We’ve all seen it, perhaps without even noticing it — the diamond-shaped patch (补丁) on backpacks that seems, at best, someone’s strange idea of a design feature. But it proves that the patch is actually very useful for staying organised.

The slotted (有开槽的) patch, which is typically found on the front of backpacks, is called a “lash tab”, and is made to hold your spare clothing on ropes. For hikers and backpackers, that might mean hanging items that you often reach for, such as a water bottle, and for employees carrying a backpack to the office, it might mean hanging headphones or electronic chargers through the slot for easy access.

Lash tabs once appeared only on backpacks created for adventures in the great outdoors, but in recent years it has become an important part on a variety of backpack styles. The blog Carryology reports that lash tabs were once a “leather patch that let you pass a bit of webbing through it to fasten items to your pack”. Since then, the tabs have been adapted using many different styles and materials.

If your backpack comes without the tabs and now you don’t know how you’ll live without them, you’ll be relieved to learn that the styling of lash tabs has become so popular that you can now purchase your own and attach them to your favourite backpack.

The tab can also prove useful for travellers, as you can even thread the laces of shoes through the tab to let them hang off your pack, giving you extra space in your checked luggage or carry-on.

According to a team of researchers, an animal’s ability to perceive (感知) time is linked to their pace of life.

“Our results lend support to the importance of time perception in the animal kingdom where the ability to perceive time in a very short time may cause the difference between life and death for fast moving creatures,” commented the lead author Kevin Healy from Trinity College Dublin.

The study was conducted with a variety of animals using phenomena based on the maximum speed of flashes of light an individual can see before the light source is seen as a constant. Dogs, for example, have eyes with a refresh rate higher than humans.

“One example of this phenomenon at work,” the authors said, “is the housefly and its ability to avoid being hit.” The research showed “flies observe motion within a shorter time than our own eyes do”, which allows them to avoid being hit.

Professor Graeme Ruxton of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who worked jointly on the research project, said in a statement, “Having eyes that send updates to the brain at much higher frequencies than our eyes do is of no value if the brain cannot process that information equally quickly. Thus, this work highlights the perceptual abilities of even the smallest animal brains. Flies might not be deep thinkers,   but they can make good decisions very quickly.”

In comparison, the tiger beetle (虎甲虫) runs faster than its eyes can keep up, basically becoming blind, which requires it to stop periodically to reevaluate its prey’s (猎物) position.

The philosopher, Martin Buber, is most known for his work on “I-Thou/You” relationships in which people are open, direct, mutually interested in each other. In contrast, “I-It” relationships are those in which we use the other, like an object, to solve our problems and fulfill our needs and purposes.

It is not our fault that many of our relationships are or become “It” relationships because most of what we feel, think and do is motivated by unconscious memories of how to survive the environment into which we were born. Thus, one of the reasons we use other people to help us feel better about ourselves and cope in the world is that using people was once necessary and it worked. When we were small and helpless, “It” came and fed us, and held us, and set us on our way. We didn’t have to reciprocate and care for “It”. Even when the care and attention of “It” was minimal or unpredictable, if we got out of childhood alive, somewhere along the way “It” was involved.

Freud called this stage of early life “primary narcissism”, which is our instinct (本能) for self-preservation and is a normal part of our development. While most of us grow out of it，we still hold a survival fear, which motivates us to escape danger and to stay alive, and we all need this fear in healthy measure.

The problem is that too many of us, too much of the time, are in a constant state of threat—and we often don’t know it. We imagine people are talking about us behind our backs, that we have cancer, that we are inadequate, and vulnerable to more than our share of bad luck. As our brains have grown in size and complexity, so has our ability to scare ourselves.

This causes many problems. For example, our stress levels increase, our digestion is impaired and our thinking becomes restricted. Our threat response stops any bodily function, feeling, thought and behavior that might “waste” energy and detract from fighting or escaping danger. Thus, when in threat, our emotional, cognitive and behavioral range is significantly reduced.

And in this reduced state, one of our solutions is to find someone who can save and comfort us. Instead of enabling us to be open, direct and mutual, fear and anxiety lead us towards conversations and choices in our relations with others that are orientated towards surviving—not thriving (茁壮成长). Threat-motivated relationships are characterized by need, dependency, control, demand, dishonesty, and self-interest.

We cannot form the “I-Thou” relationships that Buber speaks of until we have learned to notice, comfort, and understand the emotions and patterns of our threat brain. When in threat, we tend to use other people as objects who can save and protect us, or who we can blame for our problems.