【推荐1】Education appears to protect older adults especially women,against memory loss,according to a study by investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center.

The study tested declarative memory in 704 older adults (58—98 years of age).Declarative memory refers to our ability to remember events,facts,and words,such as where you put your keys or the name of that new neighbor.The investigators found that their memory performance became progressively worse with aging.However,more years of early-life education countered these losses,especially in women.

For example,the declarative memory abilities of an 80-year-old woman with a bachelor’s degree would be as good as those of a 60-year-old woman with a high school education.So,four extra years of education make up for the memory losses from 20 years of aging.

“Simply said,learning brings about learning,” says the study’s senior investigator,Michael Ullman.“Since learning new information in declarative memory is easier if it is related to knowledge we already have,more knowledge from more education should result in better memory abilities,even years later,” adds the study’s lead author,Jana Reifegerste.

“Evidence suggests that girls often have better declarative memory than boys,so education may lead to greater knowledge gains in girls,” says Ullman.“Education may thus particularly benefit memory abilities in women,even years later in old age.”

The study tested individuals in a non-Western population.Participants varied in the number of years of education,from none at all to graduate studies.“Future research is needed to test whether the findings can be generalized to other populations,” Ullman says.

“These findings may be important,especially considering the rapidly aging population globally,” Reifegerste says.“The results argue for further efforts to increase access to education.”

“Education has also been found to delay the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease,” Ullman says.“We believe that our findings may shed light on why this occurs.”

There’s no denying crows are smart. They can remember where food has been hidden, recognize faces and craft tools. And, according to a new paper in Scientific Reports, some crows can even make those tools from memory. This skill may point to these clever corvids having a sort of culture of their own.

Researchers, led by Sarah Jelbert at the University of Cambridge, worked specifically with New Caledonian crows.     1     But experts haven’t been able to make sure where the crows pick up their skills. A bird in one area can construct the same tool as another bird miles away — but there’s no evidence bird one watched bird two build the gadget in order to copy it. And New Caledonian crows don’t really have a language, either.

    2     Jelbert and her team had a hunch(预感) that it was because the birds were building based on the memory of tools they’d seen.

To test this, the group trained eight crows to place pieces of paper into a pseudo-vending machine (really just a wooden box) to get a treat.     3     Once they learned which sizes were rewarded, Jelbert and her team then gave the feathered participants large cards; the birds could fashion these into the coin sizes they’d picked up on earlier. Importantly, the crows didn’t get any sort of template(模板) when they were working with the big cards. And the birds snipped them into pieces that were similar in size to the coins they’d learned would get them treats.

Given the lack of a template to copy, it seems the crows were able to construct mental images of the coins and use it to replicate a tool.     4     These birds can see something and not just build it from memory, but potentially make improvements in their designs. “Most importantly,” the authors say in the study, “an improvement made by a crow during its lifetime could become part of the template learnt by subsequent generations, leading to an increase in tool complexity over time.” And this progression is a key component of cultural progression.

Jelbert and her team recognize there’s still work to be done to see if their hypothesis is solid, like testing how long the crows can remember their mental images of the tools.

【推荐1】Whether you’re a comic fan or not, you’re bound to have seen posters or social media posts about Marvel’s newest blockbuster(大片), Black Panther. Black Panther was first created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and was transformed into a film this year. The story follows T’Challa, a man living in a fictional African nation named Wakanda. Black Panther is the first non-white superhero to have his own film, making this a milestone movie.

But what makes this film different from all the other Marvel films? Take a look at the cast list and you’ll find that the majority are black actors and actresses. Sure, black people have been in movies but look at the roles they play and you’ll find that they are often cast as the criminals, slaves or poverty-stricken individuals. Not this one!

The film also takes a step forward in representation, as black children can now look up and see themselves and their stories represented in media where they couldn’t before. For too long, a large portion of our population has been under-represented in media, that group of people being those who are not white. So it’s refreshing and about time to have a film which celebrates Africa positively and adequately!

Michelle Obama, the former first lady phrased it beautifully when she tweeted, “I loved this movie and I know it will inspire people of all backgrounds to dig deep and find the courage to be heroes of their own stories. Thank you, the entire Black Panther team! Because of you, young people will finally see superheroes that look like them on the big screen." Her post has been shared more than 140,000 times.

The film has become a hit. It has already broken records, having earned more that ＄607 million in the United States only since its release in Februry. In the following days, observers expect Black Panther will pass The Avengers as the highest-earning superhero film in history.

【推荐3】There have been arguments for years over who should officially go down in history as “the inventor of the ATM”， and in 2004 a man called John Shepherd­Barron received an OBE (大英帝国官佐勋章) in the New Year Honours list for services to banking as the “inventor of the automatic cash dispenser”．But the UK government is now unequivocally saying it is James Goodfellow who invented the ATM — so his place in history is now confirmed.

In the mid­1960s, Goodfellow worked at a bank.His managers asked him to think of a way to allow customers to withdraw cash from banks on Saturdays.“Most people worked during the week and couldn't go to the bank.They wanted a solution (解决方法)．The solution was a machine which would give money to a customer，” he says.“I wanted to develop a cash machine and, to make this happen, I invented the PIN (personal identification number) and a plastic card.”

Goodfellow's first machines were put into use in 1967.The first one was opened at a bank in north London on 27 June, 1967.The machines became very popular, but Goodfellow only received ￡10 for his idea and has not made any money from it since.

The cash machine is now used all over the world and, every year, there are more and more: there are now three million ATMs worldwide and there will be four million by 2020.The good news for Goodfellow is that people are beginning to know him for his invention.The website ATMinventor.com says, “Who invented the ATM as we know it? It was James Goodfellow's idea.” Even better for Goodfellow, his invention is in a 180­page guidebook called Life in the United Kingdom.In the section about “great British inventions of the twentieth century”， it says, “In the 1960s, James Goodfellow (1937－) invented the automatic teller machine (ATM) or ‘cashpoint’．”