【推荐1】Bumble bees (大黄蜂) play, according to new research led by Queen Mary University of London. It is the first time that object play behaviour has been shown in an insect, adding to evidence that bees may experience positive feelings.

The researchers set up numerous experiments to test this, which showed bumble bees went out of their way to roll wooden balls repeatedly despite there being no apparent motivation for doing so. The study also found that younger bees rolled more balls than older bees and that male bees rolled them for longer than their female ones.

The study followed 45 bumble bees. Individual bees rolled balls between 1 and, impressively, 117 times over the experiment. The repeated behaviour suggested that ball-rolling was rewarding. This was supported by a further experiment where another 42 bees were given access to two coloured rooms, one always containing movable balls and one without any object. When tested and given a choice between the two rooms, neither containing balls, bees showed a preference for the colour of the room previously associated with the wooden balls.

The experiments removed any idea that the bees were moving the balls for any greater purpose other than play. Rolling balls did not contribute to survival strategies and was done under stress-free conditions.

The research was based on previous experiments, which showed that bumble bees could be taught to score a goal by rolling a ball to a target in exchange for a sugary food reward. The new research showed the bees rolling balls repeatedly without being trained and without receiving any food for doing so — it was spontaneous.

Professor Lars Chittka said, “Play is thought to contribute to the healthy development and maintenance of an animal’s cognitive (认知) and motor abilities, which may make for their searching for food and is considered an important aspect of animal welfare. The finding shows insect minds are far more complex than we expect. We need to do all we can to protect insects.”

【推荐2】The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.

“The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes,” Levine said in a statement.

The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of the children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than the parents of girls.

The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.

【推荐3】Will skipping breakfast make me fat?

The good news for those who don’t have breakfast is that putting on weight isn’t inevitable —as long as you control those high-calorie desires and stay active.

Research shows that although avoiding breakfast will make you hungrier and you might make up for that with a bigger lunch, this won’t necessarily make you “fatter” — on average, those who skip breakfast don’t eat more across the whole day than if they didn’t skip it. Some researchers have found that you may even eat fewer calories overall, and end up using your body’s fat reserves for energy, which can actually help you lose weight.

However, weight isn’t the only consideration: studies show that breakfast-skippers are likely to exercise less. This may be because they have lower energy levels-after eight hours or so without food, the body will have used up most of its stores of easy-to-access energy during sleep. Morning fasters are also more likely to have unhealthy, but appetite-suppressing habits, such as smoking or drinking a lot of coffee.

If you want to ensure that you eat a regular, nutritious breakfast, try preparing it the night before don’t leave it until the morning, when your brain struggles to make good decisions.

If you do skip breakfast. . .

■Don’t make up for it with a huge lunch, otherwise you’ll suffer overeating.

■Make sure you eat something before you exercise, or you risk “hitting the wall”.

■Don’t make up for lack of energy with coffee-it can make you lose your appetite and make you anxious and nervous.