The Song Dynasty (960-1279) is often referred to as the Chinese Renaissance (文艺复兴). For about three and a quarter centuries, under its rule, China enjoyed a period of economic growth with great artistic and intellectual achievements.

One of the most important factors in the Song Renaissance was the printing press which made for a rebirth of classical Confucian learning. By the 10th century,printers were producing a large number of copies of the classical Confucian texts. With this increase in the production of books, education spread and became widely available.

Printing also had its greatest influence on the Chinese political system. In the Song Dynasty, government examinations became the most important way to political power in China. For almost 1,000 years, China was governed by men who had done very well in examinations. Thousands of students studied for the exams, and thousands of inexpensive books were required. Without printing, such a system would not have been possible.

The Song period was also the golden age of Chinese painting. Emperor Huizong (1101-1125) was a talented painter who encouraged the arts. A royal painting academy was created and many fine artists were supported. The period is best known for nature subjects and landscape paintings. Guo Xi used perspective in his paintings and The Quict Valley is one of his best-known works. One of the greatest landscape painters of the period was Fan Kuan. His masterpiece, Travelling among Mountains and Gorges, is one of the most famous Chinese paintings. Completed around the year 1000, it was inspired by the power of nature and the relative insignificance of humans.

Who needs friends? According to most psychologists, we all do, especially nowadays when so many other aspects（方面）of modern life are changing. It seems that having friends keeps us both healthy and happy.

The number of TV series about groups of friends shows just how important friendship is to us. Psychologist Dorothy Rowe says that many of us now turn to our friends, instead of our families, for advice, comfort and security. One woman named Rebecca she interviewed even told her that if she had got to choose between her husband and her friend, she would choose her friend.

Since our friends mean so much to us, it is not surprising that the happiest marriages are also friendships. “Once the romantic stage of a relationship has passed, it is friendship that holds people together,” says Rowe. If the couple do not make some change, they will either get tired of each other and break up or stay together and seek friendship with others.

But is friendship equally important to women and men? According to author Rhonda Pritchard, women are more likely than men to have close friends. “You tell a friend things that you'd never tell a partner”, says one woman she interviewed. For men, friendship is usually based on doing things together rather than the private conversations that are typical of women friend. Men share time and activities like building a fence or a business, running, riding a bike, fishing or watching football, but they don’t often share their feelings.

Although many women find their relationships with a husband or boyfriend is not enough, many men say that their partner is their best friend. Even women who are very happily married are likely to become very unhappy without a close friend and can even find the breakup of a close friend as painful as the end of a marriage.

Lasting friendships can provide a lot of the same support that families provided in the past, but the perfect situation is to have your family there for as well. Friendships and family relationships can both change, but a friend will not consider you when making really important decisions in the same way that a family member will.

Canadian-Iranian designer Roya Aghighi wants you to imagine that your shirt is alive. Aghighi hopes we can develop a more close relationship with fashion-by treating clothes as living beings that need our help to survive.

Aghighi's thought experiment isn't as far-fetched as it might seem. Working with a group of scientists at the University of British Columbia(UBC), she has invented a living, biofabricated photosynthesizing(生物制造光合作用的)fabric, which purifies the air around it. She named it LivingC.

UBC claims it's the first living and photosynthesizing fabric, and has fashioned the material into transparent clothing. While clothing like these are still in the early stages of research and design, and far from mass production, they challenge the fashion industry to reimagine ways it can reduce its huge carbon footprint through alternative fabrics.

Fashion is one of the world's most polluting industries. It's responsible for more carbon emissions than international flights and shipping combined, amounting to 10% of all greenhouse gases emitted globally.

US consumers are buying more clothing than ever, wearing each item fewer times and sending almost 70% of the clothes and footwear produced each year to landfill, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

While Aghighi's new and advanced clothing is now only at the proof-of-concept stage, buyers may one day be instructed to stretch the fabric out in front of a window before putting it on. Biotechnology is a big business. Beyond the world of fashion, it's seen as an alternative for polyurethane plastics—the world's most common plastic, which is used in everything from bags to outdoor furniture as well as in fabrics.

Aghighi predicts consumption habits will take a long time to change. "It is going to be a slow shift," she said. "But I hope that it's going to be a long lasting one."