When it comes to censorship, all writers develop skills to minimise risk of accusations.

Susan Conley, an author who grew up in Maine and lived in Beijing for more than two years, has shown us the style of mealy-mouthed language. In her memoir The Foremost Good Fortune , there are many occasions for touching the "Three T's and the One F" (Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen, and Falun Gong), but she prefers to dodge touching the taboo subjects.

Instead, Conley writes a candid

If the mention of David Julius doesn't ring any bells, it's safe to say you're new to the field of nociceptor or physiology.

If you haven't heard of David Julius, you should at least think about him next time you have wasabi or chilli pepper. He received the Nobel Prize after discovering the first capsaicin receptor – a protein called TRPV1. The compound capsaicin unlocks the secrets what makes chilli pepper "hot". When TRPV1 or capsaicin receptor is activated, a burning

Finding common ground, even between the most divided Americans, according to the filmmaker Steven Spielberg, is not only possible, but necessary.

I have also learned this mediation skill from a good friend of mine. Spielberg mentioned recently that America hasn't been this divided since the Civil War. And yet, even before Abraham Lincoln's presidency and Civil War, Lincohn wrote, "Discourgage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser –

So many of us crack jokes, even though some are bad. Be warned, dad jokes are known for inviting eye-rolls rather than big laughs.

First, a confession. My daughter would be the first to verify the last statement.

Which is to say: the gap of rating for jokes can be huge. I have heard about Dunning-Kruger effect for quite some time. Not until I read The Psychology of Effective Studying did I realise the seminal works of Kruger and Dunning come from a series of jokes

"A little learning is a dang'rous thing; drink deep or taste not."

Those were the words from the eighteenth-century English poet Alexander Pope. Steven Collis, a law professor at the University of Texas, could never forget them after he walked through a large wooden door with those words etched in stone in the frieze. He saw those words, day after day, week after week, month after month, when he studied law at school.

Don't get me wrong. We aren'

Every time I fly, I try to select and bring at least one book to match the theme.

Scottish writing is so prolific that there're abundant choices for my Glasgow trip. Shuggie Bain , the debut Booker Prize-winning novel by Douglas Stuart, is my pick.

This novel opens in the early 1990s with a teenager Shuggie Bain beginning his shift at a supermarket deli and daydreaming his going to the hairdressing college on the Southside of Glasgow. He got hired for the job because he was

Glasgow isn't that big and it's possible to get around on foot without sacrificing too much shoe leather. That's what I learned from Lonely Planet Scotland when I planned my accommodation for the conference in this city.

Put simply, Glasgow is the kind of place where we don't have to be picky for hotels very close to the conference venue. Although I have not much sightseeing time, I decided to find one at Glasgow's West End, just a quick subway from downtown. As