科普环保类 知识点题库

    On a Saturday morning earlier this September, the world got its first look at the Strati. This electric vehicle is unlike any other currently on the road. It rolls on four wheels, but its body and chassis(底盘) weren't built in a factory. Instead, Strati's designers used a technology called 3-D printing. It created those parts of the car in one piece, from the ground up.

    “Compared to a typical vehicle on the road, the Strati definitely looks different,” says Greg Schroeder, a senior research engineer at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. He did not work on the new car. His organization studies trends and changes in th e auto industry.

    It took 44 hours to print the new car at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago. Over the next few days, the car's designers installed additional parts. These included the car's engine, brakes and tires. Then, early on September 13, Jay Rogers climbed into the car, started its engine and drove the vehicle onto the street. Rogers helped found Local Motors. It's the Arizona-based company behind the Strati. Two weeks later, his team printed a second Strati, and just as fast, at a fair in New York City.

    Justin Fishkin, a local Motors official, sees the Strati as a window into the future. Today, car buyers are limited in their choice of a vehicle. They can order only what car companies have already designed. But in the future, he says, you may be able to design your own car online and then get it printed to order.

    Manufacturing experts say 3-D printing has begun to revolutionize how they make things. The technology has been around for decades. But these machines used to be so expensive that only large companies could afford them. In the last few years, though, that has changed. Many of the machines are now inexpensive enough for small companies—or even individuals —to own. Some local libraries make them available to the public. High Schools are beginning to use them in classrooms. Wide access to these printers means people can now design and print a wide variety of new things.

    The car's printer is a one-of-a-kind device.

    The technology behind the 3-D printer used in Chicago is an example of additive manufacturing. This proce ss builds solid objects, slice by slice, from the bottom up. (“Strati” means layers, in Italian.) A mechanical arm moves a nozzle from one side to another, back and forth. As it moves, the nozzle deposits a liquid—often melted plastic or metal (but it could be food, concrete or even cells) —that quickly hardens or bonds to become solid or semi-solid. This creates a single, thin layer. Once a layer is complete, the printer starts depositing the next one.

    “There's a lot of interest in 3-D printing in the auto industry,” says Schroeder. Right now, the technology is particularly useful for building models of cars or car parts.

    To compete with current auto manufacturers, the 3-D printer would have to increase in a hurry, Schroeder says. By contrast, he notes, a Ford F-150 pickup truck rolls off an assembly line at a rate of roughly one per minute. To print as many Stratis would require many more printers. Schroeder says he doesn't see 3-D printing soon taking over for such high-volume manufacturing. But, he adds, “Who knows what will h appen in the long term?”

    Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee designed the 3-D printer used in Chicago. Lonnie Love, a research scientist at the lab, led the effort.

    Additive manufacturing often is slow and expensive. It also may produce materials that are unreliable, Love says. So for two years, his team searched for ways to make 3-D printing better. They built new machines and tested them over and over.

    All of that work paid off: their new machine is fast and uses less expensive material than earlier printers. In addition, it prints a plastic embedded with fibers of carbon to produce a stronger material. This helps ensure the material won't crack or break under pressure.

    People have smoked cigarettes for a long time now. The tobacco which is used to make cigarettes was first grown in what is now part of the United States. Christopher Columbus, who discovered America, saw the Indians smoking. Soon the dried leaves were transported to Europe. In the late 1800s, the Turks made cigarettes popular.

    Cigarette smoke contains at least two harmful substances, tar and nicotine. Tar, which forms as the tobacco burns, damages the lungs and therefore affects breathing. Nicotine, which is found in the leaves, causes the heart to beat faster and increases the breathing rate. Nicotine in large can kill a person by stopping a person's breathing muscles. Smokers usually take in small amounts that the body can quickly break down.

    Nicotine can make new smokers feel dizzy(头晕) or sick to their stomachs. The heart rate for young smokers increases 2 to 3 beats per minute. Nicotine also lowers skin temperature and reduces blood flow in the legs and feet. It plays an important role in increasing smokers' risk of heart disease and stroke.

    Smoking cigarettes is dangerous. Cigarette smoking was the cause of lung cancer and several other deadly diseases.

    Japanese researchers say they have developed a new type of glass that can heal itself from cracks and breaks. Glass made from a low weight polymer (聚合物) called “polyether-thioureas” can heal breaks when pressed together by hand without the need for high heat to melt the material.

    The research, published in Science, by researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the University of Tokyo, promises healable glass that could potentially be used in phone screens and other fragile (易碎的) devices, which they say are an important challenge for sustainable (可持续的) societies.

    While self-healing rubber and plastics have already been developed, the researchers said that the new material was the first hard substance of its kind that can be healed at room temperature. The new polymer glass is “highly robust mechanically yet can readily be repaired by compression (压紧) at broken surfaces”.

The characteristics of the polyether-thioureas glass were discovered by accident by a graduate school student named Yu Yanagisawa, who was preparing the material as a glue. Yanagisawa found that when the surface of the polymer was cut, the edges would adhere to each other, healing to form a strong sheet after being manually compressed for 30 seconds at 21℃. Further experiments found that the healed material regained its original strength after a couple of hours.

    Yanagisawa told NHK that he didn't believe the results at first and repeated his experiments several times to confirm the finding. He said, “I hope the repairable glass becomes a new environment-friendly material that avoids the need to be thrown away if broken.”

    This is not the first time a polymer has been suggested as a healable screen for devices such as smartphones. Researchers at the University of California suggested the use of polymer that could stretch to 50 times its original size and heal breaks within 24 hours.

    Smartphone manufacturers have already used self-healing materials in devices. LG's G Flex 2 shipped in 2016 with a coating on its back was capable of healing minor scratches over time, although failed to completely repair heavier damage.

    According to the research conducted by repair firm iMend, over 21% of UK smartphone users were living with a broken screen, with smashed displays being one of the biggest issues alongside poor battery life.

Dear Koko,

    I've learned about you from my amazing teacher. I think it's fun that you can communicate with us humans by using the sign language. I've spent a lot of time watching you in different videos and love you from the bottom of my heart.

    It's heartbreaking to learn about all of the cruel things done to gorillas (大猩猩). In Africa, for example, the killers use guns to kill your fellows for meat. They don't understand the influence their actions are having on gorillas. Another thing is the loss of gorillas' natural home, which is caused by the improved infrastructure such as building roads and airports. When we cut down trees, you become homeless. We take away your shelter and sources of food, leaving you with very little chance of survival.

    Some of my classmates are writing to the relevant departments about these serious problems. Hopefully these letters will make a difference during your lifetime. Over the past three months, my class has been researching on gorillas, and I've learned so many things. For example, I've learned that you have a lot of feelings similar to mine and you are always so careful with everything you do. I think that you are really worth saving.

    We've come up with many ideas to help you and your fellows. One of the best ideas is to communicate with the President of the World Bank and have him give more financial support to the organizations for gorillas. Another idea is to make public laws on the killers. I also think we need to keep educating people about gorillas.

    I love writing to you and hope you can understand how important you've become to our class. Would it be too much to ask for a return letter?

Mike

    From the first use of the rocket to carry satellites into space to the setting up of space stations, human beings have been putting great effort into space research. And so far, we have achieved many successes. But there are still numerous tasks in front of us and we should not stop trying to progress.

    The international space station （ISS） is an important step we should take in space exploration. It is not only helpful but also essential. It provides a proper space environment for many experiments that we have wanted to do for a long time. It is also a base for the observations of the earth and the universe. It could also be an important base for later travel to the moon and Mars. In a word, if we want to explore space more, the first thing we should do is to set up a space station.

    As the space station costs a lot of money, it is hard for one country alone to establish one. The USA seem to be the only country that has the ability to build a space station alone, and it has tried to do so, but not very successful. So it aggregated many other countries to work on it together. Though it is still extremely expensive, it is much cheaper than doing it alone. It is really a job that needs everyone's effort and will benefit everyone.

    Led by the U. S. and Russia, the ISS is a joint project between six space agencies involving 16countries. Called the greatest achievement in human cooperation, the ISS has come to the end of a ten﹣year's hard work in construction. China has applied for participation in （taking part in） the project many times. Unfortunately all the applications were rejected, which drove China onto the path of independent development. As the Long March Ⅱ﹣F/T1 carrier rocket blasted off （leave the ground） and successfully carried the Tiangong﹣1into space on September 29, 2011, China takes a big step toward its Space Station Era.

    Some West media suggested that the successful launch of Tiangong﹣1 would disturb the balance of global space power, raising concerns about "China threat". China's space project is not designed for military purpose but for developing space technology to explore space resources and make use of them for mankind's well﹣being.

    While elephants born without tusks (长牙)are not unheard of，they normally form just 2 to 6 percent of the population. However, that is not the case at Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, where an astonishing 33 percent of female elephants born after the country's civil war ended in 1992 are tuskless. While that may appear to be just a coincidence, Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert, has another theory. The researcher thinks we may be witnessing unnatural evolution of the species due to the constant hunting of elephants for valuable ivory.

    Poole says before the country's 15-year-long civil war, the 100,000—acre park was home to over 4,000 elephants. However, by the time the conflict ended in 1992, about 90 percent of them had been killed for ivory to help finance weapons (武器)and meat to feed the soldiers. Of the less than 200 survivors, over 50 percent of adult females had no tusks. Therefore, it is not surprising that the park's tuskless elephant population has grown greatly.

    This is not the first time researchers have observed a great change in the population of elephants. At Zambia's South Luangwa National Park and Lupande Game Management Area ， areas which were heavily hunted in the 1970s and 1980s, 35% of elephants 25 years or older and 13% of those younger than 25 are now without tusks. A 2008 study published in the African Journal of Ecology found that the numter of tuskless females at the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania went from 10.5 percent in 1969 to almost 40 percent in 1989, largely due to illegal hunting for ivory.

    The recent ban on ivory in both the US and China should help get rid of, or at least reduce, elephant hunting. However, scientists are not sure how long it will take for elephants with a higher rate of tuskless females, to change the trend.

    As people age, the body changes in all sorts of predictable ways. Brains can slow. Wounds take longer to recover. And sleep patterns(模式) shift, too. This can come as news to many, says Michael V. Vitiello, a psychologist at the University of Washington who is expert in sleep in aging.

The most noticeable—and often most annoying—changes are how sleep and wake-up times change and sleep gets lighter, often beginning in middle age. Gone are weekend sleep to 11 a.m. and the ability to sleep through a noisy garbage truck down the block.

But not every restless night can be ignored. Studies have found that poor sleep can create a particular threat to older adults—Falls, depression and anxiety, problems with memory, and increased suicide(自杀) risk are among the effects of sleep issues in this population group that researchers have found. But scientists are still unsure why those risk connections exist.

    What is clear is the connection between good sleep and psychological well-being in older adults. A 2010 study showed us that connection when it came to sleep quality, but sleep quantity didn't show the same effects. And that, experts say, may be the key to understanding sleep as you age. If you're sleeping less, but don't feel negative effects out of bed, the changes you notice may just be normal age-related.

    Over time, Vitiello says, sleep patterns simply change. "A lot of older adults recognize that they don't sleep the same as they did when they were 18, but they can still function and they're OK. And all is well with the universe."

    The plan: turn Mars into a blue world with streams and green fields, and then fill it with creatures (生物) from the earth. This idea may sound like something from a science fiction (科幻小说), but it is actually being taken seriously by many researchers.

    This suggested future for the "red planet" will be the main topic for discussion at an international conference hosted by NASA (美国宇航局) this week. Leading researchers as well as science fiction writers will attend the event. It comes as NASA is preparing a multi billion dollar Mars research programme. "Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction," said Dr Michael Meyer, NASA's senior scientist for astrobiology (太空生物学). "Now, with scientists exploring the reality, we can ask what are the real possibilities of changing Mars."

    Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money would be needed to achieve this goal.

    But many experts are shocked by the idea. "We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed and now we are talking about ruining another planet," said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK. Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they will find Martian life forms. Europe and America's robot explorers have found proof that water, mixed with soil, exists in large amounts on the planet.

    In addition, two different groups of scientists announced on March 28 that they had found signs of methane (甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere (大气). The gas is a waste product of living creatures and could be produced by microbes (微生物) living in the red planet's soil.

    But scientists such as Dr Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be put in danger by the little earth project. "Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are talking about carrying out projects that would destroy all these native life forms, all the strange microbes that we hope to find buried in the soil," said Dr Pratt. This view is shared by Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum, London. "We cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for." she said, "This is just wrong."

    Ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you've completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we've accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of aging as wrinkles and gray hair. But now a new book suggests that we've got it all wrong.

    According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s — much later than previously thought.

    Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we keep them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it's been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.

    This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive (认知的) tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving. Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed — how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.

    Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with aging. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we're younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we've learned our lessons and are aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.

    Artificial intelligence can predict when patients with a heart disorder will die, according to scientists.

    The software learned to analyze blood tests and scans of beating hearts to spot signs that the organ was about to fail. The team, from the UK's Medical Research Council, said the technology could save lives by finding patients that need more aggressive treatment. The results were published in the Journal of Radiology.

    According to the researchers, high blood pressure in the lungs damages part of the heart, and about a third of patients die within five years after being diagnosed. There are treatments: drugs, injections straight into the blood vessels, a lung transplant. But doctors need to have an idea of how long patients might have left, in order to pick the right treatment.

    The software was given scans of 256 patients' hearts, and blood test results. When this data was combined with eight years of patient health records, the artificial intelligence predicted when patients would die.

    The software could look about five years into the future. It correctly predicted those who would still be alive after one year about 80% of the time. The figure for doctors is 60%.

    The team now want to test the software works in other patients in different hospitals before assessing whether it should be made widely available to doctors. The researchers also want to use the technology in other forms of heart failure, such as cardiomyopathy, to see who might need a pacemaker or other forms of treatment.

    Dr Mike Knapton, from the British Heart Foundation, said, "This exciting use of computer software in medical practice will help doctors in the future to make sure that patients are receiving the correct treatment before the condition deteriorates and leaves them needing a lung transplant. The next step is to test this technology in more hospitals with heart disease."

    The endangered pandas in Qinling Mountains might face a new threat: the loss of their food—bamboo, which makes up 99% of their meals.

    Adult pandas spend most part of the day eating bamboo and have to take in at least 40 pounds a day to stay healthy. However, a new study published in Nature and Climate Change warned that they may soon find their food gone because most of the bamboo in Qinling Mountains might disappear by the end of the century as a result of rising temperature worldwide.

    A team made up of researchers from Michigan State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has studied the effects of climate change on the bamboo in Qinling Mountains. They have found that bamboo is very sensitive to climate changes. "80% to 100% of the bamboo would be gone if the average temperature increases 3.5 degrees worldwide by the end of the century." said Liu Jianguo, one of the report's authors. He added, "This is how much the temperature would rise by 2100 even if all countries will keep their promises in the Paris Agreement. But you know what is happening around the world."

In recent years, China has been trying its best to protect the endangered pandas by setting up more and bigger natural reserves.

    "But it is far from being enough and the endangered pandas need cooperation from the rest of the world, because their future is not just in the hands of the Chinese," said Shirley Martin from World Wildlife Fund but not a member of the team.

    The Qinling Mountains, in the southwest of China, are home to about 260 pandas. That is about 13% of the China's wild panda population. In addition, about 375 are living in research centers and zoos in China.

    Even though they're not the most exciting things in the world, plants have attracted us ever since the days of early humans. They may not do any tricks or greet us when we come home at night like a dog would, but that doesn't mean they're any less interesting than animals.

    However, just when we thought we knew everything we could about them, a recent study found that plants may have a secret ability that has gone unnoticed all this time.

    According to the study by Australian biologist Monica Gagliano, published in the journal Oecologia, plants may be able to "hear" sounds . To come to this conclusion, Gagliano and her team planted pea seedlings （幼苗）in a pair of different Y-shaped pots with two arms. The first pot's arms led to fresh water, while the other's led to either dry soil or a sealed（密封的）plastic tube containing flowing water. Naturally, the first pot's seedlings grew toward the water. What's surprising, however, is that the second pot's seedlings grew toward the sealed water supply but not the soil.

    "They just knew the water was there even if the only thing to discover was the sound of it flowing inside the pipe, ” Gagliano told Scientific American . She believes that plants are able to use their leaves to discover sound waves, which make tiny vibrations （振动）as they're produced. This could explain why so many people believe that singing or playing music to their plants helps them grow. “I had a plant that I used to wash the leaves of once a week and sing to," plant lover Heather Goodall told BBC News. "It grew from being about 2 feet tall to 7 feet tall in just a couple of years."

    So, does this mean we should start treating our plants like pets? Not necessarily, although perhaps it does mean we should give them more respect. "I would like to see plants accepted more as the amazing and interesting living beings, and less as just a source of human nutrition," Fatima Cvrckova, a scientist at Charles University in the Czech Republic, told BBC News.

    Choosing a name for a child is often a headache for parents, but new research shows that picking well could be more crucial than previously thought.

    Academics have found that your first name actually changes the way you look. For example, someone called 'Bob' is expected by society to have a rounder and happier face than a man called 'Tim'. That expectation eventually leads 'Bobs' to become more social, while 'Tims' may appear thinner and reserved. The connection may be linked to the “bouba-kiki” effect which suggests that across languages, rounder and smoother objects are labelled with rounded 'bouba' sounds, while thinner pointed objects have 'kik' sounds. Likewise 'Winstons' are believed to be feeling blue, while 'Marys' are considered to be moral, both traits which may change appearance, and over time, change face shape. And a woman named 'Katherine' is considered to be more serious and dependable than a girl named 'Bonnie'. Such cultural expectations may encourage 'Katherines' to be more studious and academic, which could gradually influence the development of facial muscles, perhaps through increased concentration.

    “Prior researches have shown there are cultural stereotypes attached to names, including how someone should look,” said lead author Dr Yonat Zwebner, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “For instance, people are more likely to imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face than a person named Tim. We believe these stereotypes can, over time, affect people's facial appearance.”

    To find out if face shape was linked to name, researchers conducted eight studies to see whether it was possible for strangers to correctly identify the names of people simply by looking at their faces. In every experiment, the participants were significantly better (up to 40 percent accurate) at matching the name to the face than random chance (20-25 percent accurate) even when nationality, age and other socioeconomic variables were controlled for. “Together, these findings suggest that facial appearance represents social expectations of how a person with a particular name should look. In this way, a social tag may influence one's facial appearance,” said co-author Dr Ruth Mayo.

A shocking 53.6 million tons of electronic waste were discarded (丢弃) last year, a new UN-backed report has revealed. The report shows that e-waste is up 21%from five years ago. This isn't surprising, considering how many more people are adopting new technology and updating devices regularly to have the latest versions, but the report also shows that national collection and recycling strategies are nowhere close to matching consumption rates.

E-waste contains materials including copper (铜), iron, gold and silver, which the report gives a conservative value of $ 57 billion. But most are thrown away or burned rather than being collected for recycling. Precious metals in waste are estimated to be worth $ 14 billion, but only $4 billion-worth is recovered at the moment.

While the number of countries with national e-waste policies has grown from 61 to 78 since 2014, there is little encouragement to obey and a mere 17% of collected items are recycled. If recycling does occur, it's often under dangerous conditions, such as burning circuit boards to recover copper, which "releases highly poisonous metals" and harms the health of workers.

The report found that Asia has the highest amounts of waste overall, producing 24.9 million metric tons (MMT), followed by Europe at 12 MMT, Africa at 2.9 MMT, and Oceania at 0.7 MMT.

But whose responsibility is it? Are governments in charge of setting up collection and recycling points, or should companies be responsible for recycling the goods they produce? It goes both ways. Companies do need to be held accountable by government regulations and have incentives to design products that are easily repaired. At the same time, governments need to make it easy for citizens to access collection points and deal with their broken electronics in a convenient way. Otherwise, they may turn to the easiest option-the landfill.

Most of our everyday plastic items end up in landfill, left to rot away for many years. But some of it blows away, spoiling the countryside and causing damage to the natural environment and harming wildlife. The problem is most severe in our oceans. Research has found a deserted island in the South Pacific is littered with the highest density (密度) of plastic waste anywhere in the world.

The study described how remote islands act as a 'sink' for the world's rubbish. They become collecting points for fishing items and everyday things including toothbrushes, cigarette lighters and razors-things that we throw away. Dr Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania says "Almost every island in the world and almost every species in the ocean is now being impacted one way or another by our waste."

This highlights the potentially deadly effect of our disposable (用后即丢弃) culture. When we throw something away, it doesn't just disappear, it goes somewhere and because of the nature of plastic, it takes a long time to rot away and stays there causing great damage to the ocean's ecology (生态). And worse still, plastic is broken down into tiny particles over a long period by the wind and the waves, then sea creatures at the bottom of the food chain swallow them. These creatures are eaten by the fish that we eventually consume.

The solution to this problem would be to use less plastic. Several countries now charge for using plastic carrier bags which reduces the amount used and some products now use natural and recyclable materials.

If you care what other people think of your social media posts, you may want to think twice before uploading selfies (自拍照), according to research from psychologists at Washington State University( WSU).

WSU psychology professor Chris Barry worked with WSU students, as well as researchers from the University of Southern Mississippi to design a project. The team asked 30 students at the Mississippi school to fill out personality questionnaires and allow researchers to use their 30 most recent Instagram posts. Those 900 pictures were shown to 119 WSU students, who were asked to judge the Mississippi school students on 13 attributes(特质) such as self-absorption, self-respect, dependability and likability.

"The study found that people who posted a lot of selfies were almost commonly viewed as less pleasant, less successful and more insecure than those who posted more' posies'-that is, traditionally posed photos that appear to be taken by someone else, "Barry said.

Those without a friend available to take a picture can try using a self-timer to take their own posed photos from farther away than at arm's length. The WSU researchers found that even if a photo that appears to be a" posies" was, in fact, taken by the subject, it was still considered more positively than obvious selfies.

Thus, Keely Kolmes, a San Francisco- based psychologist with expert knowledge in social media matters, suggests not being concerned about social media. "Though it is kind of difficult when we focus on the number of likes or how many followers we have or the number of interactions," said Keely Kolmes. "We should unplug (拔去电源插头) once in a while. Get out in nature, connect with friends outside of technology and remember that there is a better world outside your phone, too."

From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Most believe that music helps increase creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that view. The study results were echoed by scientists from Lancaster University, and the University of Gavle, saying their findings show music actually weakens creativity.

To reach their conclusions, researchers had volunteers complete verbal problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music significantly weakened the volunteers' ability to complete tasks connected with verbal creativity. The team also tested background noises like those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no influence on subjects' creativity.

The tasks were simple word games. For example, volunteers were given three words, such as dress, rise, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word connected with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun" (sundress, sunrise, sunflower). Volunteers completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while listening to two different types of music: rock music or light music

"We found strong evidence of weakened performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author D. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University. He and his colleagues find that music negatively influences the verbal working memory processes of the brain, preventing creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study's authors believe that was the case because library noises create a "regular state" environment that doesn't affect concentration.

"To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music increases creativity, and instead show that music, whatever type it is, is always a disadvantage for creative performance in problem solving," the study reads.

Virtual reality

Probably the most exciting tech development of recent times, virtual reality (VR) has arrived, with sufficient options available to the consumer who's searching for an extra amount of high-tech fun. The cheapest way to get a high-end VR experience comes courtesy of Sony. Its PlayStation VR doesn't require a tricked-out PC or expensive phone – it works with the Playstation 4 control board and comes with a few great games in its library. There is some equipment you can purchase to enhance the experience, but if you've already got a PS4 you can enter the world of VR for just $400. Other high-end offerings like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as mobile options like Samsung's Gear VR, will get your head in the game.

Wireless headphones

Combining ease of use with the ability to move wild around your home, gym or workplace, wireless headphones just make sense. And there are plenty of practical options to suit any budget. The Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones are definitely worth a test drive, though. The full-size, around-ear Bluetooth headphones highlight active noise cancellation and double as a headset for making phone calls. They've even earned the Editor's Choice award at Cnet.com and can be purchased for less than $400 online.

Digital cameras

While your phone is a worthy assistant, there's no substitute for a real camera when it comes to taking the perfect picture. And these days you can get quality specifications in a package that's almost as small as your smartphone. The shiny design of the Fujifilm X70, $699, makes it the perfect companion, or you could go retro with the Olympus PEN-F ($1,200) that offers old school looks alongside cutting edge technology. Domestically, it's worth checking out Xiaomi's mirrorless Yi M1 for a more affordable option. With a high-end 20-megapixel (兆像素) sensor and the ability to host multiple lenses, it's available from just 2,199 yuan.

"When I was 14, I'd pick my younger brother up from school, Jen says. "I'd be in charge of checking his homework and making sure that he was fed until our parents got home. " That is one of the things that led Jen, a Stanford Graduate School of Business student, to become interested in how people's perception of their own age can influence their actions.

That curiosity led her to team up with Szu-chi Huang, an associate professor at Stanford, on a series of experiments in which they shifted participants' perception of their own age in order to study the effects on their willingness to help strangers in need.

In one study, researchers set up a stand at a sports event and invited passers-by to write thank-you cards to people they knew. In the process, the researchers shifted participants^, subjective age by informing them about the average age of others who had participated in the event. In another, they organized a food-bank donation drive at local farmers⁵ markets. In some instances, they asked teenage volunteers to collect the money, a trick to make participants feel older. In other instances, the volunteers were in their 50s.

The researchers found that when participants perceived themselves as older, they were more willing to do things for others with whom they didn't have a personal connection. "We found that when people are led to feel older, they feel more responsibility," Huang says. "It's like the society is on our shoulders. We feel like we're expected to make this world better for the next generation."

Organizations involved in social causes might take advantage of the new insights about subjective age to make their recruiting (征募) and fundraising efforts more efficient. "If you want to create an older subjective age among the audience you're trying to reach, recruiting younger volunteers might help, Huang says.

During those barren winter months, with windows overlooking long-dead gardens, leafless trees, and lawns that seem to have an ashy look about them, nothing calms the uneasy nerves more than the vibrant green of plants surrounding the living spaces of one's home. People browse through garden stores just to get a smell of chlorophyll (叶绿素) and to choose a plant or two to bring spring back into their winter-gray lives.

Now there is even more of a need for "the green," in light of recent articles warning us of the dangers of chemicals that we, ourselves, introduce into our homes. Each time we bring clothes home from the cleaners, we release those chemicals into the closed-in air of our homes. Every cleanser releases its own kind of fumes.

Some of the chemicals are formaldehyde (甲醛), chlorine, benzene, styrene, etc. Read the labels on many home products, the ingredients aren't even listed! During the winter, when those same windows are shut tight, we breathe in these chemicals—causing symptoms much like allergies (过敏). In fact, most people probably dismiss the effects of these chemicals simply as some allergy or other. The truth is that we are experiencing a syndrome that is called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Now, what has this got to do with green plants? Everything healthy! Research has been conducted with two types of plants that have actually removed much of these harmful chemicals from the air.

The two plants that seem to be the best bet for ridding one's home of such chemicals are ferns (蕨类植物) and palms. These plants release moisture as part of photosynthesis and, as they do, pull chemicals from the air into their leaves. Even NASA has conducted some greenhouse experiments for long-term space exploration. Within hours, their plants [palms] had removed almost all traces of formaldehyde in the room. Both species of plants are ancient, dating back more than a hundred million years. Another trait they share is that they both live long lives, 100 years or more. This we expect from trees, but ferns and palms are plants; plants that can grow to 65 feet in the proper setting! Even their individual leaves live for one to two years [ferns] and one to nine years [palms]. Perhaps it is their primary qualities that have contributed to their ability to purify their environment.