【推荐1】The car has reshaped our cities. It seems to offer autonomy for everyone. There is something almost delightful in the detachment from reality of advertisements showing mass-produced cars, marketed as symbols of individuality and of freedom when most of their lives will be spent making short journeys on choked roads.

For all the fuss made about top speeds, cornering ability and acceleration, the most useful gadgets on a modern car are those which work when you’re going very slowly: parking sensors, sound systems, and navigation apps which will show a way around upcoming traffic jams. This seems to be one of the few areas where the benefit of sharing personal information comes straight back to the sharer: because these apps know where almost all the users are, and how fast they are moving almost all the time, they can spot traffic congestion very quickly and suggest ways round it.

The problems comes when everyone is using a navigation app which tells them to avoid everyone else using the same gadget. Traffic jams often appear where no one has enough greatly. But when everyone has perfect information, traffic jams simply spread onto the side roads that seem to offer a way round them.

This new congestion teaches us two things The first is that the promises of technology will never be realized as fully as we hope; they will be limited by their unforeseen and unintended consequences. Siting in a more comfortable car in a different traffic jam is pleasant but hardly the liberation that once seemed to be promised. The second is that self-organization will not get us where we want to go. The efforts of millions of drivers to get ahead do not miraculously produce a situation in which everyone does better than before, but one in which almost everyone does rather worse. Central control and collective organization can produce smoother and fairer outcomes, though even that much is never guaranteed.

Similar limits can be foreseen for the much greater advances promised by self-driving cars. Last week, one operated by the taxi company Uber struck and killed a woman pushing her bicycle across a wide road in Arizona. This was the first recorded death involving a car which was supposed to be fully autonomous. Experts have said that it suggests a “catastrophic failure" of technology.

Increasingly, even Silicon Valley has to acknowledge the costs of the intoxicating (令人陶醉的) hurry that characterizes its culture. What traffic teaches us is that reckless and uncontrolled change is as likely to harm us as it is to benefit us, and that thoughtful regulation is necessary for a better future.

【推荐2】Digital technologies have profoundly changed childhood and adolescence. The Internet and the means to access it, such as tablets and smartphones, along with social media platforms and messaging apps, have become integral to the lives of youth around the world. They have transformed their education and learning, the way they make and maintain friendships, how they spend their leisure time, and their engagement with wider society. UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World report reveals that one in three Internet users is younger than 18 years and 71% of 15-24-year-olds are online, making them the most connected age group worldwide. However, the so-called digital divide is substantial: 346 million youth are not online, with African adolescents the most affected(60% are not connected compared with 4% in Europe). Young people who lack digital skills, live in remote regions, or speak a minority language are also being left behind in exploiting the opportunities that digital technologies can provide. These benefits include access to education, training, and jobs, which can help break intergenerational cycles of poverty, and access to news and information sources that can help protect their health, safety, and rights.

Along with the substantial opportunities the digital age brings, come a diverse range of risks and harms. Digital advances have meant that bullying is no longer left at the school gates; cyberbullying is a new method for bullies to hurt and humiliate their victims with the click of a button. Words and images posted online that are designed to cause harm are also difficult to delete, increasing the risk of re-victimisation. Concerns have also been raised about the time children spend using digital technology and its effect on their physical activity and mental health. Evidence suggests moderate use of digital technology can be beneficial to children’s mental wellbeing, whereas excessive use can be detrimental. Children’s social relationships seem to be enhanced by digital technology, especially since most of their social circle is now online. Evidence on physical activity is mixed, and better research is needed in this area. The effect of the content children encounter online should be a focus of future studies. Some websites and apps present a risk to the health of vulnerable youth, such as those that promote self-harm and suicide. Others support underage activities, such as gambling.

Despite these issues, the popularity and use of digital technologies will continue to grow. Teachers and parents need training to teach digital skills and online safety to children. They are also crucial to helping young people assess reliable news and information sources and navigate the pressures on social media.

Children and adolescents have the most to gain and are most at risk from digital technologies. They must be at the forefront of national and global digital policies, not only to protect them from online harm but also to allow technology to help them fulfil their full potential.

【推荐1】Parenting techniques may have long lasting consequences for behavior—even when it comes to dogs.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied the early development, parenting and the following performance of 98 puppies who underwent guide dog training. Dogs who received more independence and less support from their mothers were more likely to be successful in becoming a guide dog. The study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mom-pup interactions were used to define how highly involved the puppy’s mothers were.   Puppies raised with highly involved mothers were more likely to be released—or dropped out from the guide dog program—compared to those with less attentive mothers.

“Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing,” said lead study researcher Emily Bray. Although the study couldn’t definitely point to what was driving this effect, “one possibility is that the dogs that are having overbearing(专横的)mothers are never given the chance to deal with small challenges on their own, and is harmful to their later behavior and outcome in their problem solving. Another possibility is that the puppies for whom the mothers are always around are also the most anxious or stressed,” she explained.

“What I was happy about was that there is a study being done about early life experiences in dogs,” another researcher Dolores Hole said. “If the mom is trying to protect her pups against small challenges, then they will not be suited for the big challenges.”

The study included three breeds(品种):German shepherds, Labrador retrievers and Golden retrievers. The puppies were followed from the first weeks of life for several years. Interestingly, Labrador retrievers tended to wash out from the program, while Golden retrievers tended to succeed.

As for whether the findings can be applied to human babies of so-called “helicopter parents,” Bray was hesitant.

“I think people can draw parallels(相似之处), but I think you also have to be careful because they are different species,” she said.

She added, “The nice thing about dogs is that they are a lot less complicated than humans.”

【推荐3】Birds rely on their keen sense of hearing to detect prey (猎物) and identify other birds on the basis of their songs. In fact, birds have better hearing than humans, so they hear with much more detail. So how do birds hear?

Birds and humans both have an inner ear and a middle ear. However, birds differ from humans in that they lack an external ear structure. Where humans have an outer ear organ, birds have a funnel-shaped opening that functions as their outer ear, located on each side of their head. These openings are usually positioned behind and slightly below a bird’s eyes and are protected by soft feathers.

The position of a bird’s head also plays a role in its hearing abilities. Scientists have determined that noises register at different frequencies on each side of the bird’s head. Depending on the angle from which the noise originates, it registers with a certain frequency in the left eardrum but with a different frequency in the right eardrum. This allows the bird to locate a sound’s origin.

For example, owls are known for their extremely accurate hearing, which helps them locate prey at night. This hearing ability is due in part to the unbalanced arrangement of the ear openings, with one opening being lower than the other. Sounds register in these openings at slightly different times. Owls can use this time difference, which is only 30 millionths of a second, to determine whether the sounds are coming from their left or their right. Other birds of prey have flaps in front of their ears that help them determine whether sounds are coming from above them or below them. Some owls do appear to have ears on the top of their head, but those are actually feathers controlled by small muscles under the skin that do not affect their hearing at all.