The Point of Woods Laboratory and Parenting Clinic at Stony Brook University is seeking volunteers for a research study that offers free help for mothers who are having difficulty managing their challenging2-3 year old kids. To obtain more information and to find out if you may qualify, call the Parenting Study at (631)632-7874

The Stony Brook Heart Center is presenting a lunchtime symposium (座谈会) focusing on heart diseases in women.

The symposium, which is free of charge, begins on Thursday June 13h from 12: 00 am to 1:00 pm, lecture hall 6.

Lunch will be provided and pre-registration is required. The series will continue on Thursday July 11th and Thursday August 15th. To register or find out more information, call 632-7415.

The Summer Camp at Stony Brook is back for its third exciting year. The Camp combines a unique twist of educational activities and athletics for children between the ages of 5-12. Tuition includes provision of a camp T-shirt, as well as a hot lunch and snacks each day. For more information please call the Camp office at 632-4550.

Visit our website at www.stonybrook.edu/daycamp.10% Discount on Tuition for Stony Brook Staff Members.

In 1848 gold was found in California. Thousands of people rushed there to get some. Many people liked living there. But there wasn’t a whole lot between California (CA) and Missouri (MO), where the nearest trains ran. The train line to California wasn’t finished until 1869.

In I860 and 1861, the Pony Express was the fastest way to get news to and from the West. The trail that they rode was around 2000 miles long. It took most people weeks or months to ride that far. The Pony Express could make the trip in just ten days. Those speeds were unheard of at the time. So how did they do it? Well, they had a good system.

The Pony Express had 184 stations along the trail. The stations were around ten miles apart. This is about how far a horse could run at a gallop (疾驰) before tiring. The rider would switch to a new horse at each station. He would only take his mail pouch (邮袋) with him. Every 75-100 miles, the rider would get to a home station. At each home station, riders would rest. The mail never stopped moving, even while the horses and riders rested.

It was tough to ride for the Pony Express. Each rider had to weigh less than 125 pounds. Speed was the key. Most of the riders were teenage boys. They rode at a fast pace for up to 100 miles a day. If there were an emergency, one might have to ride 200 miles in a day.

The Pony Express filled an important role for a time, but it did not last. The Civil War started in April of 1861. On October 24th, 1861, the first telegraph line to California was finished. This linked them to the rest of the country. People could send messages in an instant. Two days later the Pony Express closed.

Traveling by subway can sometimes be quite an adventure, especially during rush hour. There are the times when you have to avoid cups of coffee that could spill (溅) on you. The smells of some passengers’ food are very strong, too. According to the Beijing subway passenger regulations, which went into effect on May 15th, passengers except babies and the sick are no longer allowed to eat or drink on the subway. Violators (违反者) who do not stop after being asked to will be asked to get off. The violation will also be recorded in the violators’ credit record.

Some support the rule. The reason is that the smell of food and drink can annoy other passengers. “The smell of food fills the carriage, causing people discomfort, especially in the hot summer, Besides, eating on the subway produces rubbish. And on subway trains, people often spill their drinks,” said Zheng Yiou, 17, a student from Hefei.

However, others question this rule. “Some citizens live so far from their work places that they have limited time to have breakfast before they go to work. Eating while they travel saves them time and decreases the chance that they will be late for work,” He Songlin, a 17-year-old student from Chengdu said, “And some people, like those with low- blood sugar levels, get sick if they can’t eat when they must.”

Other Chinese cities like Nanjing and Chengdu have similar regulations. Some foreign cities also ban eating and drinking on the subway. For example, eating and drinking have long been banned on the subway in Washington DC. Singapore fines people who eat or drink on the subway up to 500 Singapore dollars, which is RMB 2,417 yuan.

Chen Yanyan, a professor from Beijing University of Technology, believed we should consider the need of some people to eat or drink on the subway. “Commuters (上班族) and travelers are sometimes too busy to eat. Maybe we could learn from Tokyo, where there are many subway stations equipped with services, allowing passengers to eat and drink,” she said.

From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps inspire creativity, but an international Study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that idea.

Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gavle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings indicate music actually prevents creativity.

To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal insight(洞察) 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 impaired( 削弱)" the participants' ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity.

The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no impact on subjects' creativity.

The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word associated with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun” (sundress, sunflower, etc.)

Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.

"We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music interferes (干 扰) with the verbal working memory processes of the brain, preventing creativity. Also, as far as the library background noise having seemingly no effect, the study's authors believe that was the case because library noises create a "steady state" environment that doesn't prevent concentration.

It's worth mentioning that even familiar music with well known lyrics impaired participants creativity, regardless of whether or not it produced a positive reaction, or whether participants typically studied or created while listening to music.

"To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music inspires creativity, and instead show that music, regardless of the presence of semantic(语义的) content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), always prevent creative performance in insight problem solving", the study reads.