anthony Lau, a wildlife ecologist at Lingnan University, to conduct a study called “Hong Kong Newt Roadkill Survey Project,” published in July last year. According to the research, at least 1,427 newts were run over by vehicles between March and May 2024, with 870 of those deaths occurring on Fei Ngo Shan Road.

“After the results of this survey were announced, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) contacted the Lingnan University team. Things are changing bit by bit, but the key is that it takes time,” Fung said.

In 2020, Fung and other wildlife filmmakers -Daphne Wong and James Kwok – founded Frigatefilms, which specialises in nature content. The production company mainly provides ecological filming and documentary services, collaborating with both the government and environmental organisations.

The producer describes his work as a way to atone for what humans have done to the environment, despite realising the impact of his projects may be limited.

“There is actually very little an individual can do in the face of climate change. Sometimes I make videos to explain why we need to conserve and why we should be more environmentally friendly, but as individuals, what we can do is rather limited,” he said.

Apart from the Hong Kong newt, Fung’s projects cover freshwater fish, frogs, birds, and more. However, ecological filming often means returning empty-handed, and one does not always capture the desired footage.

Last winter, after filming a whole flock of black-faced spoonbills foraging, Fung set out again at five the following morning. He was accompanied by an HKFP photojournalist, who began following him in April last year.

As it turned out, there was only one black-faced spoonbill along the same coastline, which failed to provide any usable footage.

Yet, Fung had a level-headed response to the unlucky outcome. He explained that the speed of the rising tide was completely different from the day before, making the water level at the spot too deep for the spoonbills to stand and forage comfortably, so the birds sought out another location.

Despite the unpredictability of his job, he savours every moment of it.

“I really enjoy filming in the wild,” he said. “For one thing, I get to set foot in many different countryside areas of Hong Kong, getting to know Hong Kong better and building many connections.

“Besides that, I can spend long periods in these habitats interacting with or waiting for species, which allows me to understand these creatures deeply. Finally, I can use images to explain the stories of these creatures to others and share them, so the filming process is quite enjoyable.”

Most people associate ecological documentaries with the African savannah, the Southeast Asian rainforests or the Arctic icy waters. However, Fung still wants to keep focusing on Hong Kong.

“I live in this place, and my daily observations and feelings all stem from Hong Kong’s ecology, so I want to use images to leave some records behind. It’s mainly a matter of emotional attachment rather than the diversity or uniqueness of the species,” Fung said.

“Because of the connection between this place and my own life, I want to try my best to capture more of the different facets of Hong Kong’s ecology.”

One of the clearest success stories in US healthcare over the past 20 years has been the dramatic decline in the number of Americans without health insurance. In 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act was enacted, 16 percent of the population lacked coverage. By 2025, according to estimates from the US government, that figure was cut nearly in half, to 8.3 percent.

The increase in coverage hasn’t been a panacea; even people with an insurance card can struggle to afford their medical bills or to secure a doctor’s appointment. But with the US standing alone among its international peers in its failure to offer universal healthcare, it represented significant progress toward ensuring every American had a basic level of access to routine medical services.

Now, however, those gains are about to be reversed.

Last year, when drafting their One Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans had a chance to strike a blow against the ACA — a law they’d vilified for years — 15 years after its passage and eight years after failing to repeal the law in President Donald Trump’s first term. They established work requirements to target the people covered by the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and allowed subsidies that had helped millions of people to buy private coverage on the ACA marketplaces to lapse.

As a result, millions of Americans are dropping their health insurance this year, and millions more are expected to lose their coverage in the years to come.

The uninsured rate has spiked before, but it’s usually the byproduct of an economic crisis; people lose their jobs, and they lose their coverage. What makes the current turmoil different is that it is entirely a matter of policy choices. 

Now, millions of Americans will pay the price.

“I don’t think there’s any historical precedent for the rollback in federal support for health coverage coming with the cuts in Medicaid plus the expiration of enhanced ACA premium subsidies,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the healthcare think tank KFF, told me. “The expected effects of OBBBA on coverage are self-inflicted and dwarf even the historical losses due to changes in the economy.”

ACA marketplace enrollment is projected to shrink dramatically in 2026

One of the major ways that the ACA expanded health insurance coverage was by setting up insurance marketplaces where individuals and families could purchase private health plans with the help of government subsidies.

Enrollment in those marketplaces has ballooned — particularly since 2021, when Democrats in Congress approved an expansion of the ACA’s financial aid that made more people eligible for assistance. Prior to 2021, there had been a strict cutoff at 400 percent of the federal poverty level (about $64,000 for an individual in 2026, or $132,000 for a family of four). Anybody who made a higher income was ineligible for aid. After 2021, anybody could qualify for ACA subsidies, and their insurance premiums were capped at a percentage of their income. (The subsidies were initially authorized for two years and, then, were extended to 2026 through the Inflation Reduction Act.)

It seemed to have plugged one of the obvious holes in the healthcare law: While many people below 400 percent of the poverty level had enjoyed both mandated comprehensive coverage and new government subsidies that offset any increases in costs, people above that threshold had been subjected to significant premium hikes since the ACA passed. Now, they were able to access the same subsidies, and sign-ups boomed. Marketplace enrollment grew from 9.8 million Americans in 2019 to 22.3 million in 2025. 

But, to keep down the cost of their legislation and get it passed with a narrow Senate majority, Democrats allowed the new subsidies to expire in 2026. Then, Trump won the 2024 presidential election, and Republicans took control of Congress. The GOP decided not to extend the subsidies, despite some bipartisan efforts to pull together a plan. When people went to sign up for their health insurance for 2026, many of them no longer had access to financial aid. I spoke last year with some of those people. One family was preparing to allow one parent and child to become uninsured so they could afford a health plan for the other parent who has an autoimmune disease. A young man with asthma also expected to go without coverage after his previous plan ($100 per month and no deductible) was no longer available, and the cheapest replacement he could find was $282 per month with a $10,000 deductible. He told me he was banking on being able to pay for his medication out of pocket or getting it through a charity service.

So, we knew some people would drop their insurance as a result of the expired subsidies, but it was hard to be sure how many. Now, we’re starting to get hard data, and it does not look good. Based on KFF’s preliminary analysis of enrollment data and premium payments, about 4.7 million fewer people will actually end up being enrolled in an ACA marketplace plan in 2026 compared to 2025 — a 21 percent drop in a single year.

Work requirements are going to knock millions of people off Medicaid

The ACA’s other major coverage provision was the expansion of Medicaid eligibility to any American with an income at or below 133 percent of the poverty level (about $21,000 for an individual in 2026, or $44,000 for a family of four). It replaced the preexisting patchwork system for eligibility that created significant differences across states — in particular, millions of childless adults, some of whom were living in deep poverty but had been left out of the program in many states before the ACA, now qualified for Medicaid. 

As of June 2025, more than 16 million Americans who became newly eligible for Medicaid through the ACA had been enrolled in the program, making up nearly a quarter of all Medicaid enrollees.

Republicans in Congress had been sharply critical of Medicaid expansion, even as many GOP-led states adopted it, and 2025’s OBBBA gave them a chance to roll it back. They approved, for the first time, national work requirements for Medicaid, targeted to expansion-eligible enrollees, and made several other technical changes to constrain states’ Medicaid financing. People on the program will be required to work or perform other approved activities for at least 80 hours per month or show they should be exempted from the requirement. Otherwise, they could lose their benefits.

And based on what we know from historical precedent, many of the coverage losses won’t be because people are actually ineligible for Medicaid, but because of the administrative burden of complying with these new requirements, even if you are working, or if you are someone — like a pregnant person — who is supposed to be exempted. Arkansas is the only state to implement Medicaid work requirements prior to the OBBBA, and only a fraction of the people required to submit work activities to the state actually did so; many of the people who lost coverage lost it because they failed to turn in paperwork. 

The Medicaid population is, by nature, hard to reach. This group is lower-income and might work irregular hours, move around more, or have less access to the internet. It’s easy for people to fall through the cracks.

The OBBBA’s requirements go into effect nationally in January 2027 (after this year’s midterm elections), but some states are instituting them early. Nebraska implemented work requirements on May 1, Montana and Arkansas are starting theirs on July 1, and Iowa will adopt the requirements on December 1. Then, starting on January 1, 2027, they will apply in every state.

The coverage losses are difficult to project, and they could take time to accrue, but they are expected to be sizable. The nonprofit research group RAND estimated Medicaid enrollment will drop by 7.6 million people by 2034. 

And they, much like those people dropping ACA coverage, will lose more than just their insurance card. Health insurance, even with its shortcomings, does a lot to help people. Americans with health insurance accrue less medical debt. They are more likely to go to routine medical appointments and receive routine screenings. Prior research on Medicaid expansion’s effects has estimated that it saved tens of thousands of lives.

In other words, the coming increase in the uninsured rate will do more than change some percentage points on a spreadsheet; it will make it harder for millions of Americans to stay healthy and stay alive.

Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound that puts the “magic” in magic mushrooms. Ingest enough of a fungus like Psilocybe cubensis, and users are liable to experience sensory hallucinations, euphoria, and even altered perceptions of time. Mounting research also suggests that smaller, microdosed amounts may offer promising alternative therapeutic options for treating PTSD, depression, and even alcoholism.

But what happens when you give fish the same psychoactive ingredient? It may sound like an odd, even pointless experiment, but biological neuroscientists think the results could inform future medical and psychiatric treatments. Their evidence laid out in a study published today in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience suggests small levels of psilocybin ease anxiety or aggression. Or, at the very least, it calms down a notoriously mean species of fish.

The mean fish in question is the mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus). It is a remarkable creature found along the coast of Florida all the way to Brazil.The 1.5 to three inch amphibious fish has evolved to not only thrive in brackish waters, but survive on land for as long as two months. They’re also extremely aggressive and territorial, making them suitable for certain social and behavioral studies. And because the mangrove rivulus self-fertilizes and produces genetically identical embryos, they offer researchers conveniently uniform models.

To test how psilocybin affects the traditionally confrontational fish, a team from Nova Scotia’s Acadia University and the University of British Columbia bred three genetically distinct lines of laboratory rivulus. One group was exposed to the psychoactive compound, another essentially served as a target for their aggression, and a third was employed separately to assess psilocybin absorption and bodily concentration.

Researchers first observed the standard interactions between two fish separated by a mesh barrier in a tank. These frequently include high-energy “swimming bursts” to intimidate each other without making physical contact, as well as less energy intensive, head-on displays of hostility. On the following day, the team placed one of the rivulus into a water tank that included dissolved psilocybin for 20 minutes. Finally, they transported the now-dosed fish back into the tank with its original foe and watched their reunion.

The team’s findings offer the first direct evidence that psilocybin can selectively reduce the escalating aggression in the fish, without dampening their social interactions. Rivulus with psilocybin in their system significantly reduced their tendency to perform swimming bursts, but still participated in easier head-on displays. Basically, the fish calmed down a bit—but they also got very lazy.

“Psilocybin’s calming effect appears to selectively reduce energetically costly, escalated behaviors while lower‑energy social display behaviors remained largely unchanged,” study co-author and biologist Dayna Forsyth said in a statement. “This suggests that this compound can selectively dampen escalated social conflict rather than shutting down behavior altogether.”

That’s great for the mangrove rivulus, but what about humans? While the experiment focused on a single dose of psilocybin under short time constraints, the team’s findings may kickstart further explorations of the psychoactive compound’s uses in therapeutic treatments. In particular, knowing what social behaviors are affected by psilocybin versus the behaviors that remain unchanged can help researchers hone the scope of their future work.

“These are questions that are difficult or impossible to answer directly in humans,” added University of British Columbia biologist and study c-oauthor Suzie Curie.

The post Magic mushrooms make mean fish lazier and more chill appeared first on Popular Science.

A group of Tai Po fire survivors have petitioned their housing estate’s administrator to hold a general meeting with homeowners to discuss long-term resettlement and related financial matters after collecting 247 handwritten signatures.

The petition organisers issued a media statement on Tuesday, saying that they had delivered the petition and the handwritten signatures to Hop On Management on April 29.

Hop On Management – a subsidiary of real estate giant Chinachem Group – was appointed by the government in early January to act as administrator of the incorporated owners of Wang Fuk Court after a tribunal dissolved the owners’ board of the Tai Po residential estate.

Displaced homeowners, who are scattered across Hong Kong following the deadly fire, have since urged Hop On to call a general meeting, but to no avail.

Jason Kong, one of the petition organisers, told HKFP on Tuesday that a Hop On staff member received the petition in person on April 29.

The staff member gave Kong an acknowledgement slip, which said the company had received the documents but also read: “Content not verified.”

Kong also said that within a couple of weeks, the organisers had gathered 247 signatures from Wang Fuk Court homeowners and representatives of those killed in the November inferno.

Each signatory not only signed their name but also gave their address at Wang Fuk Court and their contact number, he added.

“The responsibility of further verifying those signatures lies with Hop On,” Kong said in Cantonese, “We’ve collected signatures from around 12 per cent of all households [at Wang Fuk Court] – more than enough to call a general meeting.”

Hong Kong’s Building Management Ordinance stipulates that a management committee must convene a general meeting at the written request of at least five per cent of owners.

Wang Fuk Court has a total of 1,984 units, and 247 signatories exceed the required threshold.

HKFP has reached out to Hop On for comment.

The Tai Po fire broke out on November 26, claiming 168 lives and burning the homes of thousands. The blaze is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948.

March petition

Kong and other fire survivors launched a similar petition online in March, signed by more than 400 homeowners and representatives of those killed in the fire.

However, Hop On rejected the demand. In an email sent to Kong on April 5, Hop On said the petition did not meet the statutory requirement and that it would not hold a formal owners’ meeting at that stage.

“Following a detailed review and consultation with legal counsel, we note that… you had gathered owners’ concerns via an online form, but provided no further information,” Hop On said in the email, which was seen by HKFP.

Four days later, the Home Affairs Department said it received complaints from several Wang Fuk Court residents, who alleged that the petition did not verify the identities of the signatories.

“Individual flat owners said the so-called petition lacked authentication mechanisms and may involve people impersonating owners and forging signatures. Personal information collected is also at risk of being abused or misused without authorisation,” the department said.

The department also said it had referred the matter to law enforcement agencies for investigation.

Kong said that this time, he and other organisers spent a couple of weeks personally collecting ink signatures from homeowners.

“Once we found out some information was missing, such as a home address, we contacted the signatory again to fill out the information,” Kong said.

Many Wang Fuk Court homeowners hope to discuss long-term resettlement options in the long-awaited meeting, as well as the government’s arrangements for fire survivors returning home to pack personal belongings, he said.

They also want to discuss financial matters related to Wang Fuk Court, such as insurance claims, Kong added.

Hong Kong has issued its first “very hot weather” warning of the year, with the city expected to endure a heatwave through Friday.

The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) issued the warning at 7.45am on Tuesday, with the mercury expected to reach 35 degrees Celsius.

The warning is triggered when the mercury is set to reach, or exceed, 33 degrees Celsius. As of around 1:30pm on Tuesday, Cheung Chau was seeing temperatures of 32.1 degrees Celsius.

The city recorded its hottest day of the year on Monday, as temperatures hit 32 degrees Celsius.

The HKO has alerted the public of the risks of heat stroke and sunburn.

The heatwave is expected to continue through to Friday, as an anticyclone aloft brings very hot weather and low pressure to the coast of Guangdong, according to the HKO.

Highs of 33 degrees Celsius are predicted between Tuesday and Friday, while the lows will range between 27 and 29 degrees.

Hong Kong may see showers during this weekend, as temperatures dip slightly to 26-30 degrees Celsius.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change. The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.

See also: How extreme heat became the deadliest silent killer among world weather disasters

Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says. Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.

In a Tuesday statement, the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health reminded members of the public to hydrate regularly, and to avoid strenuous exercise and prolonged activities such as hiking.

It also suggested that outdoor or manual workers should reschedule work to cooler hours as far as possible.

Nevertheless, as of Tuesday lunchtime, the Labour Department had not yet issued a heat stress warning – a three-tier warning system introduced in 2023 to help protect Hong Kong workers from heatstroke. 

Outbound travel during long weekend

Hongkongers enjoyed a three-day weekend, with Monday marking Buddha’s Birthday.

According to the Immigration Department, Hong Kong residents made over 615,000 outbound journeys on Saturday, with over 557,000 travellers heading northbound to Shenzhen and other destinations in mainland China.

The figure marks a week-on-week increase of 36.7 per cent.

From Friday to Monday, Hong Kong residents made nearly 1.87 million outbound trips – a rise of 30.8 per cent compared to the same period last week.

Life after a spinal injury can feel unfamiliar in every sense, from getting dressed in the morning to managing long-term care decisions you never...

The post Life After A Spinal Injury: A Guide to Physical And Mental Recovery appeared first on The Art of Healthy Living.

There is nothing quite like a memoir to crack you open. Not in the dramatic, obvious way—but in a slow accumulation that happens when you recognize something true about yourself in someone else’s story. A really good one clarifies something you haven’t found the words for. Until now.

The Best Memoirs by Female Authors Will Shift Your Perspective

We’ve always loved sharing the books that move us, and this list has been a long time coming. These aren’t the memoirs you’ll find on every “must-read” roundup (though a few have earned their moment in the spotlight, here’s looking at you, Strangers). They’re the ones we keep pressing into people’s hands, the ones that stay with you long after the last page, and the ones that made us see marriage, ambition, grief, and the shape of a life a little differently. Whatever you’re carrying right now, one of these will meet you there.

On Love, Marriage, and What We Don’t See Coming

Some of the most clarifying books ever written about love are the ones about its unraveling. But I wouldn’t think of these as cautionary. These three books ask the questions most of us are carrying—and think we’re carrying alone.

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

Belle Burden’s 20-year marriage ended without warning during the pandemic: her husband announced he was leaving, offered no explanation, and nearly overnight became a man she didn’t recognize. What follows is a reckoning with the ways women make themselves small inside a marriage, and what happens when one woman decides to stop. Consider it essential reading.

$21 at Amazon

Threshold

Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life by Delia Ephron

Ephron had just received a leukemia diagnosis when a man she had briefly dated decades earlier reached out by email after reading one of her essays. What followed was a love story that unfolded in hospital waiting rooms and remission celebrations. Tender, funny, and deeply moving—the rare memoir about late-in-life love that earns every emotion it asks of you.

$10.59 at Amazon

Threshold

Trying by Chloé Caldwell

What begins as a fertility story takes a turn that reshapes everything—including what Caldwell thought she knew about her marriage and her own identity. Spare and wry, this is one of those books that gets harder to put down the more uncomfortable it gets. It rides the line between heartbreaking and funny in a way that feels true to life itself.

$13.54 at Amazon

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On Reinvention and Reclaiming Your Story

These are the books about women who rewrote the narrative—sometimes quietly, sometimes dramatically, always on their own terms. The consistent truth: identity is something you build, not something that happens to you.

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

A radiant, deeply personal account of a woman reclaiming her own narrative—on her own terms, in her own words. Tender, self-aware, and far more moving than you might anticipate (if, unlike me, you haven’t been hungrily devouring her Substack). Easily one of the most memorable books on this list.

$10.32 at Amazon

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Alderton’s memoir of her twenties—the bad dates, the great friendships, the slow work of becoming yourself—reads like a message from your most honest friend. If you haven’t read it yet, consider this your sign.

$9.97 at Amazon

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

What looks like a career memoir turns out to be something more interesting: an unusually candid account of a complicated marriage and a series of bold bets that led her to become one of the most beloved figures in American food. Garten writes about luck as something you prepare for, not wait for.

$16.06 at Amazon

More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth

The second youngest editor-in-chief in Teen Vogue history writes about ambition, race, and what it actually takes to break barriers. This isn’t the polished version, it’s the honest one.

$10.56 at Amazon

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On Inner Life, Grief, and Learning to Rest

Not every book on this list will leave you feeling inspired in the traditional sense. Some will just make you feel less alone in what you’re carrying. I like to think of that as its own kind of nourishment.

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

When May’s life came to a sudden halt, she didn’t push through. She wintered. This hybrid memoir weaves her own story with natural history and mythology to make a quiet, radical argument for rest. Not self-help — something richer. One of the most healing reads we know.

$10.29 at Amazon

The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

Hardin was, by every outward measure, a successful suburban mom — until the opioid addiction she’d hidden for years caught up with her, and she found herself convicted of 32 felonies. Startling in its honesty and unexpectedly redemptive. A book about the gap between the life we show people and the one we’re actually living.

$13.39 at Amazon

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung

In two years, Chung lost both parents—her father to decades of precarity and a healthcare system that failed him, and then her mother to cancer, just as COVID made the distance between them feel insurmountable. This is a book about grief, yes, but also about the particular guilt of upward mobility in America: what it means to build a different life for yourself while the people you love remain at the margins.

$10.40 at Amazon

Drinking: A Love Story by Carolyn Knapp

An older title and one of the most enduring on this list—recommended by Camille’s mom, who still thinks about it years later. Knapp writes about her relationship with alcohol with a novelist’s precision and an intimacy that makes it feel less like confession and more like a conversation. I think it’s one of the most beautifully written memoirs about addiction ever published.

$9.65 at Amazon

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On Family, History, and the Stories We Inherit

Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls

The 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for memoir, and unlike anything else on this list. A graphic memoir tracing three generations of Chinese women: Hulls’s grandmother, who survived the Communist revolution, fled to Hong Kong, and poured it all into a memoir—only to unravel in the aftermath; her mother, who inherited that silence and its weight; and Hulls herself, who spent nearly a decade drawing and writing her way toward understanding. If you’ve never read a graphic memoir, start here.

$21.16 at Amazon

The Wildcard

Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton

This is a serious reckoning with a life spent performing a persona she created as armor—and the boarding school abuse at the center of it is not what you’d expect. More than a celebrity tell-all, it’s a story about survival and self-invention that earns its place on any list of books about the distance between who the world sees and who you know yourself to be.

$11.02 at Amazon

This post was last updated on May 7, 2026, to include new insights.

The post These Memoirs Made Us Call Our Therapist (We Have No Regrets) appeared first on Camille Styles.

As Mental Health Awareness Month brings renewed attention to emotional well-being, much of the conversation continues to focus on younger populations or workplace stress. Yet one group remains consistently overlooked: older adults navigating the complexities of aging.

For many families, caregiving begins with a focus on physical needs: mobility, medication, safety, etc. But what often goes unaddressed is the emotional and psychological experience of aging. And increasingly, that gap is becoming harder to ignore.

The Overlooked Reality of Mental Health in Aging

Mental health challenges among older adults are more common than many realize. According to the World Health Organization, around 14% of adults aged 60 and older live with a mental disorder, with depression being one of the most prevalent conditions. Yet these issues are frequently underdiagnosed and undertreated.

Part of the problem lies in perception. Symptoms of depression or anxiety in older adults are often mistaken for natural aspects of aging, rather than recognized as conditions that require attention and care. This can delay intervention and leave individuals without the support they need.

Why Mental Health Is Still Treated as Secondary

Historically, elder care has been built around physical health. Systems are designed to address medical conditions, manage risk, and ensure safety. Priorities that are both necessary and urgent. But in that process, emotional well-being is often treated as a secondary concern.

This imbalance can lead to fragmented care, where physical needs are met, but the broader experience of the individual is overlooked. Mental health is not always integrated into care plans, and conversations around emotional well-being may not happen at all.

The Impact on Families and Caregivers

When mental health is not addressed, the effects extend beyond the individual. Families and caregivers often find themselves navigating complex emotional dynamics without the tools or guidance to do so effectively.

Changes in mood, withdrawal, or cognitive decline can create confusion and stress, especially when these shifts are not clearly understood. Without a framework for recognizing and addressing mental health, caregiving can become reactive, focused on managing symptoms rather than supporting overall well-being.

What’s Missing in Traditional Care Models

Many traditional care models are not designed to account for the emotional dimensions of aging. Structured routines and standardized approaches can provide consistency, but they may also limit opportunities for personal connection, autonomy, and engagement.

Isolation is another critical factor. According to the National Institute on Aging, social isolation and loneliness are linked to higher risks of depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline in older adults. Yet these experiences are not always addressed as part of formal care strategies.

Rethinking Care Through a Mental Health Lens

As awareness grows, there is a shift toward viewing elder care more holistically. Mental health is increasingly being recognized as a core component of overall well-being, rather than a separate or secondary issue.

This perspective encourages a more integrated approach, one that considers not only what care is provided, but how it is experienced. Daily routines, social interaction, and a sense of purpose all play a role in shaping mental health outcomes.

A More Holistic Approach to Elder Care

Some caregiving models are beginning to reflect this shift. Approaches that prioritize personalization, consistency, and meaningful interaction can help address both physical and emotional needs simultaneously.

Organizations like Applause Home Care, a provider of non-medical, in-home caregiving services led by Jim Purssak as the CEO, incorporate a philosophy of “care partnering,” where individuals remain active participants in their own care. By focusing on collaboration and routine continuity, this model can help support not only daily functioning, but also emotional stability.

Why This Conversation Can’t Wait

As the population continues to age, the need for more comprehensive care models will only grow. Addressing physical health alone is no longer sufficient to meet the realities of aging.

Mental health is not a separate issue, it is deeply connected to how individuals experience their daily lives. And as families navigate the challenges of caregiving, recognizing that connection may be one of the most important steps toward providing meaningful support.

Because caring for someone is not just about helping them live longer. It’s about helping them live well.

The post Why Mental Health Remains the Missing Piece in Elder Care appeared first on Social Lifestyle Magazine.

Source: Water Resources Research

This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. 本文是Eos文章的授权翻译。

如果人类想要在太空生活，无论是在航天器里还是在火星上，首先要解决的一个问题就是如何获取水，来满足饮用、卫生需求以及为维持生命所需的植物提供水分。即便只是将水运送到近地轨道上的国际空间站（ISS），也需要花费数万美元。因此，找到在太空中高效、持久且可靠地获取和再利用水资源的方法，对于长期在太空居住至关重要。

目前的系统，比如国际空间站上的环境控制与生命支持系统（ECLSS），为闭合式水回收提供了蓝图，但它们还需要改进才能适应未来的应用。与此同时，近期的技术和科学进步正为在严苛环境下寻找、净化和管理水资源开辟新的途径。在一篇新的综述中，Olawade等人概述了地外水资源管理的现状，以及该领域的前景和挑战。

作者指出，太空水系统需要具备闭环、高效和持久耐用的特性，同时还要满足低能耗的要求。目前，ECLSS能耗过高，其效率可能也不足以满足长期任务的需求。未来建议采用的过滤和回收方法包括：利用光催化技术通过光线净化水，利用生物反应器过滤尿液和废水，利用离子交换系统去除提取水中的溶解盐和重金属，以及利用紫外线或臭氧消毒杀灭病原体。每种方法各有优缺点：例如，生物反应器中的微生物燃料电池可以发电，而光催化净化则能耗较低。

在月球或火星这样的地方获取水，要么需要从风化层中提取水，要么需要钻探冰体。如何为水回收系统提供足够的能源也是一个问题，因此开发节能系统是需要优先考虑的事项。水系统的耐久性也很重要，既要保护宇航员的安全，又要能减少繁重的维护工作。

新兴技术有望应对其中许多挑战。作者们指出两个具有巨大应用前景的领域，一是纳米技术的发展，它可用于制造定制化程度更高、过滤效果更佳且耐污染的膜材料，二是人工智能（AI）技术在水系统自主管理中的应用。(Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025WR041273, 2026)

—科学撰稿人Nathaniel Scharping (@nathanielscharp)

This translation was made by Wiley. 本文翻译由Wiley提供。

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